‘Law & Order’ In Toronto

Toronto is finally getting the chance to play itself. After years of acting like part of the United States in film and TV, the Canadian metropolis will debut as the setting of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, September 24 on the CW Network. If the city had a persona with a nickname, I’d say get ready to meet the real whatever-the-hell it is. 

Toronto Criminal Intent follows a pair of detectives in the city’s fictitious Specialized Criminal Investigations Unit. Played by Aden Young and Kathleen Munroe, they investigate “high-profile” crimes. Per the title, they’ll also get inside peoples’ heads. 

The show’s first season aired exclusively in Canada last year. It became 2024’s top-rated primetime debut. On IMDb, 44 reviews gave it a 7.2 out of 10 rating. One fan said that the series “delivered everything I wanted … in the Toronto setting.” 

This is a relief for Chicagoans who got mad when Toronto became one of the main filming locations for Blues Brothers 2000. That was in 1998. The producers of the sequel to The Blues Brothers took their production up north. Chicago film credibility went south. Toronto also pretended to be Chicago in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mean Girls and, of course, Chicago. Additionally, it portrayed Manhattan in American Psycho, Brooklyn in Moonstruck and Boston in Good Will Hunting. 

But the charade is over. Toronto gets to be Toronto. 

Criminal Intent Toronto’s early popularity is a promising start. Now it has to win over 125 million US households. The effort should get a boost from creator Dick Wolf’s all-powerful crime show formula. 

Throughout North America, at any time of the day, Law & Order is playing somewhere. The episodes begin with a two-beat dun-dun signaling a mystery afoot. A woman finds a body in Central Park. “I was walking my dog,” she tells investigators. An hour later, the perp is arrested, charged and sentenced. The dun-dun sounds again. It may be the first show ever binged. 

The stories are credible because random corpses seem to be part of life in the United States. But in Canada, not so much. Herein lies a challenge. Toronto has nearly the same population as Chicago, but eight times fewer murders. Great place for raising a family. Not the best for a crime show. When examined through the warped lens of a US television viewer, the difficulty intensifies. 

Depending on who you ask, Canada is a socialist paradise or a socialist nightmare. This loosey-goosey regard for “facts” is a weird result of “American Exceptionalism,” a belief that the United States is in charge of the world. 

In contrast, Canada is the party guest who arrives on time and doesn’t start fights. Even the famous ones. Minutes before receiving a Lifetime Achievement award from the Chicago International Film Festival, legendary actor and filmmaker Mike Myers joked that Canada exports hockey players, bauxite and comedians. “We’re the people who live upstairs to the cool people that live downstairs,” he said. 

A gracious compliment to the host, no doubt. But there were plenty of things he could have boasted about the undeniable benefit that Canada brings to the USA. 

In the years since Blues Brothers 2000, Chicago’s annual film and TV business has grown from an estimated $100 million to well over $600 million. A lot of that work goes through Cinespace Studios. Cinespace was founded by a Canadian immigrant named Nick Mirkopoulos. He built the original studio in Toronto before expanding it to Chicago. Thanks, Canada. 

The stories on Criminal Intent Toronto will wade into Toronto’s financial, media, political and real estate industries. The very fact that they don’t take place in the United States is a fresh idea. Hopefully, US viewers will embrace a new world of Canuck criminality and Canadian dollars, which have a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on one side and a woodchuck on the other.