‘Law & Order’ Returns, With New Energy and a Considered Approach: TV Review - Yahoo Entertainment
There is surely enough “Law & Order” content in existence to program an entire network, seven nights a week, with reruns. Spinoff “Special Victims Unit” has run continuously since 1999; the flagship series aired from 1990 to 2010. There are obvious market reasons to bring back the original — the perceived likelihood of a known quantity outperforming a replacement-level new series, the decades’ worth of audience familiarity with the format. But artistically, the only justification for reviving “Law & Order” is finding within it something to say about a world that’s come a long way since Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy was last onscreen.
In its first episode, “Law & Order” 2.0 manages that. The show is the show is the show — fans will be soothed by its dogged commitment to its structure, while detractors will once again note, for instance, the fairly ludicrous departure from real-life courtroom protocol. But “Law & Order’s” new look comes in on the margins, in a procedural that seems at the very least concerned with framing its subjects with something other than reflexive sympathy for law enforcement, and for the prosecution.
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To wit: A new character played by Jeffrey Donovan is notably volatile, and, in the investigation of a high-profile murder of an accused serial rapist, treats Black youth with instant suspicion and derision. What ensues is a conversation between Donovan’s character Det. Frank Cosgrove and his partner Det. Kevin Bernard (a somewhat tamped-down Anthony Anderson, making his return from the late period of the first “Law & Order”) that pushes edgily close to outright sparring, with Cosgrove complaining about the presence of cell phones and Bernard, strikingly, saying that the omnipresence of cameras ensures cop accountability. Cosgrove unsubtly announces “I speak my mind, probably about things I shouldn’t speak my mind about, but it’s just how I’m wired,” making clear that the pair’s relationship is to be characterized by disagreement and open debate.
source: https://sports.yahoo.com/law-order-returns-energy-considered-220621309.html
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