When it comes to TV legal dramas, they don’t get any bigger, more popular, or more iconic than Law & Order . The NBC show, which began in 1990 with a clever twist on the classic procedural “case of the week” format, has grown into a monumental franchise with various spinoffs, and is now regarded as an immovable small-screen institution.

Still, despite Law & Order ’s many series and prominent stature in the TV landscape, even the show’s most ardent fans must surely admit that there are better legal-procedural dramas out there. The innovation of combining police station and courtroom procedures into a single episode of television is no longer enough to set the franchise’s original show apart.

Law & Order ’s best episodes may be landmarks in TV history, and its main characters h

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