Law & Order
Paradigm
TV Flash files “Paradigm” as the first listed hour of season 15 — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 15, episode 1, aired 2004-09-22, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S15E01: listed hour 326 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, first listed hour of season 15. It aired 2004-09-22 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “C.O.D.” (S14E24). Next is “The Dead Wives Club” (S15E02). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Detective Joe Fontana transfers to the 27th precinct, a stylish veteran uneasily paired with Detective Green when a former female Guardsman from the second Gulf War is found murdered -- and evidence points to the vengeful Iraqi sister of an ex-inmate at infamous Abu Ghraib prison. However, when D.A.s McCoy and Southerlyn begin to prosecute, they discover that the suspect's lawyer boldly plans to defend his client as an "enemy soldier" -- subject only to the terms of the Geneva Convention.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Paradigm sit in the Law & Order guide?
S15E01 is listed hour 326 of 545 — first listed hour of season 15, season 15 episode 1.
When did Law & Order S15E01 air?
Paradigm aired 2004-09-22 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…
Filed against
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