Law & Order: Criminal Intent - The First Year [6 Discs]

Dick Wolf

Overview

This second 'Law & Order' spin-off focuses on New York detectives known as the Major Case Squad, which handles high-profile and unusually difficult investigations. Its storytelling differs from the original series in that it presents the criminal's perspective as well as the deductive methods used by the cops.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/21/2003
UPC:	0025192276521
Original Release:	2003
Rating:	NR
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Full Frame]
Language:	English
Time:	17:23:00
Sales rank:	7,173

Special Features

Closed Caption; Criminal Intent: The Beginning

Editorial Reviews

Sure, Dick Wolf's cop-show cred extends all the way back to Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice, and Law & Order is one of TV's longest-running shows. But even avid Law & Order fans doubted that Wolf, having just spun off the sex-crimes series Special Victims Unit from his enduring franchise, could conjure up another hit from L&O's DNA. Amazingly, Wolf pulled it off by letting the viewer watch the planning, execution, and aftermath of a crime from inside the criminal's head. The gimmick itself isn't groundbreaking; just ask Hannibal Lecter and his Profiler progeny. But the cat-and-mouse games between the cops and the bad guys are artfully executed by a fine ensemble cast headed by Vincent D'Onofrio as Robert Goren, a detective who could hold his own with Sherlock Holmes. He even has a Watson in Alexandria Eames (Kathryn Erbe), who leavens Goren's steely intellect with streetwise humanity. As Lieutenant Columbo so adroitly proved, knowing whodunit doesn't take away from watching the hunter close in on its prey. In keeping with the L&O tradition of ripped-from-the-headlines stories, Criminal Intent gives us a perpetrator's-eye view of everyone from abortion clinic snipers to Russian mobsters. The first season ends with an especially timely episode, "Tuxedo Hill," in which a homicide investigation uncovers a corporate scandal.