History YMMV / LawAndOrder

** In the season 6 episode "Aftershock" (which aired in 1996), Briscoe utters the line, [[{{TheSixthSense}} "I see dead people, all the time"]] when discussing his job with his daughter.

** In "Second Opinion", Van Buren being asked, "What would you do if you had cancer?" becomes harsher to hear since later seasons has her struggling with Stage 2 cervical cancer.

** Arnette Fenady from [[Recap/LawAndOrderS4E20Nurture "Nurture"]]. Yes, she kidnapped one of her students, misled the cops, didn't report the kid's continued abuse, and hid her in a basement. Yes, it's also true she's got several screws loose and is blatantly looking for a ReplacementGoldfish because she never got over the loss of her own child. But once the girl's self-absorbed asshole of a foster mother ("So I left her home alone all night, let my boyfriend beat her up, and forced her to walk through a bad part of town to do all our laundry. So what?") expressed a complete disregard for her, and the apathetic DepartmentOfChildDisservices administrator testified that they didn't intervene after the school reported her abuse because the kid wasn't beaten and neglected ''enough'' compared to others in their system? Well, Fenday looks more a ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight, even if she does have multiple loose screws. Schiff {{lampshades}} this several times in the episode. [[spoiler: It isn't a surprise that she's found Not Guilty of all charges.]]

** The defense attorney Danielle Melnick has a history of sacrificing others (even her own clients) for her own political agenda. In “Open Season”, she outright ignored her client's threats to innocent people despite repeated warnings, which lead to more killings. Her being shot by one of her former client's followers who mistakenly believed that she had ratted him out came across more as LaserGuidedKarma than anything else. It also doesn’t help that she never once admitted she did anything wrong to the point of giving [=McCoy=] a [[WhatTheHellHero what the hell hero]] for prosecuting her.

* ValuesDissonance: Earlier episodes use "retarded" to refer to those with developmental disabilities. For the time period, it was the accepted term in official settings. It eventually fell out of favor as it was too often used as a slur.

** “Mega”: Creator/AnnetteOToole plays the more ruthless LadyMacBeth half of a CorruptCorporateExecutive couple with far-reaching influence. [[Series/ThePunisher Sound familiar?]]

** In the season 9 episode "Disciple", after dealing with a particularly uncooperative witness, Briscoe [[SarcasmMode sarcastically]] says to [[Creator/BenjaminBratt Curtis]] that they should "find someone better than ''Film/MissCongeniality'' here"

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Jaime Ross. Some fans loved her for her savvy understanding of the law and her outspoken nature, especially against [=McCoy=]. Others found her cold and disagreeable just for the sake of being so. Another reason is that she replaced one of the most popular [=ADAs=] of all time and (as unfair as a reason this is) while Kincaid was considered a MsFanservice, Ross generally wasn't.

* BrokenBase: "Aftershock". Some think it's one of the best episodes the show ever did, some think it's the worst.

** On the season 8 episode "Baby, It's You" (crossing over with ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'') that was RippedFromTheHeadlines from the Jon Benet Ramsey case, they arrested the stalker of a 14 year old model that was raped to death. The stalker misread the name tag of [[JustForFun/JohnMunch a certain visiting Baltimore Homicide detective]] as "Defective Monk". This was in 1997, 5 years before the debut of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' the DefectiveDetective. (In case you were wondering, it turned out [[spoiler: that the kid was innocent and the [[ParentalIncest girl's own mother]] was the one who raped and killed her daughter out of jealousy.]])

** In "True North", Canada is portrayed as so ridiculously soft on crime due to the country's anti-death penalty stance that they actively try to sabotage the prosecution of Stephanie Harker, who murdered ''4'' people, including a child. Even the staunchest death penalty opponent would probably still advocate for a criminal to spend the rest of his/her life in prison, but the episode makes it seem like Canadians would rather that someone go free instead of to death row, no matter how heinous their crime.

*** That particular comment is even HarsherInHindsight because she made it while her son was standing right next to her. At the time, the prevailing wisdom would have been that it didn't matter because he couldn't understand her anyway, but it's now generally known that many non-verbal people, especially when it's autism-related, can still understand spoken language; in the years since the episode aired, quite a few nonverbal autistic people (the most famous likely being [[https://people.com/human-interest/22-year-old-nonverbal-woman-with-autism-on-finding-her-voice-and-advocating-for-others/ Carly Fleischmann]]) have developed the ability to communicate through other means[[note]]for real, not the fake alternate "communication" used in the episode[[/note]], and have said that despite their inability to speak, they developed the ability to understand spoken language at a comparable rate to their peers, and that they in fact were aware of, and hurt by, the negative and derogatory comments that were often made right in front of them. Based on what's now known about autism, there's a very good chance that Mrs. Vilardi's son fully understood that his mother was denigrating him, but was unable to do anything about it.

*** That particular comment is even HarsherInHindsight because she made it while her son was standing right next to her. At the time, the prevailing wisdom would have been that it didn't matter because he couldn't understand her anyway, but it's now generally known that many non-verbal people, especially when it's autism-related, can still understand spoken language; in the years since the episode aired, quite a few nonverbal autistic people (the most famous likely being [[https://people.com/human-interest/22-year-old-nonverbal-woman-with-autism-on-finding-her-voice-and-advocating-for-others/ Carly Fleischmann]]) have developed the ability to communicate through other means, and have said that despite their inability to speak, they developed the ability to understand spoken language at a comparable rate to their peers, and that they in fact were aware of, and hurt by, the negative and derogatory comments that were often made right in front of them. Based on what's now known about autism, there's a very good chance that Mrs. Vilardi's son fully understood that his mother was denigrating him, but was unable to do anything about it.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The otherwise deadly serious "A Death In The Family" (ep 1-13) begins with an unlucky perpetrator falling to his doom, and -just out of camera range, landing on a police car. At his scream and impact sound, the camera sweeps back to catch a none-too-convincing dummy on the none-too-convincingly-damaged cop car.

* ValuesResonance: Earlier episodes that aired in the 90s condemns hate crimes against members of the LGBT community.
* WhatAnIdiot: Danielle Melnick, a recurring defense attorney throughout almost the whole series, bungles it up in "Open Season" when her CrusadingLawyer habits causes her to breach a court's communication ban order and directly contact her Neo-Nazi client regardless, out of the belief that it was a violation of rights. Two district attorneys that have opposed said client end up dead, the second because of her unwittingly taking his messages at face value without even thinking about it. Somehow she only [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone puts two and two together]] when [=McCoy=] confronts her on it - and she still tries to act like [[NeverMyFault she was specifically being targeted for no good reason by him.]] The fact that she gets shot at the end caps off how poorly she understood her then-former client.
** The principal in "Boy on Fire", who in her attempts to make sure no one at her school gets prosecuted unwittingly implicates and sets up all of the problems past the initial murder, including [[spoiler:the rape of one of her students.]] She's so willing to protect her failing school's image that she all but gives the prosecution their case on a silver platter, though she does make it right by the end by agreeing to talk to the suspects which causes their confessions.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The various bail judges are often beloved by the fandom, due to almost all of them being [[DeadpanSnarker Deadpan Snarkers]].

** Molly Lasky in "Pledge" -- She was emotionally abused by her parents, especially her selfish father, and is a BrokenBird as a result. Just seeing recount how her own father call her "plain as a homemade pie" is hard to watch.

** "Prescription for Death", the very first episode of the series, has Ben Stone mention that his father was an alcoholic. Stone's actor Michael Moriarty, revealed that he had his own struggles with alcoholism in 2006.
** Both "Animal Instincts" and the later episode "Patsy" involved a woman with erotomania who kills the lover of the man she's obsessed with. While both episodes involved the man being initially suspected, Patsy focused years down the line where the man had become ProperlyParanoid after years of being stalked and accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

** On the season 8 episode "Baby, It's You" (crossing over with ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'') that was RippedFromTheHeadlines from the Jon Benet Ramsey case, they arrested the stalker of a 14 year old model that was raped to death. The stalker misread the name tag of [[JustForFun/JohnMunch a certain visiting Baltimore Homicide detective]] as "Defective Monk." This was in 1997, 5 years before the debut of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' the DefectiveDetective. (In case you were wondering, it turned out [[spoiler: that the kid was innocent and the [[ParentalIncest girl's own mother]] was the one who raped and killed her daughter out of jealousy.]])

** A Season 14 episode called "Patient Zero", which aired in 2003, deals with a coronavirus outbreak in New York City. Seventeen years later, the COVID-19 pandemic hits, with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_New_York_City New York City becoming the worst-affected area in the U.S.]]

* BrokenBase: "Aftershock." Some think it's one of the best episodes the show ever did, some think it's the worst.

** At the end of "Kids" Lennie's old friend (who [[spoiler: had the gun dealer threatening his son killed]]) asks Lennie "what if it was one of your kids?" Lennie replies that he doesn't know what he'd do. He'd find out for himself four seasons later...

** In RealLife, the defining examples are: Nora Lewin, who replaced the most popular DA, Adam Schiff, and was seen as wishy-washy even InUniverse; Serena Southerlyn, without question the least popular ADA, who followed the polarizing but far more memorable Abbie Carmichael; Michael Cutter, who had the unenviable task of succeeding Jack [=McCoy=] in the EADA's chair (although [=McCoy=] was still on the show, so the impact was lessened); and, definitively, Joe Fontana, who replaced arguably the show's most beloved character, Lennie Briscoe.
** Although [=McCoy=] never fell into this with most fans and the critics, there is a section of the fandom that are adamant about Ben Stone being the superior EADA.

** Though they didn't have any scenes together, Creator/LaurenGraham and Scott Cohen both had prominent guest-starring roles in the seventh season three-part episode arc "D-Girl", "Turnaround" and "Showtime" three years before they ended up starring on ''Series/GilmoreGirls''.

** Tommy Vega from "Formerly Famous", who was portrayed by Creator/GaryBusey. Yes, his character was based off of the Robert Blake case. Yes, he and his manager both killed his wife. However, unlike Blake, he was a pitiable guy who almost everyone considered to be a joke and a has-been as well a HenpeckedHusband who tried to make up for everything by being [[GoodParents a good father to his baby daughter...]] [[spoiler: [[YankTheDogsChain only to find out that he wasn't the child's biological father.]]]] Even in open court, he acknowledged what a failure he was and the heartbreak he experienced in learning the truth, especially when he told the court, "She was my second chance, and guys like me don't get second chances."

* StrawCharacter: There's ''A LOT''.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Particularly the later seasons. Rare is the episode in season 20 that doesn't smack you in the head with a political message.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped:
** One example is an episode about a mass shooting, which turns into a case about after-market gun add-ons which make them full-auto. It's a rare look at a different element of gun rights, albeit done hamfistedly by virtually absolving a mass shooter of fifteen murders, despite quite literally being caught with the smoking gun and confessing on arrest, and scarcely addressing the violations of the 1934 National Firearms Act by converting a firearm to full-auto.
** "Driven" gives a powerful aesop about how the race of the people involved doesn't matter; but if both committed a crime that could've been prevented and both [[NeverMyFault refuse to accept their part in the mess]], both should be punished equally.

* WhatAnIdiot: Danielle Melnick, a recurring defense attorney throughout almost the whole series, bungles it up in "Open Season" when her CrusadingLawyer habits causes her to breach a court's communication ban order and directly contact her Neo-Nazi client regardless, out of the belief that it was a violation of rights. Two district attorneys that have opposed said client end up dead, the second because of her unwittingly taking his messages at face value without even thinking about it. Somehow she only puts two and two together when [=McCoy=] confronts her on it - and she still tries to act like [[NeverMyFault she was specifically being targeted for no good reason by him.]] [[spoiler:The fact that she gets shot at the end caps off how poorly she understood her then-former client.]]