User Reviews

Shades of Bernard Slepian, the murder here is committed on a judge's wife ambush style through a kitchen window in the same manner as Dr. Slepian the abortion doctor's was done. The judge Bruce MacVittie and the wife who was a psychiatric counselor offer a host of suspects tied professionally to either or both.

But looking real good is either half of celebrity movie couple Steve Guttenberg and Paula DeVicq and a real bottom feeding private eye played by John Ventimiglia.

Chris Noth gets new partner Alicia Witt who has a real chip on her shoulder. When she gets into it with Eric Bogosian he was wont to remark that it was interesting being the voice of reason for a change.

You also should take note of Ventimiglia. The kind of PI that gives the profession a bad name.

When it comes to talking about the previous seasons of 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent', Seasons 1-4 were very good as an overall whole, the weakest episodes still being decent and the best being absolutely outstanding and 'Criminal Intent' high points. Seasons 5 and 6 were a lot less consistent, especially 6 which was like an out of control see saw and also boasted the show's worst episode up to this point ("Bombshell", which was a misfire but not a terrible one).

Regarding the previous two Logan and Falacci episodes "Seeds" and "Lonelyville", the former didn't do much for me and the latter was an improvement but still with reservations. Their third outing "Courtship" fared better, while it is not a great episode or a perfect one there were a lot of things that worked well and there were a couple of things that were improvements. As far as Season 7 episodes go, "Courtship" is somewhere around high middle and one of the better ones up to this still early stage of the season. It is also one of the better Logan and Falacci episodes.

It isn't perfect. Am still not crazy about Falacci, who is one of those characters that is difficult to like because her negative personality traits have always come over as over the top. Which is the case here, though other episodes fared worse in this regard. Alicia Witt still overdoes it.

Also thought it did get a bit too over-complicated towards the end from trying to cram in a lot of information in a short space of time. The ending is another rushed one that could have gone into more depth.

However, "Courtship" has a lot that works in its favour. The production values are slick and professional, not ever resorting to cheap or untested gimmicks or anything, and liked that the photography was intimate without it being claustrophobic. The music is haunting in the right places and isn't constant or too loud. There are thoughtful and intelligent moments in the script, Logan has some great lines like the one mentioned in the review summary.

While the story execution isn't perfect, it's clever and never obvious and it's not dull. The many twists and turns keep one guessing all the way up to the end. Chris Noth is great as Logan as usual, he always balanced humour and grit beautifully, while John Ventimiglia memorably, without overplaying, plays one of the most slimeball-ish private investigators seen in a long time.

Concluding, not great but by Logan and Falacci episode standards it is pretty good. 7/10.

A couples counselor (Helen Coxe) is shot dead in his hometown while standing beside stoves to cook dinner. A bullet grazes her shoulder and the other is the fatal one. She's married to a supreme court judge not so clean as figured out by detectives during the investigation. So the real target could be her husband, who has just ruled about parental rights in court regarding a gossip couple (director and actress). They look like Pam and Tommy Lee, acting and real life are mixed up and lies are part of their daily lives. Even their little child is able to play a script. At the end anyway truth comes out.

At the beginning Det. Logan teases his partner about her look: bearing Italian surname doesn't fit her fair hair. She's got indeed Irish ancestry by her mother and later on we figured out she's married with children.

I've always generally liked Alicia Witt, but her Lola Falacci character is very unlikeable and she doesn't play well with others on Criminal Intent. For me, she pretty much ruins the episodes she's in even when it's a good episode. I just don't care for her character at all. Happily she's not in many episodes.