After so many years, it feels like saying farewell to a TV dad \u2013 a character I\u2019ve grown up watching and a source of great comfort, accompanying me through the ups and the downs of my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n McCoy is a fundamental part of Law & Order, along with its trademark two-part structure, the shoddy, flimsy false alibis, and the iconic, ever-reverberating dun-dun<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n The formula <\/span>is reliable and well-worn in an ever-changing world, with the cases, so often ripped from headlines, neatly resolved in a one-hour episode \u2013 in turn satisfying our longing for simple solutions to hard truths.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My introduction to the character came through re-runs, when he first appeared in the season 5 premiere. It was all there: the swagger and confidence, the unrepentant self-righteousness, the lapses in professionalism, the McCoy coolness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But he\u2019s mellowed since, as we all have, going on to become the face and steady presence of Law & Order.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the show\u2019s and McCoy\u2019s most important moments occurs in season 6\u2019s Aftershock, when he witnesses an execution. What follows is a thoughtful, subdued discussion about the moral complexities of capital punishment, which humanises him and the issue itself, proving that the best, most impactful television happens in its quieter moments.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My own favourite McCoy moment happens during his cross-examination of a defendant in season 15\u2019s Fluency, when he uses a poignant analogy from an Orson Welles film to cut through his excuses. <\/span><\/p>\n The man claims he couldn\u2019t have known that distributing counterfeit vaccines would lead to 16 people\u2019s deaths, but McCoy\u2019s response shatters his lies by cleverly exposing <\/span>his apparent indifference to the dead: \u201cAnd you couldn\u2019t foresee the risk to those patients? They were just dots to you, weren\u2019t they? Far away, insignificant. And if they suddenly stopped moving, who\u2019d care? Not you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n McCoy has a knack for dragging the jury and the audience along with him, and making them truly care, also. <\/span><\/p>\n We often become numb to the issues that are explored on screen, but McCoy has a way of engaging a viewer. H<\/span>e is, beyond all of his talents, an ordinary, imperfect man at his core, often encouraging us to trust our gut. McCoy is law bound up in passion and emotion, an infectious trait that draws us in further.<\/span><\/p>\n That approach is on display in 1994\u2019s Virtue, in which he passionately defends a victim of sexual coercion. At a time when women and girls continue to be failed by the criminal justice system, his words still feel progressive, designed both then and now to make the audience think, to drag them out of their detachment numbness.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSarah Maslin worked,\u201d he said. \u201cFor eight years, she was the best, the most productive associate in her firm. She had clearly earned a partnership. But the only way that she could get it was to have sex with a man who had the power to make or break her career. Sarah Maslin laid down on that couch for Mr Talbert. But can any of us say that she really had a choice?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Amid all his legal prowess, the raw authenticity of his human response to the many victims and cases that coloured his career stands out, as we see in <\/span>Gunshow, when he empties a box of bullets onto the courtroom table while prosecuting a gun manufacturer.<\/span><\/p>\n The sound chillingly reverberates as each one strikes the wood, just as they would victims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, the character is an ideal, and s<\/span>ince its creation, Law & Order has arguably offered a sanitised view of police work and built stories based on false narratives about the fairness of the criminal justice system. <\/span><\/p>\n The police will find a suspect; the district attorney will convict them without bias or prejudice. Case closed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s a key part of why we<\/span>\u00a0become so attached<\/em> to is characters: the emotional connection, the ease, the continuity and the familiarity they provide.<\/span><\/p>\n Counsellor Georgina Sturmer <\/span>puts it this way: \u201cTV programmes elicit an emotional response from us, in the same way as stories about people in real life. We build emotional bonds and feel the whole range of human emotions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It also gives us a place to direct our own emotions, a catharsis of sorts. \u201cTV programmes allow us to connect with feelings that we might ignore or suppress in real life. This all explains why we can feel a genuine sense of connection to our TV family,\u201d she adds.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That is absolutely true of McCoy.<\/p>\n Saying goodbye to him was never going to be easy; he\u2019s become something of a mentor, a role model and a blueprint for life. <\/span>In a world where we all need something to believe in, I had McCoy.<\/span><\/p>\n But at least we\u2019ll always have the reruns, <\/span>as Waterston noted<\/a> upon the show\u2019s earlier return: \u201cIt\u2019s nice to come back and just witness the thing we <\/span>made<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Check out more of our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n The police procedural is losing one of its greats. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":46350,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/sam-waterston-quitting-law-order-feels-like-losing-a-tv-dad.jpg",2000,1334,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/sam-waterston-quitting-law-order-feels-like-losing-a-tv-dad-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/sam-waterston-quitting-law-order-feels-like-losing-a-tv-dad-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/sam-waterston-quitting-law-order-feels-like-losing-a-tv-dad-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/sam-waterston-quitting-law-order-feels-like-losing-a-tv-dad-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/sam-waterston-quitting-law-order-feels-like-losing-a-tv-dad-1536x1025.jpg",1536,1025,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/sam-waterston-quitting-law-order-feels-like-losing-a-tv-dad.jpg",2000,1334,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The police procedural is losing one of its greats.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/46349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/law-and-order-sam-waterson-23fcb8f.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Law")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/law-and-order-c3effc0.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Law")
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