A new season, a new cast change – poor old Steve Hill was given the boot (his character goes to do some holocaust investigation) and is replaced by Dianne Wiest, who is meant to be an interim replacement – she’s introduced by Guiliani!! Wiest is a strong addition to the team; her liberalism offers good opportunities for conflict for the more right-wing Jack McCoy.
Some really interesting episodes: a killer flees to Israel and tries to fight extradition, sports rage, a story hyper-critical of reality TV (a pet hate of series creator Dick Wolf), trying to secure the death penalty for a teen who really doesn’t seem to deserve it (Wiest allows Jack McCoy’s blood lust despite her own worries), a successful prosecutor is accused of murder, a Puerto Rican celebration day turns to murder, a mobster who is protected to an unhealthy degree by law order officials (inspired by the same thug who inspired The Department). Also they keep up the Jesse L Martin-is-an-excellent-interrogator stuff; in one great scene he keeps asking the interviewee “think why you are here,” “do you think we would have you in if we didn’t know X”.
Notable guest stars include Megan Fellows (Anne of Green Gables), the bald guy off Sex in the City, Keir Dullea - not really a powerhouse line up. But there's a terrific performance from the guest in an episode about a mass killer who is a quiet, softly-spoken passive aggressive type. And Carey Lowell returns again as Jamie, in the excellent school-shooting-spree episode (story by Dick Wolf himself – one of those all-our-leads-have-a-different-point-of-view) – although starting to look a little old to be honest, she really wipes the floor with Angie Harmon (whose conservative yelping in this episode I was sympathetic with but she still got on my nerves). This was Harmon’s last series – apparently she was frustrated she missed out on feature film roles. Didn’t that work out well for her. Still, she was really pretty.
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