Anthony Anderson is already leaving the Law & Order reboot
Anderson was reportedly always planning to leave after his one-season contract
Aux News Anthony Anderson
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Or re-lasted, as it were. Anthony Anderson will not be returning to Law & Order after returning to Law & Order for the rebooted 21st season, Deadline reports.
The news is not totally unexpected (unless you watched the season finale, in which there was no indication that Anderson’s character, Detective Kevin Bernard, would be exiting the series). Anderson had only signed a one-season contract, and sources told Deadline that the actor “wanted to support [executive producer] Dick Wolf in the relaunch of the mothership of the franchise for one season and always planned to move on after that.”
Anderson just completed another long run on Black-ish, so it makes sense he wouldn’t want to get tied down right away to another lengthy TV project. Although for what it’s worth, he told People he essentially volunteered for the job: “They made the announcement that Law & Order was coming back. So, I picked up the phone and called Dick Wolf up and said, ‘Hey Dick, is it true?’” Anderson explained to the outlet. “He said, ‘It is.’ I was like, ‘Well, you know, I’m a free agent as of Nov. 19th.’ And [Wolf] was like, ‘Anthony, you have no idea how happy this phone call makes me.’”
Sam Waterston, the series’ other returning vet, also signed on for just one season. Per Deadline, there’s no word yet as to whether Waterston has decided to stay on, though he did make an appearance at NBC’s upfronts, an event dedicated to promoting the network’s upcoming season. So, perhaps one alum will stick around.
There are also approximately one billion other actors from Law & Order history to choose from if Wolf wants more familiar faces–and some of them have already expressed an interest in returning. Ultimately, Law & Order got along just fine before Anthony Anderson arrived, and will likely survive just fine without him.
52 Comments
That’s legitimately shocking. I dunno if it’s the right move, though. Cosgrove hasn’t been warmly received. I eventually grew to like him as the asshole of the group, kinda like a new Greevey, but there were many episodes where his shtick went overboard, though thankfully it never got as bad as the season premiere again. I don’t know if audiences would accept him being the lead detective.
Sam leaving, quite frankly, I can take or leave at this point. The Order side has a LOT of problems, and Sam barely impacted the cases at all. Granted, Schiff seemed to not leave his office more and more as his tenure went on, but at the very least Lewin and Branch had episodes where they actually got hands-on with the cases, especially Branch.
As for any returning detectives, there aren’t a whole lot to choose from. Greevey is dead in-universe. Logan DEFINITELY ain’t coming back for a 3rd time. I very much doubt they’ll bring Cerreta back. Briscoe is dead both in and out of universe. Green’s actor is starring in a new NBC series. Fontana’s actor died several years ago. Lupo’s actor is busy on FBI over on CBS.
That leaves Curtis, Falco, and Cassady. I don’t know if Benjamin Bratt would be willing to return. Michael Imperoli and Milena Govich’s characters were universally hated back in the day, but a return might do their characters some good. Alternatively, they could siphon off one of the dudes from SVU. I have no idea who any of them are other than Benson and Finn, but there ya go.
They might also just get someone entirely brand new. Which, considering how Cosgrove, Price, and Maroun were done this past season, causes me to worry a bit.
Donovan was absolutely HORRENDOUS in the early episodes, but he seemed to get the hang of it near the end, though his “lawyer? you’re gonna need a priest!” outburst in the penultimate episode was laughably bad.I got the feeling that Anderson didn’t really want to be there because his Bernard didn’t even feel like remotely the same character he used to play off of Sisto back in the day.Of course, the quickest and best solution to this problem would be to get Bruce Campbell to fill his spot. Or Coby Bell!
It legitimately baffles me how the season premiere episode’s script was approved at all. May legit be one of the worst episodes in the franchise’s history.
I wasn’t expecting much, but how do you not have a single scene with Jack and Jamie interacting? That was just astonishing.
They did. It was cut for some idiotic reason.
I was surprised by how bad Donovan was in this season. I get that his character was supposed to be the ‘bad’ cop to Anderson’s ‘good’ cop, but Donovan was so over the top most of the time. He just leaned into it too far.
Yeah the whole point of a bad cop on this show is someone you can still relate to, like oh I don’t know, Chris Meloni. Donovan as an actor is kind of an oddball, so it seems like it would have been easy to use that persona to suggest not everything was quite right with his approach to “law” without making him a guy who would probably be suspended more often than on duty.
I don’t think he’s a particularly versatile actor–he’s great at playing cartoon characters like Dodd or Creegan, but nuanced and subtle?
In my opinion, he got better as the season went on, but he was so terrible in the early eps…..
Bruce Campbell always improves something so I’m very in favor of this idea.(Before he was on Homicide in a several-episode story arc as a guest actor I thought he’d be great as a regular cast member on that show.)
Fully on board with bringing on Bruce Campbell as Donovan’s partner, and just fully leaning into it and adding some voiceover. “When you’re a detective…”
As for Sam, I mean, we all love McCoy, but he looked ancient 10 years ago, and now looks like he died shortly after the original run.
Plus, his legendary character was written as an absolute pushover in this reboot, with Dancy’s ADA walking all over him.“Absolutely not. You will do this the way I say, and that’s final!”“But Jack, I can win this case!”“Well, ok, go for it!”
Honestly, the entire Order side was just rife with problems. The cases themselves were basically open and shut, they didn’t have replacements for Skoda or Olivet to pad things out, and Price kept coming off as a very weak and petulant (and not in a “compelling asshole” way like Cutter did). Maroun’s also one of the weakest ADAs I’ve seen on the show.Apparently the head writer on this season was one of the more reviled ones from SVU, so maybe a change on that side of the camera will help things out.
“Maroun’s also one of the weakest ADAs I’ve seen on the show.”I’m not familiar with the actress outside of this show, but talk about a completely replaceable character.
Plus, his legendary character was written as an absolute pushover in this reboot, with Dancy’s ADA walking all over him.
Waterston’s character did that to Schiff all the time, though.
There WERE times he stood up to Jack, but yea, they were rare. It was Branch that clapped back at Jack more often.
It seems like the MO over the run of the show is that if an ADA wants to risk torpedoing themselves and their careers to win a case, the DA is going to let them do it.Except for Elizabeth Rohm, who was fired for NOT doing that. Or maybe because she was a lesbian.
Wolf admitted to making up the lesbian thing on the spot in order to produce some shock value and discussion material afterwards.
I guess he accomplished the latter since we’re still bringing it up, but it was easily the biggest WTF??? moment in that show’s run (which is saying something).
Schiff at least put up a fight and let him have it when he found out.I’d say this version of McCoy is more like Cragen, getting walked all over by his subordinates.
Paul Sorvino (Cerretta) is in his 80s now for a start.
Sorvino is also a member of the Jon Voight/Kevin Sorbo/Scott Baio/James Woods Trump-lovin’ celebrity circus.
I haven’t finished the season, but the whole “no you won’t”, “but I can”, “it’s up to you” has been very repetitive and I’ve been waiting for the asshole DA to have his hat handed to him.As for Waterson’s character’s age, the one he plays on “Grace and Frankie” seems eight years younger. It’s hard to believe they are being played by the same guy.
As for Sam, I mean, we all love McCoy, but he looked ancient 10 years ago, and now looks like he died shortly after the original run.
Agreed, though thanks to Grace and Frankie, I no longer see Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy and can only picture him as an often-hysterical, elderly gay man. I prefer Saul to McCoy now.
“Logan DEFINITELY ain’t coming back for a 3rd time.”Well, one for obvious reasons, and two, he would have had to gotten demoted from Major Cases, right?
Eh, he’s been demoted before.
True, but he would be in his 60s now, right? Probably take his pension and leave if that happened.
Technically, I don’t think it’s Law and Order until John Munch/Richard Belzer shows up.
Munch is retired, IIRC.
Yup.But as long as Richard Belzer is alive — he can still stop by the ol’ precinct.
They might also just get someone entirely brand new. Which, considering
how Cosgrove, Price, and Maroun were done this past season, causes me to
worry a bit.
You didn’t mention the new lieutenant character, which maybe says it all, really.
Eh, she’s fine. Not terrible, but not great. No Van Buren, though.
Bring Nick Amaro over from SVU!!!
This reboot (or whatever) has been shit. Just awful. Just really very bad and awful. I don’t blame him.
“They” (whoever “They” are) told us L&O had run its course and I didn’t believe it. Oh boy, I do now!!
The AV Club really must love Anthony Anderson because they are leaving out his long and disturbing record of sexual assault and violence. Compare this story to any story featuring someone like Louis CK. Mary Kate Carr owes Anthony Anderson’s many victims an apology.
The politics of this season feel so watered-down. Just about every episode you could count on the cops to do some banter that superficially both-sides some politically charged issue, like an intern in the writer’s room went and bullet-pointed the “controversy” section on Wikipedia, then it cuts to the next scene having stated nothing of principle or substance. Drink every time one of them says “it’s not that simple” and then doesn’t explain how or why.
So did the season get better after the shitty premiere? I love Sam Waterson and Jeffery Donovan but nothing was clicking.
It would almost have to, the premiere was so unbelievably bad.But it kinda… didn’t, really. It was better than the premiere but never particularly good. Granted I still have 4 or 5 episodes saved on the DVR, so you never know, but I don’t have high hopes.
It did, for the most part. It never reached the heights of even the last few seasons pre-cancellation, but a few of the episodes had some good cases. The standout ones to me were, IMO, the one about the Not!Alex Jones framing a Democratic politician as a pedophile, causing a random follower to kill the politician, and the one focusing on Mayheim’s character Dixon, which is about a rich white dude who kidnaps young black boys to watch them get high until they die.
Apparently, the head writer for this season was also responsible for one of the worst SVU seasons, so hopefully they change writers next season. Though even the premiere wasn’t as bad as the episode in SVU’s latest season where Benson redeemed the man who groomed and abused her in her youth.
“Though even the premiere wasn’t as bad as the episode in SVU’s latest
season where Benson redeemed the man who groomed and abused her in her
youth.”
Wait, what? I haven’t regularly watched SVU in many years, but:
1. Since when was Benson abused as a child?
2. Redeemed her abuser? What the…?
Sorry, I misspoke. She was 16 when she was groomed.
SVU has had the franchises worst episodes. Remember the Gamer Gate episode? Good lord that was garbage.
LOL, that doesn’t compare to the Season 22 episode. That one had the George Floyd protests directly responsible for letting a white male rapist go free because the Grand Jury was too busy raking the detectives over the coals for perceived racism.
Wow… there’s not reading a room and then there’s that.
Hologram Lennie Briscoe for season 2
Don’t give them ideas. If/when it was cheaper they’d 100% be diving into the uncanny valley.
Ooh, remember when Jeff Goldblum and Saffron Burrows did L&O Criminal Intent for a season? That’s a detective team I’d welcome back!
That works, if Goldblum would come back.If they wrote Goren less crackpot and more offbeat genius, I’d take Goren and Eames, too.
Now I’m curious how ppl see the Order side of things since it’s the only part of this show I find actually watchable
Good. One less rapist on television.
I’ve watched a few episodes. I just can’t seem to get invested in the new characters and the stories sink like lead to me. Everyone is so dour and serious. Instead of working as a team the “Law” and the “Order” seem to always be harping about the other not doing their jobs and sniping. I think the worst casting was Donovan. If you look at his Burn Notice character he could have really been introduced as a Lenny Brisco 2.0 and played off of Anderson’s angry with the world Bernard. Given Anderson’s one year contract the show was going to pivot to Cosgrove as the lead detective; a systemically racist cop who is trying learn his place in a new woke world? I suppose the plan is to introduce a new school young detective who will show Cosgrove how the world of policing has changed and help him find the love he had for policing when he was fresh out of the academy. That seems to be the usual Wolf playbook these days.