Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) Vacancy (2006) User Reviews

you need to remember your authentic emotions

[Mrpalli77 · 9/10 · 20 September 2017]

A two-bit actor (Dasmond Harrington) has to play the serial killer character in a movie. Or, at least, he had to, because the project felt through due to financial matters. Anyway he's too bounded to this character, it reminds him something related to the past. His mother was killed when he was a child and she was a promiscuous woman used to make men mad. The poor victims of his rage are two poor girls in their late '20 came to the Big Apple just to celebrate a bridal shower and then trapped because of the snow.

This episode shows how a married man, devoted to his family, could turn into a criminal just to impersonate someone. In some way, he resembles Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver", he's got the same hate hidden inside him and ready to blow.

Goren Gets To Play More Mind Games

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 2 August 2008]

This was another cerebral episode in which the mind is analyzed, and nobody likes to do that more than "Detective Robert Goren" (Vincent D'Onofrio) of "Criminal Intent." Here, Goren gets to analyze a troubled man (aren't they all on this show?) who is an actor and a big favorite of method acting.

Two single women are seen at the bar and one of them is hammered. They are with two guys they just met. The drunk girl is flirting and wants to stay while the other wants them to catch their flights out of town. They get a taxi to the airport but en route the driver informs them that the snowstorm has just down the airport. They wind up in a sleazy Brooklyn hotel and later in the night, the sober woman is killed.

What happened? It's messy crime scene with a bloody corpse in bed. The drunken female friend acts like an idiot and is annoying "Eames" (Kathryn Erbe), but strong suspects don't include her. They include one or either of those two "dates," a wacko or two at the hotel or even the cab driver

Emily Bergl as "Alice," is the big star among the guest actors in this episode. Emily is a blond Midwest girl who reminds me a lot of Naomi Watts.

You can see Goren has a good time trying to solve this case as it involves a lot of psychological material, trying to analyze the killer and why he did it.

Fantasy and reality

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 30 December 2020]

At first, reading the basic synopsis for "Vacancy" does sound very been there done that. On further reading and reading reviews for the episode, it struck me as a lot more fascinating than it initially sounded. Psychologically that is and it was a scenario that would have fitted Goren's personality perfectly. As has been said a few times in reviews for the previous Season 5 episodes for 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent', Goren and Eames are superior characters to Logan and Barek in general and prefer their chemistry too so it was great to see them back.

"Vacancy" is a truly fine example as to why. While the previous episode with Logan and Barek "Dramma Giocoso" was very good and one of their better episodes easily, "Vacancy" sees 'Criminal Intent' back on track after a slump in between "In the Wee Small Hours" and this. Which is the best episode easily since that, as most of the episodes in between to me were patchy on the whole, including the previous Goren and Eames outing "Wrongful Life".

My only issue with "Vacancy" is doing not nearly enough with the needy friend strand, that was quite intriguing until it was abruptly dropped and forgotten about pretty much.

Otherwise, the episode is great. It is a visually slick episode, typical for 'Criminal Intent' and the 'Law and Order' franchise, and one with the right amount of muted grit, the photography doesn't try to do anything too fancy or gimmicky while not being claustrophobic and keeping things simple. The music doesn't overbear with the theme tune still memorable and the direction is accommodating yet tight enough.

The script is fascinating from a psychological standpoint, and shows how truly scary the mental state that method actors have can be. It has been the case for method actors in real life, with tragic consequences involved, and entertains and chills here in "Vacancy". It is very thoughtful, intriguing and tightly structured, with a lot of tension too. The story is full of atmosphere and twisted creepiness, never being obvious or convoluted. It particularly shines in Goren's mind games and the both priceless and powerful interaction between Goren and Tim (i.e. Goren showing respect for Tim and Tim saying that it is impossible to explain method acting to those that are not actors). The undercover set up scenes and Eames being played upon by the perpetrator scenes also fascinate.

All the acting is great. Cannot find fault with the fierce performance of Vincent D'Onofrio while Desmond Harrington is chilling.

Concluding, terrific. 9/10

Goes back to A Double Life

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 6 July 2018]

Two women who came to New York to be bridesmaids at a friend's wedding are forced to put up at a cheap motel in Brooklyn recommended them by cabdriver Desmond Harrington who is an out of work actor. Kristen Vogelsong winds up dead and Emily Bergl is bloody and in a dissheveled state when the police arrive on the scene.

When Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe get the case they discover that Harrington is preparing to play a serial killer. This is a plot gambit that goes back to what Ronald Colman played in A Double Life. The method actor where the character takes over. In both Colman and Harrington's performances both were playing killers.

I'm surprised D'Onofrio who always makes obscure references in many of his cases didn't catch that particular one. In any event in his inimitable fashion Bobby Goren breaks him down.