When it comes to Season 6 of 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent', the Goren and Eames episodes tended to fare a lot better in overall standard. The Logan and Wheeler (a pairing that has actually worked fine to me) outings were more variable, there were great episodes absolutely but others didn't work so well. "Bombshell" has a "ripped from the headlines"-like type of story, a type that the franchise more than once did very well in) with echoes of the Anna Nicole Smith case.
"Bombshell" could have been so much better. Not only is it my least favourite of the Logan and Wheeler episodes, with it being the only one to be a misfire, it is my least favourite episode of the inconsistent Season 6. Not everyone is going to agree with this though. Logan and Wheeler are not the problem here, but the massively flawed story execution is what dooms "Bombshell" and if it was going to have echoes of the Anna Nicole Smith story it could have been done with more tact. Personally do not agree with it being rated the same as the vastly superior "Silencer".
Certainly didn't despise it though and there are good things here. The production values as ever are slick and with the right amount of muted grit, the photography doesn't try to do anything too fancy or gimmicky while not being claustrophobic and keeping things simple. The music doesn't overbear with the theme tune still memorable.
The acting is also fine, especially from dryly humorous yet gritty Chris Noth and emotionally shattering and barely recognisable Kristy Swanson. Really liked the team interaction, which was cohesive and connected well.
Sadly, everything else didn't come together. The Anna Nicole Smith case influence just felt like too much too soon when one takes into account the timing at the time, and could have been handled more sensitively. The biggest problem with "Bombshell" is the story, which was very messy and on the wrong side of odd. It can be very contrived, especially the too obvious, truly far-fetched and forced ending, and disorganised. Too much of the content is not delved into deeply enough.
Which made things feel very confused, and with the structure being quite cobbled together in a thrown into a cauldron-like way the coherence is quite low at times. Some of the characters are extraneous and none of them are particularly interesting or well written. Just well worn cliches with underdeveloped and not always logical motives. The script is not taut enough and severely lacks nuance, and "Bombshell" is one of the few episodes up to this stage of the show's run that is not particularly well directed, like they had no idea what to do with the premise.
Overall, bizarre and rather disappointingly mediocre. 4/10.