"Please Note We are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" stands out. In that it has the longest episode title not just in 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' history but also 'Law and Order' franchise history. Also one of the longest episode titles for any episode for any show personally seen. Not really because of it being a great episode, in my view it falls short of being that despite being a big improvement on the previous one "Assassin."
That sounds like "Please Note We are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" is a bad episode. Not to me it wasn't. 'Criminal Intent' showed a lot of greatness many times and the episode falls short of that. It is one of those episodes that is probably going to be remembered more for its unique episode title and ending (for the wrong reasons) above anything else. A lot of great components, it just didn't wow me.
Am going to start with those great things. The photography is slick and subtly gritty as usual and while the locations are not many they are still pleasing to look at and the more intimate ones aren't claustrophobic. The music is haunting while not going over the top and not being intrusive, too constant and melodramatic music would have ruined the mood and would not have let the dialogue do the talking as effectively. The direction is sympathetic and alert enough.
Enough of the script is tight and thought provoking and the story intrigues and has some nice turns here and there. The acting is uniformly very good to brilliant, Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe don't disappoint and neither does their chemistry. D'Onofrio is especially good at the end.
Having said that, "Please Note We are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" could have done with more tension and urgency. While it's intriguing enough, it is not the most surprising or most complex of all 'Criminal Intent' plots.
Coming off worst is the very telegraphed and rushed ending, that also came over as ridiculous and tacked on. There was a sense that the writers didn't know how to end the episode so came up with one that they thought made sense and was dramatic enough but actually didn't gel.
Summarising, decent episode but could have been better. 7/10.
