Season Five: The Return of Detective Michael Logan

[GHScorpiosRule]

Why not?

Though we saw him reprise his role in Season Four's "Stress Positions", it was great to learn that Noth was coming back to Law & Order, AND as the same character!

I thought it was hilarious how Deakins had him sit at the wobbly desk in the premiere, technically his first day. And how he managed to get one of the would be suspects to open up and provide the information Bobby and Alex were looking for.

This is also the season that gave us the AWESOME "In the Wee Hours."

But sadly, it was also Carver and Deakins' last season.

[WendyCR72]

I know CI tried to keep the Law part going with that female ADA after Carver left, but she seemed to fade out. I guess we should be thankful Leight didn't debase or kill her in the process.

But I REALLY missed Carver. AND Deakins. I know many warmed to Danny Ross. But I'm not one of those people. I even liked Hannah over him.

[GHScorpiosRule]

But I REALLY missed Carver. AND Deakins. I know many warmed to Danny Ross. But I'm not one of those people. I even liked Hannah over him.

Say wottttt? Who warmed up to that fucking blowhard-who-was-always-insinuating-himself-into-every-investigation? Definitely liked Hannah much better, but Bogosian was so miscast.

[WendyCR72]

Oh, Danny Ross has fans. Around the 'net, anyway. Meh. Like I said, I even liked blink-and-miss Joe Hannah better. Of course, my first inclination would have been to have Deakins back for S10, but better Hannah than some Ross resurrection! LOL!

[BizBuzz]

Hey there all L&O:CI fans, this is your spot to talk about the specific episodes found in Season Five, they include:

 

1 Grow 2005-09-25
2 Diamond Dogs 2005-10-02
3 Prisoner 2005-10-09
4 Unchained 2005-10-16
5 Acts of Contrition 2005-10-23
6 In the Wee Small Hours (1) 2005-11-06
7 In the Wee Small Hours (2) 2005-11-06
8 Saving Face 2005-11-27
9 Scared Crazy 2005-12-04
10 Dollhouse 2006-01-08
11 Slither 2006-01-15
12 Watch 2006-01-22
13 Proud Flesh 2006-03-12
14 Wasichu 2006-03-19
15 Wrongful Life 2006-03-26
16 Dramma Giocoso 2006-04-09
17 Vacancy 2006-04-16
18 The Healer 2006-04-23
19 Cruise to Nowhere 2006-04-30
20 To the Bone 2006-05-07
21 On Fire 2006-05-14
22 The Good 2006-05-14

[rujasu]

Barek never really worked as Logan's partner, but "In the Wee Small Hours" is just one of the best things to ever happen.  I don't know who plays the creepy judge, but he hams it up gloriously.  The well-deserved mockery of Nancy Grace.  Goren and Logan working together.  Carver even has a courtroom scene in it!

[GHScorpiosRule]

rujasu, the judge was played by Colm Meaney.

[WendyCR72]

Barek never really worked as Logan's partner, but "In the Wee Small Hours" is just one of the best things to ever happen.  I don't know who plays the creepy judge, but he hams it up gloriously.  The well-deserved mockery of Nancy Grace.  Goren and Logan working together.  Carver even has a courtroom scene in it!

 

The extreme dork in me also loved the altered credits with everyone in them, and I liked that the detective pairings had their credits as such, rather than individual, as usual, it was VDO/KE in theirs in one frame with their names and CN/AS in theirs. Pretty cool.

I will say, for whom came after (Wheeler [Falacci really doesn't count, IMO, as she is more of the Lynn Bishop realm]), I had new appreciation for Barek, even if she was low key. At least she perked up near the end - and seemed like a SEASONED detective.

Oh, yeah, and how funny that the actress playing Faith Yancy (the Nancy Grace wannabe) managed to stick around long after "Wee Hours". Loved Goren actually sort of smiling and having a bit of all-too-brief fun (something he used to excel at!) at her expense in "Lady's Man" in S8.

[WendyCR72]

Barek never really worked as Logan's partner, but "In the Wee Small Hours" is just one of the best things to ever happen.  I don't know who plays the creepy judge, but he hams it up gloriously.  The well-deserved mockery of Nancy Grace.  Goren and Logan working together.  Carver even has a courtroom scene in it!

 

Rujasu, I agree with all of this. Well, almost. I agree back when it aired that Barek was blah. But afetr Wheeler, I think she seemed like a more experienced detective and a true peer.

 

Still, in terms of everything else, yeah. I also - besides having wanted another such episode where the teams worked together again - would have loved some focus on the women's POV. Eames and Barek seemed to mesh well enough. Actually, all 4 seemed to have great chemistry together, even when you put all of their different personality/investigative styles on display.

 

And I said this before, but I'm surprised reporter Faith Yancy (a.k.a. Nancy Grace wannabe) managed to hang around for as long as she did!

[cooksdelight]

My favorite Barek episode was the one where the airport guy, Due Diligence Dwayne, was dumping dead prostitutes from airplanes. What a freaking wild storyline!! And she handled him brilliantly, in my opinion. So many interesting characters in that episode.

Edited June 12, 2014 by cooksdelight

[WendyCR72]

That prostitutes falling from plane bit was weird, though, cooksdelight! Yes, Barek did handle Dwayne just fine, but that one took me out of things a bit. Maybe it WAS based on something that happened, but it just seemed so...TV-ish to me, which usually wasn't the norm for the franchise (at the time...now SVU has gone to hell!), that I had a hard time with that one.

 

Although considering some of what came later, this didn't seem so bad.  :-)

[Donny Ketchum]

Barek never really worked as Logan's partner, but "In the Wee Small Hours" is just one of the best things to ever happen.

My favorite Barek moment, like, ever came in part one of that -- when Goren, Eames, and Logan are trying to figure out the club in which the missing girl was last seen based on the description, and Barek pretty much comes up with the name in just seconds.  This brought some GLORIOUS WTF?! looks from Goren and Eames, prompting Barek to explain that she had favors there, followed by Logan trying not to laugh at their surprise.

[WendyCR72]

"Wee Small Hours" was pretty awesome. I liked that CI made it a group effort with both sets of detectives, and each had some victories, and I liked the good-natured spying by each pairing while wondering what the other one uncovered, etc.

[Maherjunkie]

I thought Goren and Logan had good chemistry, would have liked to see them work together more.  I think I saw more romantic chemistry with them than G/E.  I know, let the fruit pelting begin.

[WendyCR72]

A couple S5 episodes that disturbed me were "Acts of Contrition", with the junkie turned nun who, in her last life, helped lure a man into getting beaten into a vegetable. (And may I say how oddly creepy his brother was, with the 3rd person talk?) and "Scared Crazy", where a shrink used club music and other methods to turn a fragile computer geek into a killer.

 

I liked S5, but the stories did tend to veer even darker than normal for some episodes, these two included.

 

And I had said before, AoC was yet another episode with religious/church themes. CI seemed to revel in those.

Edited June 23, 2014 by WendyR72

[cooksdelight]

"Acts of Contrition" was another favorite of mine also. I remember that same actress playing in early season one, I think, a junkie/stripper who got this girl killed (who was pregnant with the rich junkie's baby).

[WendyCR72]

I remember that same actress playing in early season one, I think, a junkie/stripper who got this girl killed (who was pregnant with the rich junkie's baby).

 

You're referring to "Smothered", and I had no clue the actress playing Sister Olivia was Becky the hooker there. Wow.

[cooksdelight]

I'm good at spotting repeat offenders. :)

[WendyCR72]

Well, I recognized one. David Harbour was the silver thief in S4 with the pregnant killer girlfriend who went on to be the religious fanatic dad who offed his family in S8 in "Family Values".

 

As for the topic...Mike Logan. I sometimes wondered just out of curiosity how he and his partner du jour would have handled G/E's cases and their perps and vice versa as their styles were so different, Mike being more from the gut, Bobby the more cerebral one.

 

Just some useless things I sometimes think about.  :-) 

 

Oh, and I know Van Buren crossed over on CI with G/E, so it's a shame she couldn't do it one more time for Logan to see him, especially since it was established she tried to get him reinstated over at the 27th! (Although I read a rumor online that Van Buren was supposed to be in "To The Bone" but was written out after S. Epatha Merkerson objected to how she was written or something. But like I said, it was a rumor, so who knows if there was any truth to it.)

Edited June 26, 2014 by WendyR72

[Maherjunkie]

Mike would miss the name of some cultural figure, but his gut would lead them in the end.

[WendyCR72]

Perusing the Mothership thread, and it hit me. There was a sort of symmetry which sort of amuses me.

 

On the Mothership, Logan left at the end of S5...

 

Yet he started as a regular on CI...in S5. 

 

It's the little things, but I think the unintentional parallel is kind of cool.

[WendyCR72]

So, "Acts of Contrition" is airing now. And as horrible as it was that his brother was beaten into a vegetable, the Eddie character, who referred to himself in the 3rd person, was way creepy.

 

And Olivia, while repentant about her past and trying to make up for it, was reprehensible in her role in making said brother a vegetable.

 

But it made for a good episode.

[Maherjunkie]

Vincent's fake laugh was the only scene that got me in that one..

[GHScorpiosRule]

The problem with bingereading these threads, I forget where someone said what.

 

So, I'll start here, since "Unchained" was on, and I'm just finishing watching it. Wendy, you said something about how gross it was that Keith's character pimped out his daughter was gross and disgusting, but watching this again, Keith's character was right when he said that Lennie ran into the problem of having a former partner turn on him. This lead to Mike's eyes narrow with rage when he said "what?"

 

It was a nice nod to continuity (Thank you, Rene Balcer! who also wrote this episode), from the mothership. It was the episode in Season 7 where Kevin Conway's crooked cop was being investigated for murdering that drug dealer and Rey wouldn't back his story up. Conway was Lennie's former partner, or someone he worked with years ago, during the time he was drinking. So, to get revenge, Conway had the special committee accuse Lennie of being in on the murder, and Caroline Kava, who played a fellow cop--who was having an affair with Lennie at the time, cleared his name, even after Lennie told her not to.  BUT, that's the only thing he was right about, but bastard didn't know that Lennie came out of it okay, because the crooked cop ate his gun when his plan for payback backfired on his dirty ass.

[WendyCR72]

So, I'll start here, since "Unchained" was on, and I'm just finishing watching it. Wendy, you said something about how gross it was that Keith's character pimped out his daughter was gross and disgusting, but watching this again, Keith's character was right when he said that Lennie ran into the problem of having a former partner turn on him. This lead to Mike's eyes narrow with rage when he said "what?"

 

I saw both things, too, @GHScorpiosRule. But even if Keith's character was right about ANYTHING, it still makes him a pig where his daughter was concerned. But to his credit, David Keith played a scumbag really well. I felt sorry for her, and I think Logan did, too.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Oh, yes, without a doubt, he was the scummiest of the scum. And he got off too easy.

[Maherjunkie]

I felt bad for Renata.  My first thought was I hope she made enough to support herself after that mook makes bail.

[WendyCR72]

Hopefully, Renata had a good-paying job or got a better one...not to mention cut herself off completely from the douche of a sperm donor that made her.

[WendyCR72]

So, "Wasichu" was on at the 3:00 p.m. hour of the marathon (the episode with the killed Secret Service agent and the story about casinos, etc.), and @GHScorpiosRule, I finally know what you meant when you said that Barek often acted drugged. Her voice was so monotone and low the entire episode. Not being mean, just honest.

 

But I didn't hear Barek infuse any emotion once in that episode.

[Maherjunkie]

Not a favorite.  Like the way Mike says "TOm-ottoes" though.

[WendyCR72]

Oh, I agree. "Wasichu" was dull, to put it kindly. But Barek sleepwalking through the episode probably had a bit to do with it. So I brought it up.  :-)

[Maherjunkie]

I liked their brief dash into social commentary re casinos and Indians.

[WendyCR72]

@WendyCR72, thank you, didn't even notice that happened! :)

 

No problem, @Chattygal! It's what I'm here for.  :-)

[Maherjunkie]

"Wee" and "Dramma Giasco" are the least putrid of season 5, I think.

[WendyCR72]

Well, I did really like "Wee..." and "Dramma Giocoso" was pretty decent, too. (Although Barek's winter wear was ugly in that one. LOL! But I doubt Annabella Sciorra cared as long as she was warm!) I liked S5, though, overall, so there is that. If I had to choose a least favorite season (besides S9, which didn't even seem like CI, to me!), I'd choose S8, most likely. Although I did love "Family Values" and "Lady's Man" from that season. But the rest was...meh.

[WendyCR72]

Oh my, yes. Colm Meany and his Iaaaaaaaaaagggggoooo. I realize the character was supposed to be drunk, but really? Seemed like a Masterpiece Theater parody in that moment. Luckily, the rest was good. LOL! (And the judge's wife was played by the same actress who was Denise Talbot in "Jones" in S1, the episode where the druggie lawyer killed all of his petite girlfriends and Goren teased him by snarking on his lack of skills - and size.)

 

Oh yeah, another thing I liked about "Wee..." was bringing back the guy who slapped Goren in S3 to get the goods on the judge's son. Connie! That was the guy from S3. And Goren's "Ouch!" after the slap as he grabbed the guy (in the S3 episode with Bishop) was classic.

[Donny Ketchum]

One thing I've wondered is whom Deakins is calling Logan in to meet at the end of season five's premiere?  And then, we don't even see the person?  Is he introducing him to Barek?  If so, why do we have to wait for the following episode to finally see her?

[WendyCR72]

One thing I've wondered is whom Deakins is calling Logan in to meet at the end of season five's premiere?  And then, we don't even see the person?  Is he introducing him to Barek?  If so, why do we have to wait for the following episode to finally see her?

 

That's actually a good question, but if it was Barek, at least there was some sort of set up.

[GHScorpiosRule]

That's actually a good question, but if it was Barek, at least there was some sort of set up.

It's definitely Barek, because he said "meet your new partner" or something like that.

[rujasu]

If so, why do we have to wait for the following episode to finally see her?

 

Because that way, they kept the focus on the Goren & Eames case while teasing next week's Logan & Barek.  If they try to introduce Barek during the last few minutes of that episode, what does that accomplish?  There's not enough time to establish any of her character, and it takes away the impact of her debut the following week to have her appear in an episode where she's not going to do anything.

[Maherjunkie]

Yeah, she really makes an impact with her mumbling, hats, monotone colors.

[WendyCR72]

I missed the "come meet your partner" line completely, but that might have been easy to do given everything else that was going on, so nice catch, @rujasu, and sound reasoning, too.

[rujasu]

Oh my, yes. Colm Meany and his Iaaaaaaaaaagggggoooo. I realize the character was supposed to be drunk, but really? Seemed like a Masterpiece Theater parody in that moment.

 

The two-parter is my favorite episode(s) of the series, and the "IAGO!!!" bit is my favorite line in the series.  For completely different reasons, of course.  The two-parter as a whole is so good it's awesome, and "IAGO!!!" is so bad it's awesome.  Colm hams it up for the whole show, actually, and it legitimately works really well because he's supposed to be a drunk, angry, theatrical egomaniac, but in that particular scene I think he got some of the scenery stuck in his throat.

[WendyCR72]

The episode with Corbin Bernsen as the prison warden whose wife ran off with a criminal (but believed kidnapped) is on. He was creepy. No wonder she ran off, and the criminal seemed like the better option.

[wanderingstar]

This is also the season that gave us the AWESOME "In the Wee Hours."

 

Love Love LOVE this episode! Watching it now on ion. It’s truly one of my favorite episodes of television, hands down. Plus, it has Colm Meany, whom I heart from his time on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

The extreme dork in me also loved the altered credits with everyone in them,

 

Not just you! It’s one of my fave things about the ep.

[WendyCR72]

I love Goren's shy little wave to Eames just before she utters her awesome "Ocean's Two" line.

[WendyCR72]

And here, I like the S3 callback to "Connie", the perp who punched Goren...

[Donny Ketchum]

Not just you! It’s one of my fave things about the ep.

Mine, too!  Though it's sad that it seems like the only way people will talk about the "alternate" pair for this season is by discussing this episode.  Other than that, talk of the "main" pair resumes.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Donny Ketchum

[Maherjunkie]

 

I will say, for whom came after (Wheeler [Falacci really doesn't count, IMO, as she is more of the Lynn Bishop realm]), I had new appreciation for Barek, even if she was low key. At least she perked up near the end - and seemed like a SEASONED detective.

That's G.Lynn Bishop, aka G Dawg is her street name.

[WendyCR72]

G. Lynn Bishop? Like G. Gordon Liddy? What the hell? Was it ever elaborated upon what the G stood for? And, if not, why even give her such a name?