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Law & Order Criminal Intent - The Second Year
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Courtney B. Vance, Jamey Sheridan, Kathryn Erbe, Leslie Hendrix, Vincent D'Onofrio Brand: Universal Studios DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 60 minutes DVD Release Date: 2006-12-12 Audience Rating: Unrated Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Law & Order Criminal Intent - The Second YearMovie Review: Everything comes together in this season Summary: 5 Stars
To me this is the season of Law & Order Criminal Intent where the show came into its own. I think this is where the Holmes and Watson-like partnership of Goren and Eames really began to gel.
Kathryn Erbe is great as Detective Alexandra Eames, Goren's partner, who is the no-nonsense fact gathering detective, seemingly content to stay out of the limelight. D'Onofrio plays Robert Goren the "Renaissance Man Detective/Psychologist" in a way that is not only believable but intriguing. I can't think of another actor who could pull off such a role and not have it come across as somewhat silly, such as when Adam West as Batman used to solve those riddles from the Riddler by making huge nonsensical leaps in logic.
Vincent D'Onofrio, however, is quite appealing in the role as the multi-faceted and slightly geeky detective with vague shades of the more obvious sociopathy he confronts in his suspects. Rather than stealing the show by being overly macho like your typical TV cop, D'Onofrio does so by daring to be weird. He allows his geekiness to lull people into a false sense of security and then he pulls off his sneaky magic. He'll pretend to be unfamiliar with what is and is not valid testimony in order to mention inadmissable evidence while on the stand in court, or he'll spill something or knock something over to catch a suspect off guard. He delights in toying with arrogant suspects like a cat with a mouse, but he is careful to be sensitive to old ladies and children. Just as he starts to show the faintest signs of macho behavior, he'll jump up and declare "I must get to a library before it's too late!" In fitting with his character, D'Onofrio will take up long blocks of time just thinking, but somehow this does not slow down the pace of the show. That is because of how he manages to turn thinking into a kind of performing in itself. In the midst of the show's action he will pause mid-sentence. He looks around and wrinkles up his face. We wonder what it is he could possibly be pondering - what is it that he has just noticed that the rest of us have missed? The audience already knows who committed the crime. The fun of it all is watching D'Onofrio figure it all out then use his cunning to prove what he knows.
As for individual episodes, "Anti-Thesis" was probably the best episode of the season. The one-on-one between Goren and arch-criminal Nicole Wallace is outstanding as she is one of the rare villains to successfully turn the tables on Goren. Nicole shows up again in another excellent episode "A Person of Interest", which happens to be the season finale. In it, Detective Goren is accused of instigating the supposed suicide of a murder suspect, but the plot unravels, as many fine CI plots do, to reveal a completely different, more sinister suspect - Nicole. If anything, this episode made me respect Nicole even more, for her calculating and so-far infallible shrewdness, providing the perfect foil for Goren. The look on Goren's face when he first thought that Croyden's death was his fault was very poignant. This is really the only episode in which Goren's confidence in his perceptions is truly shaken, and it's heartbreaking to watch. If Goren is Sherlock Holmes, Nicole is truly his Moriarty.
Another great episode that was bizarre even by this series' standards was "Cold Comfort". An old senator dies and his son and daughter are fighting over his body. The son wants him buried according to the father's wishes. The daughter wants him cryogenically frozen so they can be together in years to come. So far, so bizarre. She has the legal paperwork, so it looks like she's winning. Unfortunately for her a quick trip to the bathroom results in a knife to the upper thigh and a very bloody death. Then things get complicated. Who did it and why? The answers are convoluted but clever and as usual Goran and Eames unravel the story piece by piece and are led to a powerful man who it seems will stop at nothing for his family. It turns out that the late senator had suffered from early onset Alzheimer's, but miraculously recovered, and the previously mentioned powerful man has a son suffering from the very same disease. The daughter's plans for freezing the senator would have denied the powerful man the ability to carve up the dead senator's brain and have it studied in hopes of finding a cure for his son. It's not a series classic, but it does keep you guessing.
In summary, this is probably the best season of Law & Order CI, and I highly recommend it.
Summary of Law & Order Criminal Intent - The Second YearLAW & ORDER:CRIMINAL INTENT SEASON 2 - DVD Movie
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