The Correct Order To Watch The Law & Order Shows

The joke remains true: if you check into a motel anywhere in America, you can turn on the television and, in no more than three clicks, find a channel that is live-broadcasting an episode of "Law & Order." 

More than any other TV show, Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" is an institution, providing more episodes of scripted, primetime TV than any other series to date. It pales in comparison to most daily American soap operas, and falls well behind the Indian farm report "Krishi Darshan," as well as the long-long-running German children's show "Unser Sandmännchen," but "Law & Order" is certainly up there, having produced about 1,383 episodes over 67 seasons of TV. 

As of this writing, the extant "Law & Order" shows were released in the following order: 

• "Law & Order" (1990 – 2010, 2022 – present)
• "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999 – present)
• "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2001 – 2011)
• "Law & Order: Trial By Jury" (2004 – 2005)
• "Conviction" (2006)
• "Law & Order: LA" (2010 – 2011)
• "Law & Order: True Crime: The Menendez Murders (2017)
• "Law & Order: Organized Crime" (2021 – present)

This list doesn't include the 1998 "Law & Order" spinoff TV movie "Exiled," nor the many international counterparts that have been developed and broadcast overseas. There is also France's "Paris Enquêtes Criminelles" (2007 – 2008), Russia's "Law & Order: Division of Field Investigation" (2007 – 2011) and its spinoff, also called "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2007 – 2011). England made "Law & Order: UK" (2009 – 2014), and Canada made "Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent" (2024 – present). The above list also doesn't include 2002's "Crime & Punishment," an unscripted courtroom documentary show that was only vaguely connected to the "Law & Order" brand.

But even with these limitations in place, that's a LOT of "Law & Order." Let's get them into (law and) order. 

The original "Law & Order" established a pretty solid premise: the first half-hour of the one-hour show would be devoted to New York police detectives as they investigate a serious crime, often a murder. That's the "law" part. The second half-hour would then take the case to course to examine how it is litigated, and what kind of truths may be uncovered. That's the "order." The series began with a notable set of characters on both sides of the coin, but cast members began rotating out early in the show's run. The cast-changes, however, weren't a detriment. Indeed, because all of the characters were so impeccably professional, one began to see that the main character of "Law & Order" was the criminal justice system itself. 

"Law & Order" became a comfort watch for millions, which was an odd thing to realize about a steely, hard-edged show about murder and depravity. But it makes perfect sense when one realizes that it's a comforting wish-fulfillment drama. "Law & Order" depicts the criminal justice system operating at peak efficiency, populated by scrupulous and determined cops and lawyers who always care about doing what's right. In the world of "Law & Order," justice is real.

It was a winning formula, and provided writers with hundreds and hundreds of stories. NBC decided to bring the show to a close after 20 seasons, only to bring it back after a 12-year hiatus. Everything still works. 

The first spin-off from "Law & Order" came after the original was already firmly entrenched in the pop consciousness. "Special Victims Unit" was more "law" than "order"-oriented, focusing primarily on Detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni). "SVU" also shifted criminal focus from murder to crimes of a sexual nature. Benson and Stabler investigated everything from assaults to blackmail. There was a wide variety of crimes. "SVU" is more salacious as a result, but more satisfying; it's cathartic to see the victims of sexual crimes witness their attackers be captured and jailed. As mentioned, this is a world where justice exists.

"SVU" became more popular that even the original "Law & Order," and fans fell in love with Benson and Stabler. Hargitay has remained the star of the show for all 26 of its extant seasons. Meloni left after the first 12 seasons over a pay dispute. His character was said to have retired from police work after his family was killed by a mob of organized criminals. Stabler returned as a recurring character for the 22nd season, and still pops up from time to time. Stabler ended up starring in his own series, which we'll get to below. 

The series itself is now the fourth longest-running scripted TV series in American history, behind only "The Simpsons," "Gunsmoke," and "Lassie." It also shows no signs of slowing, and Hargitay certainly seems eager to play Olivia Benson in perpetuity. 

Like "Special Victims Unit," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" focused far more heavily on cops than lawyers. Indeed, lawyers were a very small part of this show. Also unlike the shows that preceded it, "Criminal Intent" was far more character-driven, relying on the quirks and personalities of its main characters, Detectives Eames (Kathryn Erbe) and Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio). Indeed, Detective Goren was something of a psychologist who, in the course of his investigations, found himself analyzing the perpetrators. Many episodes of "Criminal Intent" ended with Goren talking a criminal into confession. He was like a cop version of Perry Mason. Eames, meanwhile, was the hard-boiled anchor who led the investigations and made sure her partner didn't get too carried away. 

Goren left the series for its ninth season (Eames remained), but it was clear that both characters were needed. Goren came back for the show's 10th and final season, taking over for Jeff Goldblum, who briefly played his replacement. The series wasn't canceled for any scandalous reason, but merely ran its course. Ten years only seems like a short TV run when compared to its two forebears. It's still the third-best "L&O" show. 

"Criminal Intent" proved to be a keen premise for international adaptation, and the French spinoff, the Canadian spinoff, and the two Russian spinoffs all originated with this series. The international versions are also more law-focused, and feature more memorable, recurring characters. 

The first bomb in the "Law & Order" franchise, "Trial By Jury" only lasted 13 episodes over the course of its only season. Perhaps tired of his two spinoffs that focused primarily on cops, show creator Dick Wolf decided it was high time that the lawyers have their time in the spotlight. Audiences, it seems, watched "Law & Order" for the crimes and not for their litigation alone. As such, "Trial By Jury" crashed and burned. 

Not that it was a bad show by any stretch. Bebe Neuwirth (who may be an alien) was excellent as the lead of the ensemble, and guest actors from the original "Law & Order" and "SVU" appeared regularly to make the criminal justice system seem that much more vast. The stories were also just as intense on "TBJ" as on any of the other "L&O" shows; the writing and the acting were as good as ever. One might assume that the market was finally being oversaturated with "L&O," but given the ubiquity and longevity of the franchise, that wasn't true either. The cancelation story goes that NBC acquired "Sunday Night Football," which took up a lot of space on their programming calendar. Something had to be pushed out to make room for it, and "Trial By Jury" unexpectedly got the axe. 

Its rating were actually pretty good. It's worth looking up.

Another short-lived lawyer spinoff of the "Law & Order" franchise was "Conviction," a series about ADA Cabot (Stephanie March) one of the central lawyer characters from "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." Her character had to leave "SVU" in 2003 because she was targeted by dangerous criminals, forcing her into witness protection. It's never expained why, but she was now able to show her face in public again and re-enter New York's criminal justice system. Current "Star Trek" captain Anson Mount played (snicker) Jim Steele, another ADA with whom Cabot had previously had an affair. 

Like "Criminal Intent," "Conviction" skewed more toward characters, politics, and interpersonal relationships. It's unlike any of the "Law & Order" shows, and doesn't follow the same kind of structure. Perhaps that's why the words "Law" and "Order" don't appear in the title. This "Conviction" has nothing to do with the 2016 show "Conviction" with Hayley Atwell. 

"Conviction" was the first "Law & Order"-related series that wasn't a ratings bonanza, perhaps because it shied away from its own brand. It was routinely beaten by the numbers of "Numb3rs," and was taken off the air after only one season and 13 episodes. Law, we are finding, is more compelling than order. 

All of the American "Law & Order" shows up to this point had been set in New York, and bore a frantic New York sensibility. They were steely and cold and propulsive, and the detectives all wore long coats. With "Law & Order: LA" Dick Wolf tried to see if the same intensity could be maintained in the sun-bleached, laidback climes of Los Angeles. The result was an odd duck, following the traditional "L&O" plot structures, but bearing a dramatically different tone. The episodes of "LOLA" were all named after L.A. neighborhoods, and the detectives moved just a little bit more slowly. It felt more like a New Yorkers' view of L.A., but Angelenos can tell you that it got a lot right. 

The show struggled for its only season, however. It took a notorious hiatus halfway through its run, and returned with an almost entirely new cast. "LOLA" was essentially two shows in one. The rejiggering meant that the series was more or less starting from scratch, which scared audiences off. It's not ranked very highly by /Film. It's also worth noting that Dick Wolf had already tried to launch a Los Angeles-set crime series with a reboot of "Dragnet" back in 2003. That, too, only lasted one season.

Many of the stories on every one of the "Law & Order" shows (including the international spinoffs) featured interpolations of recent, real-life crimes. Dick Wolf wholly leaned into that notion with "Law & Order: True Crime," intended to be an anthology series of real-world crimes, fictionalized through a hard-boiled lens. Each season was to cover a singular crime in detail, and, as of this writing, only one season has aired so far. The first season of "True Crime," covered the Menendez murders, which took place in 1989. One can look up the details of the real-world case easily enough (and see any number of documentaries on the crime), but, in brief, Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of murdering their wealthy parents in Beverly Hills. 

The eight-episode season was warmly reviewed, with Edie Falco (as the Menendez lawyer Leslie Abramson) gathering the bulk of the show's praise. The actual Menendez murders, it seems, didn't fit neatly into Wolf's well-worn crime-show mold. A second season is not yet in production, but Dick Wolf has alluded to a possible future story about Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Time will tell if "True Crime" has caught on, or if it's one of Wolf's stalled "L&O" projects. It's certainly the most out-of-character for the franchise, as it's set in the real world and lacks the neat-as-a-pin structuring of the originals. 

More successful was "Law & Order: Organized Crime," a series that was created specifically for Christopher Meloni. As mentioned above, Meloni left "SVU" after its 12th season, as NBC refused to pay him an appropriately high salary. It seems that enough time had passed, and an interesting enough concept was floated, that Meloni was lured back. Because his character, Stabler, lost his wife and child to organized crime, it made sense that he should now be leading an organized crime task force. His ultimate goal is, of course, to find his family's killers. 

Unlike previous "Law & Order" shows, "Organized Crime" is not a case-of-the-week series, but a broad series that follows a single story arc. The first four seasons of the show ran on NBC, and its fifth is scheduled to start on Peacock later this year. 

The above list of "Law & Order" shows is also hardly complete. The "Law & Order" franchise also includes five video games, and multiple tie-in novels. "Law & Order" has also crossed over with multiple other shows. Indeed, characters from the Baltimore-set crime series "Homicide: Life on the Street" (finally on streaming!) ended up shunting over to "Law & Order." Specifically Detective Munch, played by Richard Belzer. There was a "Law & Order" spinoff called "Deadline" in 2000 that starred a minor tabloid reporter, sometimes seen on the original show. The series "In Plain Sight" starred a minor "Law & Order" character, and "Law & Order" characters have also appeared on "Chicago Justice," "Chicago P.D.," "Chicago Fire," "New York Undercover," and "Jo." It's a vast world of cops and lawyers. 

Return to this article in 20 years, and we'll likely have eight new Dick Wolf shows to discuss. This juggernaut will seemingly never end.