LAW & ORDER: Mehcad Brooks Ponders How Shaw May React to His New Boss and Shares Love for Reid Scott - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

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LAW & ORDER: Mehcad Brooks Ponders How Shaw May React to His New Boss and Shares Love for Reid Scott

July 15, 2024 by  

LAW and ORDER season 24

LAW & ORDER — “In Harm’s Way” Episode 23013 — Pictured: Mehcad Brooks as Det. Jalen Shaw — (Photo by: Will Hart/NBC)

When LAW & ORDER returns for its 24th season this fall (on Thursday, October 3), the detectives will have to contend with a new person running the precinct. (Camryn Manheim’s Lieutenant Dixon will not be returning; her exit was not addressed in the season 23 finale.)

How the new boss fits in is still a mystery to L&O star Mehcad Brooks (who plays Detective Shaw), too. “I don’t know yet, because I don’t think she’s been cast,” he tells Give Me My Remote. (The series kicks off production on season 24 on Thursday, July 18.)

No matter who ends up being in charge, “I think anytime there’s a new boss, there’s always going to be some sort of tension, some sort of conflict,” Brooks acknowledges. “There’s also going to be some inroads that can be created that might be unforeseen. There might be some shared experience in life, might be some similarities that weren’t expected. And I’m excited to explore all those things—and a lot more character work.”


LAW and ORDER season 24

NBCUNIVERSAL EVENTS – “NBCUniversal Summer Press Tour – “Red Carpet” — Pictured: (l-r) Reid Scott, Mehcad Brooks; “Law & Order” in Pasadena, Calif. on July 14, 2024 — (Photo by: Todd Williamson/NBCUniversal)

Brooks has experience with shifts at the precinct: Shaw got a new partner last season in Reid Scott’s Detective Riley. 

In addition to being a dynamic on-screen match, it’s one Brooks has relished on a personal level. “The most enjoyable part of partnering with Reid—it’s been like finding a long-lost brother,” Brooks says with a beam. “We’re cut from the same cloth: We’re the same, but different. We have so much in common; it’s like a Venn diagram of interest. We have idiosyncrasies we share.” 

“But we’re also different enough to where it’s interesting,” he continues. “It’s one of the joys of my career working with him.”

Shaw and Riley got closer as they worked together, too, and the partners will need to have each other’s backs going forward as they deal with lingering questions about their still-new DA, Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn). After Baxter’s personal life (and political ambition) became intermingled in the final cases of season 23, how will the NYPD feel about him?

“I think that a father’s love can get in the way of professionalism,” Brooks says. “And I think that people can understand that. Also, there’s a job to do and they’re serving justice. And I say serving because we’re servants at the potential of a better America. I think that’s going to cause some conflict, maybe some distrust—and that makes for great television.”

As Brooks enters his third season on the NBC drama, he’s also continuing his collaboration with the writers on Shaw’s storylines. (He previously praised how open they have been with him.) And there may be something in store for season 24 he influenced/inspired.  “I’m gonna keep those conversations [with the writers] close to the vest, because there may be something [coming],” he teases.

LAW & ORDER, Thursdays, 8/7c, NBC

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