Warning: spoilers are ahead for the Season 24 winter premiere of Law & Order, called "Enemy of the State" and available streaming now with a Peacock subscription.
Law & Order is officially back on NBC Thursday nights in the 2025 TV schedule, and Season 24 returned with an action-packed episode that I also expected to pay off on the cliffhanger from back in November regarding Lt. Jessica Brady's trouble with IAB after telling the truth on the stand. Well, the episode technically did address what went down with Brady in the last episode of the 2024 TV schedule, but it was easy to miss if you weren't looking out for it and I'm underwhelmed by the resolution of what could have been a great ongoing story.
If Law & Order: SVU can do a serialized storyline about Carisi while remaining procedural, why not the original series? The underwhelming resolution to the thrilling cliffhanger came about four minutes in, in the first scene after the opening credits sequence. Brady walked into the precinct, and Shaw and Riley both welcomed the lieutenant back. Riley asked how her "vacation" was, to which she unenthusiastically responded:
Fantastic. But I'm glad to be back and getting paid again. What do you got?
Apparently, the repercussions for Brady taking a stand in the fall finale, knowing full well that she'd be alienating fellow cops and end up on IAB's radar, was resolved off-screen with an unpaid leave for an undetermined about of time. Now, I of course didn't want Brady to be fired because of what went down back in the fall, as Maura Tierney officially won me over to her Law & Order role when I'd previously been a fan of her work as Abby on ER. Plus, Mehcad Brooks only had good things to say about her joining the cast to replace Camryn Manheim as Lt. Kate Dixon.
But that cliffhanger from 2024 had me more on the edge of my seat at the end of a Law & Order episode than any other of Season 24, and I was hoping for a payoff that lasted for more than a few lines of dialogue that lasted for ten seconds. (Yes, I timed it.) In fact, if not for Brady mentioning "getting paid again," it might have just seemed like the character had taken some time off for the holidays and was only just returning.
This didn't ruin the episode for me or anything, and she certainly had an exciting first case back with a terrorist threat that had me thinking yet again that the time is right for a crossover between Law & Order and the FBIs over on CBS. Luckily, there wasn't a successful terrorist attack at all, and the real challenge of the winter premiere fell to Price when he had to convince DA Baxter – a.k.a. his boss – to testify about a problematic piece of legislation that he'd written years ago.
Fortunately, Price did manage to close the case by the end of the winter premiere, and the promo for the next episode reveals some ER reunions are on the way with Mekhi Phifer guest-starring and Eriq La Salle directing. Take a look:
Keep tuning in to NBC on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of Law & Order, including the exciting ER reunion coming up next. As always, Season 24 leads in to Law & Order: SVU Season 26 at 9 p.m. ET and then Found Season 2 (with a Station 19 vet as the newest addition to the cast) at 10 p.m. ET. All three shows are also streaming on Peacock with new episodes next day.
