Law & Order True Crime is an American true crimeanthology series that premiered on September 26, 2017 on NBC. The series was ordered by NBC on July 15, 2016, and is part of the Law & Order franchise. Created by René Balcer, the eight-episode first season, titled Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, is a dramatization of the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez. The series is currently on hiatus.
Heather Graham as Judalon Smyth, Oziel's emotionally fragile mistress.
Elizabeth Reaser as Deputy District Attorney Pam Bozanich, who was assigned to the murders of José and Kitty Menendez.
Larry Cedar as Milton Andersen, Kitty's older brother.
Ezra Buzzington as Deputy District Attorney Elliott Alhadeff, first prosecutor in case.
Raphael Sbarge as Jon Conte.
Taylor Kalupa as Anna Eriksson, Lyle’s fiancé & eventual wife.
Jenny Cooper as Megan Lang.
Irene DeBari as Maria Menendez, Lyle and Erik's grandmother.
Episodes
Season 1: ''The Menendez Murders'' (2017)
Production
Filming for the series began on June 26, 2017 for an eight-episode first season. In April 2016, Dick Wolf and NBC announced they were working on the series, a first season being based on the Mendendez brothers murder case. A second season is yet to be confirmed, but Dick Wolf mentioned he has plenty of ideas for the show and a possible storyline if there is a second season. “This is unique for me, after 27 years of Law & Order,” Dick Wolf told TV critics at TCA in an interview. “This is taken from the headlines; we‘ve made some great shows ripped from the headlines, but this is on a different level.” An idea for a second season storyline includes the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. "Just before the , I had mentioned to him the Tim McVeigh case, and his eyes lit up," Rene Balcer says of Wolf's reaction. "Because Dick and I were together, we were in the same office when the bomb went off in Oklahoma."
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 64% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Law & Order: True Crime: The Menendez Murders benefits from a standout performance from Edie Falco that proves captivating enough to compensate for a staid approach to potentially drama-rich material." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In his series of reviews of each episode, Austin Considine of the New York Times wrote that this mini-series succeeded in bringing something new and compelling to the well-known Menendez case.
