bluecastle | Entries tagged with loci

When Law and Order: Criminal Intent had their huge cast shakeup earlier this year, the fans went a little nutty. Well, they went a little fluffy, sending jars of marshmallow fluff to the set, and to the USA Network to protest what they saw as a move towards shows and characters with a lighter tone than LO:CI had traditionally had.

[I've since read stuff which talks about the "blue sky filter" USA applies to shows, which cannot be unrelated to USA's handling of their L&O network step-child.]

But after everyone calmed down a bit, there was a group of fans who wanted to do something to let the three actors that were leaving -- Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, and Eric Bogosian -- know how much the fans appreciated their work on the show.

They tried a couple different ideas. But the one that stuck was putting together letters from the fans to the actors, and encasing them in binders like the one Vincent's character always carried on the show.

I only followed these things vaguely. They sort of drifted around on the periphery of my attention, but I just saw a blog post that contained a thank you letter to the fans from Eric Bogosian.

If you are at all interested in the interplay between actors and fans ... it's worth a read. And totally sweet to boot.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Location: salt mines

Loyal to the end...

USA Network had pretty much let the cat out of the bag as to who was going to end up dead on last night's Criminal Intent season premiere. So hopefully it won't be TOO spoilery if I say

R.I.P. Danny Ross.

We'll miss you Eric ... and fandom can sit Shiva for Captain Ross ...

My stream of consciousness recap for Loyalty, Part I is up over on my long defunct CI lj The_11th_Floor

There was some fine acting ... a few too many characters and plot lines to cram into the first act ... WAY too much of that pudgy Russian tourist dude in the tiny little Speedo ... and so much more to come next week in Part II.

Kudos especially to David Zayas for a wonderful turn as the interim boss, Lt. Stanley Maas. Zayas has been around the L&O (and TV) Universe for a long time, and he did a bang up job here! (CI superfans might remember him as the fire inspector from "On Fire" near the end of Deakins tenure!)

Extra bonus points go to Katherine Erbe for that wonderful moment at the scene of crime where she is tearing up as she looks down at the bodybag ... and Goren wraps his arm around her (an unprecedented move to start with) to offer her comfort, and she pulls away as she looks around at the others watching them. It's so very clearly the actions of a woman cop trying not to appear to be overly emotional on the job. Just a lovely moment, and like so many of the best CI moments, a micro-moment in time.

So we wait until next week to find out how the character arcs of Goren and Eames will play out. We almost never know where the characters end up once they leave the show ... witness the exits of D.A. Carver, Captain Deakins, Detectives G. Lynn Bishop, Carolyn Barek, Nola Falacci, Megan Wheeler, and Mike Logan. For the most part we know nothing about where they all are now.

I suppose the only thing we can be reasonably sure about is that Goren isn't going to end up working for the FBI ... outside of my imagination where he goes off to breathe some life in the B.A.U. over on Criminal Minds! Or he could write a book, and end up spending some time with the gang at the Jeffersonian. I'd pay big bucks to see him and Camille hook up! That would be one HELL of a detective agency.

And Eames? She's a crack shot and good with computers ... does Torchwood: USA have any openings for field agents? LOL.

p.s. here's today's ficlet in memorium...

( Comfort Food -- Danny )

Today's ficlet ... Comfort Food: Alex Eames

way back when...
Eight-year-old Alexandra Eames stood on the curb, watching the kids crowding around the Mr. Softee truck parked at the end of the block. She jammed her hands in her jeans pockets and scuffed her sneakers in the gravel by the side of the road and wished she had some of her allowance left. What she wanted to do was to sit in the maple tree in her backyard, racing to eat her popsicle before the hot summer sun melted it down her arm. She usually got yelled at for getting all sticky, but Alex didn't care -- a cold orange popsicle was one of her favorite things in the world. She would sit on a springy branch in the dappled shade of the maple leaves and imagine herself far away from the small dusty corner of Queens where she lived. But even if popsicles cost money, sitting in her tree didn't. Running around to the backyard, past her brother who was grumpily mowing the lawn with their old push mower, she jumped up to catch hold of the bottom branch of the tree and pulled herself up into the tree. In the distance she could hear the song that the ice-cream truck was playing as it drove off down the street.

some thirty years later...
Alex sat in her hospital bed, looking at the bassinet beside her. Her small, red, wrinkled nephew lay sleeping, wrapped up in a striped blanket and a small blue hat. Her partner had just left. She was still holding the musical stuffed lamb he had brought as a baby gift. For the first time since she'd arrived at the hospital she was alone with the small person she had given birth to. A child she had carried in her womb for nine months, but who she would not carry out of this hospital. Her sister and brother-in-law would have that honor. She curled up on her side and concentrated on watching the small boy she would always feel responsible for. Quietly efficient nurses came and went, checking on her and the baby, but Alex just watched on, grateful for every moment she had with him. Eventually, she realized that one of the nurses was at her side, pulling up the tray table and setting a small dish down in front of her. The nurse smiled at Alex, helped her sit up, patted her on the arm, handed her a spoon, and left the room. On the table in front of her was small bowl of orange sherbet. Alex wound the key on the lamb's back and listened to the toy as she placed it in her nephew's bassinet. Smiling to the strains of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," she slowly ate her bowl of sherbet, as she silently wished her child ... her nephew... a happy birthday.

Once upon a time in a previous fandom ... I wrote a series of little doodads about the Law and Order: Criminal Intent characters and food.

In honor and/or memorium of the series nine premiere/finale tomorrow night... I thought I'd post one of them a day over here.

( Comfort Food: Bobby )

Read this on a blog today ...

CI wraps up their last day filming on Season 9's two-parter episode, "Puntland".

...and now I am a bit melancholy, for it means that canonically speaking, one of the characters is dead now.

Farewell, whichever one of you 'tis. The partnership of Goren and Eames was always an amazing thing, and if they kill off one of them that will be a tough character arc to swallow.

But I've had some practice dealing with character deaths... and until or unless I get spoiled first ... we have to wait 'til Spring for the season 9 opener/finale to air.

So onwards we go...

So reports are starting to circulate today as filming is wrapping up on the Law and Order: Criminal Intent season nine opener (air date still very much up in the air) ... that one of the three departing stars ... D'Onofrio, Erbe, or Bogosian, is being killed off.

Backlash against the fluffers who sent marshmallow fluff to the set protesting the perceived bias of the USA Networks towards lighter fare?

Probably not... but you do have to wonder for at least a second whether all that silliness got up somebody's nose.

Will Eames follow after her late lamented Santa mug?
Will someone put Bobby out of his epic manpain angst?
Will Captain Ross get tossed to the lions as the most junior member of the triumvirate, causing him to drop the Coke can soldered to his hand?

No doubt there will be leaks. They try hard to re-cast repeaters as they did during the 'Roy Scheider is Bobby's serial killer Father on death row while Rita Moreno is his mother on her deathbed' episode "Endgame." But surely someone will blab to the wrong person.

Let's all just take a moment to empathize with Jeff Goldblum's character Zach Nichols who will be left standing in the rubble, with a new, as yet unconfirmed partner and no boss. For a character with a back story that includes leaving the police force after 9/11 to find himself ... and is Danny Ross' old partner. Way to transfer the manpain there USA...

Its sounding more like Torchwood every day...

I don't rec fics very often (plenty of other people do it so I don't have to!) and rec Law and Order: Criminal Intent fics even more rarely, but I read a short post ep. today that is a bit meta about fandoms. Given that LO:CI will be replacing 3/4 of it's remaining cast during next season's premiere, the fandom is sort of eating it's own young right now, and reminds me a bit of all the post CoE sturm und drang.

But there's a few people looking backwards as well as bemoaning the future.

This fic was sparked by episode 4.12 "Collective" about a woman preying on vulnerable fans she connects with at fan conventions. After the murder by cop of a guy called Arnie who collected rare 1950s toys, they track this woman to a literary Vampire fandom a la Anne Rice, where she ends up being murdered herself (in a coffin set up to provide the experience of erotic asphyxiation). But it's up to detectives Goren and Eames to discover whether it was her "boyfriend" or his friends who was responsible for her death. [The final aria is set in a the fans gothic Brooklyn "crypt" which must have been a lot of fun for the scenic department!]

Author: Patcat
Title: COLLECTIVE: MISSING SCENES
Category: Law and Order: CI
Character(s): A. Eames & R. Goren
Words: 1,974
Summary: “And as naïve as he was…He didn’t have a chance.” Alex deftly changed lanes and moved into the entrance to the New Jersey Turnpike. “But the toy…All these toys…Why did they mean so much to him?”
Genre(s): Friendship/Angst

URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5455756/1/

Current Mood: nostalgic

Law and Order: Criminal Intent Fans Want You To Bring Fluff To Their NYC Set

Law and Order: Criminal Intent begins filming on October 16th and fans want anyone who plans on going to the set to bring Fluff- yes the marshmallow stuff.

The members of Criminal-Intent.us are shipping 10 cases of Marshmallow Fluff to USA Network in NYC, timed to arrive the day LO:CI starts shooting the final episode with Dets. Goren & Eames. The message: “Stuff the Fluff. No Goren & Eames = No LO:CI”.

The Fluff campaign was inspired by speculation in the press that the mass firings of LO:CI stars (except Jeff Goldblum) might have had something to do with the darkness of the Detective Goren character contrasted with the “lighter, fluffier” style of other original series at USA. The USA LO:CI Forum fans are asking anyone going to the October 16-November 6 shootings to bring a jar of Marshmallow Fluff in solidarity.

information found here

NOTE FROM ME: the decision to leave the show seems to be more actor based than network based from what I can suss out... Those protesting are clearly thinking with their hearts, which is sweet, but seriously... marshmallow fluff?

Also, from a practical point of view, anyone hired to be on that set isn't going to be this silly, and the crew will not be happy to be accepting random jars of fluff from folks trying to visit the set. Shrugs.

We'll leave it to the actors themselves to define "phased out" ... but the dominos are really starting to fall on L&O:CI.

I just don't have it in me to be bitter ... I've had a whole season to see this coming...

I suspect USA sees a LO:CI with Jeff Goldblum as the lead as a good filler/replacement for the slot left open by the departure of Monk.

But that's just SO far from what the series started out to be... that part makes me sad ... but we've had seven good seasons, and an eight season run so far. I actually sort of like Goldblum's character, but I don't know that he can carry an entire series (see Raines).

Will put what seasons DVDs they've released on my Christmas list and remember the show I loved that way. I got hooked on the show based on the acting of D'Onofrio and Erbe. It was easily among the most nuanced stuff you'll ever seen on a TV cop show ... but eight years is a long time to play the same characters, and I wish them well on any new pursuits they take on.

The santa mug got smashed a long time ago... it just took a while to sweep up all the pieces...

Current Mood: disappointed

In cleaning out my Google Docs, I came across this little snippet of Law and Order: Criminal Intent fic I wrote back in June 2008. I'm kinda crabby today, so I'll leave my fic to speak for me.

Barfly

He found himself sitting where he'd sat too often of late, at the far end of a long wooden bar, drink in hand. He ran his thumb across the lip of his glass and stared into the amber depths. At the end of the long, long days of his suspension, he often ended up here, always on the same stool, drinking to numb himself enough to be able to get at least a few hours sleep. It wasn't ideal. His shrink didn't approve. But it was his way -- for now. He knew that as long as he could control this urge that maybe his entire life wasn't totally out of control. So he had a few beers. He did the Times crossword puzzle, although never in ink any more. Some nights he just stared at the paper and wished he could concentrate enough to read. He watched the basketball on the TV once in a while, but couldn't bring himself to care enough for it to hold his interest very long. He watched the other customers and wondered if their lives were as screwed up as his.

He hadn't planned to turn to alcohol. He didn't want that. He'd seen what it had done to his father, or rather he thought wryly, the man he was working to accept merely as his mother's husband. Thoughts of the dark days surrounding his mother's death crowded into his brain, and he ordered a stiff shot of whiskey, and chased it with another beer. He thought about going home, but he couldn't see the point. His whole life felt pointless right now. His cell phone rang, the screen blinking "Eames cell" and he flipped it shut on the third ring. He had nothing to say to her. She was still on the job, working with other partners now. Five months into his suspension, apathy was his new partner.

Current Mood: apathetic

The mystery episode is still a mystery. They (the Law and Order: Criminal Intent writers) picked up a plot from a previous episode in a previous season, but they changed the names of all the characters, and cast a different guy. I can only assume there were legal/intellectual property issues by reusing an old script from a previous set of writers??

But why the recycling? You couldn't just change a few of the details so it didn't sound just like the other case, and let us assume it was referencing a case that Goren and Eames had that we didn't see??

This new crop of writers has done other stuff this season that seemingly can only be explained away by saying "oh, no one will notice." Well your casual viewer might not... but your fan base sure as heck will.

Anyway. I was confused for the better part of an hour. I kept thinking the episode was going to go interesting places, and then it just didn't.

This synopsis below, from USA, makes it sound way more interesting than it was.

It all ended up like that lump of beeswax Goren used to play the guy...

ALL IN (#CI8021)

EPISODE PREMIERE: July 19, 2009

LOGLINE:
When poker genius Josh Snow loses $80,000 in a card game, backer and bookie Lou Cardinale forces him into collections to work off the losses. Lou gives him a .38 and a box of blanks to extract gambling debts, and sends along his mistress, Angela, to keep an eye on the money. When Josh collects from Kip McGonagle, he fires the gun expecting a blank, but a real bullet kills Kip dead in the street. Detectives Goren and Eames enter an elaborate game where they must join in the play, or be played.

Well, that's one thing sorted.

Just went and posted by recap/summary/blathering about the most recent Goren and Eames Law and Order: Criminal Intent over at my CI home away from home. Didn't get last week's episode written up when I was down the the icky sickys.

I love this show. Once upon a time I loved it more than I do now... but it's still destination tv for me. My first rabid fandom. So you know... loyalty and all that...

spoilers and sarcasm ahoy... (well what else can you do with an episode where a Christian High School uses the theme of abstinence as thematic suport for their production of Cyrano???)

http://community.livejournal.com/the_11th_floor/6458.html

A online correspondence with a foreign friend led me to start doing these episode recaps for Law and Order: Criminal Intent last season. They don't get the new episodes until much later than we do, so I did up a descriptive, (SPOILERY) running commentary for her.

I finally got a chance to post the one I did for the Season 8 premiere that aired last Sunday and posted it over on my brand new LJ LOCI home: http://community.livejournal.com/the_11th_floor/

It's lengthy. I called it a summary. She calls it a "longery."

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Page Summary

When fan campaigns go right...
fond farewells...
well, it could have been worse...
LOCI fic, part the second
from the wayback fanfic machine...
why does tv keep making me sad?
tv death... it's catching...
LO:CI fic rec
oh fandom -- from coffee beans to marshmallow fluff...
find a box for that rat in your desk, Bobby...
a piece of fic
by the way...
LOCI -- Family Values
my first fandom obsession returns

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My Blue Castle

wherein I dream my dreams wrapped in a brown study.

Entries tagged with loci

When fan campaigns go right...

fond farewells...

well, it could have been worse...

LOCI fic, part the second

from the wayback fanfic machine...

why does tv keep making me sad?

tv death... it's catching...

LO:CI fic rec

oh fandom -- from coffee beans to marshmallow fluff...

find a box for that rat in your desk, Bobby...

a piece of fic

by the way...

LOCI -- Family Values

my first fandom obsession returns