Few could take on the monumental task of bringing the Law & Order franchise up north quite like Tassie Cameron.

Erin Haskett, president of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent prodco Lark Productions, says one of the biggest challenges of hiring a showrunner was finding someone who could make the Dick Wolf brand uniquely Canadian while staying true to the show’s success – and its massive show bible. Cameron was one of the first people she thought of.

“She’s one of the original procedural writers in this country,” Haskett tells Playback. “But she has also taken some of those procedurals in a direction that is aspirational and character-driven, and also feels as much Canadian as it does any other part of the world.”

Cameron’s extensive resume includes international hits like Global’s Rookie Blue and Mary Kills People, CTV’s Flashpoint and CBC’s Pretty Hard Cases, but even she had to prove her concept and compete against other potential writers before officially getting the gig. So, she studied the franchise, read the bible and tapped into that part of her brain for a test pilot. She also leaned into Toronto for inspiration while avoiding clichés, like people constantly apologizing or assuming that all Canadians have the same accent.

“It’s creating a puzzle and putting the pieces on the page and on the screen for people to solve with you,” says Cameron. “This is that on steroids. You get more clues, more twists, more suspects, but all the years of doing procedurals and knowing a lot about policing at this point helped me.”

When the series debuted on Citytv and Citytv+ last year, it secured 1.1 million overnight viewers, becoming Citytv’s top drama series premiere and its No. 1 original scripted series. Earlier this year the broadcaster, with the encouragement of Lark and global distributor Universal Television, renewed the show for two seasons.

Citytv helped create that initial buzz with a massive advertising campaign that included radio and television spots, playing the show’s distinctive chimes at the Rogers Centre in Toronto before Blue Jays games and an array of other cross-promotions. Globally, Universal Television has sold the series to more than 80 territories worldwide to date, including the U.K., Australia, India, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and regions in Africa. But, behind the scenes, Haskett says it was Cameron’s leadership that led to the show’s overall success.

“She has such a genuine curiosity about people and stories,” she adds. “If someone has a note or a question, she wants to know where the question is coming from so nothing is dismissed, nothing is pushed away.”

Amy Cameron, who partnered with her sister on their company Cameron Pictures and is an executive producer on the series, recalls Tassie changing the finale in a season of Mary Kills People after someone from the AD team pitched a great idea.

“She’s incredibly open to feedback from all departments,” she says. “I’ve seen her build an entire storyline based on a wonderful location someone found. I’ve seen her take notes from PAs. The openness she exhibits with creative while maintaining that strong vision is what draws people and writers to her.”

Amy says this show in particular was an ambitious task for Tassie, given that it’s the first original international installment in the franchise, with original characters and stories. She had to “follow a certain recipe for this world,” like dedicating 10% of the show to the suspect’s perspective. Characters also don’t go into the courtroom often, and each episode ends with an aria where the detectives lay out their case.

“It’s a challenging piece, because you can’t have your audience too far ahead of your investigators, so there’s a bit of a tricky dance that happens,” says Amy.

Furthermore, all episodes are inspired by real Canadian crimes. Tassie says it’s been a “fascinating intellectual exercise” sussing out which headlines lead to successful episodes and which ones have hidden “booby traps,” like missing kids, serial killers or cases where police are culpable in the problem.

“Some of the most famous Canadian cases come with a lot of baggage,” she says. “There are narratives built around some of the big stories that are hard to put your own stamp on. Or with serial killers, they’re hard to do because it’s quite hard to analyze a psychopath’s criminal intent.”

For both sisters, telling crime stories is in their blood. The daughters of the late, celebrated investigative journalist Stevie Cameron recall their mom’s instincts for chasing a great story, or her excitement of a mystery unfolding.

“She would have been the greatest story engine on the show and would have had so much fun pitching ideas, sending us stories, throwing turns of phrase. This is absolutely the world she would have dabbled in,” says Amy.

“It does feel very full circle,” adds Tassie. “We listened to my mom talk about Canada, about crime, about policing, about justice, about law, about news for our whole lives. You can’t avoid thinking like her and it’s given us both real skills in this show.”

Photo by Christina Gapic

This story originally appeared in Playback’s 2024 Winter issue