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Law & Order: Criminal Intent or "Law & Order: CI" is a Syndication police procedural television drama series and the second spin-off of Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" franchise.
The show first premiered on September 30, 2001 and aired on Syndication for six seasons before moving to the USA Network due to declining ratings & in order to share costs. On the USA Network, the show aired for four more seasons before ending on June 26, 2011 after 195 episodes.
Plot[]
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" follows a division of the New York City Police Department, the "Major Case Squad", a force of brilliant and skilled first-grade detectives who handle the most serious and the most complex crimes that New York has to offer.
The Major Case Squad investigates high-profile cases (in most cases, murder) such as those involving VIPs, local government officials and employees, the financial industry, and the art world.
The series pays attention to the actions and motives of the criminals, rather than focusing exclusively on the police and prosecutions.
A feature of each episode is that the cold open always involves a series of cut-scenes that show events from the suspects' and victims' lives, leading up to the crime.
The clues to the crime's eventual solution can often be found in this teaser sequence. Unlike other Law & Order series, most "Criminal Intent" episodes end in confessions rather than continuing to the trial phase.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Kathryn Erbe as Detective Alexandra Eames (Main season 1-9, 10)
- Vincent D'Onofrio as Detective Robert Goren (Main season 1-9, 10)
- Jay O'Sanders as Captain Joseph Hannah (Main season 10)
- Julia Ormond as Dr. Paula Gyson (Main season 10)
Past Main Cast[]
- Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan (Main season 5-7, guest season 4)
- Jeff Goldblum as Detective Zack Nichols (Main season 8-9)
- Julianne Nicholson as Detective Megan Wheeler (Main season 6-8)
- Annabella Sciorra as Detective Carolyn Barek (Main season 5)
- Alicia Witt as Detective Nola Falacci (Main season 7)
- Saffron Burrows as Detective Serena Stevens (Main season 9)
- Jamey Sheridan as Captain James Deakins (Main season 1-5)
- Eric Bogosian as Captain Danny Ross (Main season 6-9)
- Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Captain Zoe Callas (Main season 9)
- Courtney B. Vance as ADA Ron Carver (Main season 1-5)
Season Summaries[]
Seasons 1 and 2[]
On September 30, 2001, NBC premiered the show, starring Vincent D'Onofrio as Detective Robert Goren, a junior detective in the Major Case Squad who has a degree in psychology and has a knack for solving difficult crimes, and Kathryn Erbe as his partner, Detective Alexandra Eames, a veteran detective from an NYPD family who initially resists her partner's eccentric style, but grows to understand him as the series progresses. Before joining the NYPD Goren was a Special Agent with the United States Army's Criminal Investigations Division.
Jamey Sheridan plays Captain James Deakins; although Deakins's first priority is the success of criminal investigations, he is often forced to rein in and protect his more maverick detectives, especially Goren and later Logan, to manage the bad publicity they occasionally attract.
While this creates some friction between Deakins and his detectives, for the most part they respect his professional judgment and authority. Courtney B. Vance's Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver is frequently in conflict with all the detectives because they tend to rely on hunches and instinct, when he wants more hard evidence. Despite this conflict, however, he has a strong working relationship with both teams.
Season 3[]
In the third season, from episodes 5–11, Eames is temporarily replaced by Detective G. Lynn Bishop portrayed by Samantha Buck. Eames is volunteering to serve as a surrogate mother for her sister's baby; in reality, Erbe was pregnant with her second child.
Seasons 4 and 5[]
In the fifth season, Chris Noth joined the cast, reprising his role as Detective Mike Logan from the original Law & Order. Noth alternates the starring role every other episode with D'Onofrio, and is partnered with Annabella Sciorra as Detective Carolyn Barek. Sciorra left after one season.
Deakins retires from the Major Case Squad at the end of Season 5 rather than battle a conspiracy to frame him instigated by former Chief of Detectives Frank Adair, whom Major Case detectives have arrested for killing a female acquaintance and her husband. Carver leaves as well, though there is no explanation as to why he left the ADA's office.
Seasons 6–9[]
Deakins was replaced by Captain Danny Ross (Eric Bogosian). Carver was initially replaced by ADA Patricia Kent (Theresa Randle), although she appears in only two episodes. The ADA role from this point on is left vacant, as the detectives aren't shown working with any ADA on a regular basis.
Julianne Nicholson replaced Annabella Sciorra as Detective Megan Wheeler, who remains with the show through the end of the eighth season.
In season 7, Wheeler temporarily leaves MCS to go to Europe, where she teaches a course on American police procedure. In reality, Julianne Nicholson was pregnant with her first child and was replaced temporarily by Alicia Witt, who portrayed Detective Nola Falacci.
Noth left the series at the end of season seven. He was replaced by Jeff Goldblum as Detective Zack Nichols.
The series was renewed for a ninth season, which began in March 2010 and marked the departure of D'Onofrio, Erbe, and Bogosian. Ross is murdered in the first half of the season premiere, while Eames fires Goren in the second half and then quits the NYPD.
Goldblum was the head of the series with new partner Detective Serena Stevens, played by Saffron Burrows. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio succeeded Bogosian, portraying Captain Zoe Callas.
Season 10[]
The final season featured the return of Detectives Alexandra Eames and Robert Goren, replacing outgoing Zack Nichols and Serena Stevens who made their final appearances in the season 9 finale.
Eames and Goren are brought back at the request of Joseph Hannah, played by Jay O. Sanders, the new Major Case Captain who replaced Zoe Callas, on the condition that Goren attend mandatory psych sessions with brilliant police doctor Paula Gyson, played by Julia Ormond.
The final season consisted of eight episodes, all featuring D'Onofrio, Erbe, Sanders and Ormond.
Production[]
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" was created in 2001 by René Balcer and Dick Wolf. Balcer served as the show's executive producer, showrunner & head writer for its first five seasons.
The show dominated its original time slot on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. for its first three seasons (routinely beating its competition, ABC's "Alias" and HBO's "The Sopranos", in households and in the 18–49 demographic), and was often the highest-rated show of the night, with an average audience of 15.5 million viewers.
The show aired Sundays on Syndication, with each week's episode being repeated on USA Network the following Saturday.
Beginning in Season 4, it faced stiff new competition from Syndication's night-time soap opera "Desperate Housewives," a show that soon became the No. 1 drama on television.
Although ratings for "Criminal Intent" further eroded in season 5 amid stiff competition, the series maintained respectable ratings through the season, enough to get it renewed for a sixth season on Syndication.
Balcer left the show at the end of Season 5, and the show was handed off to Warren Leight, a longtime "Criminal Intent" staffer.
Under Leight's leadership, the show acquired a new, more melodramatic tone. The mystery aspect of the show was simplified in favor of more personal stories involving the detective. The show's look and editing style also changed in an effort to attract viewers of the newer CSI franchise.
When Syndication had acquired the rights to Sunday Night Football for the 2006–2007 season, "Law & Order: CI" was moved to a new time slot on Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m., to serve as a lead-in to fellow "Law & Order" spinoff, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit".
For the show's first six airings, it faced Syndication's "The Unit" and baseball on Fox. In late October, Fox's hit series "House" moved opposite "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".
It was hoped that the show could maintain second position, beating the then-marginal "The Unit," but that did not occur.
The show's ratings suffered a steep drop and regularly finished fourth in its time slot. By the end of Season 6, "Law & Order: CI" saw its lowest ratings ever.
In May 2007, Syndication faced a choice of renewing either Criminal Intent or the original Law & Order, which had seen a ratings increase in the last few episodes of its 17th season.
Ultimately, because of the weak ratings of "Law & Order: CI," Syndication picked up "Law & Order." The show's new episodes were moved to the NBCUniversal-owned USA Network, where it could be expected to attract a much larger audience than the cable channel's average.
The remaining episodes from the seventh season began running on June 8, 2008 and production on the show was halted temporarily in December 2007 due to the writers' strike.
For its move to the USA Network, the version of the "Law & Order" theme used for the show's opening credits was replaced by the version originally used on the short-lived "Law & Order: Trial by Jury".
On May 22, 2008, USA Network renewed "Law & Order: CI" for an eighth season. Season 7 was the top-rated television series on basic cable, having more than quadrupled the audience for the 10 p.m. Thursday slot on USA Network when compared to the ratings from the previous year.
Nielsen ratings for the week of July 13, 2008 showed that "Criminal Intent" was ranked sixth overall on top 20 cable ratings, with a viewer base of 4.899 million viewers.
The network ordered 16 episodes (which were originally to begin broadcasting in November 2008), but the network moved the premiere back, first to February 5, 2009, then with an expected date of spring–summer 2009, and finally announcing the start date as April 19.
The only change in cast members from the seventh season was Chris Noth's departure and replacement by Jeff Goldblum.
At the end of the seventh season, Leight (who left to focus on "In Treatment") was replaced by new executive producers Walon Green and Robert Nathan.
In December of 2008, Nathan left the show after completing two Goldblum episodes. Law & Order co-executive producer and writer Ed Zuckerman then picked up Nathan's assignment while continuing his duties for the original "Law & Order"'s 19th season.
Michael Chernuchin co-executive produced Green's episodes, and Tim Lea co-executive produced Zuckerman's episodes.
Other executive producers on the series were Norberto Barba, Peter Jankowski, Diana Son, Julie Martin, and Arthur W. Forney. Charlie Rubin was the supervising producer, and Balcer, Eric Overmyer, and Siobhan Byrne O'Connor were consulting producers.
In April of 2009, Syndication began airing season eight encores of "Law & Order: CI" a few days after they premiered on USA.
D'Onofrio, Erbe, and Bogosian left the series in the Season 9 premiere, which aired in two parts on March 30 and April 6, 2010. Walon Green, Peter Jankowski, John David Coles, and Dick Wolf were the executive producers for the ninth season of Criminal Intent.
Media outlets reported in August 2010 that actor Jeff Goldblum (Detective Zachary Nichols) had decided to leave the cast of Law & Order: CI, citing concerns about the show's future.
The option to return on all the actors formally expired on July 31, 2010 after being extended by a month on June 30, 2010 when they were originally up.
A final decision by the USA Network over whether the series would be renewed for another season had not been announced at that time.
On September 22, 2010, Variety announced that "Law & Order: CI" had been renewed and that Vincent D'Onofrio would be returning to the series as Detective Robert Goren for its final season
Kathryn Erbe subsequently signed on to reprise the role of Detective Eames for the eight-episode final season of "Law & Order: CI".
Chris Brancato was announced as the executive producer/showrunner for the final eight-episode season of "Law & Order: CI". Brancato succeeded Walon Green, who served as the showrunner during the eighth and ninth seasons.
Prior to the season premiere, creator Dick Wolf was hoping the series would be renewed for an 11th season, versus ending with season 10.
According to Wolf during a conference call:
"Being the unbridled optimist that I am, I still have hope that this is a 'victory lap' and not a 'swan song.' Based on the work so far, I think the audience is going to be very happy, relieved, and welcoming ... and hopefully enough fans will come out so the powers-that-be reconsider their decision."
New show runner/EP Chris Brancato suggested that the show could be picked up for an 11th season if the intended final episodes garnered sufficient ratings.
The tenth season ended on June 26, 2011, and USA Network announced the following month that they were choosing not to air more episodes of the series due to costs.
When asked if LOCI would be taken back by Syndication, Wolf tweeted: "USA Network decided not to pick up #LOCI for another season. We hoped ratings & fans could change their mind but. ... I've learned to never say never but most execs are looking for something new. We truly appreciate our loyal fans! Thank you."
Broadcast History[]
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" originally aired on Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET on Syndication for the first five seasons, from September 30, 2001 through May 14, 2006.
It was then shifted to Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET on September 19, 2006, and remained in that timeslot through the end of season 6 on May 21, 2007.
"CI" was then moved to the USA Network for its 7th season and aired Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m. starting October 4, 2007 until the fall finale in December of 2007.
The show was then moved to Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET on June 8, 2008 (when it paired up with "In Plain Sight") until the 8th season finale on August 9, 2009.
For the show's ninth season only, "CI" moved to a new day and timeslot, Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET. During the tenth and final season, it went back to Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET on USA Network.
External links[]
- Law & Order (Criminal Intent) on Fandom