When I first started watching Law & Order back in high school, the Assistant District Attorney character was Claire Kincaid.

We like Claire. Claire was intelligent, resourceful, moderately good-looking by TV standards... and there were hints that she and Jack McCoy (the incomparable Sam Waterston) were gettin' it on. Claire could use her feminine wiles to crack a case and you didn't feel like she was some big whore, cause she was totally in control.

Claire was replaced by Abby. Abby was played by Angie Harmon, a supermodel. This could have been disastrous, but Angie's quite a good actress, and she pulled the part off well. Occasionally Abby would wear a tank top around the office - what the hell, Abby? - but overall her presence was a positive. Abby left at the end of last season.

Well, I just got finished watching the season premiere. Abby's replacement is named Serena Southerlyn, although her first name was never mentioned in this episode. Serena is... not very good. Continuing along the trend of more TV-good-looking but less capable actresses, Law & Order now gives us a blonde ADA who can't be much older than me and doesn't quite have the gravitas to come close to even Angie Harmon. This woman doesn't deserve to lick Sam Waterston's boots, people. Her delivery of the all-important pithy ending remark completely fell flat (besides not really making any sense). She basically comes across as a little spoiled brat who got the job because her uncle is the mayor or something.

But she's got an umlaut in her name, so she can't be all bad.