It's a character unto itself.

I'm not a cynical fellow, and I welcome creative descriptions of things. I am tired, though, of filmmakers and reviewers referring to things that are not actors as "characters". Locations get called this a lot. "The city is like a character unto itself," they say. Props can get this treatment, too; from furniture to cigarettes. It's the same kind of sideways hyperbole that leads otherwise good men and women to use the word "literally" when they mean "figuratively".

Also, there are a lot of Law and Order spin-offs. Too many, maybe.