I think Law & Order thrives on the format. The cast is always changing, but regardless of the characters, it's the format that people like so it keeps trucking. Like Marvel movies. You could swap out Spiderman a hundred times and it wouldn't effect anything. It's just the same story over and over again, not actor driven, people just love that format / same story with little variations.

I think producers have learned a lot about certain formats longevity in recent years and Law & Order was an early success in doing the same thing over and over and over again and still having it entertain people. It kills creativity, but it guarantees money flow, so now everything is kinda the same.

I'm not shitting on Law & Order. I just wish it wasn't so successful / the repetative format wasn't so successful, because now that it's clear to producers that about 5 different formats make the most guaranteed money, there's no room for other less guaranteed formats in the mid-level like sci-fi and comedies for instance. It's all either huge budget 8 episodes per year, or no budget indie Syfy channel when it comes to new creative ideas. There's still some, but why try something new as a producer when the guaranteed money is in repetition?

The show was good. Dick Wolf (great name) has gone on to spawn 9 direct spin-offs, not including Law & Order: UK. Or the other spin-offs of the format like FBI, FBI: International, Chigago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago Justice, and on and on. Wolf has made like 100 versions of what amounts to the same show, and it squeezes out potential newcomers from getting air time. So. Just my thoughts. The money goes where the eyeballs go, so it's all fair in the end.