Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) Tuxedo Hill (2002) User Reviews

One elaborate frame

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 15 February 2021]

Bruce Altman s a favorite player of mine ho specializes in playing truly smarmy villains, a few times on the Law And Order franchise series. When he's not an outright villain, Altman is a reliable portrayer of guys who are always looking out for number one. Most notably in the previous decade Altman was the mayor of New York City, the first one that police commissioner Tom Selleck served under in Blue Bloods.

In this episode Altman weaves a very complex and elaborate frame for murder putting Cindy Katz in the middle of it. He is the Chief Financial Officer of a hedge fund and Katz works for him.

Katz should thank whatever Gods she prays to that Major Case and Vincent Donofrio was the assigned detective. Only the eclectic mind of Bobby Goren would have pieced this one together.

What was this all about. All I'll say is the story is part and parcel to the financial buccaneering days of the time. Altman is a his creepiest.

For fans of Bruce Altman.

Is the SEC (Not Football) but Finance Watchdog not doing their job?

[radarfirs7 · 8/10 · 23 March 2021]

In this episode, we all get to learn how little we know about Finances of big companies r/t Stock Loses of the little person. We all learn about "Collar" loop holes for Scams by companies. Why hasn't the SEC closed this loophole? This episode if you didn't learn a couple things about "Finance Research & Vocabulary" then maybe need to get back to the Brain Cell Killing Shows.

Law & Order:Criminal Intent-Tuxedo Hill

[Scarecrow-88 · 10/10 · 17 November 2010]

While this is indeed a difficult episode to comprehend unless you understand the stock market and financial mumbo jumbo, its relevance is especially noteworthy since the Madoff Ponzi scheme rocked America the last few years. A murder, knock on the noggin, and a SUV crash lead Goren and Eames to a financial company (which deals supposedly in land and water rights) who could be swindling their investors. You'll have to stay with it because there's a lot of terminology many of us outside the financial accounting loop will have a hard time understanding, but Goren and Eames are the same as we are, learning as they pursue the answer to who committed the murder linked to an innocent employee of her company called Mattowan..not to mention how COLLAR will be the ultimate downfall to the head honcho responsible for the corrupt practices which will rob all those poor people convinced to buy stock into the company. It's a potent episode because of how it rings true considering all those who lost millions thanks to that rat bastard Madoff. I will say that the episode really takes us deep into the crooked financial world where we are treated to the inner workings of how scumbags in high-dollar suits use the stock market to abuse the very clients they are supposed to be providing services to. I think most will watch this particular episode and applaud the maggot who is arrested at the end, begging to squeal on his associates, yet handcuffed and taken away as he should be.

Season 1 at its most truthful

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 10 February 2020]

All the episodes of the first season of 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' in my view are good to brilliant, making it a solid season overall. Found the weakest, while still liking it with reservations, to be "The Third Horseman", primarily down to feeling that it could have handled its controversial subject matter with more balance and tact, and the best as far as the previous episodes go being "The Faithful", "Jones", "Homo Homini Lupis" and "Badge".

"Tuxedo Hill" is another one of the season's best episodes and works very well indeed as a season finale. As well as having all of the usual good things and executing them brilliantly, what really made "Tuxedo Hill" stand out was its honesty and relevance in how it tackled a not easy subject. That is something that has always been admirable about the 'Law and Order' franchise, handling difficult subjects and moral dilemmas, execution varied throughout the three best shows of the franchise (the original, prime-'Special Victims Unit' and 'Criminal Intent') but it was hard to not admire the good intentions.

It is a good, slick-looking episode that stylistically matches the tone of the story very well. The music doesn't make the mistakes of being overused, which allows the dialogue to shine, or being melodramatic, even in the climactic moments. The main theme tune is not my favourite of the 'Law and Order' theme tunes but is still memorable and has a groove without being inappropriate to the type of show 'Criminal Intent' is.

Furthermore, the script is taut, intelligent and makes one think. Maybe one needs familiarity with the job "Tuxedo Hill" centres around, as well as with stock markets and finance, to understand all of the jargon that peppers the writing, but to me it wasn't over-complicated and good educational value. The story intrigues and always engages, but what makes it stand out in particular is the way the subject is handled. Done in a very honest way that still holds up as relevant and will resonate (and has resonated) with many. The viewer is likely to relish the ending as much as the detectives do.

Goren is a fascinating character brilliantly brought to life by Vincent D'Onofrio, contrasted beautifully by a more subtle Kathryn Erbe. The two as ever have great chemistry together. Bruce Altman is the standout of the rest of the cast, deliciously smarmy as the smarmiest of CEOs.

Overall, a brilliant final episode to a consistently solid season. 10/10

Season 1: The weaknesses are part of the formula but D'Onofrio and his character are strong and often make it stand out from the crowd in its slightly different approach

[bob the moo · 28 October 2009]

I'm not generally a fan of L&O because I do prefer to have something consistent in my dramas rather than being able to miss episodes and still be able to just walk into one and not miss a beat. However there are strengths in having it like this because then you can just dip in and out here and there, enjoy one episode and then not worry about what happens next. I tend to enjoy doing this most with L&O:CI because I enjoy the structure and the characters. I have been mostly moving around within the first series or two so don't take these comments as being gospel but so far it looks pretty good and is different enough from the other L&O's to be worth seeing.

Supposedly looking at the crimes from the criminal's point of view, I actually enjoy the series mostly because of the deduction work of Goren. He is an enjoyable character and comes across a little like a very straight version of Monk. This gives the show a bit more of a theatrical touch and, although L&O has always proposed to be able the real police work without the gloss, I do find the CI approach to be that little bit more enjoyable as a result. Not every case is that strong of course and there are weak episodes but they all tend to be reasonably good because I like the lead character.

Like other reviewers have commented, D'Onofrio really is the key to a lot of the episodes coming together. He is the heart of the series and as long as you like that then you should like each episode. His performance is quite fun to watch because he does have elements of being a straight cop but then he also has elements of Columbo and people like that – it is a nice mix that he carries off well and, like I said, it tends to give CI a different slant from the police work approach of the other series. Erbe is just as good but ploughs a straighter furrow in support of D'Onofrio while Sheridan and Vance are both fine in smaller roles – however I tend to feel that they never really want to keep D'Onofrio off the screen for too long (so I'm not sure why they are proposing to bring in other detective characters).

Overall this is an enjoyable series for dipping into here and there. The lack of total narrative flow and perhaps not a great deal of character development is a problem but generally it works well in what it does and out of all the various cop show spin-offs of this ilk, tends to be one of the ones that I enjoy more.