Behind the scenes with Kathryn and Prize Packs

Law & Order: Criminal Intent's Kathryn Erbe goes behind the scenes the episode Rispetto.

Follow the link to TV Guide to watch the clip.

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Criminal Intent Prize Packs: (with a Law & Order: Criminal Intent black nylon cinch sack, a Law & Order: Criminal Intent hat, a Goren Limited Edition T-Shirt, a Law & Order: Criminal Intent Season 4 DVD, and a Law & Order: Criminal Intent Season 5 DVD). Prize pack valued at $110 and provided by USA Network.

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Interview: "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" Executive Producer Chris Brancato

04/29/11 - 12:03 AM
By Jim Halterman (TFC)
At The Futon Critic

It was a dose of good news for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" fans late last year when it was announced that original cast members Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe were returning to the long-running series after departing the year before. However, the good news came accompanied by a dark cloud as it was also announced that this 10th season would be the show's last. After the abrupt cancellation last year of mothership "Law & Order," the crystal lining is that at least the execs at the USA Network, where "Criminal Intent has been housed since 2007, granted the show a chance to properly wrap up the acclaimed crime drama. Enter Executive Producer Chris Brancato, who was freed up from consulting duties on FOX's now-delayed series "Terra Nova," and took over the "Criminal Intent" showrunner reigns.

In between shooting in New York City, Brancato took a break to talk with our Jim Halterman about this final crop of episodes and the new focus on D'Onofrio's Detective Robert Goren. While this season will feature the usual cavalcade of guest stars like Jay Mohr, Julia Ormand, Steven Weber, Julie White, Neal McDonough and Geri Ryan, Brancato also teased this Sunday's season premiere inspired by the real life troubles of actor Charlie Sheen as well as the upcoming episode modeled after the drama of Broadway's "Spider-Man: The Musical."

Jim Halterman: There was some shuffling around of episodes so the first episode back is actually not the one that explains the return of D'Onofrio's Goren and Erbe's Eames, right?

Chris Brancato: Actually, [the network] took our episode four, which is our 'Charlie Sheen episode,' and they decided it was so timely so they decided to put that as the first episode that will air on Sunday night. It's called 'Rispetto.' A writer came to me with the notion of doing a study of the collateral damage that occurs when a Charlie Sheen-like person exists. Of course, there are multiple people around Charlie Sheen that have reasons to try to protect him if, for instance, he was accused of a murder because they make so much money from him. From the President of the studio that makes 'Two and a Half Men' to the creator of the show, etc. But, for our purposes for 'Criminal Intent,' we decided to set the character in the world of New York Fashion, kind of like [designer] Michael Kors. I should point out that it's a very, very good episode and one that will leave many diehard viewers wondering 'How'd [Goren and Eames] come back?' and now that is our episode two, 'The Consoler.' You'll be asking 'Why are they back?' and then episode two will answer how and why they've come back. It was my goal to not make a big deal about it. I didn't want to start with them staring at each other across the squad room saying 'I've missed you' and hug. It's not what we do on 'Law & Order' so I actually started three weeks into their return on a major case and then, yes, in episode two we explain the circumstances of that return.

JH: Can you talk about shaping this season and if you approached it differently because it is presumably the final one?

CB: I felt like there needed to be some sort of organizing principle or umbrella under which to kind of filter the shows; to act as a determinant as to whether the show was right for this batch or not right. Obviously this show has done many, many episodes and lived many years at NBC, which is a broadcast network, and when you're doing 22 episodes you have a very wide latitude to cover every corner of the city. Now, with a more limited number of episodes on a cable network that, first of all, bills itself as 'Characters Welcome' what Dick [Wolf, Executive Producer and creator] and I decided was to organize these episodes around a basic umbrella concept. Greed is a motivator in many of the crimes you see on television but we wanted to make this batch have a kind of organizing principle, an exploration of love gone wrong. That act fits many different scenarios. Sometimes it's romance and love goes wrong. Sometimes it's the love for one male friend for another [and] sometimes it's the love of a daughter for a father or one family for another. In other words, ultimately what you'll find is an exploration in these eight episodes of where and why love went awry. For me, that allowed me to have some 'fusion' or organizing principle for the show.

JH: How has it been for Kathryn and Vincent to be back in these familiar characters and environment?

CB: When they came back to do these episodes, I remember Katie said, 'You know, I spoke to Vincent a few days ago and we're really excited to come back and do this. It's been tougher than we thought to leave the show and leave the crew...we feel this sense of excitement." I'm a big believer in that if you can harness how the actors are really feeling and make that sort of a little bit part of the fiction you're creating it often serves the fiction quite well.

JH: All of the 'Law & Order' series are careful about delving too often into the personal lives of our regular characters yet we're going to spend quite a bit of time on Goren's life. How did that decision come about?

CB: Dick wanted Goren to essentially be shrunk and to have to go under some psychiatric counseling and it was a condition of his return to the major case squad that he had seven police-mandated shrink sessions with an outside specialist that is hired. So this season features Julia Ormand playing the shrink and we're going to have an arc that is essentially Goren getting interrogated over the course of seven episodes with the on-the-nose purpose of determining his fitness as a case detective but at the same time, a plumbing of what makes him tick and hopefully leave us with some kind of sense of a conclusion in terms of his mental health and well-being. At first, I was skeptical about the notion partially because 'The Sopranos' used a shrink to create effect, as have other shows, including the original 'Law & Order.' We ended up hiring Warren Leight, former show runner of this show but also show runner of 'In Treatment,' to write that shrink-arc because he really specializes in this kind of thing. And as I sat there just a few weeks ago watching Vincent D'Onofrio and Julia Ormand do these scenes my skepticism just vanished immediately.

JH: Did the fact that you were exploring Goren's character make you want to perhaps do the same with Eames?

CB: First of all, I completely agree with that sentiment which is to say this - in some people's minds the show can be looked at as 'this is a Vincent D'Onofrio vehicle' because you can get in the mindset that over here is Sherlock Holmes and over here is Watson and the movie is called 'Sherlock Holmes,' not 'Sherlock and Watson.' That said, there is no doubt in my mind, and I would guarantee that Vincent would agree 1000%, that this show is a two-hander meaning. It's about two detectives and it's about their relationship and Bobby Goren wouldn't be the character we've come to love without Eames, no way. There are very few actresses that could pull off what Katie does. We like to joke about it and I don't mean to undersell it but somebody has to carry the water in a procedural. They have to recount the information that the detectives have observed or sussed out or come out with a stream of facts that you just learned getting off the phone. Though it would seem to be the simplest thing in the world to regurgitate information there's almost nobody who can do it and make it interesting and make it feel completely organic to the scene. Katie is a master at not only doing that [but] nobody delivers a little bit of attitude better than her.

JH: The episode focusing on the controversial Broadway musical 'Spider-Man' is also getting the 'Criminal Intent' treatment. Can you talk about how you approached that topic?

CB: We're doing a version of 'Spider-Man: The Musical' where the rigging breaks and it turns out to be murder. Our version, since we can't obviously use 'Spider-Man,' which is a trademark property, is 'Icarus: The Rock Musical.' We're not involved in this insanely complicated computerized rigging mechanism much but I'm only getting a taste of what poor Julie Taymor and all these people have to go through because we're going to do a wire rigged stunt. It's insanely complicated to pull off even though we're just dropping the guy from the ceiling to the floor. [Laughs.]

JH: So, let's say these episodes do really well. Is there a chance 'Criminal Intent' could come back for another season?

CB: I think we all probably know that Dick Wolf never says never. I know the show and my interaction with him was phenomenal. He cares so deeply and he is engaged in the show in a way that you might not expect somebody who is so successful and been doing it for so long. He loves it! This is his baby, of sorts. Yeah, I think if viewers are enthused about Vincent and Katie coming back I don't see why it has to be the final season.

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" premieres its 10th season this Sunday at 9:00/8:00c on USA.

Dick Wolf Hopes for Criminal Intent Reprieve, Says D'Onofrio & Erbe Have Never Been Better

Matt Webb Mitovich
April 22, 2011 09:05 AM PDT posted on tvline.com

Dick Wolf must be feeling a bit of deja vu this spring. Just as a year ago he was lobbying for NBC to pick up the original Law & Order for a 21st season (allowing it to set a record as TV’s longest-running drama series), the L&Overlord is now hoping that Criminal Intent‘s imminent 10th season won’t be — as announced by USA Network — its last.

“Being the unbridled optimist that I am, I still have hope that this is a ‘victory lap’ and not a ‘swan song,’” Wolf said during a Thursday conference call. “Based on the work so far, I think the audience is going to be very happy, relieved, and welcoming… and hopefully enough fans will come out so the powers-that-be reconsider their decision.”

Weighing in Criminal Intent‘s favor, of course, is the much anticipated return of two original series leads, Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe (as Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames) — not that Wolf ever wanted them long gone in the first place.

“It was never a decision to have them disappear into the wilderness,” Wolf says of the duo’s single-season extraction, during which Jeff Goldblum rode solo as Detective Zach Nichols. Looking forward, Wolf says, “I don’t think Vincent and Katie have been any better ever in the series. [Criminal Intent] is back to the power of the first two seasons.”

Of course, there is the none-too-small matter of getting Goren back onto the Major Cases Squad, fired as he was for insubordination at the start of Season 9. That segue is orchestrated by a new captain, Joseph Hannah (played by Jay O. Sanders), whom Goren knows from the police academy.

There’s also a bit of head-shrinking involved in Goren’s comeback. As Wolf explains, “In getting him back in the good graces of the police department, part of the agreement was for him to go back into psychological counseling.” As such, there will be one scene per episode where Goren meets with a therapist played by Julia Ormond (CSI: NY).

Those scenes, Wolf says, “will answer some questions that have been hanging since the first season, and over the course of [Season 10's] eight episodes you’re going to see something about the redemptive power of psychotherapy. This is an attempt to move [Goren] back to the psychologically complete detective that he was in the first season of the show.”

Whether this run of episodes kicking off Sunday, May 1, at 8/7c, is a “swan song” or “victory lap,” Wolf says, “This has been a great experience…. There is a real power in seeing this show come back at full-octane, with stories that are really interesting.”

Will you be tuning in for Criminal Intent‘s return?


Read another interview with Vincent and Dick Wolf. Law & Order: Criminal Intent: The Return of Goren and Eames!

The Sunday Conversation: Vincent D'Onofrio

By Irene Lacher, Special to the Los Angeles Times
April 24, 2011

After 18 months away, the actor returns, refreshed, to 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent.'

Actor Vincent D'Onofrio is seen outside the set of his television show "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan, NY. (Jennifer S. Altman, For The Times / April 24, 2011)

After a year and a half absence, Vincent D'Onofrio, 51, returns to "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" as the brilliant but troubled detective Robert Goren for the show's 10th season, which debuts May 1 on the USA Network.

I like your character, Det. Goren, but he seems to get a mixed reaction. I think some people don't get him.

It's always been like that. I think that's OK. It's not for everybody, especially the way I play him is not to everybody's taste. People, I think, unless they allow themselves to take the leap of faith, they don't like the intelligence, the ridiculous amount of knowledge he has. It doesn't make it easy in a 40-minute show to solve a crime [persuasively] in the first place, but then to have a guy who's as clever as Goren solve it, it kind of makes it even harder to get away with. It's a battle for people to like that show, I think. On the other hand, the people who do take the leap love it. I say that not out of arrogance. Believe me, every time I go to the corner to get milk for the kids, I hear it.

Goren is seeing a shrink this season, right?

Maybe. We haven't shot any of that yet. But the word is that yeah, Goren is seeing a shrink.

Why did you leave the series and why are you back?

I needed to stretch a bit and spend time with my kids and family and my wife. I wrote with a couple of friends of mine and directed a film that's going to be distributed next winter. It's called "Don't Go in the Woods," a pretty crazy movie; it's a slasher musical. I wanted to do things like that, and during the last year and a half, I developed three films. That one was made. We're going to make an announcement about the second one that me and my friends wrote that we're producing.

Tell me about the slasher musical.

Me and two friends — Joe Vinciguerra and Sam Bisbee, who's a musician — I had this idea about a bunch of kids who go into the woods, and they all sing and they all die. It's modeled after a B slasher film, but it's a musical with beautiful music. I cast it off the streets of New York with all unknown actors. The movie cost $100,000, and we shot it in 12 days.

How did you happen to come back?

[Series creator] Dick [Wolf] called me. Dick has been a great supporter of mine since the show began. When I was getting tired, he helped me out then. I don't know why he does it, because he's an amazing businessman, and usually amazing businessmen don't care about what their actors are thinking. But in my case with Dick, it's exactly the opposite. And he has always tried to accommodate me in whatever way he could without of course being ridiculous. I don't want to say anything about the show with Jeff [Goldblum], because I thought I was leaving the show for good and Jeff was going to be the perfect person to play that part. Why the show didn't work out, I have no idea.

How was making the show so intense in 2004 that you ended up being hospitalized for nervous exhaustion, and why won't that be the case now?

It's very simple. We're not doing that amount of shows ever.

How many were you doing then?

Twenty-three. It wasn't just me, by the way. It was Kate [costar Kathryn Erbe] too. Both of us had kids, and we were working 10 months out of the year with maybe a couple of days off here and a couple of days off there. And at one point, I think it was on the second or third season, it was a brutal, brutal time. And I will never ever, no matter what kind of money they offer me, ever do that again.

That's why it's eight episodes?

Yeah, we're doing eight. And my wife told me that USA is really pushing the "last eight" thing, the final-season thing, which I think is really interesting. I know the television business pretty well now. I've been in it for 10 years, and I've never heard of a company saying something is over until it's really over. I always thought that people were in television for the money, companies. And why would they kill something if they could figure out how to make money off it? I think that from an actor's point of view, because I'm certainly not making an official announcement because I have no control over these things, I would say it's probably not done. I would say that "Criminal Intent" will be back in some form after these eight at some point.

From your mouth.... Speaking of God, the first episode of the new season deals with misdoings in the Catholic Church. You were an altar boy, weren't you? How did it feel to work on that episode?

I always found it a bit nerve-racking when we did things that the church was involved in. It's the same when you do things about bad cops. As you know, in this day and age, everybody loves to hear nasty stories about people; tales being told out of school are the most popular thing in the universe right now, on the Internet, on television. And they always have, about the church and they always have about law enforcement officers. I just think you have to be really careful when you tread those waters because on both accounts there's a lot of good that's been done. There are a lot of priests in this country that are more like social workers than guys who have to answer to the pope, and they don't get credit. And the same with cops.

calendar@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Promo Pictures

Photos by: Marco Grob/USA Network © NBCUniversal, Inc. posted on All Things Law and Order.

More Promotion for Season 10

Finally there is a new header of the USA Network homepage and a few days ago we got the next trailer…
…enjoy

Why We Love Det. Goren

One of USA's most beloved characters is coming back! When it comes to getting inside the mind of a killer, nobody comes close to Det. Goren! Law & Order: CI returns to USA Network Sunday, May 1st at 9/8c!

First Promo Picture

I hope they'll add a picture of Kathryn very soon.

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