A very different kind of episode. Terrific acting from D'Onofrio, Scheider, Erbe and Bogosian and the whole ensemble. Great writing and direction as well. (Spoilers in review)
In this episode, we see what great writing, direction and acting can produce. This is not a detective story typical of the Goren-Eames series (Holmes & Watson). It is a grand manipulation of victim (Goren) by monster (Brady), with Eames and Goren's family caught in the slip-stream.
The weaving of the monster, mass murderer Brady, into Goren's difficult relationship to his mother, and his own questions about his identity, is masterful. Writers Leight and Rorick are clearly working with Sengupta-like attention to story, character and detail.
The story unfolds simply at first, with the serial killer, Brady, facing imminent execution, desperate (it seems) for just a little more time, a little more life.
But it only seems that way. Brady has a final story to tell, one that he is desperate to play out to and with his victim, Goren. So finely balanced is the story, that the viewer is not sure whether Brady's game is confession, penitence, greed, or voyeurism.
He's watching Goren carefully. Why? He's fishing, casting bait on a line, catches Goren and begins to pull him in. Telling him clue by clue of the missing identities of his victims, until...
He set's the hook with a victim from Goren's own family, and a possible further victim, we soon see, in Goren himself.
Goren's relation with his mother, a riveting and astonishing performance from Rita Moreno, takes a sinister twist when we find the long-ago affair between her and the killer. An affair that has possibly produced an heir.
This realization pushes the stressed Goren over the edge for a minute, until he pulls back from madness. He teeters on the edge again in a final scene with his mother, but again pulls back.
Does Goren know who he is? Is he the monster's son? The mad woman's son? Or is he the sum of his life, his mastery of detection, his integrity, his genius?
I distinctly got the impression that this may be the last episode for D'Onofrio.
I hope not; but What A Way To Go !!!
( Goren will be back in Season 7 in 2007 )
In this episode, we see what great writing, direction and acting can produce. This is not a detective story typical of the Goren-Eames series (Holmes & Watson). It is a grand manipulation of victim (Goren) by monster (Brady), with Eames and Goren's family caught in the slip-stream.
The weaving of the monster, mass murderer Brady, into Goren's difficult relationship to his mother, and his own questions about his identity, is masterful. Writers Leight and Rorick are clearly working with Sengupta-like attention to story, character and detail.
The story unfolds simply at first, with the serial killer, Brady, facing imminent execution, desperate (it seems) for just a little more time, a little more life.
But it only seems that way. Brady has a final story to tell, one that he is desperate to play out to and with his victim, Goren. So finely balanced is the story, that the viewer is not sure whether Brady's game is confession, penitence, greed, or voyeurism.
He's watching Goren carefully. Why? He's fishing, casting bait on a line, catches Goren and begins to pull him in. Telling him clue by clue of the missing identities of his victims, until...
He set's the hook with a victim from Goren's own family, and a possible further victim, we soon see, in Goren himself.
Goren's relation with his mother, a riveting and astonishing performance from Rita Moreno, takes a sinister twist when we find the long-ago affair between her and the killer. An affair that has possibly produced an heir.
This realization pushes the stressed Goren over the edge for a minute, until he pulls back from madness. He teeters on the edge again in a final scene with his mother, but again pulls back.
Does Goren know who he is? Is he the monster's son? The mad woman's son? Or is he the sum of his life, his mastery of detection, his integrity, his genius?
I distinctly got the impression that this may be the last episode for D'Onofrio.
I hope not; but What A Way To Go !!!
( Goren will be back in Season 7 in 2007 )