‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’ Tackles Love in Outer Space
The Latest Installment Rehashes This Year’s Bizarre NASA Love Triangle
Ripping from yet another headline that’s almost too tawdry for prime time, tonight’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent will put its own unique spin on the recent Lisa Nowak-NASA love triangle that, as these things tend to do, stunned an unsuspecting and mesmerized global audience. In that fiasco, which came to the public’s attention in February, Florida authorities arrested NASA astronaut Nowak for attempting to kidnap Colleen Shipman, the U.S. Air Force girlfriend of her former lover and fellow astronaut William Oefelein.
Enter Dick Wolf and company, who plundered the basic details of the incident to come up with “Rocket Man,” a typically twisted episode about a NASA (changed in the episode to NSA, which stands for National Space Administration) employee murdered in her New York hotel room during a publicity stint for the shuttle program shortly before she was slated to become the youngest astronaut ever in space. Cue the Nowak undertones to figure out where the plot basically goes from there, with an unanticipated turn or two added for your viewing pleasure.
While series executive producer Warren Leight describes the event that informed the episode as “divine intervention” in a recent interview with TV Guide, the main reason to watch has nothing to do with religion: Film and TV veteran Tate Donovan guest stars as—you guessed it—the middle-aged married man who was having an affair with the murdered astronaut before her death. Otherwise, given that this case features Team Goren-Eames (Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe) as the lead detectives, viewers can pretty much expect more of the same old Criminal Intent sleuthing tour de force customarily dlevered by our resident odd brainiac and his trusted partner.
Related News: D’Onofrio Confirms ‘Law & Order: CI’ Departure | ‘Law & Order’ Hits the Haggard Trifecta
Law & Order: Criminal Intent currently airs Tuesdays on NBC at 9pm EST
Law & Order: Criminal Intent photo courtesy of NBC
