Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series) Salome in Manhattan (2009) User Reviews

Friends, sometimes you just need to let them go

[Mrpalli77 · 8/10 · 7 October 2017]

A girls at the top of her beauty (Alexandra Daddario) went dancing at a local club with a teenage friend who lived in her neighborhood. Her fiancée has just hosted on TV a cooking show concerning Moroccan lamb. He reached out her girl at the disco, proposing to her but she turned him down. He was enraged by the denial but let her go to dance. The same night, she was strangled in her fancy apartment. It happened to be she was a trust-fund girl whose stepfather is a jet-setter. The black owner of the club (a convicted felon who spent time in Attica but now regarded as successful businessman) was the first target, but he had not interest in killing her because she was a "brand". Then detectives looked at different angles and finally find the truth.

This time Nichols need to play piano to figure out the right pattern. At the end Wheeler is relieved to attend public school in her girlhood.

Salome's last dance

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 7 July 2021]

The character of Zach Nichols didn't do much for me in his first two episodes, neither of which doing much for me as episodes. My problem does not lie with Jeff Goldblum but the writing. In the next two though, my opinion on him completely changed and the episodes in question were also much better. So one understandably hopes that "Salome in Manhattan" is closer in quality to those latter two episodes than regressing to the quality of the first two.

"Salome in Manhattan" thankfully is closer to the quality of the previous two Nichols and Wheeler outings "Astoria Helen" and "The Glory That Was". Nichols thankfully is also closer in character writing to how he was written in those two than the too quirky for the sake of it character writing of his first two appearances. "Salome in Manhattan" is a very good installment, and while not quite on the same level as the previous episode "Family Values" it is among the better Nichols and Wheeler outings of Season 8.

It is not quite perfect. The ending did feel rather rushed in pace and how things are explained, and the episode would have been better if the perpetrator and the whole truth in fact was more of a surprise. Much of "Salome in Manhattan" was so well done and it was a shame that the final 10 minutes or so weren't as good as the rest of the episode.

So much is done right however. It looks good, with the usual slickness and subtle grit. Really liked too that the photography was simple and close up but doing so without being claustrophobic. The music has presence when used, and luckily it isn't constant, and when it is used it doesn't feel over-scored. The direction allows the drama to breathe while still giving it momentum as well.

Moreover, the script is tight and constantly intelligent and intriguing, a few of my favourite lines coming from Rodgers. The story never stops being entertaining and suspenseful, with a lot packed in, with many clever twists and turns that aren't too predictable or incoherent.

Nichols is settling well, as is his partnership with Wheeler which is more balanced and together. The performances are excellent.

Overall, very good. 8/10.

Being part of the In Crowd

[lor_ · 23 July 2023]

Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Nicholson cover a peculiar case of the murder of a Manhattan party girl, typical of the Dick Wolf series' penchant of doing pastiche stories sort of torn from the headlines, featuring a bevy of odd characters representing cliches of the New York society and nightlife scene -the sort of people whose comings and goings are given bold-face status in the New York Post's Page Six column.

It's impossible to out-guess the scripters in this type of whodunit, since the disparate types who parade across the screen don't connect until our intrepid duo suss out the psychology behind folks' varying motives. It's a telling point that both Nicholson and their cop boss Eric Bgoosian both recite lines of the "Phew!" variety, glad that neither of them ever was part of this fast-lane segment of society.

Watching the show more than a decade after airing, the main drawback to "Salome" is the absence of big-name talent in the guest cast: no stars or actors who later achieved household-name status. Back in the day of the classic Gene Barry series "Burke Law", this turf would have been a natural for a parade of guest cameos. At least we get just a taste of Goldblum's prowess as a jazz pianist as he plays the 88s alone and gets inspiration on piecing together some clues concerning the key celebrity chef and restaurateur subplot centered on Eric Balfour and Shawn Hatosy.