LAW & ORDER: Rick Eid Previews Maura Tierney’s Lt. Jessica Brady, Digging into Characters’ Personal Lives, and More in Season 24

September 27, 2024 by Marisa Roffman

LAW & ORDER — “Catch and Kill” Episode 24001 — Pictured: (l-r) Reid Scott as Det. Vincent Riley, Mehcad Brooks as Det. Jalen Shaw, Maura Tierney as Lieutenant Jessica Brady, Odelya Halevi as ADA Samantha Maroun — (Photo by: Scott Gries/NBC)

LAW & ORDER end its 23rd season with a quasi-cliffhanger: It was election night, and DA Nicholas Baxter’s (Tony Goldwyn) race was too close to call.

“I am pleased to report that he wins the election,” LAW & ORDER showrunner Rick Eid “spoils” to Give Me My Remote. “We learn that very quickly in the first episode.”

But after Baxter’s daughter, Carrie (Tess Goldwyn), was entangled in the season-closing case, “his personal life might not be as going as well as his professional life,” Eid teases. “I think that stuff with his wife, and the issues about living in the public eye and all that—that was real. We don’t speak to it in the first two or three episodes, but that’s what’s happening [off-screen].”

The team will have their hands full, professionally, in the season 24 premiere, “Catch and Kill.” In the hour (airing Thursday, October 3), a Brooklyn prosecutor is killed, leaving everyone on edge. The cops also have to get a feel for their new boss, Lt. Jessica Brady (Maura Tierney).

“[Brady] comes in the first episode…as the new lieutenant [and] there’s definitely some friction, I’d say, between her and Detectives Riley and Shaw,” Eid previews. “It’s a new boss. She doesn’t know them. It’s a pretty high-profile case involving a prominent prosecutor, so she’s under a lot of pressure, and she’s trying to solve the case, and she doesn’t know the two detectives. And the two detectives don’t really know her.”

“She operates a little differently than [Camryn Manheim’s] Dixon,” he continues. “[Shaw and Riley] had a relationship with Dixon. They’ve known each other for years, there’s a shorthand. So everything’s a little unsettling. There’s a little more conflict going on among the three.”

LAW & ORDER — “Catch and Kill” Episode 24001 — Pictured: (l-r) Maura Tierney as Lt. Jessica Brady, Ari Blinder as Jeff Sanders — (Photo by: Scott Gries/NBC)

Part of the way Brady is different? She’s more physically involved with the investigations. “For lieutenant, they’re typically more supervisors and act in a more managerial capacity,” Eid previews. “Lieutenant Brady is more hands-on, still thinks and acts more like a detective than a supervisor. She loves to do interrogations, she likes crime scenes; she’s very involved on a day-to-day level. And she’s very, very straightforward, unapologetic, a little idiosyncratic. But she’s focused on getting the right result and solving the case.”

This means she might pair up with or tag along with the detectives as they’re mid-investigation. “We’re seeing a little bit more of that—interviewing somebody together, interrogating someone with one of the other detectives,” Eid says. “So it’s a little different dynamic than it was last year. She’s managing and just more engaged.”

But who is she as a person? It’ll take a little bit of time before viewers find out. “We’ll definitely get to know who she is and what makes her tick throughout the season,” Eid teases. “We’re not downloading the whole deal in episode 1; we get to sprinkle it out. But we’ll definitely get to know who she is as a person. Will definitely get to understand who she is as a cop.”

The series also will give answers about the (off-screen) exit of Dixon. “We address it onscreen in the first episode,” Eid previews. “We learn what happened and where she is. It’s definitely addressed pretty quickly.”

This also marks the first full season of the revival series without a legacy character from the mothership’s history. (Sam Waterston’s Jack McCoy left mid-season 23, after a two-and-a-half season run on the revival; Anthony Anderson’s Detective Kevin Bernard appeared in season 21.) But despite that official lack of a tie to the first two decades of the series, Eid isn’t ruling out bringing back familiar faces—if they can make it fit.

“I try to take it episode-by-episode, and find a compelling idea,” Eid says. “And then once it’s done, and you see what you created—or what someone else created—you’re like, ‘Who would be interesting to play this character?’ And if sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, somebody in the LAW & ORDER universe.’”

LAW & ORDER — “Catch and Kill” Episode 24001 — Pictured: (l-r) Katharine McLeod as Stella Myers, Tony Goldwyn as DA Nicholas Baxter — (Photo by: Scott Gries/NBC)

In the meantime, Eid is relishing writing for this cast—which includes Hugh Dancy, Odelya Halevi, Mehcad Brooks, and Reid Scott—and discovering the new dynamics the writers can play with. “I’m learning that they’re all really good,” he says with a laugh, about gaining Goldwyn, Scott, and Tierney in 2024. “We have a terrific cast. So I’m just really excited. The writers get excited to find compelling stories for these guys.”

“We’re trying to dig a little deeper into the character stuff this year than maybe previous years,” he continues. “It’s still a Dick Wolf, muscular, procedural, focused on topical stories and ethical and moral dilemmas. But I’d say, at the same time, we’re trying to just dig a little bit deeper into the personal lives of our regulars and see how their personal lives intersect with their professional lives and vice versa.”

For Eid, there’s also been a sizable shift off-screen: This marks the first time in years he’s only running a single show. (He was running CBS’ FBI and L&O simultaneously for the past few years. Before that, he was running FBI and CHICAGO P.D.) “It’s been great,” he says with a chuckle. “You just have more time to think about one show. You have longer to think about episodes and ideas. You have more time. With more time, you can hopefully find more interesting ideas. It’s been a pleasant change, is the only way I can describe it: I get to think about things a little bit longer.”

LAW & ORDER, Season Premiere, Thursday, October 3, 8/7c, NBC

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LAW & ORDER: Rick Eid Previews Maura Tierney’s Lt. Jessica Brady, Digging into Characters’ Personal Lives, and More in Season 24

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