Law and Order: Criminal Intent: All About Eames
The Sidekick Steps Up in Season Premiere
Did you catch television history being made last night when Law & Order: Criminal Intent completed the jump from broadcast network NBC, the series’ home for its first six seasons, to basic-cable network USA, an NBC affiliate? If you didn’t and you’re an L&O fan, you really missed out.
For ages, Criminal Intent devotees have been clamoring for that other detective, Bobby Goren’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) cool and competent longtime partner Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe), to finally get a storyline capable of elevating her from mere Goren sidekick to a full-fledged crimebuster in her own right, especially since she’s technically the senior member of their partnership.
Those hopes were briefly addressed in the sixth season’s riveting premiere “Blind Spot,” which features Eames getting kidnapped by a deranged criminal and then cleverly escaping. But, the show didn’t maintain the momentum of character development for Eames as the season progressed, and soon the plots more or less fell back to the “Bobby the Troubled Brainiac Show” during the alternating installments that feature the Eames-Goren team (Detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson) headline the other half).
In the seventh-season premiere “Amends,” however, Eames steps out of Goren’s shadow and comes to the forefront in a big way again. The central event of the plot takes place in Jamaica, Queens, right smack dab near my old neighborhood, where a detective is murdered in his car off of Hillside Avenue, which I lived next to for over a decade. It’s soon revealed that the slain officer was the partner of Eames’ late husband, who was also killed on the job while working undercover nine years ago.
The episode then explores several themes that bring Alexandra Eames to life as an independent person with a very real and very painful past, marked by the reality of what happens to the family members left behind after a police officer dies in the line of duty. If you weren’t a Criminal Intent watcher before, now just might be the time to take another look at the show. That basic-cable sheen is already evident, hinting that the series might become grittier and more gripping than ever, in a way that only cable programming permits. Given the successful transition indicated by the premiere, viewers are in for an intriguing and revealing seventh season.
USA is giving everyone a chance to catch up on the second L&O spinoff this weekend, when it will air a marathon of select sixth-season episodes from 9am to 11pm EST on Sunday. You can also watch replays of the seventh-season premiere “Amends” this Saturday at 11pm and next Friday night at 10pm.
Related News: Both ‘Law and Order’ and ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’ Live On!
Law & Order: Criminal Intent currently airs Thursdays on USA at 10pm EST
Law & Order: Criminal Intent photo courtesy of NBC
I thought this first episode of CI was outstanding! I liked the way the crime story and Goren and Eames personal lives were woven together with the plot. LOCI is my favorite of the 3 Law and Order shows. I think Vincent D’Onofrio is an awesome actor and Kate Erb makes a perfect partner for Goren. I am so glad Eames’ character is being expanded because Goren and Eames are a team and both of their personal lives will effect their partnership. If this episode reflects the rest of season seven - it will be the best season yet! I personally think the show going to USA is a promotion. LOCI was the only show I ever watched on NBC and I think USA is a much better channel. I also liked all the publicity USA gave to CI. What great commercials! NBC should start studying USA and maybe their ratings would pick up.
Hi, Vicki. Thanks for commenting. Criminal Intent is my favorite Law & Order, too, and the move to USA is just going to make the show even better–I have absolutely no doubt about that. You’re right: the USA commercials are brilliant, and they fit right in with the funny ones the network has been doing for Monk and Psych and such for years. The future is looking very good for Criminal Intent and its fans!
Eames husband was killed in the line of duty eight years ago - but didn’t she just have a baby a year or so ago. What’s the story line there?
The story on the show regarding Eames’ pregnancy was that she was serving as a surrogate for her sister and her sister’s husband.