Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) Depths (2007) User Reviews

You've never worked as a waitress? Blonde like you? I'm sure you did.

[Mrpalli77 · 8/10 · 30 September 2017]

A middle eastern scuba diver was stabbed to death under the sea. He's part of Islamic extremist family, so FBI turned up soon after with tales about his journeys in Islamic countries (like Croazia and New Zealand LOL) after dropping off college right after 9/11 attacks. Eames and Goren are smarter than them and they found out he was looking for a treasure hidden at the bottom of the sea. In the business, he had two partners in diving (a girl who liked to play the man-eater and another lowlife), one who owned the boat and the backer. Anyway the promoter had a hidden agenda, not shared with the others, involving his family tree.

The SVU detective Kelly Giddish played the role of the shallow female scuba diver, who liked shopping spree and used to cheating on his husband.

From A to B

[viv_harv · 10/10 · 16 December 2010]

I have been growing fonder of this series, which is actually my favourite of the Law and Order franchise. It makes more sense, the acting and the implications are more subtle, less jazzed up and Goren has those micro-expressions and insights that make him a revered character. I like how each episode of this series starts as something and ends as something quite different. Though if they shoot scenes sequentially, I wonder how actors cope with the open ended dialogues. Before the opening, you rarely have an idea what the strange unconnected events mean or who might be the one to be popped until some bloody corpse is splattered across the screen. That is a trademark of this series and seems to be one thing the screenwriters have agreed to be the signature of this series. The progression from investigative supposition to blunder and then to the truth looks a bit more natural. The kudos of solving the case rests mostly on the eclectic knowledge, acute observation and impeccable discernibility of Goren or the experience of filtering out what matters of Logan, and of course the Watson playing Eames who is THE perfect partner for Goren- I do love this woman!

Going on to this episode, which I wanted to review just because I like the plot of History in here. I like how "terrorism" was indicated and how it was not actually so. The opening of a Muslim man praying and how people can easily take it as an "Oh! Another bomb ploy", made me relieved to see the plot turn a very different direction before a quarter of the episode. It might be a pure contrivance to mislead, but this small thing showed that the battle of showing "Muslims" in telly as something other than terrorism, innocent people in connection to that, very orthodox, honour killing etc related characters is being won bit by bit.

I think most people watching a fictional crime series episode of this kind (not talking about the fans of The Wire), tend to predict mentally what happens next and the more stumped and surprised you are, provided you understand the ending clearly, the better the episode/the series is for you. The solution should be wonderful enough to keep the thrill of the experience with you and to make you want to watch the next episode, and this is one of those episodes. You are surprised by the reason of the murders and you do get something out of it. That is my end goal of watching any episode. And this one is one of them.

The music sets and continues the mood

[twodaystillcounts · 10/10 · 13 April 2022]

I like about 90% of the episodes for the show, which is a very high number for me. I'm almost always pleased with the music, but this one is unusually good. Especially the low drums and the low strings at the end of the episode really enhance it. Dangerous intrigue all the way .

The times we live in

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 26 June 2017]

Future SVU regular Kelli Giddish is playing all the men in this Criminal Intent story. It's about a treasure hunt and some buried gold and pieces of eight off Coney Island.

Because the first dead man is a Moslem the FBI is called in and it's labeled originally terrorism. Not nice at all, but these are the times we live in. But as Bobby Goren points out we've got that Patriot Act in play and it allows the Major Case team to cut through a lot of civil liberties red tape.

When Goren and Eames find a beachcomber with an old gold coin they know what they are dealing with. It comes back to a wealthy family whose heir Frederick Weller finances these treasure hunts as a hobby. Of course there are laws in place, state and federal, about what to do with treasures and taxes do apply.

It's the avoidance of these laws and taxes that is at the heart of the matter here. Weller and Giddish give a pair of nice performances in this story.

Into the hidden depths

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 15 April 2021]

Have always found the character of Robert Goren absolutely fascinating and have always loved his chemistry with Alexandra Eames. Both being a big part of 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent's', a fine show in its first four seasons but since the alternate partnering happened from Season 5 onwards it became hit and miss, appeal. Season 7 was as inconsistent as Seasons 5 and 6, of the previous episodes "Amends" was brilliant but the other three ranged between average and good.

"Depths" is one of the average installments of the seventh season, and considering it was a Goren and Eames episode it could have been a lot better than it was. Quite an interesting premise but the execution was pretty mixed and a good deal less fascinating than it sounded on paper. "Depths" is the sort of episode that started off well but lost the plot later on and became erratic. Is it terrible? Of course not. Is it great? Not even close in my view and this is probably another dissenting opinion.

There are good things here. The production values are fine, have always liked the photography's intimacy and grit and the look of the show has come on a good deal over-time (and it was good to begin with). The music doesn't intrude and has a haunting quality, have not always remembered to say that the theme tune is easy to remember and holds up.

As said, the episode starts off promisingly and the set up is quite neat. Love Goren's perceptions and Eames' sass which is where the writing stands out. Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe are typically terrific, especially D'Onofrio in the latter stages, and pre-'Special Victims Unit' Kelli Giddish was interesting casting in a very different role that didn't come over as too sleazy.

On the other hand, "Depths" did lose focus and too much of the episode is contrivance heavy. It does try to cram in a little too much and with nowhere near enough time to go into full detail, meaning some of it was sketchy and confused. If it was a two parter, that may have been solved. The script is another case of having moments of real intrigue and cleverness but in need of a tightening up.

None of the supporting characters are delved into enough and only Giddish registers of the supporting cast. The ending is uniquely dramatic, but did feel rushed and over-heated. Goren's dialogue was on the abrupt side.

Summing up, watchable but pretty average. 5/10.