‘Law & Order’: Mehcad Brooks Previews Case That Brings Up Shaw’s Past

Get Both Sides of the Story

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our Law & Order Newsletter:

“It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done in my career. I’m so proud of it,” Law & Order star Mehcad Brooks (who plays Detective Jalen Shaw) says of the show’s upcoming October 31 episode.

In “Report Card,” a student is accused of killing his teacher, but when his age puts the case in limbo, ADAs Price (Hugh Dancy) and Maroun (Odelya Halevi) put the school’s policies on trial. Below, Brooks shares why he feels so strongly about this week’s episode, how Shaw’s feeling about his new lieutenant, and more.

Preview this next case and how it’s going to be affecting Shaw.

Mehcad Brooks: The case is about a teacher who is found shot and killed, and there are several different suspects, and some of them are his students. And the interesting thing about when Shaw and Riley [Reid Scott] find someone who has crossed over is that there’s all these reasons why someone could have done it, and there’s all these different aspects of the human psyche and human nature as to why it could have gone that way and why that dark corner of human consciousness was explored.

In this one, it feels so disheartening that it happened the way that it happened, and the murder is committed by who is committed, and it brings up Shaw’s past and a connection to his past and a connection to how he grew up and a connection to his entanglement with the foster system and family abuse and substance abuse in his family. And so it really hits home for him, and we find out one of the reasons that he’s a police officer, a detective in the first place. And so there’s a lot of delving into character. There’s a lot of backstory here, and it is heart-wrenching. It’s heart-wrenching how these things happen and how easy access to weapons can cause such tragedy in what could just be a conversation. I think in regrettably many other countries, what you’re going to see on the 31st could have just been a conversation. But in America, the conversation, the exclamation point of that conversation is the bullet.

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

And it really does touch home for Shaw because of where the murder is coming from. And I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give it away, but it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done in my career. I’m so proud of it. I’m so proud of the writers. I’m so proud of the performances in that show. There’s a young kid named Colton Osorio, who’s someone to watch. He’s 15 years old, and he’s someone to watch. We’re shooting a show called Law & Order, of course, and we’re keeping a connective tissue and the original DNA in the show, but this feels like something different. This feels like something, if I may say so, more, and I’m really, really proud of it.

How is Shaw feeling about Brady (Maura Tierney) as the new boss? She is quite different from Dixon (Camryn Manheim).

Shaw is having some internal dilemmas about that. But I think also what Shaw is really good at—and what you’ll see that he’s good at—is he’s good at adaptation, he’s good at evolution. He’s had to evolve his whole life. He’s had to adapt his whole career. And I think that this is no different. In any new circumstance, whether it’s a relationship or a partnership or a colleague, you find a way where you can give your best work. And I think that’s what Shaw’s focused on.

And I feel like now Shaw and Riley have really settled into a rhythm. Does it feel that way to you?

Oh yeah, 100 percent. Reid and I early on had a conversation about the fact that on the law side, it’s not just this duo, right? The third character is our own partnership, and that in and of itself can become an entity. And so yeah, we’ve definitely made a conscious effort to make that happen. Reid and I also get along so well as human beings, and I think that art imitates life, and I think the writers saw that, and there is still some resistance in perspective and there’s differences in perspectives, but it’s not like two guys who don’t get along who have to work together. It’s two guys who really get along, who enjoy their jobs, who are having the time of their lives, but take their jobs really seriously. And I think it shows. It’s great. We’re having a great time.

Related

13 Best Courtroom Dramas, Ranked

It’s also the fact that when they have a difference in perspective, it’s not contentious. 

It’s from a foundation of respect. And I think that also it comes from, if you can change my mind, let’s go, right? I’m going to give you the opportunity to change my mind if you can. I think both of those characters are open to having their consciousnesses expanded, and they come from their perspectives for sure. And they have strong perspectives, they’re New Yorkers, but they are also from an age group, I think, and from a generation in which there’s so much access to information that you have to be adaptable. You have to be open to hearing someone else’s perspective if you respect them and so on and so forth. And so I think that that’s a reflection of the times that we’re in. And Shaw and Riley are a perfect reflection of that.

Law & Order, Thursdays, 8/7c, NBC