No Law, No Order

James Wolcott laments not only the current season of L&O (the first edition) but the last few. We commiserate with him about past regulars, especially (and sadly), Jerry Orbach. But we here at Snap Judgment have an abiding passion (yes, we mean this word) for Sam Waterson's role as the Assistant DA. His irascible, yet melancholy Jack McCoy is worlds apart from the usual idealizations and demonizations of prosecutors. Indeed, though Waterson may seem almost crushingly sour in his role, his character is the best model of passionate liberalism we have in the mainstream media. Snap Judgment liked Michael Moriarty, but he did turn out to be something of a prima donna--exactly what a true public servant can never be.

We admire heartily Wolcott's work. He is the best media critic aside from John Leonard and Charles Mudede that we have. And we fear that SJ would not be taken seriously, since we now are rather addicted to L&O: Criminal Intent, which has the best portrayal of an intellectual of any TV series. We mean of course Vincent D'Onofrio as the tormented and cagily ticcish Det. Robert Goren. For this judgment, we are sure SJ will be confined to be particular irritating wing of the third level of the Aesthetic Inferno. We won't happily while away our time there, no doubt which will be taken up re-runs of fat shlub/cute wife sitcoms spawned in the wake of that show in which everybody loves somebody, but we remain devoted admirers of Assistant DA Jack McCoy. So there, James Wolcott!