Dick Wolf's Latest Procedural Defies His Tried & Tested Formula

Published Sep 7, 2026, 6:31 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While Law & Order's Dick Wolf has one of the most famously successful and reliable formulas in TV history, that has not stopped the creator’s show CIA from diverging away from this tried and true routine. The phrase “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” has never been more relevant than it is in the world of network TV. Network TV executives are infamous for playing things safe, offering viewers more of the same when a product proves profitable and avoiding experimentation and risk whenever possible. To be fair, network TV shows throughout history provide counter examples of this trend, from CBS’s innovative anthology show The Twilight Zone to the dark, trippy psychological thriller Twin Peaks to the anarchic animated absurdity of The Simpsons. However, the fact that The Simpsons is still going almost 40 years later should be proof that, even when a risky idea finds its way on to network TV, it is liable to end up becoming absorbed by the reliable, familiar formula in due course. One of the most striking examples of this phenomenon becomes clear with a glance at the career of producer Dick Wolf. Like Yellowstone’s Taylor Sheridan after him, Wolf struck gold with an early career success and TV networks then effectively asked the producer to repeat his formula as many times as possible in the year that followed. Wolf’s Law & Order ran from 1990 until 2010, and was revived in 2022, while its spinoff SVU has lasted a staggering 27 seasons. However, Wolf’s procedural CIA is now messing with his familiar formula. CIA Relies On A Partnership Instead Of A Full Ensemble Mark Schafer/CBS Since Law & Order began, Wolf’s shows have relied heavily on an ensemble of main characters to carry their stories. This is true of Law & Order, SVU, Law & Order: UK, Law & Order: LA, Law & Order True Crime, Law & Order: Organized Crime, and Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, as well as Chicago Fire and its spinoffs Chicago P.D, Chicago Med, and Chicago Justice. Meanwhile, FBI and its own spinoffs, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, also borrowed this approach. While Law & Order’s spinoff Criminal Intent mostly focused on its main character, Robert Goren, and later seasons of SVU became increasingly focused on Olivia Benson at the expense of the rest of the team’s screen time, the formula remains a constant throughout Wolf’s multi-decade body of work. Many of the shows that followed in the wake of Law & Order, like the grislier CSI franchise, Criminal Minds, and NCIS, stuck to this successful ensemble formula and spawned franchises of their own as a result. In contrast, CIA represents a major anomaly in Wolf’s canon. The show’s backbone has always been Bill and Colin's dynamic throughout its first season, and their original odd couple routine is central to its success. In classic cop show fashion, the FBI’s Bill Goodman is a straight-shooting, fastidious follower of the rules, while Tom Ellis’s CIA agent Colin Glass is a maverick who follows his own code. Why Bill & Colin's Partnership Is The Key To CIA's Success Mark Schafer/CBS Like the Lethal Weapon franchise’s Riggs and Murtaugh before them, Glass and Goodman are perfectly positioned to clash in every investigation since one of them is a loose cannon and the other is a sober, serious cop. This is the familiar dynamic that has been utilized, deconstructed, subverted, and rebuilt in everything from Rizzoli and Isles to True Detective season 1, so it is no surprise that the pair’s struggles to work together are the heart of CIA’s action, its drama, and its comedic relief. However, it is still striking to see how central this setup is to the show’s success, since it diverges so radically with Wolf’s decades-long reliance on formula over novelty. Although the premise of two cops with very different personalities putting aside their differences to work together would be a cliché in any other context, when contrasted with Dick Wolf’s reliable Law & Order setup, CIA’s premise is practically innovative. Release Date February 23, 2026 Network CBS Showrunner Mike Weiss, Warren Leight, David Hudgins Cast Nick Gehlfuss Bill Goodman Directors Eriq La Salle Writers David Hudgins, Dick Wolf Creator(s) Dick Wolf