OK, so here we are at part 3 of this 2022 Law & Order season premiere hot-mess crossover, which began at 8 pm with an "OC" episode that was really a mothership episode, followed by an uncharacteristically action-packed Benson & Stabler-led SVU hour, which played more like OC -- and now at 10 p.m where OC usually airs, we find ourselves . . . . back at the mothership.
Rebooting the original Law & Order at the end of last season -- 12 years after it had been cancelled after a 20-year run -- wasn't a terrible idea.
In fact it could have been great, Maybe it still can. But lacking the one-liner spark of the original, mood lighting and cool characters, the new version has . . . . struggled.
Gimme Shelter Part 3 as the final hour of the crossover felt like a reboot of a reboot -- a chance for Dick Wolf to reintroduce his old show -- again, 7 months after he reintroduced it last season -- only this time deeply integrated into the current Law and Order Universe, whether it makes sense or not.
As the hour opens, D. A. McCoy and team float trial strategies to put away the bad guys from Hours 1 and 2, with Benson in on the questioning again (thank g0d) of the teen witness, leaning in with her usual care and much needed star power.
Rollins (Kelli Giddish) is also on hand --for a life-changing event and what looks to be the beginning of her final episodes in the franchise, as she gets ready to depart midseason. (The actress was recently let go by Dick Wolf because her salary had climbed beyond what he viewed as her value).
Giddish may not have been the central reason people tuned in to SVU every week, but she sure has been great the last 11 years, and thinking about the franchise without her is troubling.
Rollins and Benson have been a formidable team, and close friends; inspiring examples of women leading together. That Wolf thinks she won't be missed, is a miscalculation.
Worse, Law & Order writers setting Rollins' exit arc in motion on the mothership - and not SVU - is a slap. It probably happened this way because word is the Rollins character was to have been blown up or shot during the crossover; Hargitay protested, lobbying for a proper, dignified close for Rollins. (If only she'd been around for Julian McMahon on Wolf's FBI Most Wanted).
Anyway, Benson lackadaisically hanging out in her office when Rollins desperately needs her, and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) barely in two scenes -- the best of which was cut for streaming -- also felt crappy.
Then again, the hour - the entire evening - was not put on this planet to make sense. It's here to remind us the old Law & Order exists, and nothing more.
Camryn Manheim (in the Van Buren role) is on hand her again as she has been all night, actively working with Stabler, and ofc this actress is always welcome in anything she does. Jeffrey Donovan as Cosgrove got better as the night went on, (he really is good in this) and so is Mehcad Brooks as new detective Shaw.
Sam Waterston, g0d love him, is inevitably limited at 82. Once again this feels like Dick Wolf overspending for something, but having no idea what to do with it, just as he has squandered the 'reunion' of Benson & Stabler.
Looking back at the crossover's oddball opening at 8 pm in a foreign land with unfamiliar characters, it plays like a metaphor for the series itself, which is desperate for an infusion of faces viewers know.
With thousands of characters in the Law & Order canon, Wolf seems nutty not using at least a few of them. Bring in Leslie Hendrix as Rogers, Tamara Tunie as Warner, Judith Light as Donnelly. Give us a judge we know. Bring back a villain. Move George Huang or Barba over to 8 p.m. Call Diane Neal! The choices are endless.
As the evening wraps, opportunities for closure are missed and Donovan's character is charged with making sense of a Rick Eid's choppy script which goes long where it shouldn't and short where depth is needed.
So we get Cosgrove narrating over closing scenes of Stabler in action and Benson in comfort mode, generally trying to right a ship that was never quite on course to begin with.
No doubt a three-part cross-over was an ambitious idea: A feature-length film made in weeks, with shoots running almost to air time - while the shows' individual teams were still producing their series' ongoing weekly episodes. "A" for effort, "C" for story and execution, "B" overall.
Rebooting the original Law & Order at the end of last season -- 12 years after it had been cancelled after a 20-year run -- wasn't a terrible idea.
In fact it could have been great, Maybe it still can. But lacking the one-liner spark of the original, mood lighting and cool characters, the new version has . . . . struggled.
Gimme Shelter Part 3 as the final hour of the crossover felt like a reboot of a reboot -- a chance for Dick Wolf to reintroduce his old show -- again, 7 months after he reintroduced it last season -- only this time deeply integrated into the current Law and Order Universe, whether it makes sense or not.
As the hour opens, D. A. McCoy and team float trial strategies to put away the bad guys from Hours 1 and 2, with Benson in on the questioning again (thank g0d) of the teen witness, leaning in with her usual care and much needed star power.
Rollins (Kelli Giddish) is also on hand --for a life-changing event and what looks to be the beginning of her final episodes in the franchise, as she gets ready to depart midseason. (The actress was recently let go by Dick Wolf because her salary had climbed beyond what he viewed as her value).
Giddish may not have been the central reason people tuned in to SVU every week, but she sure has been great the last 11 years, and thinking about the franchise without her is troubling.
Rollins and Benson have been a formidable team, and close friends; inspiring examples of women leading together. That Wolf thinks she won't be missed, is a miscalculation.
Worse, Law & Order writers setting Rollins' exit arc in motion on the mothership - and not SVU - is a slap. It probably happened this way because word is the Rollins character was to have been blown up or shot during the crossover; Hargitay protested, lobbying for a proper, dignified close for Rollins. (If only she'd been around for Julian McMahon on Wolf's FBI Most Wanted).
Anyway, Benson lackadaisically hanging out in her office when Rollins desperately needs her, and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) barely in two scenes -- the best of which was cut for streaming -- also felt crappy.
Then again, the hour - the entire evening - was not put on this planet to make sense. It's here to remind us the old Law & Order exists, and nothing more.
Camryn Manheim (in the Van Buren role) is on hand her again as she has been all night, actively working with Stabler, and ofc this actress is always welcome in anything she does. Jeffrey Donovan as Cosgrove got better as the night went on, (he really is good in this) and so is Mehcad Brooks as new detective Shaw.
Sam Waterston, g0d love him, is inevitably limited at 82. Once again this feels like Dick Wolf overspending for something, but having no idea what to do with it, just as he has squandered the 'reunion' of Benson & Stabler.
Looking back at the crossover's oddball opening at 8 pm in a foreign land with unfamiliar characters, it plays like a metaphor for the series itself, which is desperate for an infusion of faces viewers know.
With thousands of characters in the Law & Order canon, Wolf seems nutty not using at least a few of them. Bring in Leslie Hendrix as Rogers, Tamara Tunie as Warner, Judith Light as Donnelly. Give us a judge we know. Bring back a villain. Move George Huang or Barba over to 8 p.m. Call Diane Neal! The choices are endless.
As the evening wraps, opportunities for closure are missed and Donovan's character is charged with making sense of a Rick Eid's choppy script which goes long where it shouldn't and short where depth is needed.
So we get Cosgrove narrating over closing scenes of Stabler in action and Benson in comfort mode, generally trying to right a ship that was never quite on course to begin with.
No doubt a three-part cross-over was an ambitious idea: A feature-length film made in weeks, with shoots running almost to air time - while the shows' individual teams were still producing their series' ongoing weekly episodes. "A" for effort, "C" for story and execution, "B" overall.