It was supposed to be a slam dunk. In 2010, Dick Wolf decided to take his massive, New York-based procedural machine to the West Coast. The Law and Order LA cast was stacked with heavy hitters, people with Oscars and serious indie cred. You had Skeet Ulrich, fresh off Jericho, and Terrence Howard, who was basically at the top of his game. Even Alfred Molina joined the fray. On paper, it looked like a prestige drama masquerading as a weekly procedural.
But then things got weird.
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The show premiered with a ton of fanfare but struggled to find that "dun-dun" rhythm. It felt like a New York show wearing a loose-fitting Hawaiian shirt. It didn't fit. People tuned in because of the brand, but they stayed—or left—because of the chemistry. Or lack thereof. If you look back at the Law and Order LA cast now, it feels like a fever dream of "wait, they were in that?"
The Core Players and That Early Identity Crisis
Most Law & Order iterations rely on a very specific duo dynamic. You need the grizzled veteran and the hotshot junior. In Los Angeles, they went with Skeet Ulrich as Detective Rex Winters and Corey Stoll as Detective Tomas "TJ" Jaruszalski.
Ulrich brought a quiet, brooding intensity. He played Winters as a former Marine, someone who had seen too much. Honestly, he was good. He had that classic leading-man energy that usually anchors a long-running series. Beside him, Corey Stoll—long before he was a household name in House of Cards or the MCU—was the cynical, tech-savvy partner. Their chemistry wasn't bad, but the writing often felt like it was trying too hard to explain Los Angeles to people who have never been there.
Then you had the DAs. This is where the Law and Order LA cast really flexed its muscles. They used a "rotating" system, which was a gamble. One week you’d get Alfred Molina as Ricardo Morales, and the next you’d get Terrence Howard as Jonah "Joe" Dekker.
Molina is a titan. He played Morales as a guy who had seen the system fail and decided to do something about it. Howard, on the other hand, played Dekker with a sharp, arrogant edge. It was fascinating to watch, but it made the show feel disjointed. Viewers couldn't get a handle on the "vibe" of the office because the lead prosecutor changed every other Tuesday.
The Shocking Mid-Season Re-Tool
Ratings weren't hitting the mark. NBC got nervous. In a move that still shocks fans of the franchise today, they did a massive mid-season overhaul. They killed off Rex Winters. Just like that. Skeet Ulrich, the supposed face of the show, was out.
The producers decided to move Alfred Molina’s character, Ricardo Morales, out of the DA's office and back into a detective role. It turned out Morales used to be a cop. This was a desperate pivot to keep a big name like Molina on screen while trying to fix the pacing issues. This shift in the Law and Order LA cast essentially created two different shows within a single season.
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Joining the fray during this chaotic period was Alana de la Garza. She reprised her role as Connie Rubirosa from the original Law & Order. It was a blatant attempt to tether the sinking LA ship to the mothership's legacy. She was great, obviously, but by the time she arrived, the internal logic of the show was crumbling.
Why the Chemistry Never Quite Sizzled
Usually, a Dick Wolf production is a well-oiled machine. You know exactly what you’re getting. But L.A. is a different beast than New York. In NYC, the city is a character—the subways, the brownstones, the gray slush on the sidewalk. In LOLA, the city felt like a backdrop.
The Law and Order LA cast felt like they were acting in a vacuum sometimes. You had Peter Coyote as the District Attorney, Jerry Hardin. He’s a legend. But he felt underutilized. Regina Hall was there too, playing Deputy District Attorney Evelyn Price. Seeing her in a serious procedural role after her Scary Movie fame was cool, but the scripts didn't give her enough meat to chew on.
Megan Boone, who later became a star on The Blacklist, played DDA Lauren Stanton. She was part of the initial wave of the Law and Order LA cast that got swept away in the re-tooling. It’s wild to look back at the sheer amount of talent that passed through those sets in just 22 episodes.
A Breakdown of the Major Shifts
- The Ulrich Departure: Removing the primary detective midway through the first season is a move usually reserved for soaps, not prestige procedurals. It signaled to the audience that the producers didn't trust their own premise.
- The Morales Pivot: Alfred Molina is incredible, but having a character quit being a high-level prosecutor to go back to being a detective is... a stretch. Even for TV.
- The Tone Shift: The show started as a gritty look at the celebrity-obsessed culture of LA but shifted into a more standard police procedural that felt indistinguishable from CSI: Miami at times.
The Reality of the "One Season Wonder"
The show was officially canceled in May 2011. It’s a rare blemish on the franchise record. When you talk about the Law and Order LA cast, you're talking about a group of actors who were arguably "too big" for the format.
Sometimes, a show works because the actors disappear into the roles. With LOLA, you were always aware you were watching Alfred Molina or Terrence Howard. The star power actually worked against the "gritty realism" the show was aiming for.
Think about the original Law & Order. Jerry Orbach wasn't a "movie star" in the traditional sense when he started; he was Lennie Briscoe. He became the character. In the LA version, the characters felt like suits being worn by famous people.
The Lasting Legacy of the LA Experiment
Even though it failed, Law & Order: LA changed how the franchise approached casting. They realized they couldn't just transplant the New York formula. Later spin-offs like Organized Crime took a much more serialized approach, learning from the mistakes made with the Law and Order LA cast and their disjointed episodic arcs.
If you go back and watch it now—it's available on various streaming platforms—it's actually better than people remember. The episodes involving Terrence Howard’s character, Joe Dekker, are particularly sharp. He brought a specific energy that eventually found its way into other legal dramas.
What to Keep in Mind if You Rewatch
If you’re diving back into the 22 episodes of this show, don't expect a cohesive journey. Treat it like an anthology.
- Watch for the guest stars: Because it was filmed in LA, the guest cast is a "who's who" of character actors and future stars.
- Observe the cinematography: It looks different than any other Law & Order. It’s brighter, wider, and uses a lot more "golden hour" lighting.
- Track the Morales transition: It’s a masterclass in how an actor tries to justify a bizarre career change for their character. Molina sells it as best as anyone could.
The Law and Order LA cast remains one of the most interesting "what ifs" in television history. It had the talent, the budget, and the brand. It just didn't have the soul of the city it was trying to portray.
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To truly understand why this version of the franchise didn't stick, you have to look at the transition from the "Winters era" to the "Morales era." It’s a jarring shift that highlights the producers' panic. For any student of television or fan of the franchise, those middle episodes are a fascinating look at a show trying to find its pulse while it's already on the operating table.
If you're looking for that classic Law & Order comfort, stick to the original or SVU. But if you want to see some of the best actors in the business try to navigate a sinking ship with absolute grace, Law & Order: LA is worth the afternoon binge. It’s a weird, star-studded relic of a time when TV was trying to figure out if it wanted to be "prestige" or "procedural" and accidentally ended up being neither.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Viewers:
Check out the episode "Silver Lake" to see the peak of the Ulrich/Stoll partnership before the reboot. Then, jump to "Benedict Canyon" to see how Alfred Molina handles the transition back to the detective squad. Tracking these specific episodes gives you the clearest picture of the show's internal struggle. For those interested in the legal side, Terrence Howard's performance in "Reseda" is often cited by critics as the strongest courtroom work in the entire short-lived series. Don't look for a series finale that wraps everything up—it doesn't exist. The show ends on a standard procedural beat because nobody knew for sure it was over until the upfronts in May.