Let me state from the outset that I’m a big fan of Law & Order and all its various spin-offs.

I was watching back when Chris Noth made his first appearance (long before his Mr Big days on Sex and the City). I remember when Detective Stabler was still happily married and before Goren’s curious idiosyncrasies turned into full-blown weirdness.

But lately I’ve lost that lovin’ feeling; I've even dozed off on the couch once or twice mid-episode. And it’s not just because Channel 10 has taken the “order” out of the title by showing episodes out of sync, shoving repeats in for weeks at a time and, now, mucking around with the scheduling times.

No, it’s partly because the scriptwriters seem to have lost the plot.

Did anyone else see Thursday night’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent? It basically re-enacted the whole sorry saga of Anna Nicole Smith's son's death and then her own tragic demise ... complete with dodgy lawyer, paternity tests and rampant drug use.

The only difference in the Law & Order version of events is that all names were changed to protect the not-so-innocent and people were arrested in the case of both deaths.

Given that Anna Nicole's story has been covered from every possible angle in the media, I have no idea why the scriptwriters decided to rehash it again - unless they're simply run out of ideas.

But it's not just the plots that are losing me, it also the characters.

Ice T's portrayal of Detective Tutuola seems to get more wooden by the week, and don’t even get me started on Detective Goren, whose obsessive-compulsive tendencies have gone from being an endearing quirk to downright annoying.

And does anyone else think BD Wong – the irritating shrink who makes a habit of stating the blindingly obvious – is just plan wrong?

It’s not all bad. I'm a big fan of SVU's Detective Olivia Benson (played by Mariska Hargitay, Jane Mansfield's daughter). I also have a soft spot for Detective Big (er, Logan) and I think bringing Julianne Nicholson on board as his partner was a brilliant move.

But increasingly, these days, I find I prefer the golden oldie re-runs on Austar over the slick new episodes on Ten.

Law & Order is apparently the longest-running crime series and the second-longest-running drama series in the history of television link to NBC website ... maybe it’s done its time.

What do you think?

- Suzanne Keen