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Law & Order: Criminal Intent is the second spin-off of Dick Wolf’s long-running crime drama series, Law & Order. The spin-off made its debut in 2001, starring Vincent D’Onofrio as Detective Robert Goren and Kathryn Erbe as Detective Alexandra Eames. The detectives belong to the New York Police Department’s Major Case squad, which investigates cases that involve influential people and politicians, as well as all other high-profile cases. It’s led by Captain James Deakins (Jamey Sheridan) and aided by Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver (Courtney B. Vance).
All of the episodes begin with a murder. The detectives are called in to investigate, but the investigations often lead to a much different—and unexpected—criminal. The middle of the episode shows the police investigation and the criminal’s attempt to finish what he or she started, while being chased by Goren and Eames. Most episodes then end with a confrontation between Goren and the main suspect.
Detective Goren is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, and his knowledge of criminal behavior and psychology is what drives the show’s first season. There’s seemingly nothing he doesn’t know, and he’ll go to any lengths to get a confession. He seems to have a grasp of any suspect’s point of vulnerability, and he uses it to get the results he wants. The other characters add very little to this formula—and, for some of the episodes, they could have been left out, and little would be lost.
One of my favorite episodes is the pilot, in which two college students are killed when they disrupt a jewel heist. The detectives use a variety of sources—and even a bit of deception—to flip a suspect who will lead them to the others involved in the theft and killings.
At the same time, I wasn’t particularly thrilled with some of the other episodes. “Tuxedo Hill” is an Enron-type story, in which a murder is used to blackmail a woman and force her to sign an exaggerated financial document for her company. At one point in the episode, Goren links the actions of the greedy officials of the company to the events of September 11. At the time, September 11 was still on everyone’s mind, and that part of the story seemed too contrived.
The first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent seems to have been a vehicle for Goren to show his brilliance in a variety of situations—and to show the range of cases that the major case squad covers. It has its ups and downs, but, for a first season, it has a lot more hits than misses.
