Season Four: Goren and Eames...And Hi, Mike Logan!

[WendyCR72]

Talk S4 here...which is the season Mike Logan first comes home to the L&O universe for an episode!

[GHScorpiosRule]

"I think I'll go and have some of your Major Coffee."

[WendyCR72]

He must have liked the coffee enough to come back.  :-P

[GHScorpiosRule]

He must have liked the coffee enough to come back.  :-P

That and Deakins calling in favors to get him in his squad since the asshats at 1PP refused to let him go back to Homicide at the 2-7.

I wuz just so happpeeeeee to see Noth again, after he was shit on in that movie that didn't happen.

[WendyCR72]

What movie? <Blinks innocently>

[GHScorpiosRule]

What movie? <Blinks innocently>

EXACTLY!!

[BizBuzz]

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

 

1 Semi-Detached 2004-09-26
2 The Posthumous Collection 2004-10-03
3 Want 2004-10-10
4 Great Barrier 2004-10-17
Special Great Barrier (alternate ending) 2004-10-17 
5 Eosphoros 2004-10-24
6 In the Dark 2004-10-31
7 Magnificat 2004-11-07
8 Silver Lining 2004-11-14
9 Inert Dwarf 2004-11-21
10 The View from Up Here 2005-01-02
11 Gone 2005-01-09
12 Collective 2005-01-30
13 Stress Position 2005-02-13
14 Sex Club 2005-02-20
15 Death Roe 2005-03-13
16 Ex Stasis 2005-03-20
17 Shibboleth 2005-03-27
18 The Good Child 2005-04-03
19 Beast 2005-04-10
20 No Exit 2005-05-01
21 The Unblinking Eye 2005-05-08
22 My Good Name 2005-05-15
23 False-Hearted Judges 2005-05-25

[Maherjunkie]

Y'all are hard.  Exiled was pretty good, not perfect.

[WendyCR72]

UGH, "Want" is up on the marathon. This one is freaking Cree.Pee. Not that "Posthumous Collection" before it wasn't, but I think "Want" is just all sorts of fucked up.

 

But NPH played the creepy, awkward perp all too well.

Edited June 21, 2014 by WendyR72

[cooksdelight]

Neil Patrick Harris was amazing. My boyfriend and I watched this and he said "Wow, a long way from Doogie or that guy on How I Met Your Mother..."

I am up watching the continuation on ION.... hate when I can't sleep, but at least there's Goren and Eames to keep me entertained.

[Donny Ketchum]

What gets me about this show is that sometimes they pretty much let you know who the perp is from the beginning or at least in the middle of the episode.  Others, they keep you guessing like other L&O shows to the end.  I don't get that format.  What is the point of letting us know who it is sometimes?  Doesn't that rid us of the suspense?

Edited June 23, 2014 by Donny Ketchum

[cooksdelight]

I remember Columbo, where you always knew who the perp was and the fun was watching him figure it out. Only one episode kept people in the dark.

 

My rule of thumb is... if they arrest a perp before the half hour, it's not the perp. If they arrest someone during the second half, they are guilty as hell.

[WendyCR72]

What gets me about this show is that sometimes they pretty much let you know who the perp is from the beginning or at least in the middle of the episode.  Others, they keep you guessing like other L&O shows to the end.  I don't that format.  What is the point of letting us know who it is sometimes?  Doesn't that rid us of the suspense?

 

That never bothered me. I mean, the title itself speaks of the criminal and...well, their intent, so to me, it's natural that we see/know (sometimes) who did what. Where the cops come in is figuring out the motive or - usually in G/E-centered episodes - the psychological component that made the perp do what they did.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I don't know who said it and it may have been in the first season thread, but he/she hit it right on the head. this particular franchise, wasn't so much as what the crime was and to be solved, (whodunit), as it was why, (whydunit).

 

It was a fresh take, and like I said, this show going cerebral. It's why I didn't care for the SVUishness of the personal lives getting more screen time and messing up my enjoyment of the show.

[Spartan Girl]

Despite how horrific it is, I always watch "Magnificat" whenever it was on.  I never thought I'd ever feel any sympathy for a mother that kills her own children -- I certainly wish she'd grown a spine and divorced her abusive control freak of a husband instead.

[WendyCR72]

Despite how horrific it is, I always watch "Magnificat" whenever it was on.  I never thought I'd ever feel any sympathy for a mother that kills her own children -- I certainly wish she'd grown a spine and divorced her abusive control freak of a husband instead.

 

This. And while the mother did ultimately kill the kids, I'm with G/E in that the father should have also had some responsibility since it was his actions (having the wife home school, keep getting her pregnant despite PPD...very ripped from the Andrea Yates case) that started the ball rolling.

 

I did like that Bobby got a friend involved to make sure the remaining kid wasn't sent back to his bastard of a father.

[cooksdelight]

That dad was one of the creepiest, most despicable characters they've ever written into an episode.

[Spartan Girl]

 

That dad was one of the creepiest, most despicable characters they've ever written into an episode.

 

Ditto.  It was bad enough that he made her keep having babies and homeschool the kids and basically prevent her from having any life of her own.  But then he also makes her stop taking medication and going to therapy?!  And he blames her for one of the kids having a developmental disability?!  Jesus, the woman was basically an emotional punching bag to him!

[GHScorpiosRule]

"Now this...? This is...affect."

 

After getting the hubby, played by Sam Robards, to finally show some fucking emotion over the murders of three of his sons.

 

On SNAP! You go, Bobby!

[cooksdelight]

Man, I feel like I'm in some sort of time warp. I am watching an SVU called "Educated Guess" and half the cast is from CI! The mother from "Magnificat" is a redhead, her husband is the guy who played the killer father in "Bright Boy" or whatever it was called... another mother is played by the woman who was the cyanide killer because she wanted a baby clothing store... and a shrink is played by the lady who played Denise Talbott in "Jones."

Holy cow, I don't remember ever seeing so many former CI guest stars on one show.

[WendyCR72]

The Dick Wolf Casting Agency strikes again!  :-)

[cooksdelight]

I'm telling ya, my mind is blown! The Magnificat lady was just as loony in this episode.

[WendyCR72]

Carrie Preston - who played the Andrea Yates like mother in "Magnificat" - was also in a S8 CI episode, the one where both brothers are killed, and the father of those brothers doted on the one son, Adlai, over the other (and carried it into the next generation with his grandsons).

[cooksdelight]

"Adlai! My Adlai!" I will never forget that episode with her either. She does good crazy.

[Donny Ketchum]

WendyCR72, that was actually an episode from season six.  And I have to ask if I'm the only one who wanted to give that poor boy a hug at the end of the episode?  Goren and especially Eames certainly looked like they wanted to.

[WendyCR72]

Huh, thanks. Either way, that father/grandfather was a complete douche, and Bobby's sad/angry/resigned look at the guy at the end pretty much encapsulated that those grandkids were doomed.

Edited June 26, 2014 by WendyR72

[Maherjunkie]

"Strange Bedfellows".  Now they all congregate on the Good Wife.

[Donny Ketchum]

Huh, thanks. Either way, that father/grandfather was a complete douche, and Bobby's sad/angry/resigned look at the guy at the end pretty much encapsulated that those grandkids were doomed.

Funny.  I seem to remember mentioning that Eames looked that way, too.  Probably even more so than Goren.

[cooksdelight]

I'm watching "Death Roe" with Chris Penn (Sean's brother) and reminded of the time I met him and a couple of his friends on the 3rd street promenade area in Santa Monica. The couple I was having dinner with, the girl knows everyone in Hollywood and she introduced us. Such a nice man. And he died three months later. You can almost see that he's a heart attack waiting to happen in this episode.

[WendyCR72]

Hard to believe it was the same man that played Kevin Bacon's awkward friend, Willard, in the original "Footloose" in 1984!

 

And that was a disturbing episode, the father molesting the daughter and grinding up her husband's body? Yuck.

Edited June 28, 2014 by WendyR72

[cooksdelight]

It's one of those episodes that sticks with me. You know how it is, you see the first few seconds of the opening scene and you go "Oh no....this is a good one....I think." I'm on ION West tonight, they are running until 3 am eastern time. Good ones, in order.

[WendyCR72]

First, Cousin Larry (Mark Linn Baker, his Perfect Strangers role) was a creepy killer obsessed with stats and probability. Now Balki (Bronson Pinchot) is a creepy poisoning-with-dioxin  jealous dentist! Oh, CI, how you do like to warp! Hee.

 

ETA: Same marathon here, but it ends at 1 a.m. on the east coast. (The usual marathon is preempted next week for day-after-4th of July movies.)

Edited June 29, 2014 by WendyR72

[cooksdelight]

I'm in the east, but have both east and west IONs on Dish. That way, if I miss one, I can catch it three hours later! :)

[WendyCR72]

Ah, "No Exit" is on now. Good one, albeit creepy. And who knew Darrell Hammond could do more than SNL Bill Clinton impersonations? (Even if the late Phil Hartman's were, IMO, better.)

[cooksdelight]

I'm on "Shibboleth" :)

I haven't watched SNL in a while, didn't know that guy did Clinton. But I can see the resemblance.

[WendyCR72]

This is another reason I like "No Exit". Not only do we see Carver in court, but we actually see a Grand Jury process, complete with jurors asking questions...

[cooksdelight]

Exactly! I love those rare courtroom appearances. My favorite is the surgeon who Goren got agitated, then he got on the stand and Carver finished the job.

[WendyCR72]

"My Good Name" shows not only are VDO/KE good actors, but so was Jamey Sheridan. It was nice to see him have more to do here instead of simply giving orders.

[cooksdelight]

That's up next, glad I am still awake, LOL! The Unblinking Eye is just starting. I cannot stand the guy who orchestrated the whole thing. And his little friend, who's in the scene with Matt Damon, ends up being one of the most diabolical characters ever (in my opinion) in the L&O franchise when he plays Bensen's nemesis on SVU.

[Maherjunkie]

I hate No Exit.  I sympathized too much with the perp and the guy should have kept his website.

[WendyCR72]

I completely disagree about the guy with the website. As Carver said, his attitude was not just hands off, but one of indifference. He had no idea if the visitors to the site were of age to make a choice and didn't care.

 

So glad Alex smacked his arrogant ass down.

 

As for the perp, he set up a person to get smashed by a train because he was a coward and didn't help his coworker rather than report the guy and Len, the big boss.

 

No sympathy from me.

Edited July 2, 2014 by WendyR72

[Maherjunkie]

There is no way you can ever tell if someone is old enough for a website.

 

You're right, he was just so pushed around by Darrell Hammond it's easy to forget.

[WendyCR72]

There is no way you can ever tell if someone is old enough for a website.

 

While that is true, most sites aren't handbooks with pictorial guides on where and how to off yourself, either. So I am still glad that douchenozzle lost his site and had to do his "little dance in hell" after giving G/E the chat transcripts.

[Maherjunkie]

This is true but it is getting into some First Amendment territory that is murky.  Plus I am tired of having to live always in deference to what kids might do.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just finished watching "Stress Position" again, and do you know who comes off the worst to me? That nimrod Gina. What Mike ever saw in her I'll never understand.

 

I get that she was scared.  But to not mail Aziz's letter to his mother? Why'd she hold onto it? And hide it in her book? Was she saving it as evidence? And then not helping Bobby and Alex when they first came to see her? She could have written down on a piece of paper something to give them a hint.  And then acting all, I can't leave with you Mike, they're bringing in a sick prisoner! And I Have to be the ONE to treat him! Numnut. Idiot. Maroon.

 

Poor Chris Noth. Dude had a cold during the filming of this episode.

 

I do remember squeeing when I'd read that Mike Logan was returning to the show in a CI episode way back in 2005. And then going all crazy when I later read he was joining the cast.

[WendyCR72]

I never got what Mike saw in the Gina chick, either. And the end with the guards and Goren talking them down one by one was cheesy, BUT I also liked it because, just like that, it showed Logan and Goren's differing styles, but how it worked for them. Logan was more ready for the physical and fly by his wits, and Goren was about the psychology and words, and both men proved to be good cops, even with completely different takes.

Edited July 17, 2014 by WendyR72

[Maherjunkie]

I thought it was an unlikely ending, but given that, I don't know what ending I would choose either.  Thoughts?

[WendyCR72]

The whole premise was a bit weird, so I think it ended as best as possible.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I liked the way it ended. Mike had a key role in helping to solve this case, which opened the door for Deakins to call in a couple favors to bring Mike back to Manhattan to solve homicides.

[WendyCR72]

Still wish Van Buren could have made an appearance instead of Deakins calling her off screen. I would have liked to see how Logan and Van Buren would interact after so much time.