Own the rights?
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Captain James Deakins (actor Jamey Sheridan), normally a grey eminence in the background of «Law & Order: Criminal Intent», comes into active play in the storyline of "My Good Name."Deakins's involvement becomes a necessity because the chief murder suspect here, Frank Adair, is a former high-ranking police official with major political ambitions and connections to match. Adair — who carries three cellphones and a Blackberry to stay in touch and compartmentalized — believes that he's beyond the reach of mere detectives as Robert Goren and Alex Eames.This episode appears to have been broadly inspired by the rise and fall of real-life former NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, a highly decorated officer who was at one point a nominee for U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security before his reputation abruptly collapsed. Kerik, while undoubtedly a heroic figure, turned out to have — as in the Old Testament metaphor — feet of clay. (At last word, he was awaiting sentencing to prison on various federal charges.)The fictional Frank Adair, like Kerik himself, grew up the child of a deeply troubled home, a situation that helped to mold him into the fearless cop he became. In "My Good Name," an amoral political adviser named Janice Steiner takes advantage of Adair's bravado and vulnerabilities to push him into dark deeds — apparently as a way to keep him under her control.The episode title quotes Shakespeare's silky and ironic villain Iago: "Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, / Is the immediate jewel of their souls: / ... He that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him, / And makes me poor indeed."Janice Steiner, seeking to usurp the places of Adair's wife and deceased mother in his affections, is an odd mix of Iago and (would-be) Lady MacBeth. This nasty mixture of desire, ambition, and sheer malice, not surprisingly, proves explosive under pressure in the closing scenes.* * * * *
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
