DICK WOLF GETS A NEW SERIES - THAT'S THE 'LAW'.

Byline: - David Kronke

Dick Wolf has done it again. No, seriously, he's done it again. Despite his protestations that his new show, ``Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' has a different perspective, it's still essentially his same old ``Law & Order'' (though four of the five episodes I watched had a sexual element to the story, a la his other show, ``Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'').

Ostensibly, what separates ``Criminal Intent'' from its antecedents is that it takes us inside the mind of the wrong-doers: Well, that's more or less abandoned after the first couple of episodes. Then, the series becomes more about the usual police procedural, as we find out more or less as the police do precisely what occurred at the scene of the crime.

``Criminal Intent,'' the by-now familiar portentous opening narration explains, focuses on the ``Major Case Squad,'' who handle ``high- profile'' cases that cannot be solved ``by normal police procedure.''' Well, none of that seems to be true. Our heroes lie to suspects a lot, but I doubt few viewers consider that a stretch from ``normal police procedure,'' and the cases just seem to be run-of-the-mill by TV cop-show standards.

The series' strong suit is its star, Vincent D'Onofrio (``Full Metal Jacket,'' ``Ed Wood,'' ``Men in Black,'') who plays Detective Robert Goren as a soft-spoken, almost sensitive fellow, one who's close to being a profiler in his ability to astutely divine the essence of a crime scene. He can tell a man's been with a mistress when he returns from a vacation because he doesn't have a tan, and he's well-versed in art history. He's well-versed, actually, in whatever this week's crime happens to concern, but D'Onofrio's innate empathy and ability to toss in a quirky gesture from time to time keep the character credible.

Kathryn Erbe (formerly on the wrong side of the law in ``Oz'') co-stars as Goren's partner, Alexandra Eames, occasionally playing bad cop to his good cop. Two talented character actors are criminally, so to speak, underused: Broadway veteran Courtney B. Vance is D.A. Carver, whose role primarily consists of telling Goren he doesn't have enough hard evidence to prosecute the wrongdoers, and Jamey Sheridan plays Captain Deakins, who oversees scenes in which detectives spout a lot of exposition and then says, ``Give me a status in an hour.''

Cases don't even seem to be that tough to crack. In the pilot, Griffin Dunne plays a sleazy, ambulance-chasing attorney who goes on a spree murdering all his mistresses (loathsome guys domineering weak-willed women seem to be a running theme in this series). Goren and company are onto him pretty quickly; as becomes a recurring problem in future episodes, mustering up hard physical evidence is a challenge (they need to hook up with the forensics guys on ``CSI'').

Some of the future episodes are fairly interesting; some are a little over the top; none equal to or better than those over on Wolf's sister shows. This is clearly for the hard-core ``Law and Order'' fan, and since that series is entering its dozenth year and already has a spin-off and, for God's sake, is available all over cable virtually on demand, it's hard to imagine many folks will be clamoring for ``Criminal Intent.''

``LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT''

What: ``Law & Order,'' with yet another cast.

The stars: Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Courtney B. Vance, Jamey Sheridan.

Where: 9 tonight.

When: NBC (Channel 4).

Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Photo:

Courtney B. Vance, left, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe and Jamey Sheridan star in ``Law & Order: Criminal Intent,'' premiering tonight on NBC.