Law & Order: Criminal Intent "Assassin" (2008)

This week saw the announcement that Chris Noth was once again departing the Law & Order franchise. He previously left the mother ship series in 1995 and returned for a TV movie in 1998. With that in mind, I watched this week's episode with a different angle being that we are only going to get (including this episode) 5 more episodes of Detective Mike Logan who is one of only two original characters left in the franchise. The other of course being Dann Florek as Captain Cragen in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, who coincidentally was Logan's supervisor on the mother ship and also returned in the TV movie. That being said I was disappointed in this episode. I didn't find the case with its international intrigue implications that interesting (seems to be a recurring theme this second half of the season) in addition to the fact that Team B just looks like it's going through the motions to solve the case. There's no spark, no conflict with Team B. Coming off the first half of the season with Detective Falacci and her brazen assertiveness, Wheeler comes off as kind of boring. I realize that with the shake-ups and disharmony right now with Team A, B should be the rock of the Major Case Squad but it has the end result of this partnership seeming lifeless.

I'm actually not sure what else to say about this episode. This seemed to be a filler episode and I'm sure things will pick up as we approach Logan's exit from the series, and possibly the franchise. His replacement is Jeff Goldblum who I'm sure will bring a quirky spin to Team B as Goren has for Team A. I just hope Logan's last batch of episodes don't consist of unmemorable cases and lack of character development. I realize the character has been around since 1990 but the first half of the season was able to push a fresh spin on the character in that he had a chance to be the more diplomatic partner. I think the problem is that Logan and Wheeler just don't click as partners. I thought they were fine together last season but after seeing Logan with someone else to play off of, Wheeler doesn't seem to cut the mustard anymore. And here's hoping we get a Ross/Logan argument before he departs as well. Those made for some interesting episodes last season.

Favorite moment: To be perfectly honest, nothing really stood out as a favorite in this episode. Rather than try to force one I'll just have to go with pass for this episode. I did like however like that it was Logan who was able to realize that sister was behind it all by simply watching video of her during her brother's shooting. He's still sharp ladies and gentlemen.