Law & Order: LA

Law & Order: LA (2010-2011), originally titled Law & Order: Los Angeles, is a Law and Order spinoff set in Los Angeles. It was intended to replace the original series, which ended its successful 20-season run in 2010. However, it suffered low ratings, despite attempts to move it around in the schedule and a mid-season Retool that killed off one character, moved another from the DA's office to the LAPD, and introduced a Transplant from the original series. It was canceled in May 2011, leaving several episodes from before the retool to be aired Out of Order.

"Winters: "It's like watching a cop movie.""
 * Action Mom / Retired Badass: Teri Polo's character, who quit the force after becoming a mother.
 * As Herself: Khloe Kardashian-Odom
 * Awesome McCoolname: Detective Rex Winters really lucked out like that.
 * Badass Mustache: Jaruszalski has an epic copstache.
 * Broken Aesop: Sylmar
 * Bus Crash:
 * Call Back: At the start of "Benedict Canyon", Jaruszalski calls Morales 'counselor', a call back to when he was a DA.
 * Cancellation
 * Captain Ersatz: the Echo Park Family is a stand-in for the infamous Manson Family.
 * Conspicuous CGI / Special Effect Failure: 10,000 acres of poorly computer-generated pot, which somehow looked even worse as a photo.
 * Crossover: With Law and Order SVU when Terrence Howard's DA goes to defends his cousin and with Law and Order when Rubirosa moves to LA.
 * Downer Ending: (see Wham Episode)
 * Expy: The Lieutenant looks like an American version of the Detective Inspector, right down to the sweaters.
 * Fake American: Alfred Molina.
 * Fake Nationality: Again, Molina. Playing as the Mexican-American Detective Ricardo Morales.
 * Hide Your Gays: Technically, since these episodes take place before  but aired afterwards:
 * Horrible Hollywood: The series is pointedly hostile toward leftist celebrities, reflecting Dick Wolf's politics. This is in contrast to the original L&O which was often accused of being too liberal -- a charge countered by McCoy (on a witness stand, no less!) in its final season.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the episodes are named for their Los Angeles locales.
 * Important Haircut: Jaruszalski is seen clean shaven after
 * Ironic Death / Dramatic Irony:
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: The tagline for an episode dealing with a philandering golfer and his justifiably angry wife was "Oh yeah -- we're going there".
 * Off On a Technicality:
 * Oh Crap: The look on Moralez's face when
 * Pass the Popcorn: The main detectives, as they observe the killer from "Ballona Creek" being arrested by cops from another jurisdiction.


 * Prison Rape: Winds up being the motivation behind the murder in Echo Park.
 * Retool: Sensing trouble, NBC dropped Skeet Ulrich and bumped Alfred Molina to top billing. This was explained by Morales losing faith in the legal system, returning to his old career as a cop. His old spot was filled by ADA Rubirosa, aka that ridiculously attractive lawyer from the original Law & Order.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Morales getting the obstructionist father declared a member of a street gang in Harbor City
 * Ripped from the Headlines: the history of the murder victim in Echo Park is an obvious Expy of the Manson Family.
 * Plus, of course it is Law and Order, episodes 1, 4, 5 and 6 are based in headlines as well.
 * I hoped they could've done one on the Yakuza liver transplants, although that's probably Criminal Intent's territory.
 * Rubirosa's first episode was based on one seriously twisted Canadian Air Force commander (the real-life interrogation really was that calm and polite, it just took about eight hours).
 * "Hayden Tract" is a trifecta of headlines: a Tuscon shooting massacre-parallel occurs and the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case are mentioned, as are prison therapy cages, er, "modules".
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: (most of) The Moon Bay Crew; undoubtedly many others.
 * Screwed By the Network: Sure, the ratings weren't that great, but what with being constantly shuffled around, going through a mid-season Retool (after which ratings improved) and then showing the episodes out of order so that the end-of-season Cliff Hanger played right in the middle of the season made a lot of fans think that NBC never gave the show a chance.
 * Shout Out: I want to believe a computer-game obsessed guy named Sheppard searching for someone named Freeman is this...
 * Socialite: It's set in Los Angeles, so the cops and attorneys sometimes have to deal with very rich, very privileged suspects and witnesses.
 * Tonight Someone Dies:
 * Verbal Tic: Luis "Bunnyman" Valdez got his nickname from the band Echo and the Bunnymen, because he has an odd habit of repeating what people say to him - like an echo. It's even described as "a verbal tic."
 * Western Terrorists: A white American Islamic fundamentalist terrorist cell is behind the deaths of two boys in Sylmar.
 * Wham Episode: Zuma Canyon