When one door closes, another one opens - for Dick Wolf, that is. May saw the end of the original Law and Order, but there's a new spin-off that premiered the other night. Is it worthy of the L&O name?

The Pitch

Law and Order: LA is Law and Order meets Dirt

The Set Up

You know the deal: cops and lawyers without personal lives do their part to keep the mean streets free of criminals. Now that the action is set in Los Angeles, the first case features actors getting robbed. And even though the standard L & O pre-episode card informs us that the particulars of the episode don't depict any actual person or event, the premise is basically lifted from the actions of the burglary ring that included Alexis Neiers and hit various celebrities' houses, including Orlando Bloom.

[There was a video here]

Cringe Factor (Out of 10)

5

Ok, to be fair, I've never been a big fan of the Law and Order franchise, so I wasn't wild about the show. Skeet Ulrich was barely able to rouse himself for the shoot and the plot was full of predictable twists and turns. But, if you like the franchise then there's really no reason not to like it - it was exactly like every episode of the show I've ever seen. But it does have a splashy score.

Over/Under for Cancellation

4 seasons

Even Law and Order: Criminal Intent has had a long run, even surviving the downgrade to USA so there's little reason to think that Law and Order: LA will go away soon. It's such a dependable franchise for NBC that you'ld think that they would let it weather even mediocre ratings for a while, giving it plenty of time to find its footing.