‘Law & Order’ Returns, With New Energy and a Considered Approach: TV Review

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“Minx,” a new comedy on HBO Max, has a plot that’s all about reversing the gaze — looking as pruriently at men as media often looks at women. And the form of the show follows suit.In order to tell the story of Minx, a new magazine launching in this show’s depiction of a swinging 1970s, this series refuses to hold back, diving deep into a curiosity about the male form that’s as gently inquisitive as it is prurient.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticHulu’s new limited series “The Girl From Plainville,” which premiered at the SXSW festival on March 12, faces, and surmounts, an interesting challenge: Its two lead characters have a relationship based almost entirely on text messages. The sight of someone with their face buried in a phone is hardly novel, nor is it compelling — at least not enough to sustain an eight-episode drama.The question of whether “The Girl From Plainville,” based on the real-life manslaughter trial of Michelle Carter after she encouraged her boyfriend over text to kill himself in 2014, really needed all of those episodes to tell its story is a fair one.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticIn the new documentary series “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” the late pop artist’s re-created voice sounds eerie and uncanny — human but not. It’s aesthetically jarring, and a fitting tribute.Director Andrew Rossi, with the permission of Warhol’s estate, used an artificial-intelligence program to reproduce his speaking voice, so that “Warhol” can read aloud from the diaries he kept.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large“Black-ish” may be ending, but the series’ creative universe continues: Freeform has ordered a fifth season of spinoff “Grown-ish.” And as “Black-ish” concludes, another one of that long-running series’ cast members is now set to segue over to “Grown-ish”: Marcrus Scribner has officially been added to the show’s cast.Scribner will reprise his role as Andre Johnson Jr., and as the network explains, “he embarks on his own journey to being ‘grown.'” In moving to “Grown-ish,” Scribner joins his TV sister, Yara Shahidi (who plays Zoey), on the show.Also, as part of the Season 5 pickup, playwright/producer Zakiyyah Alexander (“Russian Doll,” “La Brea”) and “Black-ish” executive producer/showrunner Courtney Lilly will take over as co-showrunners. Season 4 showrunner Julie Bean and executive producer Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry are departing the show.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticIt’s hard, at first, to see what drew Renée Zellweger to the lead role of “The Thing About Pam.”Zellweger, in an attempt to resemble the real-life convicted murderer Pam Hupp, forces herself to act through a shroud of body prosthetics. The show’s writers have stripped away subtext, dimming Zellweger’s sparky comic timing.

back on the air, showrunner Rick Eid has promised that season 21 of the revival will feature many familiar faces in addition to returning stars Anthony Anderson and Sam Waterston, who are reprising their respective roles as Det. Kevin Bernard and DA Jack McCoy.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticJohn C. Reilly first shows up in “Winning Time” post-coitally, musing about the ways in which his favorite activity has pleasures not unlike his second-favorite. “God damn,” he muses to his sleeping mistress, his gaze slightly tangent to the camera’s gaze.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticNetflix’s new drama “Pieces of Her” kicks off with an act of violence that predicts much of what will lie ahead: It is startling for its randomness.In this series’ first episode, a mother and daughter (Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote) are caught up in a public mass shooting, the denouement of which reveals Collette’s character Laura to have a surprising, unforeseen boldness. The attention Laura’s heroism receives threatens to upset a delicate balance, one that Heathcote’s Andy hasn’t even realized exists.Soon enough, Andy, whose adult life has been in a state of suspended animation to care for the ailing Laura, is thrust into the world, ordered by Laura to leave their town, where they have kept a purposefully low profile existence, and go into hiding.

to TMZ on Monday.“As Ned would say, he was attacked by two very rare assassins — cholangiocarcinoma [bile duct cancer] and ocular melanoma. Over the course of two years, he bravely fought the cancers in private while continuing to work in show business to ensure that his medical coverage paid for himself and his family,” Patricia told the news outlet.His rep Jeremy Leiner announced that he died Sunday at his home in New York.Eisenberg is best known for portraying defense lawyer Roger Kressler in “Law & Order” (1997 to 2009) and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (1999 to 2019) and most recently played Detective Hauser in the 2021 HBO series “Mare of Easttown.”The prolific actor was born and raised in New York City and studied acting at Fiorello H.

Thursday primetime was truly a battleground for long-running dramas as NBC’s Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU duked it out against ABC’s first Station 19-Grey’s Anatomy crossover event of 2022.

The long-awaited 21st season of Law & Order just premiered on NBC and it features some returning cast members, along with some new faces for the franchise.

The original Law & Order series is returning to NBC TONIGHT (February 24), more than a decade after the series went off the air.

Sam Waterston is a Hollywood icon. The 81-year-old actor has been in the business for nearly four decades now. He memorably starred as D.A. James McCoy in Law & Order, and will be reprising the role as the NBC series returns for a 21st season after being off the air for 12 years. Sam also starred in The Newsroom and Grace & Frankie on television, while his notable film credits include 1974’s The Great Gatsby, The Killing Fields, and The Man in the Moon.

Editor’s Note: The Deadline Watchlist is a feature spotlighting small screen specials, events and can’t-miss episodes of ongoing series each week.

is back! After initially being canceled after season 20 in 2010, creator Dick Wolf’s mothership series, which has spawned a number of spinoffs and an expansive TV universe, is returning with season 21. Led by executive producer and showrunner Rick Eid, the revival features returning stars Sam Waterston as District Attorney Jack McCoy and Anthony Anderson as Det. Kevin Bernard.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” Showtime’s limited series about Travis Kalanick’s period as CEO of the rideshare company, runs on a simple either-or proposition. Kalanick focused all of his energies on the success of the corporation he ran, at the expense of his employees’ well-being and physical safety, as well as of ethics, labor practices and the law.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe CW’s “All American” has had a successful run — a notably successful one, on a network dominated by superhero programming — taking on stories about high school football. Now, a spinoff shifts the action to college baseball and tennis, but keeps the source material’s focus on Black youth.

“Law & Order”Thursday, February 24 at 8 p.m., NBCDun-dun. That immortal noise began every episode of “Law & Order,” which ran for 20 glorious seasons on NBC and inspired countless spinoffs and continuations (still ongoing).