"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" Rocket Man (TV Episode 2007) Poster

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6/10
Portraying NASA As 'Peyton Place'
ccthemovieman-18 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Let's see......a female astronaut who was discovered wore diapers on a long car trip, to meet up with her boyfriend. Sound familiar? Well, that real-life episode obviously inspired this Law & Order Criminal Intent story except, as usual, the writers here took it to extremes.

The liberal writers of Law & Order are known for this kind of thing, especially any opportunity which enables them to bash a credible, wholesome organization or occupation. In this case, it's astronauts. Instead of one wacko, we get a story in which every astronaut pictured is an immoral pig or a nut-job. Yeah, L&O trashes the astronaut profession. Amazing. Few professions, if you do any research, have a better track record of employing quality human beings than NASA's space men and women. If it's a sleazy profession, say prostitution, however, Law & Order will make everyone look on the up-and-up.

In this episode, every astronaut is sleeping with every other one, or is lying about someone, or covering up, on and on. This is "Peyton Place," not outer space, according to the knowledgeable L&O writers. I won't say who, but those who love this kind of melodrama will love this fictional story. You'll get a headache trying to follow all the relationships, real or imagined.

It also couldn't have been too intelligently written when I figured out who the killer was almost immediately. If I can see it that quickly, then you know there isn't much of a mystery to the story. The best years, as in many TV shows, of Criminal Intent, seem to be the first few. I'm not I like seeing Vincent D'Onofrio only once every two or three weeks, either. He's "the man," concerning Criminal Intent and always will be such.

Meanwhile.......I miss his nemesis, "Nicole Wallace."
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5/10
'Criminal Intent' in space
TheLittleSongbird18 March 2021
Of the first half of the Season 6s of the original 'Law and Order', 'Special Victims Unit' and 'Criminal Intent', 'Criminal Intent's' (the show was also beginning to become very uneven) was easily the worst in my view. The best being 'Special Victims Unit's', where all the episodes were very good and more. 'Law and Order's' was high quality too, but felt less settled with a major character change. 'Criminal Intent's' though was very inconsistent, especially Logan and Wheeler's outings.

There were some disappointing Goren and Eames outings though as well. "Rocket Man" is one of them. It is not a terrible episode, all their episodes are at least watchable, and their characters and chemistry are definitely strengths. There were though not many episodes of Season 6 to leave me very mixed while veering into the disappointing category. "Rocket Man" is one of those episodes though and it is one of the weakest of Season 6. It is sad that the season went from one of its best episodes to one of its worst in so short a time.

"Rocket Man" does have good things. The production values on the other hand are slick and 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 acting is without problems throughout from all the cast.

Script has enough thoughtful and well meaning moments. Goren and Eames' chemistry is always a pleasure. The episode does start intriguingly.

It is a shame however that "Rocket Man" lost its way too early and never found its footing again. The story is not always easy to follow, with a lot of characters and relationships here and a lot thrown at us with not enough time to digest completely keeping up was not always easy. Other episodes do a lot better at not being predictable and being continually interesting. Here in "Rocket Man", the truth was not that hard to figure out. Did so early on myself and there were dull stretches in the middle.

Also did think that the episode was on the bland side from not having enough tension and some of the sleaziness is too in your face and a bit thick on the smut. The script could have been tighter in other places and the characterisation while not personality-free or non-existent is not very meaty.

Overall, watchable but not too great. 5/10
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