It is hard to not expect a lot from "On Fire", if you love 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent', the character of Goren and the partnership of Goren and Eames (applies to me on three counts, though in the first instance it's namely the early seasons). Also if anybody else loved the previous episode "To the Bone", as somebody that considers it a season high point, and liked the concept. Not to mention how the episode would handle the start of a major character's exit.
"On Fire" was somewhat disappointing and only slightly above average, considering its potential it should have been great. Also considering that it followed on from "To the Bone" and also that it was the season's penultimate episode. Not a terrible episode or quite down there as one of the season's worst (sadly close though), there are a lot of good things here, but yeah Season 5 is not as on fire as it should have been and one subplot works so much better than the other.
There is as said a number of good things with "On Fire". It looks good, slickly shot, cohesively edited and with nice use of locations. The music is haunting and has presence while staying understated. The direction has intimacy without being static. Some of the writing is intelligent and taut, namely in the Deakins subplot, and the Church burnings staging is very clever and eerie.
While quite mixed on the overall plotting, mostly on the underwhelming side, the Deakins subplot is very intriguing. Despite not being original it was clever and at times quite dark. Goren and Eames are typically great characters and play off each other and work together so well. The interrogation scenes are entertaining. Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe are terrific, as is a gloriously unhinged Theresa Russell who particularly plays the heck out of her final scene. It was great to see more focus on Deakins, an often underused character, and Jamey Sheridan plays him very well.
Sadly the actual case wasn't so good in my view. Too much of it is too contrived and predictable (the responsible is too obvious too early), with not enough tensions or surprising twists, with some very forced and senseless character motivations. Everything concerning the murder is too convenient and coincidental. The perpetrator is not much of a threat and went from fairly ineffectual to hammy just like that when all is revealed.
Despite having moments, too much of the writing is overwrought and over the top, especially towards the end. While most of the time Goren's perceptions and figurings out are sheer genius and fascinating, there are some that are too implausibly quickly thought of out of thin air and so easily. That for the connection between the geography of the fires and the route the altar boy takes is one of the show's worst cases. While Deakins' subplot is handled well on the whole, the outcome of it is too abrupt and emotionally flat, almost like an afterthought.
Concluding, not bad but could have been a lot better. 6/10
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