Greetings,
Like I said before, there are certain people and/or characters that immediately come to mind when you think of Law & Order. People like Briscoe and Van Buren and the guy I'm going to talk about today, Jack McCoy.
Jack McCoy was portrayed by Sam Waterston from the start of Season 5 to the very end of the series. Nice long tenure there. He started out as the Executive Assistant District Attorney and then got promoted to actual District Attorney in Season 18. That means he finally got to be the boss. I sure do hope he never lets the power go to his head or does a lot of "do as I say, not as I did" hijinks. Anyway, when he begins his run, we quickly see that he is not much like the man who came before. While Ben Stone was very by-the-book, McCoy had a philosophy of "Rules? Ha Ha Ha!" He might have even had that as a tattoo. What? Prove to me that he didn't. Needless to say, this behavior did not always go over so well with a lot of people. A LOT! In fact, McCoy even got a few contempt citations, something that I wonder if he thought was a badge of honor. Still, he does get quite a few hand slaps from whomever happens to be the DA, but he does do a good job most of the time.
When it comes to his personal beliefs and ideals, McCoy was raised a Catholic but doesn't really practice the religion, even coming off as a bit agnostic at times. His somewhat disdain for the church certainly shows when they are casing revolving around religion, particularly when it is used as some kind of defense. To be honest, that kind of ticks me off, too. He even tried to get a confession to a priest put in as evidence against someone, since he's "not a Catholic at work". Or outside of it as far as I can see. Now, when it comes to the death penalty, he doesn't mind it all that much. In fact, he uses it as a bargaining chip in a lot of plea discussions. Of course, this is back when New York actually had the death penalty. Yeah, no more, as far as I know. Apparently, this caused problems with some colleagues who were more on the liberal side of the issue. Although, speaking of Liberal, McCoy has also been accused of having a Liberal agenda when it came to prosecuting some of his cases. Come to think of it, that happened just in the last few years of the show. So, my question about that is "Are you just now noticing that he does this? Or are you just now bringing it up?" Because, yes, I have noticed this, many times. I guess he's open to using whatever he can to get a conviction. But that's just McCoy. He has a rep for wanting to be a bit rebellious against...well, frankly, anything and everything. Though, I think it's done for the greater good, in his opinion. Oh, and speaking of reputations...
Yeah, when I talked about Claire Kincaid, I mentioned that these two had a little thing going on, but she wasn't the first. Actually, when they initially met, this was one of the first things she addressed, I suppose to let him know that on no uncertain terms would they be getting involved. Right. His response was that, in his 24 years as EADA, he only had relations, as it were, with three women. Okay, but it doesn't help that he only had three women ADA's in total, so...yeah. Not helping your case there, my friend. However, one of those women did become his wife, eventually. Still, his having done all this does occasionally come back to bite him.
So, concerning more about his personal life, McCoy did have another wife, in addition to the aforementioned one. He also has a daughter, Rebecca, with whom he has had a bit of a strained relationship. Because EVERYBODY hates their parents on this show. Happily, though, in the last few years of the series, they seemed to be on good terms again. We even get to see her one time. I've drawn conclusions that McCoy's issues with parenting may have stemmed from his father, who was a cop and abusive to him and his mother. His dad was also, apparently, a racist, punching McCoy once because he dated a Polish girl. And McCoy is Irish, so...Wow, really? There's that much of an issue between Irish and Polish. I had no idea. But he does tend to bring up his father a lot, usually referring to his status as a cop. Maybe he chooses to not forget all the things, good and bad, that made him who he is.
In conclusion, even though I often disagree with McCoy on his methods and other things, I still like him, a lot, actually. Say what you will about him, but you can never say he's not passionate. He will definitely fight for what he believes in. Agree or not, I'll take that over someone being apathetic any day. And, though it probably goes without saying, most of the credit as to why McCoy is so popular goes to Sam Waterston. What a legend. As a matter of fact, when I speak of Jack McCoy and Sam Waterston's portrayal, I've sometimes said that he reminds me a tad of Gregory Peck doing his Atticus Finch. I know that may be sacrilegious to some, but it's all about the way he commands the courtroom. It just reminds me so much of that other iconic character and actor combination. Again, credit where it's due, I think Sam Waterston, and what he did on this show, helped to make it a legend in and of itself.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
