Law & Order Season 21 Needs a Price vs. Cutter Fight - CBR - Comic Book Resources
When NBC brought back Law & Order, the standard for success was set very high. The series is considered to be one of the most important and most well-known crime dramas in TV history. Season 21 has done its absolute best to uphold the standard of the first 20 seasons, but it hasn't quite hit those same high notes. One area that has room for improvement is in the competition that new ADA Nolan Price faces in the courtroom; the lead prosecutor needs a dynamic rival, and Price doesn't have one. Hugh Dancy continues to dominate the courtroom part of the show every week.
The series has to find someone who can test Price's mettle and inject Law & Order Season 21 with some of the same dramatic energy that was in Seasons 18-20. Lucky, one character answers both those questions and is easily within reach: Michael Cutter, Price's predecessor who was portrayed by Linus Roache. Cutter redefined what a Law & Order ADA was supposed to be, and watching Roache and Dancy square off again after they matched wits on Homeland would make Season 21 must-see TV.
A well-placed guest star can easily light a fire under an entire show. Fans have seen that this season on Law & Order: Organized Crime, where Denis Leary is chewing the scenery every week as Elliot Stabler's faux-best friend Frank Donnelly. The outgoing and sarcastic Leary is the perfect counterpoint to Christopher Meloni's brooding and cynical Stabler, and Leary has a certain energy that makes all of their scenes feel more important. Law & Order tried to do something similar by bringing back Carey Lowell as Jamie Ross, but that didn't quite land because the biggest questions were about why she was there in the first place. However, her guest appearance did set precedent that the series can put to better use with a different alumni.
Michael Cutter's fate after Law & Order Season 20 was awkward at best. The character appeared in a handful of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes as a Bureau Chief, but those episodes didn't feel like Cutter; the assertive, proactive attorney felt like yet another cynical ADA that Olivia Benson and company had to deal with. Cutter's second chair (and potential love interest) Connie Rubirosa ended up on Law & Order: Los Angeles and then SVU, so all fans really knew was Cutter had moved to a new job and gotten a new partner. Bringing him back in Season 21 would give the character a clear and well-deserved end to his story -- and seeing him take his successor head-on would make for one heck of an episode.
The great thing about Cutter is that, unlike Ross, he's still within the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. That not only makes it convenient for him to reappear, but means Law & Order doesn't have to take its typical approach of bringing a character back as the defense attorney, with everything that entails. It's easy to generate conflict between Price and Cutter with them still being on the same side -- they share the same ideology, plus Price was a defense attorney before he joined the DA's Office. He could take on a case that Cutter originally had, and Cutter arrives to help but the two fight, with Cutter thinking Price is barking up the wrong tree and Price calling Cutter out of touch. Or a case could intersect with whatever beat Cutter is working now, and the two have territory issues.
The fact that Price and Cutter are similar personalities makes them great adversaries, because they'll know each other's thought processes, strengths and weaknesses from their own experience. Cutter pushing Price will open up even more of Price to the audience. And as anyone who saw the last season of Homeland knows, Hugh Dancy and Linus Roache are wonderful together; they know how to genuinely create tension between their characters. Roache will bring an incredible energy that Law & Order Season 21 will immediately benefit from just like he did in Seasons 18-20, and a Nolan Price vs. Michael Cutter episode would be a unique storyline that would serve as a statement piece for the whole season. If Law & Order wants to set the standard again, that's the way to do it.
Law & Order airs Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
source: https://www.cbr.com/law-order-season21-price-vs-cutter/
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