Poison

Have a lot of love for detective/mystery shows/dramas and have done for perhaps half my life since reading my first Agatha Christie book ('And Then There Were None') and watching the Joan Hickson version of 'A Murder is Announced'. Don't consider 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' one of the very best of them, 'Inspector Morse' is my personal favourite, but still hold it in very high regard if not as much as prime years-'Law and Order'.

"Poison" is in my view one of the better 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' episodes at this very early, and also remarkably promising, stage. Don't consider it as good as "The Faithful" (the first "outstanding" episode) and "Jones" (manages to be even better). At the same time, it is a step up from the still very good, having really liked to loved all the episodes up to this point of the show, but slightly disappointing previous episode "The Extra Man".

Did feel that the perpetrator was revealed a little too early, but that is personal preference.

At the same time, it did mean that we were really able to enjoy Goren's methods of getting to the truth and how he works, which have always been unique and unorthodox. It did also mean that one of the show's most amoral and reprehensible characters, with a bone-chilling performance from J. Smith Cameron, was also very interesting.

The case is a gripping and suspenseful one with an unnerving ending, the investigative elements always intriguing. The production values are stylish and not overly-gloomy. The music knows when to have presence and tone things down, with the main theme catchy still. The writing is a good balance of mature and un-simplistic, always provoking thought.

Smith-Cameron steals the show here, even achieving the seemingly impossible feat of out-shining a still splendid Vincent D'Onofrio.

In conclusion, great. 9/10

Three people have died recently a local hospital. What's usual about it is that all three patients were not in serious condition. How could this happen? In the introduction, we, the viewers are presented with two suspects, because obviously something isn't kosher here. One is a nurse and the other is a visitor of a patient, who is in the bed next to the latest victim. The nurse looks a little wacky, a poor nerdy woman who has no social life; the other is woman immediately portrayed as some selfish, mean person. Is one of these two responsible for these three deaths? (Yup!)

Within 12 minutes, Det. Goren has it figured out that the suspect that looks like the sure killer, is not. His bosses aren't convinced Goren is corrupt in his assumption, so the detective has to get busy and find the real murderer and - worse- stop a potential terrorist-type situation because the killer is spiking aspirin at a nearby drugstore with cyanide (the cause of these deaths) and more people are starting to die.

This a good episode. It was enjoyable to see D'Onofrio ("Goren") figure it out and nab this disgusting woman - labeled "The Angel Of Death" early on in the show - who was, indeed, an extremely cold and selfish person..