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Occasionally, it is necessary toconvene a conversationbetween Vulture writers to discuss an important and timely issue in culture.
This time, critics Roxana Hadadi and Kathryn VanArendonk check in on the revivedLaw & Orders 21st season.
The first half of the ten-episode seasonhas introduced new characters and looked exclusively to true crime for inspiration.
But something is missing.
Could it be a genuine reason whyLaw & Orderneeded to come back in the first place?
But like Cheetos or cigarettes, it was something I assumed would just always exist.
Maybe the revival could too?
But then I actually watched it, and … hmm.
Theres a strange tonality here that makes the series feelofthis moment but not anchoredinit.
Kathryn, are you picking up on a weird vibe too?
:Honestly, weird vibe is generous, but its a good place to start.
There is no daily life; there are no small stories or regular people.
The originalLaw & Order, in spite of its many flaws, often depicted something like a workaday reality.
But there is no regular case in the revival.
There are no typical crimes or mundane details.
Everything is megaheightened all the time.
Everyone liked that story, right?
The show is also missing a sense of,This is New York City.
This is a real place with real problems.
Is the problem withLaw & Ordernow that its become like everything else?
But at no point does any of that jell into actual characterization for these guys.
They are like AI-generated puppets whose dialogue sounds like word clouds scraped from op-eds about ideological divides in America.
Even worse, itsboring.
We pretty easily go fromXtoYtoZ, and that pacing feels generic at this point.
Even when the showdoesunleash a bombshell of some kind, there are no unique details.
I waited an hour for this?
This is all just so unoriginal.
And I guess that leads to the most important question of all: Why bringLaw & Orderback?
Kathryn, why are we subjecting ourselves to this?
:We do it for the readers, Roxana.
We do it for the people!
It has become more slick, more true crimeadjacent, and more equivocating.
Its hard to know who a show like that isforor whether there will be an appetite for more.
There may be theres been more appetite for procedurals withChicagoin the title than I ever wouldve thought possible.
Still, I am trying to picture a conversation with someone insisting that they love this revival.
