Law & Order is set to return for Season 24 in the not-too-distant future of the 2024 TV schedule, with one big cast change after the departure of former series regular Camryn Manheim. Otherwise, the detectives and attorneys of NBC's long-running drama should be back to business as usual... mostly, anyway. According to Mehcad Brooks, one aspect will be different starting this fall, and he shared with CinemaBlend what will be "updated" this time around.
I spoke with Mehcad Brooks– who ranks among actors to play more than one character in the franchise – ahead of the new season of Law & Order, and he described a new "Three Stooges" dynamic on set between him, Reid Scott, and Season 24 newcomer Maura Tierney. When asked what it's like to have some laughs between the scenes of a pretty heavy and serious TV show, the actor shared:
You kind of have to, right? You're waking up at 5:30 in the morning, six o'clock in the morning, and you're talking about dead people and murder and assault and some of the darkest spots of the human consciousness by eight o'clock. One thing that I've learned by working so closely with soldiers and police officers is that they have some of the most warped senses of humor that you've ever experienced, because they have to. There has to be some levity in the situation. We try to bring that off camera, and then sometimes on camera.
Law & Order may not be the funniest show in primetime, but the cast does find ways to laugh when the cameras aren't rolling. According to Mehcad Brooks, though, there is some effort to add levity to scenes that make the final cut of episodes that air on NBC and will stream via Peacock subscriptions, which will be evident in Season 24.
In fact, there will be an increase in the levity for Law & Order when it returns this fall. There's certainly not going to be a laugh track, but the show is exploring some different directions in certain ways when it comes to tone. Brooks previewed:
They're writing for it this year, which is a departure from the past stoicism of Law & Order. There's a connective tissue to the original DNA, don't get me wrong, but it also feels new, and different, and it feels a little updated in that aspect of it. We are by no means changing the show to something that people won't recognize, but there's some buddy comedy moments in there, for sure.
Don't worry, longtime fans – Season 24 is still going to be the Law & Order you know and love. It just will have some lighter moments to go with all the crime and murder, which strikes me as a pretty good thing for the 8 p.m. ET show that opens NBC's Thursday night lineup. Plus, it speaks well of the show that it can be "updated" at 24 seasons and counting.
The show had to adapt to the times when Law & Order came back for its revived Season 21 in 2022, after all, almost twelve full years after it was previously cancelled. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how Season 24 incorporates some "buddy comedy moments" while also staying true to – as Mehcad Brooks put it – "the original DNA."
Change is coming to the Law & Order lineup this fall. While Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU are returning to their respective 8 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET time slots on NBC Thursdays, Law & Order: Organized Crime was renewed for a fifth season to release streaming on Peacock rather than air in the 10 p.m. ET slot after SVU.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 doesn't yet have a Peacock premiere date, but filming has begun. As for Law & Order and SVU, both shows return to NBC on Thursday, October 3. Mark-Paul Gosselaar's Found will premiere its second season at 10 p.m. ET that night.
