After the season’s best episode so far, last week’s subtly moving “The War at Home,” this one about fallen child TV stars and the Albanian mafia was bound to be a bit of a letdown and — big surprise — it was.I know I’m not the only one who’s becoming uncomfortable with the Law & Order franchise’s growing dependence on “current events” (read: E!News fodder) for plotlines. This episode’s basis in the lives of ex-Saved by the Bell cast members was so thinly veiled, if Dustin Diamond weren’t so desperate for publicity that he’d peddle his own sex tape, I’m sure Screech would be making a slander case.Instead, it might be Dancing with the Stars loser Mario Lopez (aka A.C. Slater) calling up his lawyer — and maybe even winning the suit. Can’t you just hear the Criminal Intent writers’ defense: “You see, their character was named Slater, but our character was named Skater.” Come on, Skat...
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Julianne Nicholson with Justin Kirk in Flannel Pajamas
A veteran of such short-lived series as The Others, Presidio Med and last season's ADA dud, Conviction, Julianne Nicholson has finally found steady employment as Chris Noth's seemingly omniscient partner on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Before landing her breakthrough gig as Detective Megan Wheeler on the NBC stalwart, the freckle-faced beauty starred in a slew of indie flicks, including Flannel Pajamas, which opens today in New York. Reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, the film chronicles the roller-coaster romance between Nicole (Nicholson) and Stuart (Weeds'
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Well, tonight's hour makes it two freak-show episodes in a row. After last week’s Liza-fest, this time we got a whole motley crew: a country-punk producer with a fragile spleen, a bouncer who based his life on Batman and Mortal Kombat, and then the usual assortment of cokehead strippers and sleazeball club owners.And while this sideshow act made for an entertaining look into the seedy business that’s birthed recent monstrosities such as Brooke Hogan and Paris Hilton, it wasn’t exactly deeply resonant drama.Miss Western Pennsylvania may have slept with her producer and then had her husband unknowingly off the poor little guy, but she did it all for love. Really. Just like hubby did it all for love — and bragging rights with his tobacco-chewin’ clan back east and assuaging his bruised ego. But for love, too.I didn’t exactly feel anything, but I’ll admit to being surprised when Miss Western PA pled to orchestrating the whole murder. I had pegged the h...
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Having missed the second episode of this season – which apparently introduced new detective Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson) and Law & Order vet as her partner, Logan – last night was time for me to play a little catch up.My first impressions of the new team? Big success. Though Goren (Vincent D’Onofrio) was usually the most interesting part of CI, after a couple seasons of his nervous ticks and crime-solving-through-encyclopedia-memorization technique, I was ready for a little break from all those idiosyncrasies.And, from what I saw last night, Logan and Wheeler are the perfect Yin to the old pair’s Yang. You see, Logan is what they apparently call “old school” on the mean streets of NYC. So whereas Goren indulged his predilection (some might say fetish) for playing twisted mind games with suspects and perps, Logan doesn’t hesitate to hammer out a back-alley deal or just take a couple swings.And he took a bunch of them last night. My jaw was on th...
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Question: Is NBC trying to kill off Law & Order? How else would you explain them putting it opposite Lost? I think that NBC is content to just have Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (which is clearly the best of the L&O shows) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (only watchable when Chris Noth is on) in their stable and bid farewell to the original. It's too bad. L&O has been a good show for a long time. Who knew that the death of Jerry Orbach would be so devastating? No offense to Dennis Farina, but he has been unable to generate any interest from this fan.
Answer: I agree that classic Law & Order's glory days are behind it, but NBC (which merged a while back with Law & Order's parent company, Universal) isn't about to kill it or let it go just yet, regardless of this latest short-term, boneheaded move. (Second only to CBS continuing to run Amazing Race at the too-late hour of 10 pm/ET on Tuesdays.) If Law & Order were being thrown to the wolves — not just Lost, but the American Idol
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Courtney B. Vance, Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Most actors would kill for a regular role on a series — particularly any piece of the criminally successful Law & Order franchise. But initially, Courtney B. Vance was skeptical when L&O creator Dick Wolf offered him the part of Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (on NBC, Sundays at 9 pm/ET) back in 2001. Not only was Vance reluctant to tie himself down to one project, he didn't like the idea of leaving his wife, Angela Bassett, back in Los Angeles while he shot the show in New York City. Eventually Vance signed on, and this past January, L&O: CI reached a major milestone: 100 episodes. The residuals alone co
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First off, I'd like to apologize to Jamey Sheridan for my tacky eye-patch comments from last week. The reason he wore it (which I wanted to know anyway) was the medical condition known as Bell's palsy, as a lot of people wrote into tell me. Pointless aside that I can't fit anywhere else: Ever notice that D.A. Carver is holding a knife in the opening credits? Now, on with the analyzin': This heavily hyped two-hour "event" began with a missing popular high-school girl, nipple clips and a guy who bites girls on the lip. Dug the ersatz Nancy Grace. "Smell the rotting meat in the air, that's the vultures gathering..." mused Deakins. Bethany (the name alone suggests a naïve tart — why didn't they call her Catherine or Joanne?) wasn't the only missing girl — there was a black girl who also disappeared. Nancy Grace apparently had no
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Mr. Big vs. Tennessee Buck. Gotta love it. Chris Noth's hard-luck cop Mike Logan — previously exiled to Staten Island for slugging a politician — took on David Keith's rogue detective Mark Virgini, a man hardly as innocent as his name implied. At first, Mike wasn't eager to bring down a fellow cop. As Barek said, "You know what it's like being on the wrong end of the microscope." Mike's volatile, sure. Let's face it, that's what makes him so much fun. Moreover, there are few things more satisfying in a cop show than the sight of Logan sticking it to a creep — and heaven knows Virgini qualified. When the scum wasn't moonlighting as a hit man (he shot a bookie multiple times in a sensitive male area) he was offering his daughter R
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NBC may relocate Law & Order: Criminal Intent from Sundays at 9 pm to Fridays at 10 pm to get it out of Desperate Housewives' line of fire, per The Hollywood Reporter. Now if the Peacock really wanted to help CI, it would bench Vincent D'Onofrio and bring in Chris Noth full-time. There, I said it. And now I'm going to hide under my desk 'cause D'Onofrio scares the bejesus out of me.
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Lock and load... Chris Noth is back in the L&O universe as Det. Mike Logan. But don't be fooled by those flecks of gray at the temples — the dude hasn't mellowed an iota. "I'm a get-along kind of guy," he says, savoring the irony with a pugnacious smile. "I'm just glad to be here." Happily, Logan and Annabelle Sciorra's Det. Carolyn Barek will divide the caseload this season with spoiled, obnoxious Goren and underappreciated Eames (who has a lovely pair of... biceps). Poor Kathryn Erbe deserves a special Emmy just for putting up with Vincent D'Onofrio's serial scene-hogging. He's just asking to be torpedoed by SNL (although that might be asking too much of, say, Horatio Sanz). You know D'Onofrio's ego is out of control when Goren one-ups M.E. Rogers (Leslie Hendrix) during an autopsy. The redheaded Hendrix is the unsung heroine of all the
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