ABSTRACT
This isn’t to say that that the characters on Law & Order aren’t well-defined. Take Detective Lenny Briscoe, played (1992-2004) by the late Jerry Orbach. Briscoe was rough around the edges with a quick-tongued, sarcastic wit. The writers made it crystal-clear who he was both as a person and as a cop. Even though they didn’t dwell on his personal life, we knew a lot about him. He was a recovering alcoholic. When it came to love and marriage, he was down on his luck, occasionally complaining about his ex-wives, etc., etc. But these character details always came through within the context of a crime story, often as quick one-liners. The writers didn’t devote entire scenes to Briscoe’s personal life; they didn’t follow him to AA meetings and we didn’t see him doing battle with the ex-wives over alimony checks.
