When Law & Order Season 21 airs, it will frustrate viewers, says star Sam Waterson. The police procedural drama series, which ran for an impressive 20 years and launched a franchise of shows including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, will be returning to the silver screen more than a decade after the show's cancellation. Waterson will be reprising his role of Manhattan District Attorney Jack McCoy thanks to the persistence of showrunner Dick Wolf and fans' passion for Law & Order. Wolf will be back as executive producer, while Rick Eid will take on showrunner responsibilities.
The Law & Order revival will see some original cast members returning, such as Anthony Anderson's Detective Kevin Bernard. However, details of how involved other Law & Order alum have been mostly kept under wraps. However, some new cast members have been attached to the show. Jeffrey Donovan will be seen in the lead role of senior detective Frank Cosgrove, and Hannibal's Hugh Dancy will star as senior ADA Nathan Price. Law & Order's narrative follows both the investigations and prosecutions of the crimes it depicts, so it seems that they could be the two new faces leading the dual perspectives of the story. In a recent 15-second Law & Order promo trailer, Dancy, Donovan, and Waterson can be briefly spotted in their roles.
Speaking to Variety, Waterson discusses his return to Law & Order and how he thinks the show continues to tackle timely issues. He hints that while many of the episodes will have a resolution, they won't always be satisfactory and may leave the audience with something to think about. Over a decade since its cancellation, the Law & Order revival will surely have plenty of complex topics and social issues to draw from. See what Waterson had to say here:
"We’re not shying away from any of those [timely] conflicts. In fact, it’s always been the goal of the show to get people throwing their shoes at the television, and certainly there are issues that are going to infuriate people and frustrate people about how they turned out. That’s the pleasure of watching ‘Law & Order’; there is a resolution but there’s a lot of dissatisfaction with the way it goes. It feels, to me, like ‘Law & Order’ might have something to contribute to the general conversation because we’re all mad about something. We’re all mad as hell about something right now and mad at each other. For us to get these big issues aired, and to have not a conclusion but a resolution of some kind that you can chew on, might be a useful service.”
Waterson's interest in exploring social conflicts through Law & Order may not come as a surprise when considering his real-life dedication to activism. At the start of 2020, Waterson was arrested at Jane Fonda's protest twice in Washington, DC. He was one of the first prolific celebrities to join Fonda's rally that called for action against climate change and brought widespread media attention to the topic, specifically calling out fossil fuel companies. Perhaps Waterson hopes to bring attention to other important issues with Law & Order season 21 - albeit in a less dramatic fashion.
After over a decade since Law & Order's last series, it will be interesting to see what issues will be brought up in season 21. Since then, a lot has happened, most notably the Black Lives Matter movement, which has put more pressure on police procedurals to shine a light on the inequalities and systemic racism baked into the American legal system. This is a problem that even sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine's final series tried to address. Whether Law & Order will take a similar step in its revival remains to be seen, but judging from Waterson's insight, it will likely participate in some difficult conversations nonetheless.
Source: Variety