Episodes depict Detectives Robert Goren (D'Onofrio) and Alexandra Eames (Erbe) as the squad's lead investigators. Captain James Deakins (Sheridan) is the detectives' direct supervisor and head of the Major Case Squad. Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver (Vance) often attempts to obtain confessions from the suspects, rather than taking them to trial. Law & Order: Criminal Intent focuses on the actions and motives of the criminals, and it divides screen time equally between the suspects and victims and the police's investigation.
The season was filmed on location in New York City. Scenes set inside the Major Case Squad department were filmed in a studio at Chelsea Piers, Manhattan.
The season was nominated for four awards and was described by some reviewers as the most impressive of all the Law & Order series. It was sold to numerous television stations around the world, and it has been adapted into localized foreign versions in Russia and France. It has been syndicated in the US on a number of cable channels. A DVD box set of Season 1 was released in America on October 21, 2003, and episodes are available for purchase at the US iTunes Store and Amazon Video on Demand.
Production
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is the third series in the Law & Ordercrime drama franchise, which was created by Dick Wolf in 1990.[1] He developed it with René Balcer, who began working on the original series during its first season.[2] During his time on Law & Order, Balcer was promoted to head writer, show runner, and executive producer before leaving in 2000.[2] News first broke of a new series in late 2000, when it was reported that NBC, broadcaster of Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, approached Wolf Films and Studios USA about a second spin-off.[3][4]
Balcer and Wolf conceived Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a police procedural crime drama that follows a distinct division of the New York City Police Department: the 'Major Case Squad', and its investigations in to high-profile murder cases, such as those involving VIPs, local government officials and employees, and people working in the financial industry and the arts and entertainment world.[5] Unlike the other series in the Law & Order franchise, Law & Order: Criminal Intent gives significant attention to the actions and motives of the criminals, rather than primarily focusing on the police investigation and trial prosecution. Episodes do not contain trials, and end in confessions rather than plea bargains or verdicts.[6]
Pier 62, at Chelsea Piers, Manhattan contains the set used to depict One Police Plaza, the real headquarters of the NYPD.
Production began in January 2001,[7] shooting on location in and around New York City using local color.[8] The main set of One Police Plaza is located at Pier 62, Chelsea Piers, Manhattan.[9][10] Thirteen episodes were initially ordered,[3] and were completed by April 2001, so that production would not be halted by a potential strike from the Writers Guild of America.[4][11] Balcer was the show runner, executive producer and head writer on the first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Wolf was also credited as an executive producer, as with all other Law & Order series. The first season gave co-executive producers credits to Peter Jankowski, Fred Berner, Geoffrey Neigher, and Arthur W. Forney. John L. Roman, Roz Weinman, and Eric Overmyer were named producers, with Michael Kewley a co-producer. Theresa Rebeck and Marlane Meyer were consulting producers.[12] Twelve people directed, and nine people wrote the twenty-two episodes; Constantine Makris directed four episodes, and Balcer wrote or co-wrote ten episodes.[13]
Cast
Season 1 cast members: (left to right) Courtney B. Vance, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, and Jamey Sheridan
Mia Dillon as Barb Windemere, a woman who claims to be Erica Windemere's adoptive mother, but later, was false
Remak Ramsay as Douglas Lafferty, a reporter who was interested in the story of Erica Windemere, when he discovered that it was a "house of cards", was going to make it public, but was killed by the book editor, Christine Wilkes
Polly Draper as Christine Wilkes, a book editor who became famous for her book Through the Darkness, which recounted the story of Erica Widemere, a girl who was raped. When reporter Douglas Lafferty discovered that the story was false and was used to steal people's money, Wilkes murdered him so that he would not expose the truth
Bruce Altman as Jack Crawley, a con artist, conspirator, and power assassin who acts as the chief financial officer of Mattawin Corporation, a company dedicated to the sale of water and land
Distribution
The first season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent premiered during the 2001–2002 television season on the American terrestrial television network NBC. The pilot episode, titled "One", aired on Sunday September 30, 2001 at 9:00 p.m. EST. Episodes aired weekly until December, when the show took a brief hiatus until January, and took another hiatus during February. The final episode of the season aired at 9:00 p.m. on Friday May 10, 2002.[13] Under a $100,000-per-episode shared or second window syndication agreement that cable channelUSA Network made with NBC,[3][11] USA Network was allowed to broadcast episodes out of primetime a week after their premiere on NBC.[26] The season is also under a regular off-network syndication deal at USA Networks and Bravo. The two channels teamed up late 2004 to pay $2 million per episode for the syndication rights to the series, allowing USA Network to air episodes during the week, and Bravo to air episodes at the weekend.[27][28] In 2007, Fox Television Stations, a group of Fox Broadcasting Companyowned-and-operated stations, entered a syndication deal to broadcast episodes as part of its daytime schedule.[29] From late 2009, MyNetworkTV will broadcast Law & Order: Criminal Intent, including episodes from season one, having changed their business model from a network broadcaster to a syndication programming service.[30][31][32] The series has also been distributed to international broadcasters. It aired in Canada on CTV,[33] in France on TF1,[34] in the United Kingdom on Hallmark Channel and Five,[35][36] in Australia on Network Ten,[37] and in New Zealand on TV3.[38]
Episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent's first season have been adapted into localized foreign versions.[39]Russian: Закон и порядок: Преступный умысел (lit. Law & Order: Criminal Mind), premiered in 2007 on NTV (Russia) and is produced by Global American Television, Studio2B and NTV, Wolf Films and NBC Universal.[40][41] On May 3, 2007, the French Law & Order: Criminal Intent broadcaster, TF1, began airing Paris enquêtes criminelles, a co-production from TF1 and ALMA, Wolf Films and NBC Universal.[42] All eight episodes of Paris enquêtes criminelles's first season, two episodes from the second season, and one third-season episode were adapted from Law & Order: Criminal Intent first-season episodes.[43] Wolf stated that Law & Order: Criminal Intent has been sold to foreign networks because it is easier to adapt into local legal systems than Law & Order, where half of each episode occurs in the courtroom.[44]
Laura Fries of Variety commented on the difference between this series and Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: "By scrutinizing motive and intent, Criminal Intent utilizes a more personal style that sets it apart from its brethren. Wolf's characters are notoriously devoid of detailed personal lives, but debut [episode] hints at a little more introspection on the part of the characters".[12] In Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker wrote that Law & Order: Criminal Intent was the best series of the year from the Law & Order franchise and that while Law & Order suffered from tired, wooden performances from actors with poor chemistry, the acting on Law & Order: Criminal Intent was at "the other end of the spectrum." Both writers commented on the overpowering screen presence that D'Onofrio commands in the first episode: "Criminal Intent so far is a one-man show with Vincent D'Onofrio at its center. [He] commands the most attention, tending to overshadow Erbe, who is reduced in the pilot to following Goren with an awe-struck look," wrote Fries,[12] while Tucker also stated, "D'Onofrio is so eccentrically entertaining, even his costar Kathryn Erbe seems fascinated",[5] but complained that Erbe's role was smaller than D'Onofrio's, which "jibes with the subtle range she showed on [HBO's] Oz and proves her professional generosity." He also said Sheridan "is similarly nonplussed and under-utilized," but "Vance is terrific [as Carver], who makes defendants wither in the face of his elegantly reasoned cross-examinations."[5]
Law & Order: Criminal Intent's first season received four nominations from three award ceremonies. "The Faithful" and "Smothered" were given commendations at the Prism Awards in the category for Best TV Drama Series Episode.[49] Vance was nominated in the Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series category at the 2002 NAACP Image Awards.[50] René Balcer received an Edgar Award nomination for "Tuxedo Hill".[51] Casting director Lynn Kressel was nominated at the Casting Society of America Artios Awards in the category for Best Casting for TV in a Dramatic Pilot.[52]
Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames investigate a diamond heist in a house that left two occupants and one thief dead. Karl Atwood, the criminal who planned the robbery deceives the police. He makes them believe the theft is related to the mafia, but detectives discover the deception when they trace a tattoo that shows that Atwood spent time in a Canadian prison. Atwood has jumped parole and has crossed the border. Goren and Eames interview Atwood's girlfriend Gia. They communicate that Atwood contracted AIDS in prison and has infected her. They promise to be lenient with her and give her treatment if it helps them arrest Atwood. She manages to meet Atwood, and when diamond buyers appear, Goren and Eames arrest them all. Then they inform Gia that she is not infected with HIV.
Special appearance by Dianne Wiest as DA Nora Lewin
Anne Ellis and Bernard Jackson, two art authenticators, are found dead; one has been hanged and the other shot in the chest. Initial evidence indicates a murder-suicide, and the investigation leads Goren and Eames to a forged Claude Monet painting. The detectives suspect German art gallery owner Rudy Langer, who implicates a female forger but will not name her. Goren discovers that the forger is Sylvia Moon, a former student of Jackson's, whose art-school roommate committed suicide by hanging herself. After confronting Moon and Langer at the murder scene, Moon reveals that Langer killed Jackson and Ellis.
The Major Case Squad team investigate the murder of Lois Romney, a pregnant woman who has given up her drug addiction and is struggling to stay clean. It initially appears that the murderer is the victim's unstable junkie boyfriend, Dale van Acker, and Captain Deakins tells Goren and Eames to close the case. Deciding that the death of a pregnant woman deserves more attention, their investigation leads them to the boyfriend's wealthy and domineering socialite mother, Priscilla van Acker, and his stepfather. Goren suspects that Priscilla is a sociopath, who disapproved of her son's girlfriend, plotted to kill her and framed her husband.
Goren and Eames investigate the death of a Catholic church sexton, Morris Abernathy. They begin to suspect Kevin Donovan, a thieving drug addict who works at the church, until he is found murdered in his apartment. As Goren and Eames delve into the church's business, they uncover the embezzlement of money from the collection funds, and believe it was by Abernathy who tried to frame Donovan. When they realize someone performed last rites over Donovan's body, the detectives are led to a priest who has been trying to keep a twenty-year-old secret hidden.
Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the murder of a pretty, petite woman found drowned in her bathtub. Days later, a second petite woman is found naked and washed up on shore, and this is followed by the discovery of a strangled third female, and then a fourth victim. They discover that the second victim was also drowned in a bathtub, and they find a link between all four – Henry Talbott, an abusive, drug-addicted lawyer was their boyfriend who was taking money from them to help feed his gambling addictions. Unable to get assistance from his disbelieving wife, the detectives have to work against the clock to gather their evidence before he kills a fifth woman.
Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the murder of a man found beaten to death in a hotel suite. It appears the victim was Didier Foucault, a Swiss conman who cheated a group of wealthy investors and romanced their wives, but further evidence reveals that the dead man is not Foucault, but his assistant Felix Perez. The detectives discover that the investors hired a hitman to teach Foucault a severe lesson, but that he learned of the attack and sent Perez to his hotel room in his place. The hitman attacked Perez, but left him alive, and Goren begins to suspect that Foucault returned to the hotel and killed him. ADA Carver indicts the investors on false murder charges, in an attempt to lure Foucault out of hiding so they can arrest him for Perez's murder.
Detectives Ed Green and Lennie Briscoe from the 27th Precinct report a suspicious cyanide poisoning to the Major Case Squad. When other cyanide deaths occur in a hospital, Goren and Eames initially suspect Colleen Braxton, a nurse who fits the typical criminal profile, but the poisonings continue while Braxton is in custody. The source of the cyanide is tracked down to a batch of laced over-the-counter Necedrol pills. The investigation turns to the victims' families which leads the detectives to a widow named Trudy Pomeranski. The detectives discover she killed her husband and sued the medicine company, then laced other boxes of the same medication around the city in an attempt to cover-up the murder and strengthen her lawsuit. As she used her lawsuit money to buy into an infant clothing franchise, she was caught mailing a cyanide laced letter to the Ledger. She is subsequently arrested while setting up her store, after her franchise agreement was nullified due to a morals clause, when her mother was considered a suspect.
Special appearance by Jerry Orbach as Det. Lennie Briscoe & Jesse L. Martin as Det. Ed Green
An investigative news reporter and his girlfriend are gunned down in the street, and the detectives learn that the reporter had a history of uncovering police corruption. Their investigation into the deaths leads to the buying and selling of pardons, and a connection to organized crime. When their investigation leads them to the state governor's office, Captain Deakins orders the detectives off the case, but Carver's work ethics put him at odds with Goren and Eames.
Goren and Eames investigate the disappearance of an adulterous drug-addicted wife of a plastic surgeon. While the doctor says he has attempted to locate his wife, the detectives suspect he is lying, especially when they discover he also has a secret lover but they struggle to find any flaws in his alibi. Weeks later, body parts of a decomposed woman wash ashore, so the detectives arrange for a false story to be printed in the newspapers, claiming they are from the missing woman. The detectives wait for the husband's reaction when he reads the article, hoping that they can turn his strong ego against him and discover the truth.
Inspired by the case of Doctor Robert Bierenbaum, who was convicted of murdering his wife, Gail Katz Bierenbaum.
The Major Case Squad investigate the death of Harold Sternman, an elderly and paranoid banker who died in the penthouse suite of his own luxury apartment building during an arson fire. The investigation leads Goren and Eames to Harold's dysfunctional family, consisting of his young trophy wife Kit, his alcoholic son Edward, and Rick Zainer, Harold's private nurse. When DNA from Kit and Edward are found in Harold's bed, the detectives suspect Harold was using them as evidence to get divorced from Kit, but both Kit and Edward deny sleeping with each other; Edward is gay. Suspicion falls on Zainer, who admits to sleeping with Edward and turning the three family members against each other as revenge for Harold failing to deliver on a promise to write letters of recommendation for Zainer's sons to enter an elite private school. After increasing Harold's drug dose, which made him even more anxious and paranoid than usual, he led Harold to believe that Kit was cheating on him with his own son; Kit then conspired with Edward to kill him so she could get her inheritance and Edward would be left the apartment building, which he could promptly sell.
Goren and Eames investigate the murder of an abortion doctor who was shot in his own apartment. The detectives are convinced that an anti-abortion activist is to blame and begin tracking him through his contacts. When they find a second gun, they suspect the sniper has not acquired his final target. The evidence sends the detectives on a search for the killer before someone else becomes the next victim. Meanwhile, Goren tries to find out the real reason for the gunman's rage, and ADA Carver worries about turning a murder case into a test about abortion before a jury.
Larry Feldman, a heart surgeon is murdered at the Bar Mitzvah of his son Ricky. Goren and Eames realize that Feldman had recently gone through a bitter divorce, and that his bitter ex-wife, Julie, believed he was committing child sexual abuse against their daughter Sophie. As their investigation deepens, their attention turns to Charles Webb, a forensic psychiatrist who often testifies as an expert witness for ADA Carver in criminal trials. The detectives discover that after becoming obsessed with Sara Lindstrom, Julie's sister, Webb attempted to gain her affections by helping her sister gain custody of her children, and hired a corrupt detective to murder Feldman. When confronted, Webb's attorney lays down an insanity defense and attempts to have him sent to a psychiatric hospital, but Goren proves that the insanity plea is bogus.
The detectives investigate the murder of Wharton Carlyle, found stabbed to death in a yacht marina. They interview the victim's teenaged daughter, Lilly Carlyle, a frequent nightclub goer with drug and alcohol addiction. During the investigation, Goren and Eames' suspicions turn to a nightclub owner who has close connections with organized crime. When the detectives look deeper into the case, they think that the relation between the girl and the club proprietor aroused the victim's fears, and was the cause of the murder. All is not what it seems, however, because the main suspect, John Hampton, is an undercover FBI agent posing as a thug to infiltrate a drugs ring. He could be the main culprit, but the detectives and the FBI clash over the conflict of interests.
Unable to raise money to make a payment to Carl Pettijohn, a dangerous loan shark, stockbroker Lucas Colter returns home from a morning jog to find that his family is missing. Colter's mother-in-law goes to the Major Case Squad with her suspicions that the family was kidnapped for ransom. Detectives Goren and Eames attempt to gain Colter's cooperation, but he makes repeated excuses and tries to avoid them. Colter takes a phone call from the kidnappers who begin threatening the lives of his family, and rape his eldest daughter, Maggie. Colter asks his father, Melvin, for help in paying off the loan shark, and the family is returned. Initially suffering from Stockholm syndrome, the family deny that they were kidnapped, until Goren gains the trust of Maggie, who recalls a tattoo on her rapist. The detectives track down Pettijohn, who gives up the names of his bagman. When they arrest Simon Matic, a former Serbian soldier, he inadvertently reveals his tattoo, which matches the sketch provided by Maggie.
The body of Emily Trudeau, a court clerk, is found in the home of her married lover, Judge Peter Blakemore, a candidate for an open seat on the appellate court. Goren and Eames find that, despite being held in high regard by the legal community as an expert in the area of intellectual property law, the law review articles attributed to Blakemore were actually written by Trudeau. The murder investigation leads the Major Case Squad to Arnie Cox, a low-profile ex-convict with links to one of Blakemore's appellate seat rivals, Judge Raoul Sabatelli, who has authored a number of internationally successful crime novels. Despite Cox refusing to cooperate, and Carver's positive feelings towards Sabatelli, the detectives press on with their case, and find Sabatelli was incensed that the legal community wanted to see Blakemore gain the appellate seat rather than himself. While Blakemore's success came only from being born into a wealthy and well connected family, Sabatelli feels that he deserved the seat because he had worked hard all his life to get where he is today, with no money to fall back on. Goren and Eames discover that after Sabatelli found some of Trudeau's unpublished legal articles hoping to later prove Blakemore's plagiarism.
Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the murder of a paroled bank robber, killed only two days after he was released from Sing Sing prison. During the investigation, Goren and Eames visit the victim's sister, Charlotte Fielding, and her boyfriend, Gerry Rankin, a mysterious man living a double life. Rankin leads everyone to believe that he is an economist for the United Nations, but the UN tells the NYPD that they have no knowledge of him. As the detectives close in on the suspect, they find that everyone involved in the case has been living a delusion, but that Charlotte's brother knew the truth. Although Rankin desperately wants the approval of his children, Goren suspects that he may also be planning to kill them, and must talk him out of it, by convincing him that they see him as a hero.
Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the murder of a bisexual woman who is found slain in a hotel room. At first, Goren and Eames note the murder has the distinctive characteristics of one committed by an imprisoned serial killer, raising fears that he has found an accomplice to carry on his work while he is in prison. The investigation leads them to a human behavior research institute, where they discover that a series of experiments has been developed on the man to discover the main cause of his insanity. Then the detectives interview the institute's director, an arrogant doctor who struggles for public and scientific credibility, and his research assistant, a shy woman who might have fallen under the killer's spell and committed the copycat murder. Nevertheless, while D.A. Carver stalls to prevent the release of the imprisoned man, Goren and Eames discover evidence that might point toward a most unlikely ending.
Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the discovery of a woman's body on the banks of the Bronx River. The woman appears tied and carefully wrapped in a plastic tarp, and they learn that she was reported missing 20 years previously. Her well-preserved body shows signs that she was subject to substantial physical torture before being killed. Chemical residue on the body leads Goren and Eames to the basement of the house in which she had originally been buried, and later to a drug addicted man whose parents owned the home. When the junkie ends up murdered as well, the detectives focus their investigation on his college classmate, a former chess master who is now a successful and control-oriented mechanical engineer, known to suddenly disappear for a while from his family. The man, who has a history of drugging and sexually assaulting women, could be linked to two earlier rape cases with similarities to the murder. The case takes a major turn when Goren confronts him during an interrogation.
Detectives Goren and Eames are investigating the case of a beheaded woman whose body has disappeared. They discover that the victim is the daughter of a jailed Russian mob boss. At first, they suspect that she was murdered after announcing plans to write a revealing book about the family business, and thugs planned a gangland hit to kill her, but evidently someone beat them to it. Further investigations reveal that one of her previous private school classmates had an even more sordid reason to execute her. Goren and Eames discover that an uptight, self-tortured real estate magnate might have feared the exposure of his own dark childhood secrets and his kinky alter ego if a book had been published.
The Major Case Squad investigate the murder-suicide of a city auditor who appears to have killed his family and then himself; however, an analysis of the crime scene suggests a different scenario. When Goren and Eames learn that the dead man uncovered a pensions scandal involving retired police officers, the trail leads them to corruption within the force. When the dead accountant's report of the city school district's School Security Division is discovered, the detectives learn that he was investigating the illegal practice of retired cops drawing a city pension while also drawing a second NYC salary as School Division officers. Evidence of the murders points towards a handful of former cops, particularly a tough female School officer with an urgent need for money to keep her daughters in an expensive private school.
Goren and Eames investigate the death of a wealthy publisher killed by a car bomb. During the investigation they discover that the victim was murdered after he demanded to meet a disabled girl he had been supporting. She is known as an orphaned and elusive teenage author whose personal tragedies have spawned best-selling books and profitable charities. After interviewing one of her editors they begin to suspect that the girl in question does not even exist; no-one can say they have ever met her. They suspect her foster parents are running an elaborate fraud.
Goren and Eames investigate the assault/car accident of a corporate finance officer and the murder of her boyfriend, and they stumble upon a corporate accounting fraud/stock manipulation scheme. The corporate finance officer, Elizabeth Dawson, had been investigating her corporation's accounting irregularities and had refused to sign the accounting statements. Unbeknownst to Dawson, it was her corporate boss Chief Financial Officer Jack Crawley who had assaulted her, murdered her boyfriend and subsequently framed her for that murder. Crawley offered to provide her with an alibi if she signed the accounting statements.
References
^Weisman, Jon (October 15, 2008). "Dick Wolf". Variety. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
^Set Tour with Executive Producer Fred Berner and Kathryn Erbe: Law & Order: Criminal Intent: The Third Year (DVD). Universal Studios Home Entertainment. June 3, 2003.
^Alleman, Richard (2005). "Union Square/Gramercy Park/Chelsea: From Biograph to Law & Order". New York: The Movie Lover's Guide: the Ultimate Insider Tour of Movie New York. Random House. pp. 228–229. ISBN0-7679-1634-4.
^Brundy, Bill (February 6, 2003). ""Criminal Intent" Likely Last Series for Star". Tribune Publishing. Knight Ridder. Whereas the other "Law & Order's" rely heavily on their ensemble casts, "Criminal Intent" hangs on D'Onofrio's portrayal of Detective Robert Goren
^Baker, Joan (2005). "Steve Zirnkilton – Voice of Law & Order TV Series". Secrets of Voice-over Success: Top Voice-over Artists Reveal How They Did It. Sentient Publications. pp. 25–29. ISBN1-59181-033-7.
^Kunz, William M. (2006). "Patterns of Ownership in Prime Time Network Programming". Culture Conglomerates: Consolidation in the Motion Picture and Television Industries. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 134–135. ISBN0-7425-4066-9.
^"Winners and Nominees". Entertainment Industries Council. Archived from the original(Flash) on December 20, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2009. User must select 2002, Television, TV Drama Series Episode
