‘Law & Order’ Returns after 12 years to take on Bill Cosby
In the decades since Law & Order first premiered, police procedurals have become inescapable—a cottage industry of fictional crimes and ripped-from-headlines riffs built around heated interrogations and third-act twists. Now, the series that started it all returns to NBC—and it should surprise no one that for its introduction, the revived Law & Order has chosen a thorny real-life inspiration: Bill Cosby.
The new Law & Order brings back Anthony Anderson, who appeared in Seasons 18 through 20 of the original as Detective Kevin Bernard. (And has his own history of sexual-assault allegations.) The Dick Wolf series premieres Thursday and introduces Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan as Kevin Bernard’s partner, Senior Detective Frank Cosgrove, and Hannibal star Hugh Dancy as Executive Assistant District Attorney Nathan Price. The premiere finds each of the show’s central trio asking a different version of the same question—and the distinctions between each of their answers will likely shape the series to come.
The case of the week? Henry King, an incomprehensibly famous singer accused of raping dozens of women using, at least in one case, a date-rape drug, is found dead after his release from prison. (His conviction was overturned under similar circumstances to the Cosby’s in real life.) Kevin and Frank’s investigation opens and closes in record time, but what comes next is far from simple.