Another Lone Episode Premiere Makes Me Ask, "What's The Point?"

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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The Dinosaurs Resurrect! DVD Devolves With Law & Order: SVU - The Premiere Episode!

The Good: Good episode with good acting, interesting characters and decent plot
The Bad: It's one episode, DVD bonuses are underwhelming, Poor value
The Basics: In an issue solely of value, Law & Order: SVU - The Premiere Episode fails to live up to the strengths of the medium.


I thought when Star Trek had finally gone from exorbitantly priced single-episode VHS tapes and dual-episode DVDs to DVD Season Boxed sets like the rest of the civilized world, I had seen the last of the single-episode priced-to-own "video." I was wrong. Law & Order: SVU, a show I have occasion to enjoy marathons of when I am on business trips and I have Saturday night cable blahs. I have to say, I enjoy the series and I've been an enthusiastic casual viewer of it (i.e. I'll watch it when it's on and I'm not doing anything else). So, when I saw Law & Order: SVU - The Premiere Episode on DVD, I was both pleasantly surprised, not-surprised-at-all, and a little disappointed.

Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson arrive on the scene of a cab driver's murder to discover that the sexual nature of the crime is that his penis has been lopped off. What seems like it might be a simple case soon becomes a convoluted identity crisis that finds the cabby to be a Serbian war criminal who has as many enemies as New York City has bagel bakeries. Stabler's loyalty to his partner is put in jeopardy when Olivia's backstory comes into play and she is forced to empathize with the victim of the murder as opposed to the victims of the prior rapes.

And Munch shows up.

I mention this last part because in many ways, "Payback" has many of the trappings of a pilot episode. While not catching the viewer with a beginning (i.e. this is not the story of how the Special Victims Unit is formed, though it is clear the squad is fairly new), it is clearly a beginning wherein characters deliver some seriously awkward dialogue in order to provide expository characterization. Detective John Munch is a character who originated on Homicide: Life On The Street (reviewed here!) and his presence here had to be explained. He has little purpose in the episode, save to show up.

I recall when Law & Order: SVU first aired. Ironically, the next day, I happened to catch "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" and she was saying she found the episode distasteful and would probably not be watching it again. Actually, that I remember that after all this time amuses me. That might have more to do with the fact that I watched so few episodes of The Rosie O'Donnell Show than being actually interesting to me.

That said, it was enough to put me off watching Law & Order: SVU for some time; I'm quite sensitive about violence toward women and sex crimes bug me. I've never found watching shows about sexual crimes to be particularly entertaining and as a result, I could not see the appeal of watching a show like "SVU" for a long time. Now, having watched "Payback," I have to say I'm glad I did and the whole concept of the show makes sense to me. It's not about sex crimes, it's about the search for justice and the crimes - being particularly heinous - warrant justice in a remarkably black and white way. As a fan of shows where shades of gray rule, it's refreshing to watch something rather cut and dry like this.

As far as being Law & Order, though, this pilot episode falls dramatically short. The "Order" half of the original concept is almost entirely absent. There's no regular D.A. to handle the trial and the premiere episode of the series ends without one. I have to admit, I was fine with that. As more of a fan of NYPD Blue (season four reviewed here!), I tend to like the stories of the squad as opposed to the concept of Law & Order which was begun as a series of back-to-back half-hour episodes focusing on police work and the prosecutor's struggles.

How do I know so much about the concept of Law & Order when I've only seen one episode of the prime series? Well, the premiere episode of Law & Order is on the disc with the premiere episode of Law & Order: SVU. There are also three featurettes: an introduction to Law & Order, an introduction to Law & Order: SVU and a tour of the SVU squadroom. Having absolutely no interest in Law & Order (less after twenty minutes of hearing the concept of the show and about behind-the-scenes stuff and having now seen the pilot episode), the DVD bonuses on this release are a bit thin.

The SVU-related bonuses are interesting enough, but do not hold up well over multiple viewings. Moreover, there is no commentary on the pilot episode, which I think would have brought more value to the disc.

As for the actual episode, kudos to the Wolf Films enterprises for picking a talented cast and crew to present something that is truly edgy. The storyline is smart and the concept is clever right out of the gate. Whenever a show begins, it has the burden of getting viewers interested. I was interested since almost the first frames of this episode. But more than that, because this episode begins with a squad that is already doing its thing, the show has the added burden of making the viewer feel like they are catching something in progress. From the first frames of the episode, the viewer is made to feel like this is not Olivia and Elliot's first day together and we do not. Instead, there is a camaraderie between the two that comes through instantly and it feels organic.

This is no doubt a function of the quality of the acting in the show. Christopher Meloni, whose work I previously enjoyed in the film Bound (reviewed here!), illustrates his exceptional ability to act by portraying a character who is serious and very human. Meloni is given the unenviable task of giving out a great deal of characterization in the guise of testimony, though he handles it well and with enough realism for the viewer to suspend their disbelief.

It is Mariska Hargitay who steals virtually every scene as Olivia Benson. From the beginning, this plays much more powerfully as her episode and it makes the viewer wonder why she is not top-billed. Her performance is subtle, insinuating a tortured persona who is kept in check by her will. Hargitay is gifted with the ability to emote quite a bit with little movement or facial expression.

Ultimately, though, this came down to "not recommend" for me and here's why: "Payback" is an entertaining start to Law & Order: SVU. The bonus features that focus on SVU are decent, but almost half the bonus content is Law & Order (prime) related and it just did not grab me. The producers of this disc could have stuck on extra Law & Order: SVU footage, even advertisements for other seasons' DVD boxed sets and I would have enjoyed it more. The problem here is there's not much value in a single episode on DVD. It doesn't use the medium well. Discs like this ought to be given away as promotional materials to build enthusiasm with the potential customers for buying the whole season DVD set. There's not enough "SVU" on this disc to sucker me in to that. For that, they should have done at least two episodes of Law & Order: SVU, had at least one commentary track, and made the disc free (or close).

Other than that, though, it's worthwhile.

For other police programs, check out my reviews of:
Pride & Glory
The Departed
In The Heat Of The Night

5/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Index Page for organized listings!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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