What I'm Watching #228

I can't remember when I started watching Law & Order. And if you watch TV at all, you're likely to run into some aspect of the show somewhere. But I love it. It's a great concept and the cast and stories have been consistently compelling for nearly 20 seasons.

I just got the recently released seventh season of the show. While the franchise releases it's other series, (Law & Order CI, Law & Order SVU, and Law & Order Trial By Jury) like popcorn as quickly as they can get them there, they've been very judicious with the original series. Before now, the series has only been available in seasons 1-6 and 14. Season 14 was released out of order as an homage to the actor Jerry Orbach after he died in 2004.

Watching it all the time on the TNT network, I bought this season fully expecting just to have it for my leisure. Imagine my delight to discover that of the first 5 episodes, 3 were brand new to me.

The seventh season was the first for actor Carey Lowell as ADA Jamie Ross. She joined the cast with Benjamin Bratt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Steven Hill, Sam Waterson, and Jerry. The first five episodes of the seventh season include amazing performances by guest actors like Pamela Gray, Karen Allen, Michael Willis, and Jeff Edwards, as well as, one of my all time favorite little cameo spots by Lynn Cohen as the Countess of Alto-Perugia. She made me laugh.

As a child I was trained upon the likes of Cannon, Kojak, Columbo, McCloud, McMillan & Wife, The Snoop Sisters, The Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, and before that it was Mannix, Ironsides, Hawaii 5-O, and Mission: Impossible. I gave up TV in the 80's and much of the 90's. It was a cop show that brought me back: Homocide: Life on the Street. And perhaps it was it's demise that led me to discover Law & Order. Everyone is entitled to their opium. Hooked as a kid, I still need my fix. What can I say? There are worse things a guy can do!