Hi

I have just watched the first six episodes of LAW AND ORDER : Season 1 .

This series had long-ago developed a great following, one which has greatly increased in the past few years.

I have read this :

My question is:

Is this true?

Should I buy the following seasons and expect the same quality ?

thanks

In answer to your question, Yes, it's definately true!

I hve the first two seasons of Law & Order as well as the first seasons of the spin-offs: Criminal Intent & Special Victims Unit. I can honestly say that Law & order, the Original series is excellent. IMHO, the second year is just as good as the first year.

Regarding the spinoffs, Criminal Intent is on par with the original series but, Special Victims Unit ran out of gas on the second episode of it's first season.

I wish that it weren't true, but it is. Frankly, once you've seen the first two seasons, there's hardly any reason to see any of the others.

Thanks buckee1

Could you check for me if Criminal Intent & Special Victims Unit
include plain English subtitles ... not Closed Captions

As far as I know there are Universal releases that the subtitles are listed as Closed Captions but we can also have simple English subtitles.

As far as I am concerned, S4 through S10 of Law & Order is the best television of all time. S11 (loss of Steven Hill) is where you see signs of age, and there is a big dropoff when the atrocious Elisabeth Rohm replaces Angie Harmon starting in S12.

The original L&O started to get stale around Chris Noth's departure, then really started to stink up with Elizabeth Rohm entered the cast. Now that Jerry Orbach is gone, there really isn't much to watch on that show aside from Sam Waterston.

Yeah, and I thought I was suffering with Angie Harmon! Elisabeth Rohm has to be one of the worst actors on TV.

I completely disagree. The show really picked up, IMO, when Sam Waterston.

I'd also disagree with CI being better than SVU. SVU's one of my favorite TV shows on air now.

Yeah, what he said.

Basically, if you liked the first season, you should feel the same about the first three. Then, I think the quality really picks up for the next 6 seasons or so. The stories get more interesting, the cast is great, and I think the courtroom stuff is more realistic than it was in early seasons.

The slide starts when Hill leaves, and the addition of Rohm is not a good thing. Even after all of this time, the show still doesn't 'suck'.

Just to clarify, it was still a good show, but I felt like all the twists and storylines were exhausted, and that's when they began to recycle them.

The original is really starting to run out of gas now and the departure of Orbach is a blow.

I wasn't a fan of SVU for the first season but right now it's one of the best shows on network television.

This show, is bar none, my favorite show, possibly, of all time.

As said earlier in the thread, the formula is what makes this show great. Aside from the cast, this show ages well and is unique in that it is not a connected series (i.e. there sre no running story lines from show to show, a rarity for one hour dramas).

Having each show be completely independent of one another is a great foruma for the casual TV watcher, since there are no stoylines to follow week by week, and everything is concluded by the end of the hour.

This is accomplished by establishing little to no character developement. Unlike NYPD Blue or ER, we don't know a whole lot about the character's personal lives, nor do we want to. It is about the story lines and their professional work lives, which makes a great series.

Now, there are only so many bodies discovered in the street or drive by shootings or woman walking crazily through the park, before some of the 14 years of shows get repetitive, but it is still a great series.

Regarding the case. In my ideal world, it would have been the following:

Law:

Cragen (Dan Florek (as captain)
Brisco (Orbach)
Logan (Noth)

Order:

McCoy (Waterston)
Robinette (Richard Brooks)
Schiff (Stephen Hill)

I realize that Robinette never worked with McCoy on the series, but I would have loved to have seen that. In the first few seasons (1-3) Law and Order's cast was all men, and they felt the need to diversify and replace Brooks with a woman.

Personally, I liked the all male cast over adding the "token" female cast member. None of the ADAs, except maybe Angie Harmom, were as compelling in thier performance as Richard Brooks, in my opinion, and I DEFINATELY liked Cragen a lot more then his replacement.

But, like I said earlier, this is a show that wins in the writing, and has held up well over the years. Ijust wish they would release the DVD seasons sets a LOT faster!

As far as I'm concerned the all-star lineup already worked together (in S7 & S8):

Briscoe
Curtis
Van Buren
McCoy
Ross
Schiff

I think you have the Law and Order mixed up (the lawyers should be the law, and the police the order).

Wow. Definately different opinions on this one. That was my least favroite seasons.

Curtis? Wasn't that Benjamin Bratt? You didn't think the ongoing stroyline of his MS wife wasn't a bit much?

Jamie Ross, although superior to the annoying Rohm, was just a little overly liberal in her protrayal, I thought, but too each is own.

No, I don't think so, unless you werew being faceious.

The Law are the police and the order is the court system. Even in the opening titles, remember that the Law is first and then the order is after. The police that investigate crime and the prosecuters that punish the offenders. Remember?

Watch the opening title sequence from the early seasons (when the actually divided the opening credits) and you will see what I mean.

Favorites:

Van Buren
Brisco
Green
Curtis
McCoy
Abbie Carmichael


Least Favorites:
Ross
Stone



I am starting to get tired of Criminel Intent. I think the Goran character is very strong, I'm just tired of every episode coming down to Goran "breaking them" in the interrogation room. I wish they would alter the formula.

That's what made it great - contrast to McCoy, who is conservative (but not a ultra-conservative like Carmichael). Simply put, McCoy/Ross were the best 1-2 punch in the DAs office - both very experienced attorneys who disagreed a lot but had the upmost mutual respect for another.

As for Curtis over Logan...Logan was fine - I just think he and Briscoe were too similar. Except for the first episode, there was never that much tension btwn them. I prefer Green to Logan as well.

Oh and speaking of Carey Lowell/Jamie Ross, see the L&O thread in TV Talk - she is likely coming back to the world of L&O to join Jerry Orbach in Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

In a related baffling move, this was announced today:

F-ing morons. We don't need the crappy Rohm-infested recent seasons on DVD! Get on with the classic L&O. I'm not starting to collect them until S4, so come on you dickheads at NBC/Universal.

Dear lord, anytime Universal is even remotely related to a thread, I learn ANOTHER reason why Universal sucks.

Note to Universal -- I plan on buying every one of these. Every one. All 14, 15, 20, whatever.

But I ain't paying a single dime for Season 14 until I'm certain that seasons 3-13 will be released. Your previous track record does not inspire confidence.

Yeah, I'm sure there's more demand for a season that everyone just watched for free than a season that many people haven't seen for years (if ever).

I know you meant this to be sarcastic but I think this is true... believe it or not. I read elsewhere Paramount is releasing the last (final) season of Fraiser next, instead of season 4. Why the hell would they do this if it isn't to "strike while the iron is hot"? I actually agree with you... I prefer tho see the early seasons first. However, understand that Universal isn't the only studio doing this... stupid as it seems.

This is a large part of why Season 2 was delayed for as long as it was.

People that "hold out" for later seasons send the wrong message, and end up halting future seasons from beng produced. Mary Tyler Moore, Larry Sanders, and L&O One come to mind (thankfully the last one FINALLY came).

I will be first in line for the 14th season, as sales of the season sets in general produce more seasons, not less.

I'm not buying something I don't want and will rarely if ever watch. The idiots at NBC/Universal should realize that L&O started becoming popular at about the half-way mark - S6 and S7; not in S1 or S2.

Personally, I think the real reason for the delay (if S1 was a sluggish sale) is because there is so much Law & Order on television - anywhere from 6-10 episodes per week on TNT.

wow its so funny how different we can see things,

I thought the best was the original season with

Law
Greevy
Logan
Cragan

Order
Stone
Robinette
Shiff

here is my very very close second
Law
Brisco
Noth
Van Buren

Order
McCoy
Kincaid
Shiff