The Good: Behind-the-scenes featurette is interesting
The Bad: Bland episode, Boring extras, Not enough value
The Basics: In a surprisingly lackluster pilot episode (and equally uninspired DVD release), the Law & Order franchise presents a pretty straightforward detective story.
A few days ago, I picked up the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - The Premiere Episode on DVD (reveiwed here!) because I had a casual interest in the series. While I found the pilot episode decent, the point of a one (or two, there was the original Law & Order pilot as well) episode DVD counterproductive, I basically enjoyed the content of the disc. I had never seen Law & Order: Criminal Intent before, but a friend of mine is a huge fan of Vincent D'Onofrio as Detective Goren, so I decided I would give her the benefit of the doubt and pick up Law & Order: Criminal Intent - The Premiere Episode on DVD.
A squad of thieves pulls off a daring heist of a jewelry store by breaking into the vault from a nearby basement. The heist is carried off flawlessly until two young people come home and Carl Atwood (the leader of the gang) goes on a killing spree, shooting the two interlopers and one of his own gang. Enter Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra James, from the Major Case Squad, sent to find who committed the heist and the murders. They follow a series of clues through multiple phony identifications, through the databases in the United States, Canada and Serbia to uncover the identities of the theives and bring them to justice.
"One," the premiere episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent is fairly straightforward and even blase cop work. This episode (and this franchise) is billed as the Law & Order Sherlock Holmes. But there's nothing especially new or exciting here, at least not for me. The techniques employed by Goren are pretty much the same ones used by Frank Black on Millennium (reviewed here!) and the episode had a very familiar feel to it. Indeed, this felt less like Law & Order: SVU - which I have a passing familiarity with - and more like NYPD Blue (season one reviewed here!). Instead of being very much like Sherlock Holmes, this seemed like just another police detective show where the trail of clues leads the detectives to a perpetrator who they manipulate to turn in their co-conspirators.
That's not to say the episode wasn't good, it just was not special or fabulous. Or even remotely original. Okay, I have no idea how this series survived its pilot. There are moments in it that are interesting, but they are all acting moments (not even character moments, but just acting bits). Vincent D'Onofrio is decent in the role, but he's playing a police detective employing the same tools as virtually every other detective on television since . . . well, before Frank Black. Goren might seem like a clever guy, but the truth is, as someone who hung around with NYPD Blue until the bitter end (I actually enjoyed some of the later seasons when Sipowicz became a mentor), none of this is new. Even a character who began as controversially and unconventionally as Sipowicz employs basic detective techniques and in "One," that's all we're truly seeing.
D'Onofrio is good, but the role is nothing special. Kathryn Erbe, who plays James, is relegated to the role of Watson and she has little presence in the pilot, though she does draw the eye. That's not to say she's just a pretty face, but rather that she has presence, whether the producers and directors use her well or not.
On the only original bonus feature on the DVD, series creator Dick Wolf likens Law & Order to Campbell's soup. If Law & Order: SVU is a hearty stew, then the pilot episode (at least) of Law & Order: Criminal Intent is condensed Chicken Noodle watered down by a child. It's weak, familiar, and dull in comparison. As far as the DVD goes, this disc suffers many of the same weaknesses as the SVU premiere episode DVD: there is no commentary, the bonuses include the same Law & Order (prime) pilot "Everybody's Favorite Bagman" and the same Law & Order featurette on the origins of the prime series. The only original featurette is Law & Order: Criminal Intent - The Beginning which has producers, actors and the franchise creator talking about Criminal Intent. It, alas, sets the viewer up unrealistically for what is available on the disc. Instead of giving more than one episode to the viewer, this just teases them with what the series is. And in "One," it's not there yet.
The result is a feeling of being jerked around. The featurette displays scenes that are far more interesting than what the viewer is treated to in the pilot episode and it's a letdown to shell out any money for a DVD with so little value as this.
For other single episode reviews, please check out my takes on:
“Welcome To The Hellmouth” - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale
“The Subway” - Homicide: Life On The Street
4/10
For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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