2022 Preview

Your TV may be on 24/7 this year, thanks to the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Jensen Ackles on The Boys, the Winter Olympics from Beijing, plus the return of Law & Order!

- Photography by Sean M. Haffery/Getty Images; FOX; ABC; Elizabeth Morris/Showtime; Alan Peebles/Blueprint/BBC Pictures; Virginia Sherwood/NBC

Law & Order

THURSDAY, FEB. 24, 8/7c, NBC

YOU KNOW SOMETHING'S a big deal when a pro like Sam Waterston is floored. I wasn't at all expecting to be bowled over, and I was, he says of his first day back on set for the return of the original Law & Order, almost a dozen years after its undeserved cancellation. was amazed at how great-and strangeit felt to step onto what looked exactly like the old sets, all brand-new, with dear old friends and cool new people.

The actor has signed on again full-time as the beloved district attorney he played from 1994 until 2010's not quite series finale. Says producing titan Dick Wolf: Since day one, Sam has had perfect pitch when it comes to Jack McCoy as a character who both reflects and expands our ability to understand the law. He is the ultimate conscience of the show.

The mothership of this much-spun-off crime procedural franchise doesn't reboot so much as it simply resumes, with Season 21. It couldn't be more timely, and its storytelling is rock-solid as ever, continues Waterston. Voices you can trust to tell all sides are always scarce. If we get it right, people will be back throwing their shoes at their TVs and loving it!