TV Jots

The Best Law & Order Opens Season 8

Following a nearly eight-month hiatus, Law & Order: Criminal Intent returns to USA Network at 9pm ET tonight to begin its eighth season of 16 episodes. Onboard for the premiere “Playing Dead” is excellent guest star Kathy Baker (Picket Fences), who just completed another noteworthy stint on TNT’s Saving Grace.

If you happen to love Criminal Intent as much as yours truly — it’s been my favorite Law & Order series since its debut — then tonight’s episode should please you a great deal.

The plot revolves around Councilman Neil Hayes-Fitzpatrick (Scott Cohen, Law & Order: Trial by Jury), a New York City politician, and his drug addict stepdaughter Stacy. She somehow remains sober enough to live through a gunman’s sudden assault by pretending to be dead, although her boyfriend, a fellow addict and dealer, isn’t such a fortunate fast thinker.

Baker plays the councilman’s mother and campaign manager, who seems to be as stunned as everyone else upon learning Stacy and her dead ex were involved with attempts to blackmail the powerful family. However, Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Detective Bobby Goren, once again working smoothly with his partner Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe) after a seventh season filled with much trouble and tension, quickly notes the surviving victim’s odd behavior regarding Neil.

Once the observation is out of the bag, it combines with some typically adept sleuthing from Goren and Eames to provide viewers with several unexpected but entirely satisfying developments. How lucky we fans are to have Criminal Intent back and in great shape, with new player Detective Zach Nichols (Jurassic Park‘s Jeff Goldblum) making his first appearance next week alongside his partner Megan Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson). More on that before his debut episode, April 26th’s “Rock Star.”