User Reviews

This is a homicide that truly needs the eclectic skills of a Detective Robert Goren. A David Copperfield like magician is found dead in a coffin he had been buried in for a month. The new crowd of magicians are looking always to emulate Harry Houdini and modern technology has given them the means to do so.

It was a most modern and sophisticated way the victim met his death. And it's to his peers that Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe look for suspects. One fact is clear there's a lot of envy and rivalry in the world of magic.

Have to give big kudos to Christopher Lloyd who plays one of the old time magicians. The younger ones say he's old school, but if by old school you mean Harry Houdini then you'll love the Houdini like trick Lloyd employs on the NYPD.

A well-know young magician named Miles is performing a buried trick live on TV, when something went wrong and he lost his breath dying in the process. Anyway the coffin is exhumed right away and he vanished. Shortly after, an old school wizard ("Doc" Christopher Lloyd, from mad scientist to mad and drunk magician) hosts a show for nearest and dearest in a sleazy theater, performing the sword trick, but inside the safe room is trapped Miles stabbed to death instead of his female assistant. Detectives find out the tunnel where the renowned magician crawled outside the cemetery, discovering soon after he was poisoned before the stabbing. The perp has to be found inside illusionist's business where some secrets don't have to be unveiled.

Goren seems to enjoy tricks and he has fun playing with wizard's tool. I'm shocked people still believes in this con artists.

It was with Season 5 in my view where 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' became less consistent. Having really liked on the most part the previous four seasons, with a few episodes disappointing of course, the quality of Season 5 onwards pretty much all the partnerships (including Goren and Eames) been disappointingly variable. Never unwatchable, but the number of great episodes for every season decreased increasingly.

There are 'Criminal Intent' fans out there that didn't like the character writing for Goren Season 6 onwards, finding that his personal life dominated too much and that Goren was too different from the Goren of the earlier seasons. Personally loved seeing him developed more, though Season 6 did it a lot better than Season 7, and had no problem with how he was written. Anybody who has wanted for a while to see the old Goren back will be absolutely delighted with "Vanishing Act". Was myself delighted by how he was written and loved "Vanishing Act" as an episode, of a very variable Season 7 it's one of the best.

"Vanishing Act" looks good, with the usual slickness and subtle grit. Really liked too that the photography was simple and close up but doing so without being claustrophobic. The music has presence when used, and luckily it isn't constant, and when it is used it doesn't feel over-scored. The direction allows the drama to breathe while still giving it momentum as well.

Script is funny in a quirky way and gritty, shining in the interactions between Goren and Eames that are reminiscent of how they were in the early seasons and the character writing for Carmine. The story is always riveting, having an unsettling atmosphere, a very clever and unique murder method and circumstance and its showing of the dark side of the world of magic and magician rivalry is far from sugar-coating. Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe are terrific as usual and Christopher Lloyd's wildly entertaining and enigmatic Carmine is one of my favourite guest turns of the later seasons.

Goren is back to the Goren we know and love from the early seasons, to some that may sound like character regression when they like it when a character goes on a journey and grows as a character. While appreciating the development of Goren and thinking it was done extremely well, for the first time in a while one sees what it was that made Goren so fascinating before. We are also back to seeing his perceptions and his uniquely neurotic way of thinking, not the premature conclusion jumping that started to happen around Season 5. We are also back to the sassy, playing off each other chemistry between Goren and Eames, where they also support each other in their investigations and getting a result, that all made their chemistry so great to watch and that was so refreshing after seeing a more intense side to it.

Occasionally, like towards the end, the storytelling got on the over-complicated side with so much being revealed and with the murder circumstances having more to it than meets the eye.

Concluding though, a great episode and one of the best of a very variable season. 9/10.