Warning: spoilers are forward for the collection premiere of Legislation & Order Toronto: Prison Intent on The CW, referred to as “The Key to the Fort.”
NBC is not the one dwelling to Legislation & Order motion this fall within the 2025 TV schedule, though the unique collection, Legislation & Order: SVU, and Legislation & Order: Organized Crime will not be again in primetime till September 25. The CW premiered the most recent present within the franchise a day earlier on September 24 with Legislation & Order Toronto: Prison Intent. The Canada-set collection appeared fairly distinct from the NYC-based exhibits from the soar, however I would held out hope for an Easter egg or two tied to SVU… up till I watched the pilot and located that this can be a stable Legislation & Order present with none shout outs to Mariska Hargitay.
Starring Kathleen Munroe, who had already appeared in no fewer than 5 different Wolf Leisure TV exhibits, as Detective Sergeant Frankie Bateman reverse Aden Younger as Detective Sergeant Henry Graff, Legislation & Order Toronto truly feels proper at dwelling within the franchise by itself. I actually solely seen the totally different setting when the detectives had been investigating a physique present in Lake Ontario somewhat than NYC’s Hudson River or East River, when Younger spoke in a really Canadian accent, and when the characters had been speaking about “college” somewhat than school. (Fortuitously, Toronto within the Dick Wolf TV universe does not appear to have its personal model of Hudson College.)
The case was fairly customary, beginning with the homicide of a businessman combined up in cryptocurrency, and increasing to incorporate infidelity, a traitorous finest pal, a secret being pregnant, and a foul man who did not appear to really feel all that dangerous about committing homicide. There have been not one of the sorts of crimes that SVU‘s opening narration describes as “sexually-based offenses [that] are thought-about particularly heinous,” and even the dying wasn’t fairly as grisly as viewers would possibly see on Legislation & Order. (And undoubtedly not as grisly as what followers have seen on Christopher Meloni‘s Organized Crime!)
The premiere was positive, even when not essentially the most spectacular hour of tv that I’ve ever seen, and I now assume that it was significantly better to start out the present with none nods to SVU than to try to tie again to the NBC world. Toronto can stand by itself to inform tales. Plus, Kathleen Munroe truly performed a special character on Legislation & Order: Organized Crime as just lately as 2023, which was then simply a few years after Munroe’s character was killed off of CBS’ FBI.
As a perk for anyone who’s interested by persevering with to observe Legislation & Order Toronto: Prison Intent, the September 24 premiere on The CW was solely the drama’s American debut. The total first season already aired again in 2024 on Citytv in Canada, whereas Season 2 aired on Citytv earlier this yr. It was additionally renewed for Season 3, which is anticipated to air on Citytv in 2026. Whether or not or not the Canadian collection takes off on The CW within the U.S., the drama has a reasonably lengthy future forward of it already within the Nice White North.
In case you’re watching from the U.S., you may must preserve tuning in to The CW on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET for extra of Legislation & Order Toronto: Prison Intent. It will not immediately compete with NBC’s slate of L&O exhibits, with all three airing on Thursdays, however it is going to be up towards Chicago Hearth elsewhere within the Dick Wolf TV universe on NBC’s Wednesday nights.