Law & Order
Competence
TV Flash files “Competence” as hour 94 of 545 in the TV Flash guide — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 5, episode 6, aired 1994-11-02, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E06: listed hour 94 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, hour 6 of 23 in season 5. It aired 1994-11-02 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “White Rabbit” (S05E05). Next is “Precious” (S05E07). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When Lt. Van Buren is the victim of an attempted holdup by two teens, she fires her gun and kills one of them, and the detectives are faced with the fact that she shot an unarmed child in the back.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Competence sit in the Law & Order guide?
S05E06 is listed hour 94 of 545 — hour 6 of 23 in season 5, season 5 episode 6.
When did Law & Order S05E06 air?
Competence aired 1994-11-02 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I watch in order, or is it modular?
Modular is the point. Cases close. Casts change. Start anywhere in the original 1990–2010 run and you will understand the clang within twenty minutes. Order matters only if you care which partner is standing next to whom.
In the series
Why this series still plays
For the walnut that became a city: street then courtroom, a clang as civic punctuation, and two decades of interchangeable parts that taught TV how to clone a night. Comfort is the feature. The original 1990–2010 cathedral still teaches the form; the revival is the machine refusing to clock out.
Picture a Tuesday when the nation still had a cop show that split like a walnut: first the street, then the courtroom, a clang on the soundtrack that became civic punctuation. Law & Order premiered September 13, 1990, on NBC, created by Dick Wolf, and it did not invent the procedural so much as industrialize it. Prescription for Death is the template in miniature — a hospital night, a dead patient, cops then lawyers, no hug required. On the palate: newsprint, a New York that looks like a location budget with a…
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