Wednesday, October 10, 2012

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 8 - 802. The Pact - Comments Thread

Here you can post comments about tonight's Criminal Minds episode 'The Pact', written by Janine Sherman Barrois.

Please, remember to leave a name with your post, which will make it easier for people to reply to posts.

Thanks you and enjoy tonight's episode!

11 comments:

  1. I thought it was a fantastic episode by Janine. Just when you thought the it was beginning to drag a tad, boom! Another plot twist. Great writing and Rossi figuring out the Mexico connection at the end was cool. Can't see Rossi sitting on a beach, though, drinking a cocktail with a little umbrella in it. LOL. If I had one complaint, it was a little Hotch light, but that's just me. Reid's driving analysis on the jet was great!! I'd give it an 8.5.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great Episode Criminal Minds. I thought it was cool seeing Rossi on the beach. I didn't know what to expect. Excellent writing, especially because I couldn't have guessed anything about this blot. Way to go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That local lady detective was hot!! She was good. Nice to see a new face.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I actually like the episodes that are unsub heavy. The reason I watch criminal minds.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rossi's on a beach. Hey even he knew it was weird being there; hence his reference to not wanting to be on the beach for 6 days. I love how the team seemed to just mesh and do all of their jobs like a well oiled machine. Now that's the way you catch an unsub...or not wink wink. So glad that mom got away at the end.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That pedophile was really the unsub to me. Great how that mom killed him at the end. He was weird. That actor was great. I know he did a good job, because I hated him. Great writing and good casting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, where to start...

    OK, let me start with what I did like. Who ever has the casting for the male Unsub struck gold there. He was flat out creepy! That was one heck of an acting job there! Kudos to the actor for some great work.

    Also, a great balance among the team. It's nice to see that back.

    Also Reid's nerdgasm in the first quarter of the show. I am an admitted Reid fan, and we haven't seen him have moments like that in a while. It's nice to see them coming back.

    Now what I didn't like - the writing! OMG, the dialog sounded like a junior high fan fiction writer! And not only did you steal from Hitchcock but you had Reid point out that you were stealing from Hitchcock. It was so bad even the actors didn't like it, you could obviously tell that some of them were phoning it in. Compared to the rest of the show Reid had only that one good line, and it was so good and so true to character that I have to assume it was an ad-lib on the part of MGG (and very well done too.

    Look, I get it, Barrios is an executive producer so you have to put up with her vanity attempts as a writer. I'm just sorry the cast and crew have to put up with it. She needs to grow up and not try to do other people's jobs for the fun of it, it just makes for bad episodes. I have to wonder if the dialog was horrible because of some childish rebellion for having to put in as much time for the main cast as she did for her Unsubs, she's said she prefers writing for them but we always call her on it so I wouldn't be surprised if something was said. In fact it honestly makes me wonder if everything we've had issues with over the past few season can be laid on her desktop.

    I have no doubt next week will be better.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I liked this episode. I know there was a lot of unsub, but I just accept that is Janine's preferred storytelling method. As it was, I thought the unsubs' story was interesting and I felt it was unlike anything we've seen on the show before. The violence was pretty minimal, which is good, because considering the crimes committed, it would have been hideous and bloody.

    I think this was another episode that excelled when it came to team interaction. Again, we saw a lot of the unsubs, but I don't feel the team was shortchanged. They did a lot of profiling in teams and in a group, and I thought every team member had some good interplay. I liked JJ and Morgan's interaction at Jason's house, when JJ just had a feeling that something was off about him. And I liked Reid and Alex when they were searching Jason's storage place. I liked Reid's little factoid about medieval drawing and quartering, and his nonstop speech analyzing the possibility of one unsub killing both victims and "still having time to stop for tacos" was classic Reid.

    I will admit that I wasn't expecting the twist towards the end when we realized that Jason was an unrepentant psychopath. I started to have that thought he was coming across that way when he was first telling Darlene the story of how they took her daughter. But then it took a turn for the uber creepy as you saw him start to play Ellen and Darlene by encouraging Ellen to give into her psychopathic desires, and taunting Darlene with the news about her daughter. I wasn't expecting it when Darlene beat Jason to death with a shovel, but I can't say I was sorry to see him killed. The ending was sort of poetic. Ellen goes on and on about how actions have consequences, and she ends up getting arrested. And at the same time she was badgering Darlene to take care of herself, and was actually happy and a bit proud when she saw Darlene escaping in the bus. And bonus points to Rossi for figuring out their destination.

    All in all, I really did enjoy this episode. The unsubs were interesting and different. The kill scenes weren't overly graphic. The team was well represented, and I thought the profiling was good.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I may think Janine's writing is hit or miss for me (I consider this episode to be a hit), but she isn't a vanity writer. Before she came onto Criminal Minds, she had eight years of writing for two different television dramas (one of which was Third Watch, which was how Ed Bernero knew of her work). Every one of the main writers is an executive producer. It's just something this show does for its writers.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have to say that this was better than any other of Janine's episodes, but then that's not saying much. She is the worst writer of the bunch. I'll give her credit for not relying on gore and graphic violence, as she usually does to fill this episode, but there were a lot of holes in the plot, things that just didn't add up. I surely hope that one pedophile could not convince his friends to rape an 8 year old girl. I will say that Blake was more likeable in this one but still not anything worth watching. I don't know whether to lay the blame for that one on the writing, the directing or on Jeanne Tripplehorn. I don't hate her but she seems completely unnecessary at this point. I'm still willing to give her more time, though. At least she has the proper qualifications to be in the BAU. I like that Rossi solved the case and caught the unsubs, but I'm pretty sure the average viewer could figure out they were heading to Mexico long before the BAU. Again, the writing isn't that good. My other complaint is regarding Reid. I'm glad he got more material this week and actually participated in the case rather than just hanging out at the local police station and disappearing by the end of the episode, as they so often do with him. But for heaven's sake, stop giving him uesless, babbling lines. He is smart enough to solve these cases on his own. Use his intelligence wisely rather than just having him spout some fact from wikipedia. Most of the current writing staff isn't intelligent enough, nor do they understand the BAU or the characters well enough to write for them. Erica should stop giving interviews where she blabs spoilers about upcoming episodes and DO HER JOB. Keep the continuity of the characters and the story lines. Don't let writing that doesn't make sense get to the screen.

    ReplyDelete
  11. JS, I completely agree with you in regards to Reid.It seems all he does now a days is spout a bunch of factoids.I miss be able to see via special effects that brilliant mind of his working on and solving a puzzle that was needed to help the Bau with a case.Fisher King 1&2 and Masterpiece are 2 of that best example I can think of.I think it'd really be nice to see that again a few times thru out the season,but I'm not going to hold my breath.

    I don't mind the babbling per say I actually think Reid is adorable when he is babbling,but for crying out loud I really hope they start letting him contribute more to the cases.

    IMO this show is in desperate need of a better show runner and better writers.

    ReplyDelete

Respectful opinions, and constructive disagreement is welcomed, but insulting/foul-mouthed, malicious, or just plain disrespectful comments towards anyone are not, and will be removed.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.