Jeff Goldblum is the Perfect Fit for Criminal Intent

THANK YOU!

Law & Order : Criminal Intent finally lived up to the very long hype.

On Sunday, April 26th the first Jeff Goldblum episode premiered making this season finally worth waiting for.

The episode entitled, “Rock Star” kicked off with a beautiful parade of hilarious Williamsburg stereotypes -they completely left out the Puerto Ricans though, have they become so extinct in this neighborhood that not even writers, that possibly live there, know they used to walk amongst the locals? The set up for the divide between hipsters, Orthodox and Bushwick natives was pretty priceless and dead on. It made me wonder if we can hope for an episode later this season where the Stuyvesant town Vets take on the Yuppie Off-Spring families.

The character Goldblum plays, Detective Nichols, was taken directly from a Law and Order generator:

-He’s a maverick genius

-He’s got a mysterious past

-He’s quirky

But the catch with Goldblum is that he has this Autastic* magnificence about him. He repeats things and says them with certain rhythms – and in one of the most campy L&O moments ever – he shows off his musical skills by sitting down and tickling the ivories with a pretty little ditty.

While Goldblum’s Nichols is charming to watch, and the writing and storyline far surpassed the season premiere, I couldn’t help but wish there was a scene that brought D’Onofrio’s Goren to match Nichols. I feel if these two were on the case it would be a magical symphony of sleuthing. I will stayed tuned in with eager anticipation.

*Autastic - hybrid of the words Austistic and fantastic

Law and Order Criminal Intent Overhyped

For the past two months whenever I've been at home watching my Law & Order: SVU or CI, or Monk marathons on USA I've seen the commercials for the new season of Criminal Intent and gotten progressively more and more stoked.

Not only was the crazy-ass detective Goren (played by the equally crazy-ass amazing Vincent D'Onofrio) going to be back, but Jeff Goldblum was joining the cast!
Look at him, he looks like a wily detective - this had awesomeness all over it.

So, I patiently waited for the ability to program my DVR and watch this amazing debut. To psych myself up I watched the entire marathon of Criminal Intent all day on Sunday. While watching though the commercials seemed to hype Goldblum less, and less...

I still wanted to watch though, because they promised it would be disturbing. Although I hate scary movies, I adore creepy stories of killers being brought to justice - I'm aware that's a little odd.
Anyway, I deciced I was going to DVR Family Guy and watch Criminal Intent live because I had waited so long for it's triumpant return.

What a f'in let down.

It was a straight forward story, with a little bit of sexual abuse that SVU would've handled much better, and all-in-all a giant disappointment. It didn't even have a really break-down crazy interrogation scene. Boooooring.

I should've watched Family Guy instead. That had a better legal thriller afoot. The medical marijuana episode was way more epic than the Criminal Intent premier. Which proves again, I should go with my teenage viewing instinct and save my adult contemporary viewing for a rainy day.

Let's hope next week's episode is more Goldblumier, or even a little Goldblumy.

Effective Promotional Advertising of a TV Show

In Plain Site, a new show on USA Network finally caught my eye tonight as I was watching- big shock here, Law & Order SVU.

I've seen ads for the show before, it didn't really catch me as a show I'd want to watch.
Similar to ads for Burn Notice, there was an all-too-perfect Hollywoodesq lighting/dialogged/ "action-packedness" of it
-that was heightened by the fact that the star is not only always smokin', f'in, hot under pressure,
but she also has the same name on-screen and off.

Now, I love Tony Danza - Who's the Boss was a really great show. Taxi, far better.
(Daytime talk show? What daytime talk show?)
But it has long been told that his characters on those shows being named "Tony" was no coincidence.
See, Tony Danza was a boxer before a comedy star. It's been said that he had to have the same name as his character because he was hit in the head a few too many times and can only answer to that.
Now, that might be true, might be false.
But, you gotta admit, you could believe it.

Anyway, the main character on In Plain Sight is named Mary Shannon,
which is played by Mary McCormack
...I'm just sayin', perhaps she's not the brightest contender in the mental olympics.

Well, anyway in the most recent episode trailer she's no longer shiny sex machine safety monitor, she gets roughed up.
I'm not saying I want to see her get hit - but I am saying that she's finally not perfect looking, I'm talkin' walked off a billboard and ran after bad guys still looking that pristine, perfect looking.

And now, it actually seems like her character might have depth.
She's possibly a stronger character that's going to have to overcome adversity by using her mind.
And television that has that kind of character on it, I'd check out.

So, yes USA, you've reeled me into yet another one of your shows.
Let's see if you can deliver.

I'm Way Into Spoofisodes

Psych on USA Networks 10pm on Fridays - Epsiode: Murder? …Anyone? …Anyone? …Bueller? Gus Does Not Spoof of- John Huges films/ Brat Pack

Why I Love It - Great homage to John Huges films. I recommend it for anyone who loves/loved/watched a lot of John Huges films, or ever had a crush on anyone in the Brat Pack

The episode was set at a High School Reunion, which is often a great set up for humor. The detective buddy show took the "murder at the high school" case and threw in fun John Hughes nods, and flat out obvious call-outs that led to great references:

• Sean refers to suspects/ high school sweet hearts as Molly Ringwald, and Andrew McCarthy from Fresh Horses (Not a Hughes film, but a Brat Pack one)
• Sean's "picture tag" is of Judd Nelson
• Sean does a Breakfast Club style dance to solve crime
• Sean introduces himself as Abe Froman and then asks "Andrew McCarthy" if he's taped Larry Lester's butt cheeks together.
• In the car with his father, Sean mentions The Breakfast Club, Curly Sue, and Flubber, as all having a "Ducky" Character - then asks his dad for his underwear for a few hours.
  

Basically, the Sean character is desperately making this episode a Hughes/Brat Pack spoofisode.

The most hilarious part to me, the accident that leads up to the murder -
eerily similar to the Matthew Broderick accident that is rarely mentioned.


I was dorkily delighted the entire episode, but totally jumped off my couch with glee with the last scene of the episode...watch the whole episode, it's so worth it: