Law & Order Toronto, with Hamilton actor in starring role, debuts to mostly positive reviews

After decades of Toronto filling in as a backdrop for random American cities on television shows, the Big Smoke finally got to go under the spotlight and show its true face with the premiere of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, the latest in the wildly successful Law & Order franchise.

The police drama debuted Thursday with an all-Canadian ensemble cast, including a co-lead from Hamilton in Kathleen Munroe.

Munroe, who plays Det. Sgt. Frankie Bateman, co-stars with Aden Young (Det. Sgt. Henry Graff), K.C. Collins (Deputy Crown Attorney Theo Forrester) and Karen Robinson (Insp. Vivienne Holness) in the psychological thriller wrapped in a criminal investigation that is based on the American series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which is based on the original Law & Order series, which launched in 1990 and has since spawned seven spin-offs and a 1998 movie.

The series follows an elite squad of detectives who investigate high-profile crime and corruption in Toronto and is expected to run for at least 10 episodes.

Kathleen Munroe as Det. Sgt. Frankie Bateman

The show, with each storyline “ripped from the headlines” of real crimes, was greenlit in June with just one episode written. By August the cast had been chosen and crews were filming on the streets of Toronto.

Munroe, who was called by co-star Young “the biggest fan you could find” of the franchise, was shopping for knee braces, of all things, when she got the call that she had landed the part.

“I was in a medical supply store and tearing up on the phone with my agent,” she told Canadian Press. “A lovely woman was helping me find a knee brace. And she was the first person I told. She asked if I would sign the back of her receipt, ‘Thanks for the support,’ because she was giving me a supportive knee brace. It was such a nice moment but with a total stranger at the time.”

Munroe, who now lives in Los Angeles, is no stranger to the franchise, with roles in ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’ (2021) and ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999),’ as well as other crime drama such as CSI-NY, FBI, Murdoch Mysteries and NCIS-Los Angeles and NCIS-New Orleans.

She also appeared in Durham County (a police drama set in a fictionalized version of Durham Region), Supernatural and Grammercy Park and in films such as Birdland, Knuckleball and A Perfect Plan.

Each episode of Law & Order Toronto kicks off with a cold open describing what the case will be about, and while the first episode, The Key to the Castle, directed by Holly Dale, drew mostly positive reviews, there were several complaints about the intro voice getting the pronunciation of ‘Toronto’ wrong by pronouncing the second ’t’ – “like a tourist.”

Episode 2 – Good Neighbours – airs Thursday, February 29.

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is a co-production between Rogers’ media division and Vancouver-based Lark Productions.