Tonight on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,� the writers riff on the nearly forgotten Lonelygirl15 phenomenon, only here, the viral video appears to show its characters kidnapped by masked gunmen. Is it real or is it a prank? Not even the cops are sure, but that’s because they’re cops. Anyone who’s actually watched viral videos and can imagine how TV people might try to replicate the thing can probably guess correctly.

The episode offers a combination of an intriguing portrait of blind, blithering-idiot ambition alongside a bit of a ‘Those damn kids’ attitude from writers who are apparently a bit miffed that such low-budget hijinks can elicit so much pop-culture attention when here they are, cranking out their polished productions and not getting nearly as much media attention.

So I’m here to help them out by offering a new game: Fantasy League Law & Order. All you need do is, every week, combine with fellow players to select which torn-from-the-headline story you think will turn up as a future episode of one of the “Law & Order� shows. You can get bonus points by predicting correctly which of the “Law & Order� series will co-opt the incident, and further bonus points by predicting how the show’s writers will oh-so-subtly tweak the real-life story.

For example, this past week we had the O.J. Simpson book deal, the Michael Richards meltdown at the Laugh Factory and the guy in New York shot on his wedding day. Let’s toss in a couple of evergreens: Say, a celebrity couple adapting foreign babies whose bodyguards rough up civilians and a high-powered politician who becomes the star of a hit documentary. And, of course, feel free to add others of your own choosing.

So, a sample fantasy Law & Order league selection could play out thusly: Predict that “Law & Order: Criminal Intent� will do the Michael Richards story ("L&O" the mothership can't do it because they just did Mel Gibson), only the Kramer doppelganger turns up dead just as the video appears online, his house firebombed. So, perhaps the red herring is that the washed-up comic faked his own death to elicit some sympathy, that the badly charred body in the place turns out not to be that of the comic (his explanation - he left to clear his head at his lakeside place and tuned out all media while his recently divorced brother watched his place), and let’s say the real story is that the offended fan is upset, because he’s on the lam from the law but appears clearly in the viral video, which could have clued cops into his whereabouts. So the irony is the killer is even more psychotic than the comic, a conclusion that Vincent D'Onofrio underscores when he delectably overplays the line: "You messed with the wrong guy," almost turning it into a question. Then wait a few weeks and see how your prediction turns out. It’s hours of cynical fun and games and all you need to win is a “Law & Order� writer as lazy and unimaginative as you and your pals! Get cracking!

Speaking of fun and games, this week on “The Unit,� Jonas is captured by rebel forces in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. He’s badly beaten and waterboarded, while his colleagues back home try to reason with unsympathetic forces at home and abroad to affect his release. Obviously, tonight’s “Unit� borrows heavily on current events – including how the ongoing debate on torture elicited additional dialogue when correspondents for Current (Al Gore’s semi-interactive network) and Fox News subjected themselves to waterboarding. (Current’s guy lasted longer.)

Hence, the episode’s subtext is that if America turns a blind eye to torture, this is the sort of treatment we can expect of our soldiers should they fall in enemy hands. Plotlines on “The Unit� tend to be rather foursquare, and this episode doesn’t seem to have spent much time in co-creator David Mamet’s typewriter, but the intrigue here comes in watching Dennis Haysbert, as Jonas, do everything in his power to trick, cajole and manipulate his captors.

“Law & Order: Criminal Intent:� 9 p.m. Tuesday on NBC.
“The Unit:� 9 p.m. Tuesday on CBS.