Lawn Order and its trademark format of Half-Cop Show and Half-Loyer Show evolved into a massive

TV franchise. The original law in order ended in 2010, but this year in the middle of a

broader conversation about policing and specifically the problems with police

procedures, NBC has decided to bring the original law in order back. The result is a

strange effort to replicate an old success in a very different environment. I'm Linda

Holmes and today we're talking about the reboot of Law in Order on Paw Culture

Happy Hour from NPR. Joining us today is Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi. Welcome

back Roxana. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And also here with us is

Catherine Van Aeron Dogg. She is also a critic for Vulture and New York Magazine who

writes about TV and comedy. Hi Catherine, I can't believe it took us as long to

have you. I am thrilled to be here. Thank you. And also joining us of course is

our friend Christina Tucker co-host of the podcast. Wait is this a date? Welcome

back Christina. Hello, hello, very excited. So Dick Wolf created the original

law in order. It started in 1990 before a lot of people listening to this

conversation were even born and it ran for 20 years. They changed out the

police officers, the district attorneys, the visiting defense lawyers and judges.

But one thing that remained mostly unchanged was the format. In roughly the

first half, the police would investigate a crime in roughly the second half,

the district attorneys would try to prosecute someone who by the way might or

might not turn out to be the right person. Just like the police might or might not

turn out to have arrested the right person. None of this reflected poorly I

guess on the police officers prosecutors. Original law in order almost never took

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