DVD Review: Law & Order Criminal Intent – The First Year

If you buy a DVD set of a TV series, here is a hint: start with the first year. It’s the first year of a television series where it had to be good enough to survive or to develop as the season went on. Law & Order: Criminal Intent is perhaps the most intriguing of Dick Wolfe’s L&O mega-franchise. His inspiration for it was reportedly Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Watson. And in this must-own set, you can see this embryonic idea there — quickly taking shape as the episodes progress.

In the very first, pilot episode of this show where we see a murder but don’t know the killer, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Etc. Robert “Bobby” Goren seems to be just one more TV detective. D’Onofrio’s acting could is pro forma TV cop fare in this first entry. Even the show’s plot line is more standard TV fare (more of a robbery “caper” plot). This isn’t a small matter because in the end Criminal Intent, in its first seasons, became a hit not just due to the crisp writing and direction, or to Kathryn Erbe as Goren’s less caffeinated partner, Alexandria Eames, but due to D’Onofrio’s classic, often quirky, multi-layered performance as Goren.

Perhaps the only TV cop as fascinating as Goren was Dennis Franz, as Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue. With each episode during the first season, you can see D’Onofrio’s Goren become more complex, crafty and fascinating…the way he leans into a suspect or cocks his head while questioning them…smells a dead person’s hand…uses the Columbo style trick of walking away from a suspect then turning to ask one more (damning) question…reacts to getting an idea that solves the case…draws suspects into his vision almost hypnotically using info he has gathered about them until the criminals reveal a clinching detail or lose it and confess. It is indeed a show of many surprises, twists, red herrings, guest stars showing their true acting chops, scripts masterfully written capped by a superb supporting cast that includes Jamey Sheridan as the detectives’ CO and the quintessentially cool Courtney B. Vance as Assistant District Attorney Carver.

But what delivers the production in the first season is D’Onofrio who at first glance can be a theatrical acquired taste much more out of the Marlon Brando method acting school than 1950s or 1960s police show actors. With each episode, the series gets stronger and the genius of the characters of Goren (Holmes) and Eames (Watson) — and the actors who play them — grow. The only time the first season collection seems to jump the shark is during episodes involving Goren matching wits with his criminal nemesis Nichole Wallace. Yes, Holmes had a master criminal nemesis, too. But the Goren-Wallace match ups appear throughout the serie’s years and those these episodes seem like strained over-reaching and are only worth one viewing.

The other episodes pass an important test: they can be viewed multiple times — which is why Law & Order Criminal Intent is run over and over on several cable stations.

FOOTNOTE: On many TV series that survive or are hits, season two is often worth viewing as well since that’s when a series has established its main premise and comes into its own. Further years of TV shows can become increasingly spotty: shows can become either proforma and plot lines a little too coincidental or far out. For instance, on NYPD Blue it seems as if anyone Sifowitz came was close to wound up dead. Franz’s award-winning acting never sagged but the script-writers’ ideas did.

On a scale of 10 Law & Order Criminal Intent gets a 10.