The Law & Order franchise has clearly found the recipe for primetime success, with the original show debuting 1990 and returning in 2022 after several years off as if it had never left. There were a number of new stars joining Jack McCoy this time around, including Hannibal alum Hugh Dancy as ADA Nolan Price. The actor recently spoke with CinemaBlend about the case that made Price bend his own roles, and he shared what kinds of stories that he’d like to do again… even though they’re surprising for the norm of Law & Order.
Price went through the wringer in the episode that featured him finding the body of a woman who he’d once been in a relationship with, and then having to testify in court about that relationship after crossing the line by doing what Hugh Dancy described as “a terrible thing.” It was of course rough for his character, and when asked what he'd like to do again in the future on Law & Order as Price, Dancy explained:
Well, it's always interesting in the show when you get a hint – and it's happened a couple of times for Price – like oh, he's got a romantic life! That's clearly not what Law & Order is about. So you just see these [hints] always in really dire moments in Price's life. Once when there was a shooting on a subway; now, the next person that he was romantically engaged [with], he's found dead behind some shrubbery. It doesn't seem to go very well in his romantic life. [laughs] I guess that keeps it interesting.
Well, at least his previous romantic outing in Season 22 didn’t involve his date as a victim! His brief moment of romance did lead into a truly horrifying hate crime with a number of victims on a subway back in the fall, however. Law & Order doesn’t often spend much time on the personal lives of its characters, even compared to spinoffs Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Hugh Dancy at least finds it interesting when the long-running drama delves into Price’s romantic life! It’s just unfortunate for the character that hints of his love life tend to involve tragedy in some form or other. When I noted that Price’s on-screen romances are never just going out for coffee with nothing going wrong, the actor responded:
No, that's right! It's never just a casual date on a Friday
Only time will tell if Law & Order does give Price more of a love life without any death, destruction, or crises, but he’s certainly not the only character who doesn’t get a lot of romance on the show. Maroun’s personal life tends to be explored in context of the loss of her sister, while the show has touched on Cosgrove as a parent.
Shaw got a big episode in the fall finale, when he was faced with the case of a Black man who had been wrongfully imprisoned after being failed by both the law and order sides of the system. Lieutenant Dixon shared a bit of her personal life when she opened up about knowing ASL because of her son. Price has just had some serious bad luck when it comes to romance!
See what’s next for Price and the rest with the remaining episodes of Law & Order Season 22 on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC! The show has not yet been renewed for Season 22, but hopefully news on that front (as well as for SVU and Organized Crime) is on the way soon, and fans can always revisit earlier episodes streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
