Law & Order Criminal Intent

This show came out in 2001 and lasted 10 seasons. Now this isn't the first Law & Order to come out, and there have been others after. However this is my favorite of the lot. The series had a total of 195 episodes each  being about 42 minutes or so.

Now let me start off by saying that the series does change its cast every so often. This being due to a variety of circumstances, but in the end the only 2 that stay for pretty much the entire thing are Detective Alexandra Eames, and Detective Robert Goren (The two in the center shown above). The series starts out with the first 4 seasons or so having half about the cops finding the criminal, then charging them. But the other half being filled with the law side of attempting to prosecute them. This ends up showing a side that a lot of other cop shows don't. Which adds it own set of intrigue to it. Unfortunately they dropped the courtroom side of things after the 4th season and they refocused on the cops side more. 

The series starts out not telling us much about the characters individual lives. And honestly they barely tell us much about anyone by the end except Goren. All kinds of stuff happens to him. Schizophrenic mother, drug addict brother, daddy-issued crazy childhood friend, super crazy and yet insanely awesome mentor (played by the incredible John Glover), a sociopathic grifting nemesis, a mostly useless nephew, a potential serial rapist/murderer father, and more. 

What the series lacks in personal characterizations, it makes up for in intelligent and interesting dialog and fascinating bad guys and scenarios for the characters to fight through. Some are predictable, and others are obvious. But it still has some unknowns.

I liked the show, but there were some problems therein. Especially the episodes with Jeff Goldblum, and I say that even though I very much like him as an actor. Law & Order Criminal Intent gets a score of 8.5 out of 11.