Believe it or not, it took until 2024 to get a Canadian adaptation of Law & Order. That’s when Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent debuted on Citytv. A second season already aired up north, and now the series has come to the States, thanks to the CW.
Opening Shot: “In Toronto’s war on crime, the worst offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Specialized Criminal Investigations Unit. These are their stories.” DUN DUN!
The Gist: On a yacht speeding over Lake Ontario, crypto investor Daniel Siddiqui (Ali Kazmi) is throwing a VIP party. Not everyone is happy; Arlene Cox (Sharon Taylor), a major investor, wants to know where her money is. People are wary of Daniel’s recent marriage to his wife Sophie (Amber Goldfarb), and it seems that Daniel is drinking a steady stream of Champagne. We see a drunken Daniel clutch his chest and fall off the side of his boat.
Detective Sergeants Henry Graff (Aden Young) and Frankie Bateman (Kathleen Munroe) are called to the marina after the boat docks. One of the things they find out is that Daniel may have stolen over $300 million from his clients, and there’s a thought that he faked his own death and skipped town. But Graff theorizes that if that was the case, the money would have showed up somewhere.
Of course, things change when Daniel’s body washes ashore. Even though he technically drowned, he was drugged first using phenobarbital. Graff, who seems to know art, literature, and how to get certain drugs, theorizes that whoever gave him the phenobarbital was planning this for awhile, given how tough it is to get the sedative.
The detectives go to the crypto investing firm and speak to Daniel’s business partner, Nick Millwood (Peter Mooney). They eventually realize that Daniel and Nick partnered up so that Daniel can be the face of the organization, given Nick’s less-than-savory past. Sophie is considered a suspect until she’s severely injured by a hit-and-run driver in her own driveway.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Adapted by Tassie Cameron from Dick Wolf’s 35-year-old L&O franchise, Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent actually uses new stories instead of recycled plots other international adaptations have used.
Our Take: Despite the Toronto locale and Canadian-centric stories, Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is L&O through and through, with quippy detectives, lawyers who almost always get a conviction, crusty bosses, and cases that are “ripped from the headlines.”
Because of this, casting is key. And Young and Munroe show the chemistry between their characters, Graff and Bateman, from the first scene they’re together. They seem to have been partners long enough where they know about each other’s personal lives and can roll with each other’s quirks, and we get a few details about who they are outside the squad room during their rapid-fire conversations.
Young is especially good as Graff, who seems to have a wide knowledge base. We were introduced to Young a dozen years ago (!) on Rectify, and we know the Australian actor can do a lot of different accents. Here, he has Graff talking in a quasi-French-Canadian lilt, as if Graff grew up near the Ontario-Quebec border. It’s a specific Canadian accent that’s hard to place if you haven’t heard it before, but Young seems to take it on without much effort.
The first episode is dominated by police work, with only one scene with Deputy Crown Attorney Theo Forrester (K. C. Collins). We wonder if the balance will be different in subsequent episodes, but even the American version of Criminal Intent leaned more heavily on the police work than the courtroom drama, so this imbalance isn’t a surprise.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Graff tells Bateman about how he found Daniel’s code for the crypto funds he locked away, and it’s truly in an unexpected place.
Sleeper Star: Karen Robinson plays Inspector Vivienne Holness, the detectives’ boss, and she’s a classic funny L&O boss. Talking about why they should suspect Daniel’s wife Sophie, she says, “There’s no way she went after this nerd without a plan.”
Most Pilot-y Line: When Nick admits that they rented a large office despite having a small staff, Bateman quips, “You’re a shower not a grower?”
Our Call: STREAM IT. Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is pretty much what you expect from any entry in the L&O franchise, which is a good thing.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.