Law & Order

Ten seem to have a bit of an active hatred for Law & Order Prime. Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit are bringing in the ratings, but Law & Order is like the poor old sire that is still trotting around out the back. But unfortuately for Ten, there's still enough interest in the old fellow to keep showing her. Stuck on a Friday night in the non-ratings period, now showing two episodes back-to-back to get through the season as quickly as possible...oh, Ten hate it, but the people are still watching.

And well they should. I've been a bit neglectful of my reviews of Law & Order since it's return, but I've been watching every Friday night, and if a programme is going to last a long time (and it's worth reminding people that Law & Order is now in it's eighteenth season on Australian TV - ninteenth in America) change has got to be at the core. Law & Order thrives on change. It's cast is cycled through like it's going out of fashion.

I enjoyed last season, with the introduction of Detective Cassady, a young female who was a little out of her depth in homicide, although I felt ADA Rubirosa was just going through the motions as the latest in Jack McCoy's dark-haired assistants. But this season...this season has been a real shot in the arm that has changed the entire way of things. Jeremy Sisto's introduction as Det Cyrus Lupo has brought a feeling of cameraderie between him and Jesse L Martin's Det Green, which is something the detectives have never really had before because of the old detective/young detective partnerships that have been in the show up until now. A pair of detectives, both in their 30's has shown a different partnership that works really well, and gives some bizarrely entertaining dialogue. Lupo's obscure questions - most recently his questioning Green about being a socks off/socks on man - have given a different level of humour to the detectives.

And on the other side, Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy going to DA, and being replaced by Linus Roache as EADA Michael Cutter has brought out a completely different dynamic to the "Order" side of the program. As Waterston changed roles not because he was leaving but because it was about bloody time, DA McCoy has a lot more to do each episode than his three predecessors ever had to. And the relationship between McCoy and Cutter is very different as well. Cutter often at times seems to be doing things just because McCoy wouldn't, while McCoy seems unable to let Cutter handle a case by himself, something which Cutter frequently throws back in his face. This means that Rubirosa becomes the middle man, trying to balance her two superiors while remaining loyal to both. Rubirosa and Cutter, however, have a better relationship than the one she had with McCoy, although last week's episode showed us Cutter pushing it just that bit too far.

And we've had some very interesting cases over the past few weeks. A bizarre murder revolving around a pair of pants, a murder caused by a black man and a white woman independent of each other, an apparent gay murder which turns out to be about political buy-outs, a con artist that tricks everyone out of a fortune and then tricks her way out of jail, murder during immigration riots, murder because of capital punishment, and murder as a result of sex - the case where Cutter keeps on a juror because of their interest in Rubirosa.

Law & Order is playing hardball this season, showing us a new side to the principal characters and new cases ripped from the headlines. However, what's interesting is how Cyrus Lupo seems to be taking the lead in the criminal investigations...I wonder if that's going to have long term effects...?