Law & Order True Crime
An anthology series dramatizing high-profile criminal trials.
NBC launched Law & Order True Crime, a true crime anthology series, on September 26, 2017. Part of the Law & Order franchise, it was greenlit on July 15, 2016. Creator René Balcer helmed the eight-episode first season, which dramatizes the 1996 conviction of Lyle and Erik Menendez for murdering their parents. The series is currently on hiatus as of 2024.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- True crime; Anthology
- Creator
- René Balcer
- Starring
- Edie Falco
- Miles Gaston Villanueva
- Gus Halper
- Composer
- Atli Orvarsson
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 1
- Episodes
- 8
Facts from the source article.
Cast and characters
Edie Falco takes on the role of Leslie Abramson, the lawyer who defended Lyle and Erik Menendez. Gus Halper plays the younger brother, Erik, while Miles Gaston Villanueva portrays Lyle, the older one. Anthony Edwards appears as Judge Stanley Weisberg, who presided over the brothers' trial. Julianne Nicholson is Jill Lansing, Abramson's co-counsel during the first trial, and Harry Hamlin plays Barry Levin, her co-counsel in Erik's second trial. Constance Marie appears as Marta Cano, José's sister, and Carlos Gómez plays José Menendez, the father. Sam Jaeger portrays Detective Les Zoeller of the Beverly Hills Police Department, who investigated the murders. Josh Charles plays Dr. Jerome Oziel, the brothers' psychiatrist. Sterling Beaumon appears as Glenn Stevens, a friend of Lyle's from Princeton, and Ben Winchell plays Donovan Goodreau. Molly Hagan is Joan Vandermolen, Kitty's older sister, and Dominic Flores plays Henry Llano, the cousins' cousin. Lolita Davidovich portrays Kitty Menendez, the mother. Chris Bauer plays Tim Rutten, Leslie's husband and a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. Heather Graham appears as Judalon Smyth, Oziel's emotionally fragile mistress. Elizabeth Reaser plays Deputy District Attorney Pam Bozanich, who was assigned to the case. Larry Cedar is Milton Andersen, Kitty's older brother, and Ezra Buzzington plays Deputy District Attorney Elliott Alhadeff, the first prosecutor. Raphael Sbarge appears as Jon Conte. Taylor Kalupa plays Anna Eriksson, Lyle's fiancée and eventual wife, and Jenny Cooper is Megan Lang. Irene DeBari appears as Maria Menendez, the grandmother. Douglas Olsson plays Robert Shapiro, Erik's lawyer before Abramson, who arranged his surrender from Israel. Dominic Daniel appears as O. J. Simpson, shown jailed next to Erik in a voice-only role, with a news appearance in episode 8.
Production
Dick Wolf and NBC first announced the series in April 2016, with the Menendez brothers case as the focus of its debut season. By February 2017, Edie Falco was set to play defense lawyer Leslie Abramson. That May, Gus Halper and Miles Gaston Villanueva were cast as Erik and Lyle Menendez. Cooper Koch, who tried out for the role of Erik, would later portray him in the 2024 series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Production started on June 26, 2017, for an eight-episode first season.
Reception
Critics gave the season a 64% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes from 34 reviews, averaging 6.6 out of 10. The site’s consensus highlighted Edie Falco’s captivating performance as strong enough to offset a restrained handling of potentially explosive material. On Metacritic, the season scored 57 out of 100 from 29 critics, landing in the “mixed or average” range. Austin Considine of the New York Times praised the miniseries for offering a fresh, compelling take on the familiar Menéndez story. In the 2017–18 season, it ranked 41st among viewers aged 18–49 with a 1.7 rating, and pulled in an average of 6.73 million total viewers, placing it 62nd in overall viewership.
Future
A second season has not been confirmed, but Dick Wolf has stated he has plenty of ideas and a possible storyline. Wolf told TV critics that this project is unique for him after 27 years of Law & Order, as it takes from headlines on a different level. One idea for a second season includes the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. René Balcer noted that when he mentioned the Tim McVeigh case to Wolf, Wolf's eyes lit up, as they were in the same office when the bomb went off in Oklahoma.
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