"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" Saving Face (2005)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Rick Wallace

Writers:

Dick Wolf (creator)
Rene Balcer (developer)

TV Series:

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (2001)

Original Air Date:

27 November 2005 (Season 5, Episode 8)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

The murder of a medical student apparently working as a mule, sends Logan and Barek to a medical foundation performing reconstructive surgery on South American needy patients. |

Plot Keywords:

Detective | New York City | Trial | Gun | Interrogation

Cast

Chris Noth	...	Detective Mike Logan
Annabella Sciorra	...	Detective Carolyn Barek
Jamey Sheridan	...	Captain James Deakins
Courtney B. Vance	...	A.D.A. Ron Carver
Samantha Mathis	...	Dr. Christine Ansel
Lynn Cohen	...	Anna Ansel
Henry Strozier	...	Leo Ansel
Kevin Geer	...	Jules Livanski
Leslie Hendrix	...	Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers
Nancy Ticotin	...	Yolanda Salvo
Jaime Tirelli	...	Dr. Hernandez
Vincent Laresca	...	Antonio Morales
Erin Fritch	...	Kerri Livanski
Kate Buddeke	...	Dolores Livanski
Rosie Berrido	...	Louisa

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Certification:

New Zealand:M (DVD rating) | USA:TV-14

Company:

Wolf Films

The Good-Or-Not-So-Good Doctor

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Like a number of these episodes over the years, they tend to have an overly-dramatic and too sudden confession at the end to wrap up each case. Of course, a main reason for that is time constraints. You have to wrap up the hour-long program, which usually runs about 40 minutes plus commercials. I only mention it because the bulk of the program is usually far more intelligent with a lot of twists and turns.

The ending here is overdone when the father of the guilty woman makes statements and acts so stupidly, to go along with the story, that it's simply an insult to the viewer's intelligence. Nobody would say the things he said here in the last two minutes! Before that, we get an intriguing story about a surgeon who claims to be doing all of this work in Guatemala, but obviously is doing it in New York. Later, it's questioned whether she's doing it at all, that maybe her lowly assistant is the actual surgeon! Is that possible? Whatever the case, people are being scammed and nice, young woman has died because of all these shenanigans. That's the tragic part of the story, which we witness in the beginning of the show.

Samantha Mathis is interesting as "Dr. Christine Ansel." Mathis is an interesting person, too, according to her bio here and her resume. In her 20-year professional acting career, she did television for the first five, movies for the next five and then back to the TV for the last 10.

Meanwhile, Chris Noth continues to impress as "Det. Logan," with a few good remarks and a nice, no-nonsense approach. Yes, I'd prefer "Det. Goren," but Logan's not bad. The biggest difference with this new team, which substitutes here and there, is the female half of the partnership. "Det. Barack" doesn't seem to have the personality and quick wit of "Det. Eames."