User Reviews

Alicia Witt debuts as "Det. Nola Falacci." Man, what's with this show? This is the third partner for "Det. Mike Logan" (Chris Noth) in two years.

I liked the other two. Julianne Nicholson as "Det. Megan Wheeler" was Logan's partner at the end of last season. Before that,it was Annabella Sciorra as "Det. Carolyn Barek." True, they didn't have big personalities but they sufficed and they were both non-offensive. Witt's character, at least with this debut of her, is the opposite: she has no tact, edgy and hard to work with. Even "Capt. Danny Ross" (Eric Bogosian) warns "Det. Logan" (Chris Noth) about her. Well, we will see how long she lasts.

Speaking of poor personalities, the main family in this particular crime case in this episode, could have used a course on "how to get along with people." They are really sick, arrogant punks from the father, mother and son. These are the kind of people you want to slap, or at least slap the cuffs on them.

It also deals with a doctor, an OB-GYN who is killed and then placed in another room and in a position which is supposed to give false clues on the motive. It works for a short time, but the cops soon see it as a ruse. Then the "family business" gets worse with brothers and sperm-bank kids. It gets sticky, is all I'll say.

Veteran actor Michael O'Keefe does a great job of playing the shadiest suspect, "Eli Rush." He's the one who claims he's sterile, but it turns out he has hundreds of his sperm-bank kids all over the city. Yes, another bizarre week at the Major Crimes Section of the NYPD.

A doctor qualified in delivering babies is found dead in his clinic. He's got a brother (Michael O'Keefe) named Eli who actually run the business. As usual, detectives lead the investigation to the next of kin, but he's got strong alibi because at the time of the murder he was making out with a charming tanned volleyball player. He told the police to be unable to have children (actually he has always worn condoms since college, fearing STD disease), so after DNA samples confirmed some relatives had to be at the crime scene, he tried to draw their attention to his nephew, a junkie brat estranged from his family. Anyway too many lies were told and the perp turned up just at the end of the episode.

Logan, after Wheeler departed, has got a new partner, the stubborn Falacci. She had good instinct, mainly when she looked at newborn features in clinic pictures.

"Seeds" is most notable for being the introductory episode of Mike Logan's third partner (Wheeler's temporary replacement) on 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent'. The 'Law and Order' franchise mostly did quite well whenever introducing new characters, even when there was the feeling of initial unsettlement one could see potential. Logan has always been a great character and expectations were quite high after a fantastic previous episode in "Amends".

It is sad though that "Seeds" was a disappointment. A huge step down from "Amends" and a less than promising introduction too for Logan's new partner Falacci. Logan was a great character on 'Criminal Intent' but his episodes were a very mixed bag, some were great ("Maltese Cross") and others were underwhelming ("Bombshell"). Of the episodes that introduced his partners, the others being "Diamond Dogs" for Barek and "Tru Love" for Wheeler, "Seeds" is for me the weakest. Not a terrible episode by all means, but 'Criminal Intent' did become up and down from Season 5 onwards and "Seeds" is a good example of why.

There are good things. The production values are slick and professional, not ever resorting to cheap or untested gimmicks or anything. The music is haunting in the right places and isn't constant or too loud. The episode does start off promisingly, the start did intrigue me and it was unsettling. Ross isn't quite as aggressive or biased here than he was in most of Season 6.

What makes "Seeds" watchable is (most of) the cast. Chris Noth captures Logan's dry humour and gritty edge extremely well as usual, while Michael O'Keefe is downright creepy. Devon Gummersall is oddly touching in his role. The script does have moments of thoughtfulness and tautness and it is always interesting when there are episodes where the perpetrators are not who one hates by the end of the episode. Actually felt sorry for the perpetrator here in a way though more for the circumstances and context than what they did.

Alicia Witt unfortunately didn't do it for me in her debuting episode, and of Logan's three partners Falacci was the only one actually that was always difficult to warm to. While her personality is bigger than the subtler ones of Barek and Wheeler, it is not a positive personality with negative traits being overwritten and Witt goes too over the top on bringing that out. She and Noth have no chemistry either, the writers overdo it with the friction as well and with that level of friction and lack of respect for each other there was too much of a disconnect and awkwardness between them.

Did find too that too much of the script came over as too soapy, especially later on. Despite starting off with potential, the story is too bizarre and is not always easy to follow. Was actually in a complete muddle on first viewing at the end, it's only a little better a couple of re-watches later but it's still perplexing. It also felt dull and lacking in suspense, from running out of steam too early and goes practically nowhere too much of the time. The ending was rather anaemic as well as excessively melodramatic and actually would have been a lot more interesting if they actually didn't go for having as the perpetrator somebody significantly less hateable. One character is so vile that one is rooting for them to be the responsible, that they weren't was a little bit of a cheat.

Concluding, didn't do much for me but watchable. 5/10.

Alicia Witt who I normally like is extremely abrasive and unlikable and rude as Nola Fallaci. She believes everyone works for her and her only. She is easily my most disliked person on Criminal Intent.