Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) Jones (2001) User Reviews

Satisfying Story Of Slimy Shyster Getting His Due

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 22 August 2007]

Griffin Dunne plays a sleazy lawyer who is cheating on his wife everywhere you look. When one of his girlfriends wants more than just a wham-bam-thank you, ma'am-the shyster gets violent and drowns her in her bathtub. Detectives Goren and Eames go to work, turning down a more high-profile case because this one looks interesting. Well, it was....to say the least!

The second victim was another petite woman and is found washed up on shore but Goren quickly deduces she, too, was drowned in a bathtub. "Big day for little women," Eames says in her usual tone. It turns out even bigger as a third body is found, with same body type and strangled but not drowned. Later, a fourth woman is killed. That's where the program provides good suspense. Can the detectives figure out the fifth victim and find her in time?

The connection is that the women were clients and Dunne ("Mr. Talbott") also was taking them for a lot of money to help feed his gambling addictions.

Like a Columbo TV show, we get to see the slime-ball squirm slowly as our faithful detectives dig into the case and then race to save at least one of the five women on this guy's hit list. All these women were stupid but the dumbest of them all was the lawyer's wife, who was the queen of "denial," as Goren puts it.

Side notes: Vincent D'Onofrio ("Goren") turns out to be a smooth dancer....The writers of this show really don't like Yale University as they give the institution a few cheap shots as they did in another recent show....Another Eames line: "Looks like his train is about to run out of gravy." Eames (Kathryn Erbe) has a lot of good lines in this episode, which is finished in a very intense manner. I'm sure it is episodes like this that helped get it a big audience.

Law & Order:Criminal Intent-Jones

[Scarecrow-88 · 9/10 · 11 November 2010]

A serial womanizer becomes a serial killer as a lawyer for a struggling firm strangles his petite mistresses when they demand a commitment from him. Each lover was in one way or another connected to his firm, and it'll be up to Eames and Goren to put the pieces together which will convict him. Goren believes the best way to snag Henry Talbott(Griffin Dunne)is through his loyal wife, Denise(Karen Young), seemingly oblivious to all the signs that her husband is having affairs(such as a loaded condom on the kitchen floor or his bagging a woman's clothes pulled from his trunk). A good showcase for Dunne whose lecherous sleazeball gets under the skin, and watching Eames and Goren turn the tables on him is a delight. Potent episode one is sure not to forget after it's over.

"He knows how to pick 'em"

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 31 May 2018]

So says Kathryn Erbe about our killer Griffin Dunne when he starts killing off a string of girlfriends as the past starts catching up with him.

Dunne plays a sleazy lawyer who is a Yale man and that kind of pedigree usually will guarantee you some spot in a nice white shoe law firm. At one time maybe Dunne was headed that way. But he's far from there now..

I knew someone like Dunne in the sense that he was a kid from Brooklyn who went to Notre Dame and that also would be the start of a truly successful career. But this guy went back to the old neighborhood and had a career taking on cases like Dunne did and he also got involved in some sleazeball politics. He should have done better.

Dunne is a sleazeball shyster who is both a sex and a gambling addict. He's got a rich dumb Dora of a wife who refuses to acknowledge his infidelity even when she's smacked in the face with it. Karen Young is the wife.

It's his gambling that's the real problem. His first killing is of a club dancer whose case he took and won and then stole her settlement to pay off the gamblers. When she starts to question where her money is Dunne kills her. He then to keep covering up starts killing other women he's been screwing in every conceivable sense of the word.

Dunne is a frightening character seeing where he had started and what he's degenerated to. He really steals this one from the regulars.

One of my Top 10 Favorite "Criminal Intent" episodes. Goren does his thing!

[domino1003 · 10/10 · 12 October 2015]

Watching Vincent D'Onofrio do his thing as Detective Goren is what kept me glued to the series from start to finish, although Season 9 is the season that infuriated me so much that I stopped until they brought the character back for its 10th and final season. Of all the episodes, "Jones" is one of my personal favorites that is on the top 10 on my list, having it on my DVD shelf.

"Jones" has Griffin Dunne as a sleazy lawyer with some series issues: substance abuser, compulsive gambler, and serial womanizer who wouldn't hesitate bumping off his various women when they threaten to let his wife know what he's doing. It doesn't help that his wife is pretty much in a state of denial, popping pills to keep her in that state. Goren and Eames do their thing to let the truth come out.

My favorite scene is when Eames is used as bait during the interrogation scene with Talbot (Dunne).And then Goren breaks him down, talking about his "shortcomings," which really pushes Talbot over the edge. BRILLIANT! Goren did his thing, and it was a cool ride to be on. No matter how many times I've watched this episode, I just love re-winding over and over again when Talbot realized that his wife had been watching him putting the moves on Eames and that his game is up. LOVE IT!

The price of arrogance and the price of devotion

[stewiec85 · 8/10 · 11 March 2022]

I swear I don't know who's the worst character the lawyer killing his mistresses or the wife so devoted she's willing to lie to herself just to stay married to him. This is one of those episodes that really hits hard at all fronts bc Goren and Eames investigates and had to confront both the lawyer and his wife. Griffin Dunne really does well as the lawyer and even the woman who plays the wife was equally good.

How to be sleazy in less than one hour

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 2 August 2019]

While really liking 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent's' first three episodes, for me it was with its fourth "The Faithful", which happened to be the previous episode, where it started to hit its stride with its first "outstanding" episode. Regardless of what one thinks of Goren's behaviour, it was so exceptionally written acted and handles a tricky subject with no signs of being taxed. It's always great to see such high quality so early on.

High quality that can be seen throughout the whole of this episode "Jones", one of my favourites of Season 1. Found "Jones" every bit as brilliant as "The Faithful" and actually even more so, these were two episodes of 'Criminal Intent' where everything worked and nothing was lacking. Especially for one of the season's most interesting and repellent supporting characters and an ending that is towards the show's best.

Not everybody will buy the wife being so oblivious to the cheating, when there were signs so blatantly obvious. For me, that was noticeable but didn't distract me as much and it didn't spoil the episode.

"Jones", as said, has a main suspect that really does make as big an impression on the viewer as it does the detectives, really burning in the memory. Griffin Dunne truly gets under the skin and the result is very unnerving, more and more so as the episode goes on. Absolutely loved the ending's relatively gradual but increasingly nerve-wracking tension and the outcome of it may not be unexpected but it does take one by surprise and unsettles.

Production values are still high, never too elaborate and never sedate. The music isn't constant and is not overbearing, which are always great things. Do prefer 'Law and Order' and 'Special Victims Unit's' main themes but the one here suits well. The writing is a good balance of mature and un-simplistic, always provoking thought (Eames has some of the best lines here), while the story grabs the attention with the ending being the clear highlight.

Goren's unique and unorthodox methods are interesting to watch, and the procedural/investigative elements likewise. Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe are both on top form and their chemistry contrasts very believably.

In conclusion, superb. 10/10