Elite Police

The premise of Law & Order: Crimincal Intent has confused me somewhat. I didn't quite understand what the Major Cases Unit was for. I had a vague idea that it was to deal with high profile cases, often involving the rich & famous but this seemed an odd idea - almost as if the wealthy had their own better murder squad. So I thought that couldn't be right and perhaps I was missing something else. But I looked it up on Wikipedia and it turns out that is exactly what it is. So not only can money get you better education and healthcare, it gets you are better level of policing!

The Wikipedia entry also points out a structural difference in the episodes that distinguish it from the original L&O - in particular that the opening scene shows the victim and contains clues to help you solve the crime. Unfortunately, the last episode of it I saw, I turned on a couple of minutes late so I probably missed a few vital clues there, but nonetheless I watched it, followed the plot and figured it out before it was properly spelt out for me.

The episode involved the murder of a woman whose son had recently been released from prison who had raped and strangled a woman, but didn't get life for some reason. Now this crime didn't fit the rich model but it was a high profile case as the son was a known criminal so I guess that makes him 'infamous'. So in comes Goran and Eames. Of course, the son didn't do it - that much was clear if only because it would have been a very short episode if he did. Instead it was a great episode that took in women who write to prisoners and women turned on by murderers, police interrogation techniques, wrongful imprisonment and the world of publishing fact checkers!

Goran's encyclopaedic knowledge of everything every manifested itself this episode in his quick deduction that the victim was stocking up on dimes to copy library records.