One's opinion of this episode is going to depend on how one feels about the premise. Which on paper left me unsure, it was oddly intriguing as is anything concerning black books. But it also did have potential of being distasteful and too strange if executed wrongly, such as in the character writing and how it would portray what it's based around (which is not my cup of tea personally). Saw it anyway as someone who has for a while loved the show and would see any episode willingly.
It was an episode that on first watch didn't do much for me. On the couple of re-watches later, my overall opinion of the episode has improved. It is more interesting and did appreciate some aspects more, the main guest performances for instance. It is still though for my tastes uneven and one of the weaker episodes of a mostly solid (brilliant at its best) Season 4, as well as one of the oddest.
There are plenty of things done well. As always, it's a slickly made episode, the editing especially having come on quite a bit from when the show first started (never was it a problem but it got more fluid with each episode up to this stage). The music is sparingly used and never seemed melodramatic, the theme tune easy to remember as usual. The direction is sympathetic enough without being too low key on the whole. Enough of the script entertains and provokes thought, that bidding war for instance.
Likewise with the suitably intricate mystery which didn't come over as predictable and one is kept guessing. Still love the chemistry between Goren and Eames, one of the best pairings of the whole franchise thanks to Eames' sass and Goren's perceptions, and Goren as a character. Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe are both wonderful, as are a creepy Peter Bogdanovich and a deeply felt Rosanna Arquette.
What would have made this a much better episode if the club was portrayed with more tact and the characters given more dimension. Even for a subject and setting that is incredibly sordid, to me the episode overdoes the sleaziness and there are not many 'Criminal Intent' episodes, or of the franchise for that matter, that have lines as smutty as some here with the supporting characters. With the exception of Kay, who was an interesting character, the supporting characters did seem one-dimensional and very unsympathetic (there is something about Merritt that makes one think early on he's the guy and some of his dialogue is over-the-top), with the episode treating them and the club with nothing but utter contempt.
Some of the plotting is a touch too complicated later on and while the ending is shocking it was not necessary for Goren and Eames using near-emotional blackmail to get the truth out of the killer. They are always in 'Criminal Intent' very firm and aggressive in getting the truth but bringing the killer's daughter into the equation was to me too far and they didn't resort to that level in the previous episodes.
In conclusion, decent but very uneven and quite odd. 6/10
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