The following bit of spew is an unapologetic and totally self-indulgent rant - as I'm sick to my stomach upon hearing the news, and always feel better
after I puke. Which is to say: fair warning now and head's up! You just
might want to scroll past this post; chuckle!
f**k!
Are you INSANE..?!! You're going to add Chris Noth to the
cast come next season..??! Could it be they've been the ones on the brink of losing their
minds this year - and NOT Det. Goren...??! As it sure sounds to me like they have. And as I sit here typing, the opening lyrics to "The End" by the Doors is playing loudly in my head.
For I was a member of the first Law & Order Forum over on Universal, back in the horse & buggy days of the internet; before they were forced to temporarily shut it down in the wake of all manner of shite & abuse; posts about a failed relationship with model Beverly Johnson, not to mention the restraining order slapped on a female fan for stalking Chris Noth. Seriously; I kid you not. But while I was there, I was a huge Logan fan - and knew as much as anyone could about the actor and his character; for discussing both within Forum threads & chat rooms. I'd taped all the "Mikey" episodes, read the articles, watched the interviews he gave, including one with Lauren Hutton on a short-lived talk show; Noth sharing stories like having bungee-jumped off a bridge over Victoria Falls; Africa. I even had a retail copy of the now infamously
BAD film he'd shot in Indonesia entitled "Jakarta". It was a fun hobby but one I gave up; for first losing interest, along with noting just how
psychotic some people were getting - talking it all
WAY too seriously! Christopher Noth could do no wrong. (And God help this Forum if "those" fans sign-up! Assuming they're still alive & kicking.)
Nevertheless, I haven't forgotten. I've retained it all. And although it's just an opinion - which ironically is why it needs to clarified, I think they're making a horrible mistake. Mike Logan was a decent guy for all his political incorrectness, but he didn't think with his
head! And while that was part of his charm on Law & Order - like Spike the vampire, often his own worst enemy for shooting himself in the foot, his character will had to have undergone a truly
astonishing transformation "off-screen" during his stint over on Staten Island (where he'd been banished in the wake of having punched a city official, season 5 ep: "Pride") if Det. Logan has even the slightest chance of fitting-in now, on Criminal Intent. For Logan never used any measure of "pathology" to get inside a suspect's head. The only time he really got close to looking "inward" was after his first partner Det. Greevey was shot and killed outside his home; season 2 ep "Confessions".
And I just don't see it working. You'd have to change him too much - and what would you get then?! A paunchy cop in his mid-40's with something to prove, an obnoxious eager-beaver driving Eames crazy? Or a more subdued Logan, more contrite now for having learned his lesson; a dog without a bite?
I've caught Noth in other parts, moreover, here and there over the years - most notably his role as Carrie's love-interest - Mr. Big, on "Sex and the City". And while I loved
that series, I never loved him "in" it. I always felt he played Big more as a two-dimentional caricature than not; with way too much retro- 50's "who loves ya baby" swagger tossed into the bargin, to appeal to me. He displayed more finesse and skill as Mike Logan; at least
there he injected some subtext into his work. He's a gifted actor but evenly so, in other words. He can rise to a challenge but only when motivated to do so. Typical Scorpio; wry smile. Yes, I remembered that too about him.
What
BURNS me more than his addition to the season 5 cast however, is what it says about (IMO) the Producers' ongoing pig-headed quasi-chauvenistic failure to better employ Catherine Erbe as Det. Eames! If D'Onofrio is
THAT exhausted and thus needs his work load lifted, why on
earth don't they simply give HER more to do?! Where was it carved in stone they couldn't..?! Don't they feel Erbe can act? Was she never anything more to the writers than Sherlock's side kick? Erbe could easily have handled more lines, ergo cutting D'Onofrio's work load in half. Has Eames learned
nothing in the 4 years she's worked with Goren?! Is she incapable of uncovering the "why" behind a suspect's motives?!
No, I'm not suggesting I'd like to see her "transform" into Goren. Just achieve the same results, however it's ultimately done. Instead, I'm thinking she'll likely be the one now teaching those skills to Logan - to off-set his total lack of them. And I cringe at the imagined sight of "Mikey" pushing her buttons while trying her patience along the way. Or even WORSE - seeing his blunter tactics of intimidation & bullying being used instead, to rattle the suspects into confessing out of sheer EXASPERATION as opposed to breaking them down mentally with clever tricks and what have you. While vacillating from macho cop to "sorry Eames; guess I'm still a work in progress" from episode to episode.
AAARRRGHH!!!!!!
I'm prejudging, I know. I'm being unfair. I know. I've posted repeatedly about my faith in the writers, why I wasn't worried about the direction they'd taken with Goren - so why not extent some of that faith onto this bit of news too, then..?
Because I've seen enough of Chris Noth's work to know he's going to have to pull off a freakin' miracle - one I can't, based on everything I've seen him do before, and more importantly the nature of Det. Logan himself, believe him capable of doing. And when I tune in at the start of season 5, it'll only be out of sheer perverse curiousity. In the event he actually DOES manage to surprise me.
So again; f**k! They're bringing LOGAN onto Criminal Intent?!! I need a drink and a sedative. Oh and no worries, I'll be fine. I'm just venting as previously acknowledged above. It's hardly the end of the known universe, after all. And I know I won't be nearly this uber-peeved about it 24 hrs from now. It just felt good to rant about it. And it's for times like this that I pay so much for my high-speed internet service. Grin.