Kathryn Erbe and Dean Winters in 'Murder Unscripted'
Jan 21, 2008, 02:35 PM | by Kera Bolonik
Categories: Television, Viral Video!!!, Writer's Strike
Hey PopWatchers, if you run out of Law & Orders, SVUs, and Criminal Intents, never fear: A hit parade of veteran actors from the Law & Order franchise and Homicide have a little teaser for you. They’ve joined forces to video-blog their solidarity with the WGA in this hilarious cautionary tale about the dangers of improv-ing your way through even the most formulaic and prolific television medium on prime time today: the crime procedural.
Our dynamic crime-fighting duo — self-described as “impossibly hot” — is Dean Winters and Kathryn Erbe, who amble around the set trying to determine their surroundings (a library), casually assess the vic (a woman in a red dress, gunshot wound to the head), guzzle the goods from a nearby craft services truck, and get their grubby hands on every possible piece of evidence in the room. Erbe puts on her Detective Eames hat half-cocked, as she draws on her years of Dick Wolf-ian experience to try to chip away at the case, while wielding what looks like a candle snuffer. Or is it a tire iron? It certainly ain’t the murder weapon. If only they’d push D’Onofrio out of the way so we can see more of Erbe’s sardonic wit on Criminal Intent, then maybe the runt of the Law & Order litter would get reinstated at NBC. (Remember how sinister and creepy she was on Oz
as the femme fatale death-row inmate Shirley Bellinger? I still
have nightmares.)
Among the other cast of characters fumbling the case: a pair of Homicide alums, Zeljko Ivanek as “the case-hardened D.A.” and “old-timer who’s seen it all” Peter Gerety, neither of whom can remember the name of that doctor person who performs autopsies; “omniscient forensic profiler” B.D. Wong, as profound here with one word as he is with pages of dialogue; and Eric Bogosian as the eye-rolling, underwhelmed “over-burdened captain.” But the man who will most certainly (not) solve the case, the “seasoned pro with the golden gut” Chris Noth has a theory about the murder that serves as a most worthy punchline.
PopWatchers, what do you think of this video? Who do you think seems most like their Law & Order alter ego? And are you getting tired of the WGA strike, or are you finding plenty to keep you entertained on TV and YouTube?
Comments