Law & Order: For The Defense coming to NBC with CSI showrunner

Law & Order: For The Defense is joining NBC‘s primetime lineup.

The network has ordered another Law & Order series from Dick Wolf, this one focusing on criminal defense attorneys as the protagonists.

Carol Mendelsohn, who was one of the major producers behind the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, will be For The Defense showrunner—bringing together two creative forces from TV’s two biggest crime drama franchises.

No casting was announced today.

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NBC is giving Law & Order: For The Defense a straight-to-series order, meaning that it’s been automatically given a first season without having to shoot a pilot. That timeline suggests it will hit TV screens either in fall 2021 or early 2022.

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The pickup expands the brand to three series, and it’s a pretty quick expansion given that newcomer Organized Crime has only aired four of its 13 episodes.

But NBC is obviously bullish on building Wolf’s original franchise back up, as this new project means Law & Order pulls even with One Chicago as well as the producer’s FBI brand on CBS. All three franchises will now have three shows apiece.

The idea of telling a story from the defense’s point of view is interesting. Wolf has done strictly legal shows before (the Special Victims Unit spinoff Conviction) but never from the point of view of defenders.

“This new show is exciting for me personally,” Wolf said in Monday’s press release. “We spent the last 30 years on shows that played offense. Now it will be great to play defense, and being able to do it with Carol is an honor and an opportunity for both of us to do television that hasn’t been done before.”

It’s not a novel concept—shows like The Practice have shown defense attorneys at work, and Law & Order True Crime had Edie Falco’s portrayal of Leslie Abramson as its heroine—but focusing solely on the defense is going to be a different tack for this franchise. Assuming that Law & Order: For The Defense is set in New York like the rest of the brand, these characters will be working against established heroes that audiences already love.

Will viewers root for ADA Carisi and the SVU team to lose a case? Will the brand be able to flesh out defense lawyers to be more fully realized than they’re usually given time to when they appear on one of the other shows? There are a lot of ways this new project could be a format-buster, but also lots of ways it’s a huge risk for the brand.

But with Carol Mendelsohn and Dick Wolf in charge, those names alone should draw a huge audience, because that’s one of the best producer pairings any network could ask for.

Next. CBS orders third FBI series. dark

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