Dear NBC & TNT,

As an avid television viewer, I am currently sitting here going through the five stages of grief as I try to deal with your ghastly decision to end my beloved show, Law & Order.  How could you do this to your loyal fans?  Seriously, what would possess you to take away the one constant in my life and do so at the very last minute without giving me and others the opportunity to deal with this loss?

The first stage of grief is denial.  I had heard rumblings that this maybe L&O’s last year, but I also heard you all were trying to insure Dick Wolf would have the longest running television show.  Guess I was wrong on both accounts.  I cannot still believe getting rid of the original franchise was necessary.  I am sure the ratings were down, but really whose fault was that?  I mean you put them against Monday nights where they are competing with the likes of Dancing with the D List Stars.  People get off on folks redeeming themselves.  Well, I frantically adore a murder case being worked on from the investigation until trial.  Even if Jack or the new DA didn’t win, we got a show.  So for weeks I denounced the rumblings as just conjecture.  Even when they said it was over, I said they would work out something.

When I realize you all were going to just up and leave without giving L&O a proper send off, I got mad.  How could you not send them off in a grand manner?  The show has been an institution on NBC for too long to be treated as the smelly stepchild of crime dramas.  Hell, without L&O, there would be no Law & Order:  SVU or the other stepchild Law & Order:  Criminal Intent (Thanks USA for keeping this one going for a little while longer).  I love all the franchises, but the original will always hold a place in my heart.  The lack of a proper send off, is wrong.  Even ER, got a right of passage.  Damn it, you all owe me a final episode!

I know TNT has something to do with not giving L&O another year.  The contract was up and they were not willing to option another year.  Fine, what does that have to do with the show still going on?  Hell, couldn’t you just have given them the midseason replacement option as you all did the year before last?  Why couldn’t you do that for next year, just to send them off in a grand fashion?  Yeah, this is the bargaining stage of grief and I am trying to figure out a way to make this work.  How am I suppose to make it without L&O?

I watch some form of L&O every single day.  That is how obsessed much I adore the show.  I enjoyed the changes in cast, the storylines and the feeling of family whenever the show was on.  Now, I sit here in a dark place contemplating what to do next.  I can watch all the reruns I want, but knowing Monday, May 24^th’s episode is the last makes me sad.  I am a really dark place right now because of your decision.  Yeah, this is the stage of depression.

The failure to garner ratings for this longtime institution can be blamed on the network and them changing their day and time slots.  Hell, every damn show on NBC was hurt by the Leno blunder.  Years ago when you all had them on Friday, that was the kiss of death.  Friday nights are not a night to watch television and you knew that.  Why couldn’t they had stayed on Wednesday night?  Hell, ain’t crap on anyway during that time.  Those of us with an unusual obsession with L&O were guaranteed to be tuned in to our guilty pleasure.  I still feel like they should be given the opportunity to be a midseason replacement in order to bid us all farewell.  It is only fair.  Monday’s episode let us know the Lt. wasn’t going to die from her cancer, but we all knew she wasn’t coming back next year anyway.  Seriously, I just want closure.  Networks are so notorious for not giving folks closure, but Law and Order is an institution that deserves the highest honor and that is to go out with a bang.  They should be giving dignity in the absence of anything else.  Let the people say goodbye.  Hell, just let me say goodbye. 

Law & Order is like a dear friend who has been with me through the ups and downs of my life and never were they a disappointment.  It saw me through times when sleep wouldn’t prevail and gave me something to do when nothing else could grab my attention.  It gave me episodes to think about like the one where there wasn’t a homicide to investigate and go to trial on, but it was about how everyone dealt with the execution of one of the offenders in an older case.  I still feel some kinda way about that episode, especially since there ended up being a death.  I am going to miss this friend and I know I’ll see it around regularly, I’ll miss not being able to plan that one night to get my Law & Order fix.  To the cast past and present…Thank you for the memories and know I will always advocate you were the best!  Imani!