NBC has to have something to fall back on, now that they don’t have Friends to prop up their fading TV empire anymore.
It’s a sad thing, what network TV has become.
And now, coming this fall to NBC (and TNT, and A&E, and anything else with three letters…)
Law and Order: Airport Security
I’ve hated D’Onofrio since he hammed it up in Full Metal Jacket. You know, they had to shoot Paul Sorvino to get him off the series. We can only hope Director Wolfe uses live ammo this time.
Amen!
D’Onofrio’s character drives me up the wall, with his completely unbelievable omniscience and his irritating “faux absent-minded genius” schtick. Some of his character’s crime-solving insights are so fucking improbable that i’m surprised the show is classified “drama,” not “fantasy.”
And what’s with his partner? She seems to be some sort of cipher, and i don’t even know why they bothered putting her on the show. All she ever does is nod and agree with what D’Onofrio’s character says. I don’t think she’s had an idea of her own during the whole series.
Also, for me part of the appeal of “Law and Order” is right there in the name. In the original show, we get to see the detectives go after the perps, and then the story switches to the DA’s office and we see the investigation and trial. The DA does virtually nothing in “Criminal Intent,” and the show is just another crappy detective show, “NYPD Blue” without action or interesting characters.
Well I can explain the Partner. She’s ‘window dressing’. They found out through market research that when D’Onofrio is going through his usual schtick of blathering like a psychotic baboon who’s been injected with an LSD overdose, the audience’s eyes have to move someplace…
I think you guys are missing the point of the show Criminal Intent. It’s written as a modern take on Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes was a know-it-all; so is Goren. Watson was just a kind of a trusty gofer, and so is Eames.
The writers have gone on record as saying this flavor of L&O is not supposed to be realistic.
-Law and Order: Fish and Game Commission
-Law and Order: Animal Control
-Law and Order: Rent-A-Cops
I actually like both the original series and Criminal Intent, perhaps because I realize they are not meant to be the same type of show. I love L&O because I have a law degree and enjoy watching the process of tracking a case from beginning (the crime is committed) to end (the jury verdict).
L&O: CI, on the other hand, is purely a detective show. The lawyer in me cringes occasionally at the blatant violations of the accused’s rights (such as the way Goren constantly questions the accused after he has been arrested without his lawyer being present). But the Sherlock Holmes fan in me loves the way Goran pieces the puzzle together and solves the case mentally because of his quirky memory and command of facts.
I absolutely loathe Special Victims Unit, however. I don’t consider myself a prude, but I always feel soiled after watching an episode (my wife likes it and I watch it with her occasionally). I really wish they wouldn’t dwell so much on the various perversions and degradations the victims suffer, to be honest. The intro to the show is correct when it states that sexual crimes are particularly heinous, and I don’t want to know all the sordid details of them, thank you very much.
Barry
I swear that Law and Order is secretly producing episodes that they don’t air on NBC originally. I watch it every Wednesday, yet there’s always a rerun on TNT where I go, “Hey, I’ve never seen this one.”
It’s a conspiracy, I tell ya.
Or barges into someone’s house without a warrant, or takes something from them, when they have made it very clear that they want him to leave.
At least when rights or due process are violated in the original Law and Order, it often leads to evidence being thrown out (that’s happened in quite a few episodes). And even NYPD Blue actually addresses the moral and legal implications of giving the suspect a “tune up” to get information. But Criminal Intent just acts as if anything is excusable, as long as it’s being done by the all-seeing, all-knowing Detective Goren.
I’m being reminded of a particular episode of L&O: CI. I don’t remember who died in this case, but Goren was investigating a school for youngsters who were geniuses in math. Somehow, he understood what all the greek letters meant, and determined that because one of the kids had used Omega he was screaming to the world that he was suicidal.
Not to mention that he outthought everyone there, despite their average IQ probably being about 50 points above his.
I still kinda like the show, though.
Yes, that’s exactly the sort of thing I am referring to. If it were to happen on the original series, I’d get all bent out of shape and stop watching, since the point of the series is to present a reasonably accurate portrayal of how the realms of the police and the prosecutors intersect.
Criminal Intent, on the other hand, isn’t supposed to be realistic. It’s a show about a quirky detective who can solve crimes primarily with his mind, cloaked in enough “gritty realism” to make it more interesting than, say, Monk.
Barry
I forgot to mention that since Law & Order has been such a success with branching out into spinoffs, we’re being treated to Dragnet: Miami or some such crap now. I was okay with a reworking of the original, since I thought Ed O’Neill is pretty good in it. Now, we just have a new cop show with the name Dragnet on it.
Pure bullshit.
The thing is, though, if the only place you come across Criminal Intent is on the television, through commercials and the show itself, you might never know that it was intended as a quirky homage to Sherlock Holmes. The show is sold on screen as just another one in the Law and Order franchise, right down to the “These are their stories…” intro that implies that the show reflects reality.
Also, some of the Criminal Intent episodes have started adopting the “Ripped from the headlines” approach that the original series sometimes uses, further suggesting that the show offers a realistic view of what goes on in the NYC police and justice system.
If you don’t spend time reading TV Guide (or whatever) interviews with the creators, you might never know that this show “isn’t supposed to be realistic.”
But when it comes down to it, it’s not the realism issue that bugs me the most anyway. It’s the fact that i find Goren’s character insufferable, and this is made worse by D’Onofrio’s OTT acting performance. I gave the show a season, hoping it would get better, but i’ve now abandoned it, and good riddance.
A recent episode featured a character with Asperger’s syndrome (essentially a mild form of autism that gives people a heightened ability to focus and process information, but also causes an inability to interact socially with people and various odd or compulsive behaviors). After Goren and his partner finished meeting with the guy for the first time, she said something along the lines of, “Hey – I think I just met your long-lost older brother.”
Up until that point, I thought that D’Onfrio was just, as you say, overacting. But then I realized that his character’s brilliance is tempered with certain social maladjustment disorders, and that D’Onfrio is simply being true to the character.
Again, this is in contrast to Monk, which is played as broad company and features a brilliant detective who is all quirks and neuroses. I find that D’Onfrio’s portrayal of a “quirky genius” is much more believable, especially since I’ve actually known people like that.
I should point out, BTW, that I only recently started watching the show (Criminal Intent, that is – I’ve been watching regular L&O for many years), and I started watching it because I liked the descriptions I heard of it. So I went into it with eyes and expectations wide open. I can see why one might be disappointed if one were expecting merely a L&O clone set in a different part of the city.
I still loathe SVU, though…
Barry
Law and Order: Senior Volunteer Patrol
I love all three of the Law and Order series, but I particularly love Vincent D’Onofrio’s character. Must be my affinity for unrealistically brilliant rogue detectives (though oddly enough, I’m not much of a Sherlock Holmes fan). I do find some of the things Detective Goren knows rather hilariously unlikely, but hey, he’s supposed to be larger than life.
And I like SVU, particularly Mariska Hargitay… mmmm, mmm! Although I liked her looks better in the first season; her hair, and particularly her eyebrows, are a little strange these days. But despite her new look, I love the show … though I am glad they’ve toned things down since the first season. People being sodomized with bananas was a bit unsettling.
Dragnet: Miami? What? I hadn’t heard about that. There’s CSI: Miami, the spinoff of CSI which I find to be pretty good, just like the original CSI … and Dragnet has been renamed L.A. Dragnet to better distinguish it from New York police shows … but Dragnet: Miami?
spooje is correct re: L & O C I. I was totally prepared to like it. Gave up quickly first episode first season. Have ended up watching two entire episodes on other occasions, and see no reason to change my opinion. and, as is typical in my life, the damn show has been on what, several years? and I’ve watched 2 full episodes??? Each one 2 times (as in nothin’ else to watch, ok, I’ll deal with the again - what the fuck, it’s the one of the two goddamn episodes I already saw???)
I also agree that for much of the week, an old L & O beats the hell out of any first run episode of the current crap.
I have to go take my walker out to get recalibrated now.
Law and Order: Mall Security
Law and Order: Fashion Police