While many of the scripted dramas we’re looking at have heavy soap opera-style elements and arc plots relating to the relationships between characters, one thing many of them have in common is a core structure based around standalone episodes and stories told over just one hour (45 minutes, if you take out the adverts). This means that viewers can dip in and out of the show if they choose to. They might miss some of the details of the characters’ relationships and development, but anyone can follow the basic story of any episode without needing to know the background. This means that new viewers can join in at any time and viewers who had drifted away from the show can come back to it. This is part of the key to Law & Order’s success and one of the reasons its spin-off series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has reached more than 400 episodes as well and is still going.

Further Reading: The Best True Crime Series Available to Stream Right Now

100th episode: Law & Order didn’t really go in for celebrating milestone episodes and several are fairly basic installments of the show. In this 100th episode, a former Catholic priest is involved in the murder of an abortion doctor, based on the real-life case of former Presbyterian minister Paul Jennings Hill.

200th episode: A man kidnaps his two children after being denied custody and has entirely controlled their lives and brainwashed them – a rather depressing episode.

300th episode: The team investigates multiple crimes on the same day. This is a bit more out of the ordinary, but it was a format they’d already used in an earlier season 4 episode.