It’s been a Law & Order summer. Accepting cable offerings over the past couple of months has meant a strange and different kind of downtime: using non-occupation time at odd hours to catch up on several years’ worth of episodes of all three Dick Wolf productions – Law & Order marathons and mini-marathons, Special Victims Unit marathons, Vincent d’Onofrio marathons. Those last sort of resemble the last half hour of (Hitchcock’s) Psycho infused with Columbo and converted into television, but they’re still fun.

In fact on the whole it’s been an interesting experience. Of the three, SVU generally has the deepest resonances. The original Law & Order synopsizes legal and ethical issues with impressive economy. Criminal Intent includes some useless trivia and a range of general information on topics across the spectrum. Undoubtedly I’ll soon have to follow my son’s (stern) advice and progress to The Wire – praised by the best – but watching Law & Order has been time well wasted.

The series also offers the character of District Attorney Arthur Branch. So far in over a hundred episodes the name “Fred Dalton Thompson” has popped up in white letters on a black small screen, looking like one of the fictional captions itself, but somehow exactly the opposite of those old movies from an era when the presidency was so highly revered that The President was shown only from behind his high-backed chair, never in full face, not even addressed by name.

Btw, “addressed” (verb) is pronounced with accent on the second syllable. “Address” (noun) as in street address – house number, apartment complex, block where the fatal taxi stood, etc – should be pronounced, and not only in the South, with accent on the first syllable. Only Sam Waterston gets this one right on Law & Order; every other character who walks onto the set for a glimmer – cops, lawyers, hookers, art experts, hit men, forgers, you name it – mispronounces it, and always in exactly the same way, throwing me out of the willing suspension of disbelief every time.

Meanwhile -- wonderful how Arthur Branch inspires adjectives. He doesn’t actually provide many plot points, if you look at the character. He’s more a collection of highly palatable attributes. Not too many verbs – actions; just lots of characterizations.

Reassuring.

Judicious. He sees through stuff without being invasive. Without being rude, he can cut to the chase.

Without cheapening peace and harmony by mentioning them, he brings opposing individuals (in law) together, reconciles opposites.

A tad forbidding, perhaps, but always good-tempered. Stern at times when necessary, but never froths at the mouth. Gives commands without being domineering.

Never would he be associated with lobbyists. Handlers. Image consultants.

Socializes with women like a gent – in decorous restaurants and quasi-official functions, you might glimpse him having a cocktail or dinner with a nicely dressed woman of sensible age, with whom he clearly shares history in law or public policy.

Never would he build himself up. Never is he heard defending himself. He never has to. The aura of authority carries his point mostly alone; all Branch has to do is occasionally clarify matters with a folksy aphorism or a down-to-earth reminiscence.

He defends a position; it stands. He gives an order; it’s followed.

What a role: crusty but polished, laconic though educated.

Trustworthy.