criminal intent

(S06E01) Since I already provided an early look at the season premiere of Criminal Intent I'm not going to do a full blown review. However, I do want to touch on some of the items I left out for the sake of not spoiling it for the rest of you (ain't I so sweet?).

What actually made me think that this season would be a little different from the last five (other than cast changes) was the beginning of the show. As those of you who have watched the show know it usually begins with scenes of all of the potential suspects in the crime that will be investigated, followed by the discovery of the victim. Not this time around, though. Although one potential suspect is shown (the victim's boyfriend) the main focus is on the victim herself being pursued by her murderer, then being attacked. It is actually a bit intense, and quite bloody.

At least, they have a whole lot of Law and Order: SVU and Law and Order: CI. You'll have to click over to TNT to catch repeats of the original Law and Order. Starting September 11, the USA network will devote thirty-five hours a week to those two spin-offs, which according to the New York Post is about seventy to eighty percent of the network's primetime lineup. I didn't bother to check the math, but I'll take their word for it. Either way, that's a lot of dead bodies found in strange places. This new schedule is tentative for now, but if they choose to go with it, you'll be able to catch the two series from 6 to 9 on weeknights, and in a six-hour marathon on Saturday nights from 7 pm to 1 in the morning. On Sunday nights you can wind down with two more hours starting at 11 pm.

[via Popwatch]

Göre Yakup. Well, that's a rough translation of what According to Jim would be in Turkish. And, you're asking, why the hell would we want to say According to Jim in Turkish (or English, for that matter)? That's because the long-running ABC sitcom will be reversioned for Turkish audiences.

Now, you're probably asking yourself, "What the hell does reversioning mean?" First, stop swearing. Second, as far as we can tell, reversioning is when the rights to a show are bought by a foreign producer, who then develops the show for their own audiences. We've done it here plenty of times for shows like All in the Family, Three's Company and The Office (all British imports) and international producers have done it for American shows like Friends. In this instance, according to an article in Variety, Jim is being reversioned by Turkish producer Medyapim for local broadcaster ATV. Medyapim has already formatted another ABC sitcom, the recently canceled Hope & Faith, for its local market.

FOX isn't the only network that is jumping the gun in front of the May upfronts to make an announcement about the upcoming fall season. In what comes as no surprise (even though there were rumors that one of its members was on the cancellation bubble) NBC has renewed all three series in the Law & Order franchise: the original, SVU, and Criminal Intent.

All three series have been solid ratings draws this season on a network that is trying to find its way back to the top. SVU is having the best season out of the three with viewership of about 14 million per week. The original Law & Order is second with over 11 million and Criminal Intent, which went with a rotating cast this year and is up against powerhouses The Sopranos and Desperate Housewives, is pulling a bit under 11 million.

Next season will be the 17th for Dick Wolf's original Law & Order, which makes it the longest-running television drama currently running (far ahead of ER's 12 seasons). SVU will mark its eighth season and Criminal Intent will begin its sixth season in the fall. There is no word on whether the current rotating cast of Criminal Intent (Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe as detectives Goren and Eames one week and Chris Noth and Annabella Sciorra as detectives Logan and Barek the next) will continue into next season.

[via Zap2it]

 

 

Whoopi Goldberg will be returning to television for the first time since Whoopi was on NBC a couple years ago. She'll be guest starring in an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent for May sweeps in a role that will most likely be recurring. Goldberg will play Chelsey Watkins, an evil foster mother who goes up against Detective Mike Logan, played by Chris Noth. Goldberg seems to be playing this up, insisting her role will be the baddest ever on Criminal Intent. I assume she means the character will be bad, not her acting. Though maybe she did mean her acting, and she's going for some kind of award for bad acting. You never really know, you know? This sounds promising, but Criminal Intent still remains my least favorite series of the Law and Order franchise.

NBC is adding a dozen shows to Comcasts's On Demand service, starting in May. That means you can buy the show for $.99 after it airs, in case you missed it. Unfortunately, it's not for everybody. In fact, it's not for many of us. The deal is only valid in markets (aka 'cities') where your local NBC affiliate is actually owned and operated by NBC. For instance, here in Portland, our NBC affiliate is owned and operated by BELO Corp., so no luck here. Eh. TiVo is better, anyway.

The shows hitting VOD are:

The upfronts are right around the corner, where network executives let advertisers know what shows will be making the cut for next fall. Early word from MediaLife is that NBC has the longest list of shows might not be returning. Probably the most surprising show on the list is Law and Order: Criminal Intent. With the rotating cast and drooping ratings, media watchers say this one is likely on the chopping block (the other two are safe, though). Things aren't looking good for Commander in Chief, either. And, of course, we already knew that there is a good chance Scrubs will be... scrubbed (but possibly get new life on ABC).

Here are the shows (on all networks) that media buyers think are in danger of cancellation:

The third successful spin-off of the original Law and Order series is about to reach its 100th episode, a milestone for any television show. This Sunday's all-new Criminal Intent features the original cast members, Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe, who have been alternating episodes with new detectives Chris Noth and Annabella Sciorra. The episode is called Slither and it was written by executive producer Rene Balcer. The episode is about a European gang leader who likes to kill tourists. By the way, I think the word 'slither' is meant to be a description of the main criminal because the show description doesn't mention anything about snakes. The episode also features Olivia D'Abo, a character whom viewers voted to keep alive during a poll in the show's fourth season. Criminal Intent airs Sundays at 9 pm on NBC.

I am going to limit this rant to Law and Order since it is the primary offender when it comes to putting guest stars on its many, many shows. It's as though the writers can't help but make every single celebrity guest star the guilty person! Do they know it is a dead giveaway to the viewers? If I see Dean Cain, Fred Savage, or Dana Delany as a seemingly minor character in the beginning of the show, I know they'll end up on trial or at least be the guilty ones by the end of the episode. Last night, I was watching a rerun of Criminal Intent where Lee Tergesen from Oz appeared as a minor character in the beginning. Guess who ended up being guilty of murder? Surprise, surprise. I remember Julia Roberts being on the original Law and Order during season nine, does anyone remember whether she was guilty?