Law & Order: Criminal Intent fans we’ve got a contest for you! To celebrate the upcoming season which premieres Sunday, May 1st at 9/8c on USA, we’ve got an amazing prize pack full of DVDs, t-shirts and more!
The final season ofLAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT premieres on Sunday, May 1st at 9/8c on USA, featuring the long-anticipated return of Detectives Goren (D’Onofrio) and Eames (Erbe) to the Major Case Squad. Terminated for insubordination a year ago, Detective Robert Goren has been reunited with his long-time partner Alex Eames at the behest of new Major Case Captain William Hannah. In addition to plunging into colorful, dangerous mysteries, Goren has mandatory sessions with brilliant police psychologist Robyn Widrow thatwill ultimately help him unravel his tortured past.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent Prize Pack Includes:
Branded black nylon cinch sack
Goren Limited Edition T-Shirt
Season 4 DVD
Season 5 DVD
Contest Rules
It’s pretty simple. You need to watch the the first episode and either tweet me (TiffanyDEmidio) or email me (tdemidio at eclipsemagazine dot com) something specific that happens from the show. A winner will be chosen Friday, May 6th.
**This contest is open to residents of the U.S and Canada and is courtesy of USA Network. It’s valued to be $110. Once a winner has been chosen it may take 6-8 weeks to arrive.
Recently, legendary Executive Producer Dick Wolf and star Vincent D’Onofrio from Law & Order: Criminal Intent sat down with a group of online media to chat about the upcoming 10th and final season of the show which premieres May 1st at 9/8c on the USA Network. Below is an excerpt from that event.
NBC released its summer schedule today and surprise! It’s mostly unscripted [reality] shows! The lone scripted programming will be new episodes of the re-tooled Law & Order: Los Angeles. Re-purposed shows are: the final season of Friday Night Lights – fresh from its final season run on DirecTV, and the final season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent – fresh from its run on USA Network. The news unscripted shows are: It’s Worth What? And Love In The Wild. Returning shows include The Voice and America’s Got Talent. Sounds pretty weak to me. Details follow the jump.
Following on the heels of the The USA Networks renewal of Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, Covert Affairs and the final season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, they continue to keep viewer favorites in their television line up by announcing that they have renewed Psych, Royal Pains and White Collar. Psych will kick off the second half of its fifth season in November, while Royal Pains and White Collar return in January.
Over at the Lifetime Network, Army Wives and Drop Dead Diva have both been renewed: Army Wives for its fifth season and Drop Dead Diva for its third.
The announcement was made by Nancy Dubuc, President and General Manager of Lifetime Networks and HISTORY. “Army Wives and Drop Dead Diva have lead Lifetime’s charge in scripted programming and are key components to our success. We are so happy with these two special programs and are excited to pick them up for new seasons, which allows us to launch our next generation of scripted series.”
When the news came out that four of the five leads of Law & Order: Criminal Intent were leaving the show, it left a lot of fans puzzled and furious. The season premiere of the series, tomorrow night [USA, 10/9C], will probably incite riots among a certain faction of those fans. Although Julianne Nicholson has already gone, Loyalty, Part 1 features one of the other three departures [the other two will leave in next week’s Loyalty, Part2] and it will be a shocker.
While teleconference Q&A sessions can never really take the place of one-on-one interviews. they do have one big advantage – if someone preceeding you in the queue asks a question you might never have considered, it can change your approach and the results can be very interesting – especially when the Q&A session is with Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s [USA, Tuesdays, 10/9C] Jeff Goldblum and the subject is the show’s ninth-season premiere. Big changes are afoot and Mr. Goldblum approached them with his usual goodwill, forthrightness, wit and intelligence.
Yesterday, Jeff Goldblum took a half-hour out of his busy shooting day to talk with a number of bloggers/journalists about his role as Detective Zach Nichols on the new season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent [USA, Sundays, 9/8C]. Goldblum, it turns out, is as intelligent and intuitive as his character.
Also taking part in the Q&Q session were: Jamie Ruby [Media Blvd], Jamie Steinberg [Starry Constellation], Julie Kissane [popculturemadness.com], Christine Nyholm [Examiner], Joshua Fulghum [totallyher.com], Troy Rogers [thedeadbolt.com], and Zach Oat [televisionwithoutpity.com].
When Teeter, a talented musician, is found murdered after a night out with his friends [to take in a spelling bee!] – in a neighborhood composed of several different ethnicities, Captain Danny Ross [Eric Bogosian] assigns Detective Megan Wheeler [Julianne Nichols] to the case, along with her new partner, Detective Zach Nichols [Jeff Goldblum]. As their investigation begins, Rafe, another musician who lived in the same warehouse sized loft as Teeter falls down the building’s elevator shaft. Rock Star, this week’s episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent [USA, 9/8C] introduces Goldblum’s Detective Nichols in a way that allows Goldblum to make an indelible first impression – on his new partner, and on the show’s audience.
Nichols arrives at his first crime scene [Teeter] marvelling about the variety of fine ethnic foods he was able to find on his way to work. Wheeler is not amused, but when she questions Ross about him, Ross informs her that, before he took a seven-year leave, he was, “…amazing. Brilliant cop. Very perceptive.” And notes that both Nichol’ parents were shrinks. Where did he go for those seven years? “He sent me a postcard from Cleveland, “says Ross.
Before long though, Nichols wins Wheeler over with his keen eye for detail and a knowledge of people that allows him to reassure a possible suspect that he’s not one by playing a cool jazz improvisation on the late Teeter’s keyboard. He also knows how to spin his questions when dealing with other suspects – like the musicians’ landlord, Philip, whose band played the third-longest set at Woodstock.
Rock Star showcases Goldblum’s character, but allows Nicholson and Bogosian plenty of room to perform as well – though it’s likely that Goldblum’s Nichols will assume the lead role on future investigations. The character may remind of Goldblum’s last series, the brilliant – of too hip for the room – Raines, though minus that character’s imagined conversations with the victims whose murders he was trying to solve. Nichols has that same intensity and ability to learn about people without actually appearing to be doing anything.
Where Vincent D’Onofrio’s Detective Goren is a riff on Sherlock Holmes, Goldblum’s Nichols might be analogous to Freud – Goren is a facts guy, while Nichols is all about motive. The one thing they have in common is that no detail escapes them. They differ in their method of using those details. I expect that Detective Wheeler’s primary concern, in future eps, will be grounding Nichols in much the same way that Detective Eames keeps Goren grounded – and like the Watson of Conan Doyle’s original stories, provide a certain toughness and resourcefulness that will keep Nichols on track.
If Rock star is any indication, Law & Order may be about to hit a creative peak. Not bad for a show in its eighth season!
When Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s eighth season premieres on Sunday [USA, 9/8C], Detectives Goren [Vincent D’Onofrio] and Eames [Kathryn Erbe] tackle one of their strangest cases yet.
It begins with a press conference for Councilman Neil Hayes-Fitzpatrick about allegations of fiscal impropriety and moves into the murder of a drug addict/dealer, whose body winds up atop his girlfriend –and that’s how the police find them. The girl, Stacy, turns out to be the stepdaughter of Neil Hayes-Fitzpatrick [Scott Caan], who is running for mayor. His mother [Kathy Baker] is his campaign manager. Detective Goren notices something odd about the way Stacy behaves around her stepfather, and the episode builds from there to an unexpected conclusion.
As is usual in an L&O:CI episode that features Goren and Eames, it’s Goren’s powers of observation and deductive reasoning that put all the pieces together. Also as usual, it’s Eames whose thoughts seem to inspire Goren – in much the same way that Watson frequently inspired Holmes [forget the Basil Rathbone Holmes movies – in the Conan Doyle stories, Watson was smart, tough and resourceful].
Like the other Law & Order shows, Criminal Intent works best when the storytelling is intelligently developed, and that’s certainly true here. The partnership of Goren and Eames is back on pitch after the weirdness of last season, and they are definitely clicking on all cylinders. There’s even a cameo by Detective Munch [Richard Belzer] that’s on point and provides an unexpected chuckle.
Next week, we’ll take a look at the new guy on the block, Detective Zach Nichols [Jeff Goldblum].
When Law & Order: Criminal Intent returns [USA, Sunday, 9/8C], Detectives Goren [Vincent D’Onofrio] and Eames [Kathryn Erbe] will be splitting episodes with Detective Meagan Wheeler [Julianne Nicholson] and new guy, Detective Zach Nichols [Jeff Goldblum]. Wednesday afternoon, there was a Q&A session with D’Onofrio and Erbe, who talked about the eighth season. Taking part were Jamie Steinberg [Starry Constellation], Troy Rogers [thedeadbolt.com], Jamie Ruby [Media Boulevard], Zach Oat [televisionwithoutpity.com], Ashley Aikens [pitching a query for me. Doctor’s appointment. Don’t ask…], Kristyn Clarke [popculturemadness.com], Jay Jacobs [popentertainment.com], Christine Nyholm [examiner.com], Ian Dawson [stuffwelike.com], Amy Steele [Entertainment Realm], Christine Zimmer [All Things Law & Order], and Loring Judge [Reel Blog].
