I decided recently that Law & Order is satisfying in some deep, weird way: like it’s evidence that there’s order in the world even when you don’t have any sense of it in your own.
I was never ever interested in these shows until after I developed PTSD, which is why my conclusion. Some nights I can’t take watching, but I watch anyway; it feels nearly compulsive, good & bad for me at the same time. Good because there is always something satisfying about plot-driven procedurals and bad because it’s a reminder of all the ways you can die.