Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Returns for it's 7th season this year

"In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad. These are their stories."
—Opening narration by Steven Zirnkilton

This show as the narration indicates, follows the activities and cases of the Major Crimes Squad, this squad deals with the highest profile crimes in New York, which usually means the most violent or ones, murder those which involve the largest amounts of money. VIP's or the city administration.  Unlike the other L&O shows, Criminal Intent from series 5 has alternated between two teams of detectives, one is the long term partnership of Eames and Goren, the second is Mike Logan and Megan Wheeler.

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" takes the viewers into the minds of it's criminals while following the psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve the crimes. In true Sherlock-Holmes Fashion D'Onofrio (Men In Black) stars as Detective Goren, an exceptionally bright homicide detective with well-honed instincts that match fovourably with his criminal quarry. Likewise, his partner, Detective Eames, brings an independence and stylish edge to her work that meshes well with Goren.

Detective Logan, Noth (Sex and the City) who was exiled to Staten Island after punching a city Councilman ten years ago on (1990-1995), teams with partner Detective Wheeler (Nicholson), who asks the question "Why?" balancing out Logan's "Who, what, when and where?" approach.

Bogosian plays Captain Ross who was just rewarded with the Major Case Squad after heading a successful three year Joint Task Force on International Money Laundering that has just been dissolved. He brings Wheeler with him to Major Case - he is her mentor. Captain Ross is divorced and a New York history buff.

A unique feature of each Criminal Intent episode is that the opening section of the show, before the credits, always involves a series of cut-scenes that show events from the suspects' and victims' lives, leading up to the crime. Clues to the crime's eventual solution can often be found in this teaser sequence. Criminal Intent episodes do not usually contain trials. Unlike other Law & Order series, most Criminal Intent episodes end in confessions rather than plea bargains or verdicts.

Over the years the show has enjoyed the appearances of over 200 guest stars, amongst them, Rosanna Arquette, Brooke Shields, Tom Arnold, Chrstopher Lloyd, Olivia D'Abo, Chris Penn, Peter Bogdanovich, Roy Scheider, Rip Torn and Jake Webber.

"Law & Order:Criminal Intent" is a Wolf Films production in association with NBC Universal Television Studio and is Dick Wolf's third instalment of the "Law & Order" brand, the second longest running drama series in the history of US television. Wolf, Warren Leight and Peter Jankowski are executive producers.

When the Hollywood Reporter reported that the USA Network was currently finalising a deal for the ninth season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and it was reported that D'Onofrio, Erbe and Bogosian would be leaving the series as USA Network preferred Goldblum's lighter Monk-style contribution as it fits better with their slate of other series. The hard core audience responded to news of the impending cast changes, and on September 27, 2009, dedicated fans of the series united and launched a grassroots campaign to save departing cast members D'Onofrio, Erbe and Bogosian. Among the more traditional methods of letters, postcards, email and phone calls, the fans included sending jars of marshmallow fluff by the case to express their displeasure at the proposed change of tone for the series. Has it been a success, watch this space, rumour is D'Onofrio will only appear in the opening episodes on Season 9.