Law & Order
Memo from the Dark Side
TV Flash files “Memo from the Dark Side” as the first listed hour of season 20 — Law & Order (1990–2010) on NBC, season 20, episode 1, aired 2009-09-25, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S20E01: listed hour 434 of 545 in the Law & Order guide, first listed hour of season 20. It aired 2009-09-25 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Drowned and the Saved” (S19E22). Next is “Just a Girl in the World” (S20E02). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When young war veteran Greg Tanner (Creighton James) is found murdered in a Hudson University parking garage, Detectives Cyrus Lupo and Kevin Bernard connect the murder to law professor Kevin Franklin, an attorney who formerly worked for the Department of Justice. But when the case is brought to court, it seems Tanner may have been more affected by the war than his discharge stated. Lupo and Bernard find that the pieces start to fit when Franklin's memos from the Bush Administration are leaked. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Van Buren announces some very shocking news to her squad, concerning her health, and District Attorney Jack McCoy deals with the stress of winning the election.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Memo from the Dark Side sit in the Law & Order guide?
S20E01 is listed hour 434 of 545 — first listed hour of season 20, season 20 episode 1.
When did Law & Order S20E01 air?
Memo from the Dark Side aired 2009-09-25 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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