Law & Order

1990
7.8| 0h30m| TV-14| en
Synopsis

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Director

Producted By

Universal Media Studios

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!
Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Catherina If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU The interest in these rather old (more than twenty years old) seasons is in the obsolescence of so many things that do not exist anymore or the absence of what is common today. This is TV archaeology. Thus you have the big monstrous PCs, the old dial telephones, the old enormous cars, and no smart phones, no portable phones, no tablets, and even practically no bikes. The traffic is practically fluid and you can park your car anywhere easily. Security is light, the presence of cops and even thieves is light too. The police force is hardly racially integrated, definitely very little at investigating police level and same thing at justice, DA and court level. This vision of the world in New York in the early 1990s is amazing. Do you remember it? Or rather can you imagine it?The second element is typical of US American-centered vision. Every episode starts with the sentence: "In a criminal justice system," wrongly quoted as "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories," by http://lawandorder.wikia.com/wiki/Law_%26_Order, because it is not true of any criminal justice system in the world and the use of "A criminal justice system" implies the universality of the remark. I checked I do not know how many dozens of episodes and it was always the same, the use of the American-centered indefinite article. What is shown in this series is purely American. In many other systems in the world investigation means looking into what the prosecution can use and what the defense can use. The defense research or investigation is not paid by the accused and done by his lawyer but most of it is done by the investigating team under the responsibility of a judge. It is this very justice system of the USA that leads to the worst possible jury decisions that are irreversible because no one can be tried twice for the same offense. . . In other words, they only look for a culprit and as soon as they find one – or they are convinced they have found one – they are satisfied and go to court.The series is very clear about that and many episodes show how tricky it is if the defense does not investigate on their own side. They even actually show cases in which the investigation is wrong, the jury finds the defendant guilty and the judge sends him to prison to serve a 25 to life sentence and yet right away afterwards new elements come up showing that the culprit is another man who was exonerated. They cannot reverse the jury decision. The judge cannot change it at all. They have to find a way to beat about the bush, negotiate the obstacle and use a detour to prove the other suspect guilty without bringing the first convicted one into the picture. Then and only then the first trial can be voided. The least we can say is that it is slightly distorted. Some might say corrugated.That's probably the best side of this series: it does not hide the fact that the American criminal justice system is deeply problematic. In spite of their Miranda warning that states what follows: "You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. etc.," in spite of that the prosecution will not target both guilt AND innocence but ONLY guilt. And over and over again the episodes show how bungled a case can get when the defense attorney is not diligent enough. This series shows all judicial mistakes come from the basic police work at the root of everything else afterward. The police work is often based on a personal conviction or even belief more than facts. The advantage of the police shown here is that the lieutenant who follows the investigation performed by his or her (in this case her) detectives can challenge them and the facts they bring up and ask them to look in other directions, to check other sides of the situation. But even so, nothing is clear. The main issue – or one of the main issues – is the role of women and in this particularly series the lieutenant is a woman, what's more ethnic, and the assistant district attorney Jack McCoy's assistant, Claire Kincaid, is also a woman. They often bring in a new note, a softening note, at times an alternative approach. But that is not in any way based on truth and the search for truth but on the deep conviction the case of women, or relevant facts that only women can see have been ignored. The next step in this series is the importance of deals reached by the public prosecutor with the defense before the court decision. Such deals are not dealing with justice nor even the truth but only with speeding up the procedure, save on court expenses and most of the time reduce the sentence by reducing the qualification of the crime. And when wrongly accused the duress is so hard in some situations that the innocent person accepts to plead guilty in exchange of a soft sentence, but yet it is fake justice. . . Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
SnoopyStyle This was an incredibly resilient show. It survived the departure of a multitude of actors and lasted 20 years. That's on account of its reliant not on the characters, but on the stories. It proved to be a winning formula.The show follows a rip-from-the-headlines crime story. The first half of the show concentrates on the investigation of the crime by the police, and the second half follows the prosecution of the crime in court.They reinvented the crime procedural. Scripted show just don't last this long. That's thanks to the structure of the show. If not for the proliferation of all the TV channels and the need for ever more cheaper production, this could have lasted another 20 years.
TheLittleSongbird I absolutely love Law and Order, it is one great show. It is gritty. It is compelling. It is high quality. For me, that equals perfection. The episode ideas are original and set the bar for other shows similar to this. The scripting makes the show compelling, for it is always exceptionally written, sophisticated and totally unpredictable. The music is great, quite haunting come to think of it. The court room scenes are consistently superb, thanks to the performance of Sam Waterson as McCoy, who brings vitality and sincerity to the role. The series is quite gritty, perhaps because of the dark and brooding camera work that makes it visually good to look at. As for the performances, they are of high calibre, and I admit I think the show's golden years were with Briscoe and Green. Maybe I'm biased, but the late great Jerry Orbach was the perfect choice for Lennie Briscoe, a man who wants justice, and takes his job seriously. Orbach was a truly talented actor, and it is Briscoe as well as Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast that I remember him chiefly by. Jesse L. Martin excels also as Green, and the two men have an undeniable bond that made the show such compulsive viewing. Don't get me wrong, I liked Fontana as well, but there was something about Briscoe and Green that made me like them more. Dianne West and Angie Harmon are solid too. All in all, exceptional legal drama series. 10/10 Bethany Cox
jdr2117 Hey does anyone know where i can download/watch season 15 episode 20. I have been watching out to see if it comes on on tnt but it hasn't in the past month. Okay so apparently I can't enter this comment unless thee is ten lines of comments. I really didn't know about this rule, but anyway I love Jesse L Martin and I wanted to know what happened to him in this episode before he started working on rent. Also, if im not mistaken this episode was a crossover episode with trial by jury. So last line right, thanks to anyone who can find me this episode.thanks in advance,Allie