Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) Identity Crisis (2009) User Reviews

Fratricide

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 10 October 2015]

That oldest of crimes the slaying of a brother is dealt with in this story from Criminal Intent. The accent in this one is on character as Sam Trammell delivers a carefully delineated portrait of a career con man.

Trammell gives himself great airs in this episode and in fact he has the intelligence enough to carry it off. I've known people in my life who were just like him, very bright and able to fake it in a lot of situations that were shall we say above their station.

Trammell and Patrick Arnheim came from a really horrid childhood and flashbacks of them as kids with a loose woman they had as a mother tell the tale. Arnheim who eeks out a meager existence is somehow holding him back and Trammell feels he has to kill the only one who truly knows him.

The climax is the interrogation between Trammell and Vincent D'Onofrio where Detective Goren coaxes a confession out of Trammell. In pure Goren style.

For that alone you should watch this episode.

it's just that you said that your feet were cold, so you must have been barefoot

[Mrpalli77 · 8/10 · 5 October 2017]

Back in the eighties, a crazy woman speaking German (Karen Culp) had a bath while her two children stayed downstairs. The old one looked after the other who had an iron burning in his forearm. Shortly after, the older boy go upstairs and a power cut let us believe the mother was killed by throwing the heater in the bathtub. Nineteen years goes by and a charming wealthy man get a call before a charity event: soon after he meet his brother, shooting him in cold blood in a dark alley. Goren and Eames had issues in finding him because he used to change identity once in a while and this time he takes the one of a novelist writer. He is a clever con artist, used to worked as dishwasher in a restaurant near Princeton where he learned tricks to woo women. Will Goren manage to let him talk?

It's a strange episode that look like Columbo's crime drama, where the perp was always seen at the beginning, so it lacks some suspense.

One of the best

[chengiz · 10/10 · 5 January 2014]

The Goren stories were quite disappointing in season 7. When you find yourself looking forward to Noth, you know something is amiss. Season 8 replaced Noth by Goldblum, whom I *cannot* stand at the best of times. That was an inexplicable move, I mean what were the producers thinking? Who next? David Caruso? The team from CHIPS? So I was at a point where you just go thru the series because that's what fans do.

Well, this episode came as a shot across the bow for me. HS, that was a great episode. The story, the acting, the direction, everything was top notch. I almost teared up at the powerful last scene. And Goren is finally back - I cannot stand it when the episode focuses on personal stories rather than the real stuff, so this was very welcome. The director, Michael Smith, seems to have done some stellar work on TV, I hope he makes it big in movies as well. Can CI be back at Season 8 episode 3?

Uncertainty

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 16 June 2021]

When it comes to Season 8, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that the Goren and Eames episodes were in general better than those of Nichols and Wheeler's. Part of it is down to that Goren and Eames are and always have been far more interesting characters and their partnership gels a lot more, while Nichols despite Jeff Goldblum's game efforts never entirely clicked with me on first viewings (but he has grown on me overtime actually). Their cases were a lot better as well, evidenced already by liking the season opener very much and being very conflicted on the previous episode.

"Identity Crisis" is a fantastic episode, a Season 8 high-point and one of not many truly outstanding episodes of the latter seasons. Elevated in particular by the primary guest star, his chemistry with Goren and the ending. Season 8 was a pretty up and down season again (the case when two partnerships alternate and when primarily one is more interesting than the other), if not as much as Season 7, but it did have great and more episodes. Of which "Identity Crisis" is one of them.

Everything works brilliantly here in "Identity Crisis". It looks slick and has 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.

Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe are as usual terrific, D'Onofrio in particular shining in the last ten minutes in classic Goren style. Love their chemistry in by far the best lead partnership of the show. Sam Tremmell is unsettling yet not overdone as a very psychologically interesting character. Loved his chemistry with D'Onofrio, which was very psychological and in a way that gave the chills but despite not being new type of character didn't come over as predictable. The rest of the performances are strong too, if not on the same level.

Script is thought-provoking and tightly structured throughout, especially in the climactic moments. The story is suspenseful and twisty, with no over-simplicity or convolution, and shines especially in the best scene of the show in a long time (one of the show's best interrogation scenes) where the tension was frightening, the intrigue was high and the acting was more than top notch. Trammell's character fascinates and is not over-simplified or ambigious.

In summary, brilliant. 10/10.

Excellent and Complicated episode.

[drstockk-62281 · 10/10 · 19 June 2021]

Let me start out by saying I absolutely love D'Onofrio in his role. Like 90% of LOCI episodes, this particular episode is my favorite because it is really complicated and it takes Goren's skills to navigate through the web of lies and deceit to find the truth. However, what is interesting is that you know right away who the main antagonist is; it's a matter of Goren & Eames peeling back the complex layers of lies to discover the motive and build a case.