Posted: 03/30/2010

Law and Order: Criminal Intent Season Premiere On USA March 30

(2010)

by Laura Tucker

The Law and Order franchise seems ever-evolving. There’s a constant churning of new talent in and out the doors as people retire, move on, and even pass away. With Law & Order: Criminal Intent, it’s not only changing out people, but networks as well. It started on NBC, then moved on to being aired on USA. This season we’ll see the talent moved around yet again on this series, but expect it to live on, just like all the series in the franchise do.

The series started out with Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe playing Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames. She has let the series temporarily a few times because of pregnancies. Chris Noth joined the series at one point, bringing over his Law and Order character Detective Mike Logan, and was partnered with Annabella Sciorra as Detective Carolyn Barek, and later Julianne Nicholson as Detective Megan Wheeler. Goren/Eames alternated appearing in episodes with Logan/Barek or Wheeler. Noth left the series and was replaced by Jeff Goldblum playing Detective Zach Nichols, being paired Wheeler, and still alternating episodes with Goren/Eames.

Are you with me still? This season will finally find an end to the alternating as D’Onofrio and Erbe leave the series. Nichols gets a new partner, Detective Serena Stevens, played by Saffron Burrows. Additionally, Eric Bogosian is leaving his role of Captain Danny Ross, and he’ll be replaced by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio playing Captain Zoe Callas. So by the end of this Criminal Intent cleaning, the only character still appearing on the series will be Detective Nichols.

The special two-part series premiere starts with Detectives Goren and Eames investigating as the bodies of a wealthy businessman and his young girlfriend wash up on shore. Oddly, while she appears well taken care of, she’s found with cheap sari cloth wrapped around her. We just know it will connect in somehow to the pirating we see off the shore of Somalia that leaves a Somalian leader and his wife dead.

Captain Ross gets wrapped up with people we know to have ties to the Somalia operation, and it looks like he’s becoming a double agent. When Goren and Eames’ investigation of the murders of the businessman and his girlfriend leads them to the Somalian pirating, Ross forces them to back off and forbids them to look into it any further. Ross heads out to a meeting and is murdered. This brings Nichols in to team up with Goren and Eames as they investigate their friend’s murder. And all the while this is going on, people seem to be dropping likes flies, and it all keeps pointing back to the Somalian leader’s son and daughter.

I won’t tell you how it is that Goren and Eames’ characters leave the series. You’ll have to watch the season premiere yourselves on USA March 30 to find that out.

Laura Tucker is the webmaster of Reality Shack and its accompanying Reality Shack Blog, provides reviews at Viewpoints, and provides entertainment news pieces at Gather. She is also an Instructor and 2nd dan black belt in tae kwon do with South Elgin Martial Arts. Laura can be reached at LauraBelle@realityshack.com.

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