Dennis Farina made his debut on NBC's Law & Order last night.

He takes over the partner function previously played by George Dzunda, then Paul Sorvino, then Jerry Orbach. (For those keeping track of Law & Order lineage.)

As the nattily dressed, smooth-talking, ethically suspicious Det. Fontana, he'll do.

During the show's 2004-2005 premier - a story line centered around an Iraqi woman who seeks revenge against a former U.S. military prison guard from Abu Ghraib - we got to see performances from big-screen veterans Farina, Fred Thompson and Ron Silver. (The presence of two speakers from the recent Republican National Convention - Thompson and Silver - made it possible to sit through the Abu Ghraib story line without feeling like it was a knee-jerk, liberal anti-war production.)

It looked like a good start to what will hopefully be an interesting season.