13 Essential ‘Law & Order’ Episodes To Stream

THE LINEUP: Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach)/Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt)/Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson); Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston)/Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell)/Adam Schiff (Steven Hill).

THE PLOT: A rich man with a much younger wife winds up dead after he throws a Christmas party for disadvantaged youth.

WHY TO WATCH: Based on the controversy surrounding Anna Nicole Smith’s marriage to the much older oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, this episode has a slew of one-liners, a panoply of suspects, and a gloriously scene-chewing performance by Daytime Emmy Award winner Anna Kathryn Holbrook, who plays Velma Darcy, the silver-tongued, Texas-raised mother of the young bride. Velma’s been living her dream life in a New York hotel suite and has zero intention of giving up the good life anytime soon.

THE ONE-LINER: “Oh, girl. You are as dumb as a sack of hair.” – Velma Darcy.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Mike Logan (Chris Noth)/Van Buren; Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty)/Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy)/Schiff.

THE PLOT: 24 hours divided by five murders equals an episode with a ticking clock and a lot of moving parts.

WHY TO WATCH: References to the notorious Lorena Bobbitt case, the presence of Robin Tunney, and a burrito being thought of as a potentially deadly weapon are only a few of the high points of this breakneck episode. (And it reverberates throughout the L&O universe, too; some of the loose ends were picked up in 2000 episodes of SVU and the mothership, and the season-13 episode “Couples” has a similarly jam-packed structure.)

THE ONE-LINER: “You know, if you’d turn off ESPN for a minute, Detective…” – defense attorney Mildred Kaskel.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Logan/Van Buren; McCoy/Kincaid/Schiff.

THE PLOT: A woman is shot in the head, and removing the bullet from her brain to figure out who did it might kill her.

WHY TO WATCH: Larry Miller’s unctuous turn as Michael Dobson, the comedy club owner who’s married to the victim, is so off-putting you can’t help but root for the guy to get sent to jail. No spoilers, but Dobson does show up again in Season Six, in an episode titled “Encore.”

THE ONE-LINER: “I don’t need you to tell me I’m a son of a bitch — I’ve been one for a long time. I like it. The hours are good, and there’s no heavy lifting.” – Dobson.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Curtis/Van Buren; McCoy/Kincaid/Schiff.

THE PLOT: The six main characters go their own ways after a prisoner they helped put in jail is executed.

WHY TO WATCH: At its outset, Law & Order was all business — references to the characters’ personal lives were scant, only uttered in service of whatever case was being cracked that week. The references to non-work life popped up more and more over time, and “Aftershock” focuses solely on them. Jennifer Garner pops up to tempt Benjamin Bratt’s family man Rey Curtis; Briscoe plays the ponies, tries to reunite with his estranged daughter, and experiences an alcoholic relapse; Van Buren writes a letter; Schiff appears on TV; and McCoy and Kincaid have a tiff that never gets resolved, thanks to a deadly car accident depicted right before the episode’s (and the sixth season’s) end.

THE ONE-LINER: “I work construction for 30 years, paid two mortgages in Queens, three kids in school — one with a mouthful of new teeth. You tell me; how come this Duchess Of York broad can’t make ends meet?” – Mike, a barfly Jack meets.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Curtis/Van Buren; McCoy/Ross/Schiff.

THE PLOT: The chief financial officer of a tony New York department store is murdered, and the family members who help run it are all under suspicion.

WHY TO WATCH: Few Law & Order frequent offenders make an episode a must-see the way Anne Twomey, who plays the prim Kate Bergreen-Spiegel here, does. She’s shown up in the L&O universe five times, and her portrayal of a certain type of moneyed New Yorker—anxious and status-conscious, yet perfectly coiffed — hits the right notes every time.

THE ONE-LINER: “I’m her philosophical and spiritual exploration guide… and I feed the dogs.” – An associate of a Bergreen sister.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Logan/Van Buren; Stone/Kincaid/Schiff.

THE PLOT: A child molester gets shot during a taping of a Jerry Springer­-like talk show.

WHY TO WATCH: There’s little mystery in who carried out the murder; multiple cameras captured one of the victims’ fathers doing the deed. But Stone decides that host Rick Mason (played with just enough smarm by Robert Kline) is just as culpable, thanks to a history of “gotcha” setups that resulted in death and despair.

THE ONE-LINER: “Are you listening to yourself? First Pop, then Mom, now Mason — it’s an Oliver Stone movie.” – Briscoe.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Curtis/Van Buren; McCoy/Kincaid/Schiff.

THE PLOT: A baby dies after being fed poisoned plums, and the restless British nanny becomes the prime suspect.

WHY TO WATCH: Based off the case of Olivia Riner, the Swiss nanny who was charged with the death of a baby under her watch, this episode has quite a few Law & Order hallmarks, including the episode-ending twist. But the real draw is Patti LuPone, who plays the spitfire defense attorney Ruth Miller.

THE ONE-LINER: “Cutting open babies puts me in a bad mood.” “How would we be able to tell?” “That’s why I make the announcements.” – Medical Examiner Elizabeth Rodgers (Leslie Hendrix, one of five characters to appear in all four New York-set L&O spinoffs) and Briscoe.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Logan/Van Buren; McCoy/Kincaid/Schiff.

THE PLOT: The murder of a gay councilman leads to a homophobic politician.  

WHY TO WATCH: Season Five began a mini-golden age for Law & Order that ran roughly up until the end of Season Ten; this episode, which was Chris Noth’s final mothership appearance as Mike Logan, is an excellent example of why. The headlines it’s ripping are a bit old (the 1978 Moscone-Milk assassinations) but the episode has crackling dialogue, a slew of guest stars including John Cameron Mitchell, and the climactic moment of Logan’s long-simmering rage. (At least until the 1998 TV movie Exiled, about his being shipped to Staten Island after making headlines.)

THE ONE-LINER: “He’ll be walking a beat in Staten Island for the next two and a half to five.” – McCoy’s prescient comment on where Logan would end up.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Logan/Don Cragen (Dann Florek); Stone/Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks)/Schiff.

THE PLOT: A Romanian immigrant charged with murder pleads not guilty due to “cultural insanity,” claiming that the violence in his home country skewed his perception of right and wrong.

WHY TO WATCH: Now that the East Village has been mostly scoured clean of squats and dingy watering holes, “Securitate” — which aired just as alternative rock was beginning to crest in popularity — serves as a somewhat goofy snapshot of an era where inept crooks could live rent-free on Avenue B and a rap-metal track could have “I’m emotionally stable/ all you do is watch cable” as a lyric and not drive people away.

THE ONE-LINER: “We’ll try to keep it out of Rolling Stone.” – Logan to a witness who’s reluctant to give up what she knows for fear of being linked to the uncool downtown band No Bozo Jam.

THE LINEUP: Max Greevey (George Dzunda)/Logan/Cragen; Stone/Robinette/Alfred Wentworth (Roy Thinnes).

THE PLOT: A local councilman-slash-bagman is mugged, and initial suspicion falls on two young black men. But the actual culprits are closely connected to the system.

WHY TO WATCH: The sixth episode to air, the Dick Wolf-penned “Bagman” was actually the first Law & Order episode to be produced (in 1988), and certain touches belie a sensibility that the show eventually grew out of — a show-opening title card, a particularly heavy-handed score, the presence of a completely different District Attorney in the form of Roy Thinnes. (Steven Hill, however, appears in the episode’s opening credits.)

THE ONE-LINER: “Are you the man?” “We sure are, honey.” – A young girl and Greevey.

THE LINEUP: Logan/Phil Ceretta (Paul Sorvino)/Cragen; Stone/Robinette/Schiff.

THE PLOT: An aggressive stage mother drives her daughter to an overdose.

WHY TO WATCH: The Law & Order mothership ran for 20 seasons, and certain recurring characters emerged as particularly potent presences. This episode marks the first appearance of Danielle Melnick, a brash defense attorney played with gusto by Tovah Feldshuh; over the course of her 13 appearances on the show she’ll become a particularly well-matched foil for the similarly zealous McCoy. (Tony Roberts and a pre-ER Maura Tierney also appear.)

THE ONE-LINER: “No business like show business.” – Logan.

THE LINEUP: Briscoe/Curtis/Van Buren; McCoy/Ross/Schiff.

THE PLOT: A gossip columnist chases a newly anointed member of the appellate court into traffic, then gets killed.

WHY TO WATCH: The scathing plot was co-written by Alec Baldwin, who didn’t appear in the episode but who had a lot of bones to pick with the way the media was run in the pre-TMZ era. In the spring of 2014, he looked at journalism from the other side of the line, appearing on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a reporter.

THE ONE-LINER: “My hunch is we’re looking at a Staten Island divorce — wham, bam, no muss, no fuss.” – Briscoe.

THE LINEUP: Cerreta/Logan/Cragen; Stone/Robinette/Schiff.

THE PLOT: A fan’s obsession with a soap-opera actress turns violent.

WHY TO WATCH: One of the more taut early episodes, this outing was ripped from multiple headlines, the most prominent being the 1989 murder of My Sister Sam star Rebecca Schaeffer. There’s also a nod to the episode’s title when Cragen and Cerreta are discussing the case while brandishing the L&O universe’s Post-like news organ, The New York Ledger.

THE ONE-LINER: “Tell your mom she’s in for a plot twist.” – Logan to a colleague whose mother watches the victim’s soap.

Maura Johnston is a writer and professor living in Boston. She’s still annoyed that NBC canceled Law & Order just as it was getting good again.