S4e21 Shows three Orbach’s in the cast. Were they all relatives? Did this happen often?

Were there characters that were on at different times of the shows run you would have liked to see work together? For example Rey Curtis and Ed Green? Ben Stone with Serena Southerlyn ? etc Even if you wanted to cross with SVU and CI

One of my pics would have been Briscoe and Fontana just doing it the old school way and sharing stories. Also Logan and Green.

This was her pre-Lioness role in the two part season 19 finale

Enjoy!

S4e18 Jerry sure looked like he knew his way around a pool hall. Anyone know if it was acting or was he a bit of a shark?

So, have CSI on H&I today: doesn't that blond actress look familiar?

Yep, it was the same woman who played Gerhardt's wife in "Posthumous Collection," which I watched only last night.

Next episode comes on...oh, look, it's Michael Gross, "Charlie" from "Crazy."

When Detective Vincent Riley died, it said his death was August 12, 2026 in the most recent episode of this season which aired Oct 15th. My issue is that the previous (season debut) episode on Oct 8th, clearly has him alive at later dates in October 2026 segments during the trial against the AI company head.

How could the showrunners miss that, when all they had to do was not show Riley in those post-August 12 segments and maybe another precinct character (without explanation) acting in his former capacity alongside Detective Theo Walker? Walking Dead basically? The format in which L&O backdates events should be implemented more responsibly, so that it doesn't contradict the show's timeline.

If Riley died August 12, why the hell is he chasing Mahesh Sharma around to testify as a hostile witness in mid-October? He should be dead and buried literally. Someone dropped the ball big time, as it wasn't just one segment, it was multiple.

They began filming mid-late July, but still had 10 weeks to fix this before submission to NBC. It's not as if they shoot out of order anymore, so that's not an excuse either.

I’m calling it now that, besides the reduced the per-episode cast of Season 25, Season 26 really isn’t going to differ much from the last few seasons. So, rather than complain about specific episodes, I’m just going to make all my complaints about the season now and then check in to see how much I got right at the end.

1. A Terrible SVU Crossover

There’ll be an SVU crossover for no reason other than brand synergy. The characters won’t actually interact much, and instead the plot will get overly dramatic to make it feel like a special. At most, Benson will get kinda mad at someone in the DA’s office for not taking her side. In the end, fans of either show will be underwhelmed.

2. The Cold Opens Will Suck

The cold opens will continue to be aggravating because they’re transparently written to be misleadingly intriguing for the audience. They’ll signal the first lead for the detectives to follow way too hard, and then it’ll turn out to be something completely unrelated to the murder, so the first five or so minutes after the opening are basically a waste of time.

3. Ridiculous Chase Scenes

Place your bets in the comments what the stupidest escape method will be. I’m waiting for the episode where the suspect gets on one of those horse carriages that NYC has.

4. Walker and Calvino will be Boring

They’ll basically have no dynamic or chemistry, and 90% of the time they’ll be two copies of the same dude who are equally capable of summarizing what video evidence they found off-screen.

5. Lieutenant Brady will be an Exposition Machine

The show has thoroughly forgotten what it’s supposed to do with the Lieutenant character. Brady has 2 modes: she’s either listening to the detectives summarizing what they found off-screen so that she can tell them to continue what they were doing, or she’s conducting an “interrogation” where her only strategy is to summarize stuff that was found off-screen to try and entice a confession, which won’t work most of the time. I will probably be able to count on one hand the number of times that anything useful is gained from an interrogation.

6. Maroun will be Unlikeable

The show will continue to refuse to acknowledge how badly it blew its load with Maroun last season. Not only did they destroy Maroun’s credibility as a lawyer, they’ve given her nothing to replace her one character motivation of seeking justice for her sister. It’s impossible to take anything she says about the law seriously when she has a giant “HYPOCRITE” sign flashing over her head.

7. Trials will be ludicrous

Season 25 actually improved a bit in this respect; there were more arguments conducted on-screen compared to previous seasons (as opposed to summarized from off-screen), and sometimes they made coherent legal arguments. But there will still be a multitude of episodes where the defense suddenly switches defense tactics mid-trial, and then Nolan will be baffled as though that’s never happened before and then proceed to completely fold to whatever ridiculous argument the defense presents.

8. Baxter’s a Wild Card

Baxter’s the one character I can’t make a solid prediction about, because I don’t know what’s up with him at this point and I don’t think the show really does either.

Those are the pre-complaints, see you all again at the end of the season.

Currently on Season 6 of The Mothership. What is everyone's consensus on Rey Curtis. Poor Claire. Lennie is still a legend. I don't know if I miss Logan yet

I was never a fan of hers when she worked for the DA, but she was used sparingly enough that it didn’t really bother me much. But after Killerz, when it was obvious the little girl is a psychopath, it’s clear she’s not qualified.

So I hope it's okay if I bounce around some word vomit. I watched all of Criminal intent about 4 years ago now and I won't lie, I've forgotten a great deal of it. A few choice episodes have stayed with me - John Glover was in only two episodes as Goren's mentor, which is a huge crime. Rip Torn was in one of the most depressing episodes about his abuse of one of his sons in the show. But in terms of an episode which has stayed with me because of the premise and ideas in it, "Scared Crazy" popped back into my mind while talking about the Waco debacle with some friends. I'm learninga bout it myself for the first time in real detail, about the psychological warfare used against Koresh. Anyway, if you don't know this episode, this is a fine summary
https://www.flowjournal.org/2009/04/scared-crazy-and-torture-julia-lesage%C2%A0-university-of-oregon/

TL;DR - A doctor uses lights and sounds to destroy a kid's mind. She didn't mean to, I honestly forgot that part, that the doctor wasn't so much evil as a victim herself, but while that improved the drama of the episode, it's not really relevant to why this has stayed with me.

I guess it simply fascinates me, the incongruity of perception and reality and how we lie to ourselves. When you hear the word "torture" you think fingernails being pulled out or something probably fairly bloody and overtly violent. You don't think flashing lights and loud noises. And that's probably the point. Just like we use lethal injections now to hide from the brutal reality of what we're doing, to pretend we're morally superior to headsman and stuff in the past, I'm sure this kind of torture was (is?) so in vogue because it allows people to dream that they aren't like some medieval "barbarian" with all his torture implements. Torture implements are things like knives, not stereos!

Like I said, just a really compelling premise for the episode.

Goren's concluding line in the episode is "Evil changes everybody." It reminded me of Verhoeven's commentary on his Starship Troopers where he said "war makes fascists of us all." Now I remember the story of the doctor in this episode, I think you could say that was the point of this episode, too.

Ice-T wasn’t credited.

Whatever version of CI you choose to begin the night with, enjoy!

The show isn’t on anymore but has enough seasons for a great binge. It’s on BritBox on Amazon Prime and it is excellent. I highly recommend it. Great acting and incredible stories.

Dick Wolf should produce a prequel series called Briscoe. It would be all about a young Lenny before he stopped drinking. I would watch the hell out of that!

I’m watching Thrill and Jack just said “I’m playing legal tiddlywinks with these punks, what’s I’d really like to do is take them into Battery Park and hang them by the scrotum.”

I cackled so loud I woke the dog up!

What are some of your favorite lines?

What actors would you have loved to have seen guest star in law and order SVU or CI.

I would have loved as a game of thrones super fan if Lena Headey guest starred in law & order as a villain it would have been really interesting whether it's SVU or CI does anybody agree.