Law & Order handles character exits in a manner that I find tiresome and disrespectful of its audience. NBC’s flagship crime drama has run for over two decades, so it’s natural for there to be some turnover. I remember how surprised I was when I first learned that Jerry Orbach was not part of the original cast, as he was the actor most associated with the series in the 1990s. Two other actors had left the series before Orbach began; however, most character exits during that era of the show were handled far more gracefully than happens today.
Theoretically, the specific characters in place shouldn’t matter as much for a strict procedural like Law & Order. However, I’ve been dissatisfied with the way the series has handled character exits since the soft reboot in 2021. Law & Order was renewed for season 24, which gave it the opportunity to correct its past mistakes. With Camryn Manheim leaving Law & Order ahead of the new season, the procedural could have written a different type of exit, but failed to do so, which was disappointing, and I believe the fans of this long-running series deserve better when actors leave.
Law & Order Keeps Disrespecting Actors & Fans With Their Character Exits
Since 2021, there have been four exits from Law & Order, and three of them didn’t play out on-screen. With the exception of Sam Waterson, who was too high-profile to write out without explanation, the actors announced ahead of the next season that they were leaving the series, and the season finale had already been broadcast and didn’t contain any hint that the character was departing. Thus, there were mysterious absences that had to be addressed through dialogue, which I think is as disrespectful as it is unsatisfying.
This irritating pattern began when Anthony Anderson left Law & Order. Anderson had returned after a 10-year-hiatus to bridge the gap between seasons 20 and 21, only for his character to be replaced with an after-the-fact explanation when Anderson chose not to renew his contract. There had been speculation all season long about whether he would commit to more than one year, so the writers had plenty of time to pen a more worthy exit. Instead, they wrote no exit for him at all, establishing a disrespectful pattern that has played out every time a character leaves.
Camryn Manheim’s Kate Dixon Is The Latest Character to Get No Exit Story In Law & Order
Camryn Manheim will not be returning as Kate Dixon for season 24, but you’d never know it from the season 23 finale. The finale involved a high-stakes murder, as the killer had meant to assassinate the current district attorney but had missed and killed someone else in the crowd, and Dixon’s role in the story was the same as it always was: she led the investigation and checked in with her team to find out how close they were to cracking the case. As usual, she disappeared once the story moved into the courtroom, with no indication that she was leaving the series.
Manheim fans like me would find her absence far easier to accept if there had been an exit story.
Manheim fans like me would find her absence far easier to accept if there had been an exit story. It’s especially galling that there wasn’t one when she’s been tangentially connected to the franchise for years, having guest-starred several times over seasons. In addition, there was an easy off-ramp for her that the writers failed to take.
In one of her final episodes, Dixon ended up on the outs with her son, who is Deaf and teaches at a school for Deaf children, after she failed to stop the prosecution of the father of one of his students. Her son felt justice was not served by the child going into foster care and that the father’s arrest was unjustified due to extenuating circumstances. Thus, Dixon could have taken a leave of absence at the end of that episode to try to mend her relationship with her son, which would have been a moving and logical explanation for her departure.
I don’t understand why Law & Order chose to ignore Manheim’s impending departure instead of writing a story like this. Not only is it disrespectful, but it leaves the segment of the audience that enjoyed Kate Dixon without a sense of closure. Her absence will be distracting as season 24 begins, especially if it’s only addressed briefly.
Sam Waterson’s Law & Order Exit Fell Short Of Audience Expectations
Unlike the other post-reboot exits, when Sam Waterson’s Jack McCoy left Law & Order after 20 years with the series, he got a well-publicized exit story. McCoy’s swan song involved him trying a case for the first time in years after butting heads with the mayor about the case. Afterward, McCoy chose to resign rather than risk the mayor retaliating against him and Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy). Although this exit was far better than the silent disappearance of other characters, I agree with those fans who felt that it didn’t pay enough tribute to Waterson or his character.
Waterson filmed over 400 episodes of Law & Order, yet his exit came at the end of what was otherwise an ordinary episode and there were no flashbacks or other tributes to his iconic character. While this episode was far superior to the way other exits have been handled, I believe a beloved character deserved a bigger sendoff than that. I also wish less well-known characters got any exit at all, which would be more respectful than letting them vanish into the ether without an on-screen reason for their departure.
