I really, really enjoyed that episode. The case was suspenseful and kept me guessing. The whole plot was great. I loved the Reid scenes and especially the Hotch/Reid ones. They didn't get a chance to interact much these last seasons, so I was really grateful.
Loved it! Old School Criminal Minds that kept you guessing right up until the end and that's all I'm going to say for now. Don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it. : )
Pretty darn good! Got confused some, but by the end I got it, whereas in episodes past it made like no sense the whole way. Caught the subtleties with Prentiss "the cases just pile up"...very sad about her imminent departure but excited for future guest appearances... And more suspenseful CM episodes like this was! PolkaDotSombrero
I really loved that episode. It had everything I love in a Criminal Minds episode and felt like "old school" Criminal Minds : a good case, suspense and good team interaction and contribution. I'm one happy camper right now. Dreis : ditto on the Hotch/Reid scenes, I loved it.
OK, allow me to review. We didn't know the unsub 30 seconds in. The team worked the profile, and in the end, worked as a team to find the unsub. We had Reid doing his facts and stats, and Hotch pulling him back once. Then we got a team scene on the jet. And in the end, Bruce Zimmerman throws us the curve ball with Helen. Bottom line in this CM fan's world: absolutely fantastic episode!! Can we have more like this. Please?
Loved it! As always the cast and crew pull off another brilliant piece. Oddly, my favorite part was Reid smoothing his shirt and tie, blatantly avoiding the handshake with that little trademark wave he does. Well played sir! Priceless. It's the personal dynamics and quirks I love the most and Seven has been a veritable smorgasbord of awesomeness on that level. All in all this season has been epic. Heartbroken about Paget taking her leave, but wish her the best in every endeavor. I hope we see her from time to time on CM!
Fantastic!!! It was a return to the Criminal Minds I love and missed!! I loved seeing Reid give his "facts and figures" and being excited to do it; I loved watching the team work together as a TEAM to solve the case; I loved NOT knowing who the UnSub was till later in the episode; I loved the interaction between Reid and Hotch; I loved the return of Reid's quirks (NOT wanting to shake hands); I loved seeing Garcia being flirty but businesslike at the same time; I loved Prentiss' nervousness about buying her house; and I loved the curveball with Helen at the end!
I guess I was less enthused about this one. While I did like the case part-- it was much stronger and better than most of the cases this season-- I still didn't really enjoy it. I don't know if it was the pace, the music, or what-- but something was just off. I can't put my finger on it. The Prentiss purchasing a house thing just seemed to come out of nowhere and didn't seem to really fit in naturally with the episode. I felt like it was just tacked on at the beginning and end. I actually hated that Reid refused to shake the guy's hand. In the entire first six seasons Reid NEVER outright refused a handshake. He would do a preemptive wave instead-- but if someone extended a hand he shook it. The first time he ever actually refused an extended hand was in "True Genius". I've noticed that his diction isn't as good as it used to be. I don't think he enunciates his Ts as much and he says "gonna" instead of "going to". It's like he's literally been dumbed down.
I can't actually remember any Hotch/Reid scenes from this. I remember Hotch tapping Reid's arm to shut him up. I know he rambles, but why is everyone so rude to him? This time Prentiss cut him off rudely. I am someone who rambles a lot and my family members have just learned to tune me out rather than cut me off. Why can't they do that for him? They supposedly care about him. And why is it so inconsistent? One episode he realizes they aren't interested and stops and another he is oblivious and they cut him off. They act like they don't even like him.
Other than pretending he was at PeeWee's Playhouse and connecting the dots, I can't think of any single thing Reid did to contribute anything useful to the case at all. For that matter, I can't think of anything useful from Morgan, which is surprising given how this has been the season of Morgan.
I found it insulting that they are so eager to show off "new and improved JJ" that she had to show Reid up TWICE. Its not the first episode where they've done it either. I wouldn't mind if they didn't dumb Reid down to make it work though. I can overlook the thing of JJ getting that the shape was a heart because Reid might have been looking for something more logical (although I wonder how the unsub conveniently found 3 blonde women in just the right locations). I was very bothered by the fact that they had Reid standing back like a useless lump while JJ examined the body-- something Reid usually does. And not only does she notice the hair and point it out, but they have Reid stupidly say it might be an intentional trend thing. Reid noticed the hair in "Uncanny Valley"-- he would be able to tell that the hair was freshly cut. The logical thing for him to have done was to recognize that the hair had been freshly cut and agree with JJ. But nooo, they have to make him be too stupid compared to SuperJJ... *sigh*
It cut me off bc my post was too long so I'm continuing.
Why were Rossi and Prentiss reading the letters instead of Reid? That sort of thing is Reid's area of expertise-- and he can read faster than anyone. Guess he was too busy napping or something.
I really miss the Reid of the first 4 seasons. He was intelligent, spoke a bit more slowly, had more to contribute than random useless crap from the wikipedia, and wasn't rude to people by refusing to shake their hands.
I actually liked the unsub at the end of this one but I still felt they didn't gather enough information. Hotch just suddenly assumes its the prison transit guy with no other information. That was too much of a leap. Even though we didn't see the unsub's face, the killing scenes still lasted too long and showed too much. There was almost nothing in terms of the victimology. I don't remember the victim's names. The firing squad thing at the beginning seemed weird. I didn't think they did that. I'm surprised they didn't have a blurb of Reid explaining that Oklahoma is the only state that does that to make it clear to the viewers.
Over all I give the case a high score but team interactions a low score. Something was just off.
I felt like Reid napping on the bench and Garcia being asleep at the office were not necessary and added nothing.
I hope the next one is better.
I will say that this wasn't the absolute low for me. It is still far superior to all episodes written by Janine Barrois and Kim Harrison. It is also better than most of what Erica Messer has churned out.
i'm with you all the way, zannej!! what the hell is going on with the show?
the thing with hotch touching reid on the arm to shut him up? not cool. not funny. not appropriate. why does reid have to be quiet when everyone else is allowed to talk? shhh, the adults are having a conversation?? when did reid become the black sheep of the bau team?
the bau team has become diana ross and the supremes, with jj as diana ross. i am officially at the point where i want aj to leave instead of paget.
the new jj is rude, bitchy, and condescending. after years of being the media liaison and case selector, she's suddenly so-omg-amazing at profiling that the team can't do anything without her there to supervise.
reid needs her help to draw a heart on a map? really? he's got three doctorates, 3 undergraduate degrees, and can read 20,000 words per minute. how many unsubs patterns has reid charted up on the maps over the years? and now he can't draw a heart on a map without someone's help?
if the new writers and producers don't have any idea what to do with reid, if they are too stupid or too lazy or don't have enough intelligence between them to make him sound like the well-educated profiler that he is, then they need to hire someone who can actually write the character correctly.
why in the world would matthew want to stay on this show when all they've done is dumb-down and side-line reid to the point that jj is basically doing his job for him and treating him like a idiot child who can't even dress himself.
hotch needs to stop shooting people. if an agent in real life had shot this many people week after week, he would have lost his job and likely been assigned to anger management classes.
one last humorous point: why is prentiss buying a townhouse in dupont circle? it's a great area near the embassies, and it has beautiful, expensive houses, yes, but it is most-widely known here in dc as a predominantly gay neighborhood. are the writers trying to tell us something about emily?? or did they just not do their research?
Okay first of all I agree that Reid has been dumbed down but the writers are just trying to get a feel for a complicated layered character that they can't just figure out in one season. Of course Reid didn't see the heart, his brain doesn't work that way he would think of a more logical explanation like the arrow that he saw. JJ isn't nearly as analytical as Reid so she would see the heart because she thinks differently than Reid. As for the letters I do agree that the writer's should have had Reid analyze them because he's super fast but Reid analyzes hand-writing not computer written letters! You can't tell anything about what a person was thinking or feeling when looking at the lettering of a computer written letter so all Prentiss and Rossi were doing was souly analyzing the content which they are perfectly capable of doing! Why are you people acting as if Reid is the end all be all profiler? The rest of them are just as good of profiler's as him aside from JJ who just started and is not as experienced but even she has a natural talent for it as pointed out by Hotch in North Mammon. Reid can miss things because he thinks mostly with the left more mathematical part of his brain and he focuses on details where as JJ focuses on what's right in front of her. I don't get why everyone is so surprised that JJ is a great profiler. It has always been apart of her job in picking cases and she's been with the team for seven years so she's picked up on a lot. Reid should have just agreed with JJ about the hair but it's also his character's thought process to make sure that JJ was correct and think on every possibility. The team has always shushed and interrupted Reid when he went on a spiel. It's like in 3x10 when he was ranting about the writer of pinochio's obsession with the human nose and JJ just interrupted him and asked if he wanted a coffee. Reid gets's so interested and invested in his facts that he could go on for at least 20 mins and when they're trying to figure out who murdered all those women they're under a severe time limit and you can't just expect them to listen to his whole mantra when they're working the case. He is socially awkward and doesn't express and communicate like the rest of the team so he doesn't outright shakehands it probably makes him nervous but he still waved and said hi to the guy he just has a different way of doing it. Of course the team loves him or they wouldn't have thrown him a surprise b-day party admittedly a little late but still. He's the only one on the team who's birthday has even come up and twice for that matter. He's always been babies because his quirks are cute and they like to play around with him and tease him. They are barely ever professional with each other so I don't know what this 'oh it's not professional to hold him back from speaking' tyrant is because the reason their so special is because they act as a family and he just so happens to hold the spot of little brother. Of course JJ has changed since leaving she's been in the pentagon and has probably seen some horrible shit do she's gonna come out more jaded and tough. Plus they can't just put her back in her old position after they functioned just fine without it for a year. It would make her even more under appreciated than she already was. They are probably just trying to show that she's good at profiling so she doesn't get over looked again like she was in the first five seasons . She only ever had a big pat in two arcs and both of them were mainly Reid centered even though in one of them she was having Henry so the writers are probably just accommodating for that and her leave last year. I do hope that Reid does get more screen time after all the hectic changes in the past two years die down. I think that next year his character will be more Reid-like because the writers will have had time to adjust and analyze all of his many complicated layers
I agree with most of what Zannej and anonymous wrote.
It is enough with newSuper Mary-Sue JJ. Why do they have to dumb down some of the other characters to show how awesome JJ is? Why do the other characters always have to praise JJ? "JJ`s genius has struck again" LMAO.
For me this ranks as one of the better episodes this season. Not the best, but better than most. I think that Breen listened to our comments and gave us an episode that didn't show us the unsub right away and also wasn't solely focused on the unsub. As far as the complaints about Reid, my take is that Breen may have allowed other characters to handle some of those tasks to mix things up. It doesn't always have to be Reid doing the reading, Morgan breaking down the door, JJ dealing with the families, etc. I concede that the current writers don't do justice to the Reid character that was established early on. I don't know why it's so hard for them to get the feel of the character, and I don't know why MGG wouldn't at least discuss this with Erica or all of the writers. I'm just saying that overall I enjoyed this episode. I'm not with the others here who think the whole season has been fantastic. Far from it! And I am quite apprehensive about the finale and where they'll go next season. I think the majority of the current writers don't understand the characters or the BAU nor do they understand what the viewers want to see. But Breen deserves kudos for at least trying to get it right this week. There was a good balance of screen time for the team and good profiling.
I don't understand why everyone feels that Reid is the supreme profiler and that he has to do everyone's job. When Hotch used to tell Reid to help JJ with her press conferences it was no big deal. When Rrid solves and contributes a lot in obsessional cases which are Morgans thing, it's the best episode in the season. But Prentiss and Rossi read some computer written letters and JJ figures out two things and gets a compliment from her best friend, it's the biggest problem in the world. Reid has got two story arcs a bunch of episodes centered around him and five seasons where pretty much every episode had him finding a key part in the case. Now after getting one season where JJ gets to show off how awesome her character is when she's been neglected for six seasons... Everyone's pissed... I love Reid and he is an awesome character but the writers are probably just trying to compensate for all of her missed time.
I did like this episode a lot, one of the best of this season. I agree with most of what anonymous wrote ( the one before zen). Reid never shake anyone hands. Also, the team have always curt his rambling so why is this getting on people's nerves now? Also I had no problem with Prentiss and Rossi analyzing the letters, they ARE profilers and they can do any part of a profiler's job. As for JJ, I have no problem with her as a profiler, Hotch thought in North Mammon that JJ was good enough to try out the courses to be a profiler, so no big leap here. She was also the one who connected the dots in In Birth and Death and while she was not a profiler, no one took offense that she did break the case while Morgan and Reid didn't. And really JJ is not super JJ, she makes stupid mistakes too, after all she is the one who did let an untrained technical analylst go into a dangerous, deranged and armed man who was threatning to killed his hostage, said Techy was NOT a hostage negotiator and should never been aloud anywhere near the scene, yet JJ agreed to let Garcia talk to the guy! Yeah supper JJ wasn't that super on that one!
Anonymous wrote 'hotch needs to stop shooting people. if an agent in real life had shot this many people week after week, he would have lost his job and likely been assigned to anger management classes' What was Hotch suppose to do? I disagree, Hotch shooting was good, he didn't shot the guy in anger or anything, he did his job. Only time Hotch ever showed any anger was when he did kill Foyet, although his reason for killing Foyet was good I am not convince it wasn't out of anger and revenge.
To go back at last night episode, this was a good episode. We didn't seen the unsub 12 seconds after the start of the episode, the team did work the case, did the profiling. The writer avoided to have the unsub show and tell us all about himself. Unlike what Erica Messer might think, the show was ALWAYS about how the team catch serial killers and never about the killers and how they do things. CM is not Dexter and I hope it never will.
I love that we had some mystery, I had to keep guessing who killed and why. Love all the team work. It wasn't just Reid who did crack the case but JJ and Hotch too, it was a team effort.
So, despite this not being the best episode of the season, the title goes to 'Foundation', it was a much better effort by Zimmerman who had previously given us 'Snake eyes'.
I guess I missed the memo that stated that Spencer Reid must always be the one to solve the case and must always be the one to unravel the patterns or figure out the unsub's signature. Nobody is being mean or rude to Reid. He would be incredibly annoying to work with on a daily basis and those moments are meant to be light and give the audience something to smile about in an otherwise grim and creepy episode. Reid fans need to lighten up and quit taking everything so personally. He's a great character and his quirks are adorable and it's amusing to watch the members of the team get frustrated with him.
Great episode! Can we please have 22 to 24 more just like this one next season?! Please!!!!!
I might be a Reid fan but I didn't have a single problem with that episode, I loved it. The JJ scenes didn't bother me. I don't mind if once in a while Reid doesn't figure out something, it actually happens regularly and that's nothing new. And truth be told, during the first two seasons Gideon was given the lion's share of the discoveries anyway (at least if felt that way).
And I loved the scene where Hotch playfully swatted Reid on the arm. It's clear that he wasn't angry or even annoyed in that scene, he wasn't thinking something like "By God, when is he finally going to shut up ? Just make him stop !". Hotch didn't slap Reid in the back of the head, that gesture would have spoken of condescension and belittlement, but that's absolutely not what happened.
Hotch was being a little playful with that swat, which was so nice to see. As someone who's got a tendency to ramble a lot, I know it's not exactly fun to be cut off, but the team wasn't mean spirited.
I also loved that scene because it showed that Hotch and Reid are really at ease with each other. Some fans often talked about Hotch and how he wasn't close to Reid, they often thought Hotch was closer to his other teammates,.... That scene proves that Hotch and Reid are perfectly at ease with each other, because you just don't do something like that to someone you don't consider your friend or to someone who isn't close to you. That scene subtly showed their friendship and connection, which is more than welcome in my book.
About the scene with the letter I sort of understand Zannej's point, but I don't agree. It's true that Reid is usually the one who analyses letters (whether typed or written by hand by the way). We saw that countless times, but if for once someone else is going to do it, I won't have a problem. I wasn't bothered by that scene during the episode. And really, it's not like Prentiss, JJ or Rossi did the kind of analyses Reid do when he dissects letters and goes into 'genius mode'. The kind of analyses they did is something they are all capable of doing since they're profilers, it didn't bother me. It's true that it has been a long time since Reid had to do a full linguistic profile and had to find clues hidden in a letter/book (handwriting, lexicography, patterns, semantics, punctuation,...). Maybe the writers can include that kind of scene for Reid in a future episode ?
I didn't have a problem too much with JJ having recognized the heart. I don't think that Reid is unable to think outside of the box, but the heart wasn't a regular geometric shape so I can see JJ spotting that. My problem was that they seemed to feel they consistently needed her to show Reid up. The thing with the hair that bugged me was that Reid has been the one to notice cut hair in the past. He would be looking for signs that the unsub took a trophy. They didn't even seem to mention the hair being taken as a trophy did they?
I guess the problem was I felt that they were only doing it to try to bump JJ up and show her as better. If Reid had just agreed with her it wouldn't have been as bothersome. Also, it wasn't the first time this season that Reid has been given a dumb line in comparison to JJ. He's not being shown to think as clearly as he used to. I really wish they knew how to write a character as being competent without diminishing other characters. It is a minor thing in a single episode, but it has been a theme over the season.
As Cendre said, Reid does more than analyze printed or cursive handwriting when he reads the letters. There are many things you can tell by a person's word choice and phrasing. This was one of Reid's areas of expertise.
I was confused about the letter thing anyway. Didn't the letters have quotes from 1001 Nights? Based on the letters they assumed they were written by a male admirer and jumped to the conclusion it was the busdriver. But then at the end the woman asks him if he's read 1001 Nights and he hasn't. Which suggests that maybe she wrote the letters herself... That is possibly something Reid would have noticed when reading the letters if they'd let him.
To the people who said Reid never shakes hands: Have you been watching the series? Until this season Reid ALWAYS shook hands when someone first extended a hand to him. He never declined a handshake once the person extended a hand. He used to stand back and wave BEFORE they could extend a hand-- but he was never rude enough to just outright reject a handshake.
Reid is not the only one to have a birthday on the show. Hotch was actually the first one to have his birthday on the show in "Machismo".
I will say that other than the confusing ending, I enjoyed this one more for the case and was very relieved that we didn't have the unsub shown up front. It was nice to have the mystery and I wasn't fed up with the unsub by the end. I actually found the guy somewhat sympathetic. The whole divining rod thing still made no sense though.
Despite the overexposure this season, I actually missed Morgan having a contribution in this episode. LOL. I know he was there bc he called Garcia "baby girl" but I can't remember anything more than that. I need to watch again. Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I watched and I might like it better on second viewing. I originally hated Machismo the first time I watched it but grew to like it.
I would love it if they kept the unsub hidden through most of the episodes but had very detailed profiling in which everyone gets to do their thing. Did Morgan get to talk about the obsession of the letter-writer? I don't remember.
This was a great episode! It seemed like this writer actually listened to what the fans want and tried to give it to us. The main star of this episode was, finally, THE TEAM, and NOT the unsub of the week. We got to see a bit more profiling into that criminal's mind instead of just staring at the crime-spree'ing unsub for half the show.
I didn't understand the napping parts, though, unless they were just to show us how taxing their jobs are?
I don't understand why the writers need time to "adjust and analyze" Reid's character. For goodness sakes, just watch the first 4 seasons - THAT's his character! He's...Reid. He's a thorough, socially awkward super-genius with a very sweet, caring, protective personality. He's had several potentially great arcs and many amazing abilities which the rotating-team-of-writers have chosen to ignore, but other than that MAJOR oversight, there's been nothing TO adjust or analyze. They've simply chosen to shove dumbed-down Reid to the side in obvious favor of someone/anyone else.
At least THIS episode managed to show his face some. We got to see the return of some of his quirks, which was great, and we got to see how a team very familiar with him deals with his talkativeness. I thought Hotch nudging Reid showed familiarity, not contempt. But I didn't like when he was badly interrupted as that DOES show contempt...and rudeness.
I agree that Reid should have been the one "SPEED READING" the many, many letters since SPEED READING is one of his at-least-former talents. I'm so glad he didn't sound as much like a fact-spewing robot this time around. I've missed seeing signs of his genius abilities and talents.
Now: writers, if you're reading this, PLEASE pay attention: We get it - JJ is AMAZING and SUPER-AGENT-PROFILER-MARY SUE-WONDER WOMAN-bla bla bla...but...give it a rest already. You've managed to quite successfully file down all her engaging, personable, polite, soft, feminine edges. Everything I liked about her character is now officially gone. Can we go back to our regularly-scheduled program now? I loved JJ's character before she got axed. Now she's becoming Hotch. *sigh*
But...were Rossi and Morgan even IN this episode?
Yes, writers, if you're still reading this, I want it all: I want huge amounts of time spent showing individual team members lives. I want huge amounts of time spent showing the team interacting with each other. I want huge amounts of time spent showing much more of Reid's genius abilities and quirks. He's why I started watching this wonderful show. I want huge amounts of time spent showing how the team profiles the unsub. I want minimal time spent showing the actual criminals and crimes, and I want to spend most of the episode not knowing (but being able to guess because I'm super-smart, lol) who the criminal mind actually is. And, while I'm fantasizing, I'd love it if every single week's episode was not only new, but 2 hours long, too, while we're at it!
I don't understand what's wrong with the scene where JJ notices the victim's hair. She noticed the uneven cut and pointed it out to Reid (who was analyzing something else in the room before JJ called him). Reid wasn't sure if it was the victim's own doing (a fashion statement like he said, which was not an unreasonable possibility) or something else. JJ just found the picture of the victim on the phone (that she was already holding when Reid got there) and it became clear that the new haircut was the Unsub's doing. What's wrong with that ? Sure, Reid noticed the victim's hair in "The Uncanny Valley" but that's because the hair was sewed, that's something else entirely (we're not just talking about a haircut here). And I don't think the writer thought that JJ showing up to Reid in any way. He just wrote her contributing to the case. Bear in mind that I'm not even a JJ fan.
About the shaking hands thing : Reid is clearly not bothered by physical contact if he's close to the person, if he's in his comfort zone and/or if he's in the right set of mind. JJ,Prentiss, Morgan and Hotch have all hugged him at least once, Rossi has kissed him on the cheeks "Italian style". He wasn't bothered by any of that. I'm not sure if it's something he can completely control, if he isn't in the right set of mind, isn't in his comfort zone and isn't familiar with the person, he'll prefer to avoid handshake at all cost. Sure, he still shook hands before with strangers (and will probably do it again in the near future), but during that episode, he couldn't force himself to do so with the officer. I don't see this as a conscious decision on his part.
Anyway, I don't think that scene warrants any kind of fuss.
Whoops, sorry I mixed the writers up. Thanks for catching that. I do think that this writer, Bruce Zimmerman, deserves credit for listening to what the viewers want and delivering an episode that conceals the unsub 'til almost the end and gave us profiling and more of the team. Agree with FanOfTheShow!! We can sit here and nitpick over who got to do what, but the important thing is that we all want to see more of the team and less of the unsub. Let these characters return to the way they were originally written. Writers, you may be on hiatus, but it would help if you'd take some time to review the early seasons so that you could understand the characters and the BAU better.
Cendre, it just bothered me at the time. I don't know if it would bother me on subsequent viewing. It just felt to me at the time I watched that they were deliberately doing it to show JJ as right and Reid as wrong to make her look better.
Someone else also mentioned that the coroner should have noticed the cut hair as it seems all of the victims had their hair cut and that it should have been noticed with previous victims. I'm guessing maybe the haircut was not as aggressive on the first few victims, but I don't know.
Fanoftheshow, I don't want to see them spend huge amounts of time showing us the team's personal lives. I don't mind a little glimpse, but I prefer to avoid the personal drama as much as possible. I detest soap operas and hate programs that dwell far too much on the personal lives and have people behaving unprofessionally.
One of the things that drew me to the show in the first place was that these characters were able to put their personal crap aside and just focus on the cases and we weren't getting a lot of their drama. When we did, it was often subtle and via nuanced performances. But the current writers seem to lack subtlety and want to hit us over the head with the "they're a family" theme.
On the handshake thing, I think the writers are just caving to Matthew's pushing to have Reid show he's a germaphobe who doesn't like to shake hands. I know some people have suggested that Reid is haphephobic, but there has been no evidence of that-- and there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
I do appreciate that in this episode we had a mystery and didn't see the unsub within the first five minutes. I think one of the reasons I actually felt something for the unsub was because he wasn't overexposed. He got just enough screentime. I swear, whenever they show the unsub within the first five minutes I have the urge to just turn the TV off right then and say "Well, no mystery there". Because often it involves the team playing catch up. I enjoy the mystery and enjoy waiting to find out along with the team. It's like going on a journey with them and its fun-- when they actually dot he profiling.
I guess maybe many of them don't know how to do the profiling though.
If the next episode doesn't have good profiling I think I will break something. If it is titled "Profiling 101" it better have good profiling. :P
I just watched this today and I am confused about something. Maybe I missed something or misunderstood a scene. The first serial killer was executed. However twice before that happened, he was attacked while in prison and he killed his attacker. How does that fit into the story? It doesn't make any sense to me.
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This was classic CM and I LOVED it!
ReplyDeleteI really, really enjoyed that episode.
ReplyDeleteThe case was suspenseful and kept me guessing. The whole plot was great.
I loved the Reid scenes and especially the Hotch/Reid ones. They didn't get a chance to interact much these last seasons, so I was really grateful.
Loved it! Old School Criminal Minds that kept you guessing right up until the end and that's all I'm going to say for now. Don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it. : )
ReplyDeletePretty darn good! Got confused some, but by the end I got it, whereas in episodes past it made like no sense the whole way. Caught the subtleties with Prentiss "the cases just pile up"...very sad about her imminent departure but excited for future guest appearances... And more suspenseful CM episodes like this was!
ReplyDeletePolkaDotSombrero
great episode not 1 so far this season has dissapointed me loving season 7
ReplyDeleteI really loved that episode. It had everything I love in a Criminal Minds episode and felt like "old school" Criminal Minds : a good case, suspense and good team interaction and contribution. I'm one happy camper right now.
ReplyDeleteDreis : ditto on the Hotch/Reid scenes, I loved it.
yes this was a classic Criminal Minds episode, loved every minute of it!
ReplyDeleteOK, allow me to review. We didn't know the unsub 30 seconds in. The team worked the profile, and in the end, worked as a team to find the unsub. We had Reid doing his facts and stats, and Hotch pulling him back once. Then we got a team scene on the jet. And in the end, Bruce Zimmerman throws us the curve ball with Helen. Bottom line in this CM fan's world: absolutely fantastic episode!! Can we have more like this. Please?
ReplyDeleteLoved it! As always the cast and crew pull off another brilliant piece. Oddly, my favorite part was Reid smoothing his shirt and tie, blatantly avoiding the handshake with that little trademark wave he does. Well played sir! Priceless. It's the personal dynamics and quirks I love the most and Seven has been a veritable smorgasbord of awesomeness on that level. All in all this season has been epic. Heartbroken about Paget taking her leave, but wish her the best in every endeavor. I hope we see her from time to time on CM!
ReplyDeleteFantastic!!! It was a return to the Criminal Minds I love and missed!!
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing Reid give his "facts and figures" and being excited to do it; I loved watching the team work together as a TEAM to solve the case; I loved NOT knowing who the UnSub was till later in the episode; I loved the interaction between Reid and Hotch; I loved the return of Reid's quirks (NOT wanting to shake hands); I loved seeing Garcia being flirty but businesslike at the same time; I loved Prentiss' nervousness about buying her house; and I loved the curveball with Helen at the end!
I guess I was less enthused about this one. While I did like the case part-- it was much stronger and better than most of the cases this season-- I still didn't really enjoy it. I don't know if it was the pace, the music, or what-- but something was just off. I can't put my finger on it. The Prentiss purchasing a house thing just seemed to come out of nowhere and didn't seem to really fit in naturally with the episode. I felt like it was just tacked on at the beginning and end.
ReplyDeleteI actually hated that Reid refused to shake the guy's hand. In the entire first six seasons Reid NEVER outright refused a handshake. He would do a preemptive wave instead-- but if someone extended a hand he shook it. The first time he ever actually refused an extended hand was in "True Genius". I've noticed that his diction isn't as good as it used to be. I don't think he enunciates his Ts as much and he says "gonna" instead of "going to". It's like he's literally been dumbed down.
I can't actually remember any Hotch/Reid scenes from this. I remember Hotch tapping Reid's arm to shut him up. I know he rambles, but why is everyone so rude to him? This time Prentiss cut him off rudely. I am someone who rambles a lot and my family members have just learned to tune me out rather than cut me off. Why can't they do that for him? They supposedly care about him. And why is it so inconsistent? One episode he realizes they aren't interested and stops and another he is oblivious and they cut him off. They act like they don't even like him.
Other than pretending he was at PeeWee's Playhouse and connecting the dots, I can't think of any single thing Reid did to contribute anything useful to the case at all. For that matter, I can't think of anything useful from Morgan, which is surprising given how this has been the season of Morgan.
I found it insulting that they are so eager to show off "new and improved JJ" that she had to show Reid up TWICE. Its not the first episode where they've done it either. I wouldn't mind if they didn't dumb Reid down to make it work though. I can overlook the thing of JJ getting that the shape was a heart because Reid might have been looking for something more logical (although I wonder how the unsub conveniently found 3 blonde women in just the right locations). I was very bothered by the fact that they had Reid standing back like a useless lump while JJ examined the body-- something Reid usually does. And not only does she notice the hair and point it out, but they have Reid stupidly say it might be an intentional trend thing. Reid noticed the hair in "Uncanny Valley"-- he would be able to tell that the hair was freshly cut. The logical thing for him to have done was to recognize that the hair had been freshly cut and agree with JJ. But nooo, they have to make him be too stupid compared to SuperJJ... *sigh*
It cut me off bc my post was too long so I'm continuing.
ReplyDeleteWhy were Rossi and Prentiss reading the letters instead of Reid? That sort of thing is Reid's area of expertise-- and he can read faster than anyone. Guess he was too busy napping or something.
I really miss the Reid of the first 4 seasons. He was intelligent, spoke a bit more slowly, had more to contribute than random useless crap from the wikipedia, and wasn't rude to people by refusing to shake their hands.
I actually liked the unsub at the end of this one but I still felt they didn't gather enough information. Hotch just suddenly assumes its the prison transit guy with no other information. That was too much of a leap. Even though we didn't see the unsub's face, the killing scenes still lasted too long and showed too much. There was almost nothing in terms of the victimology. I don't remember the victim's names.
The firing squad thing at the beginning seemed weird. I didn't think they did that. I'm surprised they didn't have a blurb of Reid explaining that Oklahoma is the only state that does that to make it clear to the viewers.
Over all I give the case a high score but team interactions a low score. Something was just off.
I felt like Reid napping on the bench and Garcia being asleep at the office were not necessary and added nothing.
I hope the next one is better.
I will say that this wasn't the absolute low for me. It is still far superior to all episodes written by Janine Barrois and Kim Harrison. It is also better than most of what Erica Messer has churned out.
i'm with you all the way, zannej!! what the hell is going on with the show?
ReplyDeletethe thing with hotch touching reid on the arm to shut him up? not cool. not funny. not appropriate. why does reid have to be quiet when everyone else is allowed to talk? shhh, the adults are having a conversation?? when did reid become the black sheep of the bau team?
the bau team has become diana ross and the supremes, with jj as diana ross. i am officially at the point where i want aj to leave instead of paget.
the new jj is rude, bitchy, and condescending. after years of being the media liaison and case selector, she's suddenly so-omg-amazing at profiling that the team can't do anything without her there to supervise.
reid needs her help to draw a heart on a map? really? he's got three doctorates, 3 undergraduate degrees, and can read 20,000 words per minute. how many unsubs patterns has reid charted up on the maps over the years? and now he can't draw a heart on a map without someone's help?
if the new writers and producers don't have any idea what to do with reid, if they are too stupid or too lazy or don't have enough intelligence between them to make him sound like the well-educated profiler that he is, then they need to hire someone who can actually write the character correctly.
why in the world would matthew want to stay on this show when all they've done is dumb-down and side-line reid to the point that jj is basically doing his job for him and treating him like a idiot child who can't even dress himself.
hotch needs to stop shooting people. if an agent in real life had shot this many people week after week, he would have lost his job and likely been assigned to anger management classes.
one last humorous point: why is prentiss buying a townhouse in dupont circle? it's a great area near the embassies, and it has beautiful, expensive houses, yes, but it is most-widely known here in dc as a predominantly gay neighborhood. are the writers trying to tell us something about emily?? or did they just not do their research?
Okay first of all I agree that Reid has been dumbed down but the writers are just trying to get a feel for a complicated layered character that they can't just figure out in one season. Of course Reid didn't see the heart, his brain doesn't work that way he would think of a more logical explanation like the arrow that he saw. JJ isn't nearly as analytical as Reid so she would see the heart because she thinks differently than Reid. As for the letters I do agree that the writer's should have had Reid analyze them because he's super fast but Reid analyzes hand-writing not computer written letters! You can't tell anything about what a person was thinking or feeling when looking at the lettering of a computer written letter so all Prentiss and Rossi were doing was souly analyzing the content which they are perfectly capable of doing! Why are you people acting as if Reid is the end all be all profiler? The rest of them are just as good of profiler's as him aside from JJ who just started and is not as experienced but even she has a natural talent for it as pointed out by Hotch in North Mammon. Reid can miss things because he thinks mostly with the left more mathematical part of his brain and he focuses on details where as JJ focuses on what's right in front of her. I don't get why everyone is so surprised that JJ is a great profiler. It has always been apart of her job in picking cases and she's been with the team for seven years so she's picked up on a lot. Reid should have just agreed with JJ about the hair but it's also his character's thought process to make sure that JJ was correct and think on every possibility. The team has always shushed and interrupted Reid when he went on a spiel. It's like in 3x10 when he was ranting about the writer of pinochio's obsession with the human nose and JJ just interrupted him and asked if he wanted a coffee. Reid gets's so interested and invested in his facts that he could go on for at least 20 mins and when they're trying to figure out who murdered all those women they're under a severe time limit and you can't just expect them to listen to his whole mantra when they're working the case. He is socially awkward and doesn't express and communicate like the rest of the team so he doesn't outright shakehands it probably makes him nervous but he still waved and said hi to the guy he just has a different way of doing it. Of course the team loves him or they wouldn't have thrown him a surprise b-day party admittedly a little late but still. He's the only one on the team who's birthday has even come up and twice for that matter. He's always been babies because his quirks are cute and they like to play around with him and tease him. They are barely ever professional with each other so I don't know what this 'oh it's not professional to hold him back from speaking' tyrant is because the reason their so special is because they act as a family and he just so happens to hold the spot of little brother. Of course JJ has changed since leaving she's been in the pentagon and has probably seen some horrible shit do she's gonna come out more jaded and tough. Plus they can't just put her back in her old position after they functioned just fine without it for a year. It would make her even more under appreciated than she already was. They are probably just trying to show that she's good at profiling so she doesn't get over looked again like she was in the first five seasons . She only ever had a big pat in two arcs and both of them were mainly Reid centered even though in one of them she was having Henry so the writers are probably just accommodating for that and her leave last year. I do hope that Reid does get more screen time after all the hectic changes in the past two years die down. I think that next year his character will be more Reid-like because the writers will have had time to adjust and analyze all of his many complicated layers
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what Zannej and anonymous wrote.
ReplyDeleteIt is enough with newSuper Mary-Sue JJ. Why do they have to dumb down some of the other characters to show how awesome JJ is? Why do the other characters always have to praise JJ? "JJ`s genius has struck again" LMAO.
For me this ranks as one of the better episodes this season. Not the best, but better than most. I think that Breen listened to our comments and gave us an episode that didn't show us the unsub right away and also wasn't solely focused on the unsub. As far as the complaints about Reid, my take is that Breen may have allowed other characters to handle some of those tasks to mix things up. It doesn't always have to be Reid doing the reading, Morgan breaking down the door, JJ dealing with the families, etc. I concede that the current writers don't do justice to the Reid character that was established early on. I don't know why it's so hard for them to get the feel of the character, and I don't know why MGG wouldn't at least discuss this with Erica or all of the writers. I'm just saying that overall I enjoyed this episode. I'm not with the others here who think the whole season has been fantastic. Far from it! And I am quite apprehensive about the finale and where they'll go next season. I think the majority of the current writers don't understand the characters or the BAU nor do they understand what the viewers want to see. But Breen deserves kudos for at least trying to get it right this week. There was a good balance of screen time for the team and good profiling.
ReplyDeleteat jonishackley
ReplyDeleteJust a correction, this episode was written by Bruce Zimmerman and not Breen Frazier who wrote the one before last night 'the Company'.
I don't understand why everyone feels that Reid is the supreme profiler and that he has to do everyone's job. When Hotch used to tell Reid to help JJ with her press conferences it was no big deal. When Rrid solves and contributes a lot in obsessional cases which are Morgans thing, it's the best episode in the season. But Prentiss and Rossi read some computer written letters and JJ figures out two things and gets a compliment from her best friend, it's the biggest problem in the world. Reid has got two story arcs a bunch of episodes centered around him and five seasons where pretty much every episode had him finding a key part in the case. Now after getting one season where JJ gets to show off how awesome her character is when she's been neglected for six seasons... Everyone's pissed... I love Reid and he is an awesome character but the writers are probably just trying to compensate for all of her missed time.
ReplyDeleteI did like this episode a lot, one of the best of this season. I agree with most of what anonymous wrote ( the one before zen). Reid never shake anyone hands. Also, the team have always curt his rambling so why is this getting on people's nerves now? Also I had no problem with Prentiss and Rossi analyzing the letters, they ARE profilers and they can do any part of a profiler's job. As for JJ, I have no problem with her as a profiler, Hotch thought in North Mammon that JJ was good enough to try out the courses to be a profiler, so no big leap here. She was also the one who
ReplyDeleteconnected the dots in In Birth and Death and while she was not a profiler, no one took offense that she did break the case while Morgan and Reid didn't. And really JJ is not super JJ, she makes stupid mistakes too, after all she is the one who did let an untrained technical analylst go into a dangerous, deranged and armed man who was threatning to killed his hostage, said Techy was NOT a hostage negotiator and should never been aloud anywhere near the scene, yet JJ agreed to let Garcia talk to the guy! Yeah supper JJ wasn't that super on that one!
Anonymous wrote 'hotch needs to stop shooting people. if an agent in real life had shot this many people week after week, he would have lost his job and likely been assigned to anger management classes' What was Hotch suppose to do? I disagree, Hotch shooting was good, he didn't shot the guy in anger or anything, he did his job. Only time Hotch ever showed any anger was when he did kill Foyet, although his reason for killing Foyet was good I am not convince it wasn't out of anger and revenge.
To go back at last night episode, this was a good episode. We didn't seen the unsub 12 seconds after the start of the episode, the team did work the case, did the profiling. The writer avoided to have the unsub show and tell us all about himself. Unlike what Erica Messer might think, the show was ALWAYS about how the team catch serial killers and never about the killers and how they do things. CM is not Dexter and I hope it never will.
I love that we had some mystery, I had to keep guessing who killed and why. Love all the team work. It wasn't just Reid who did crack the case but JJ and Hotch too, it was a team effort.
So, despite this not being the best episode of the season, the title goes to 'Foundation', it was a much better effort by Zimmerman who had previously given us 'Snake eyes'.
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ReplyDeleteI guess I missed the memo that stated that Spencer Reid must always be the one to solve the case and must always be the one to unravel the patterns or figure out the unsub's signature. Nobody is being mean or rude to Reid. He would be incredibly annoying to work with on a daily basis and those moments are meant to be light and give the audience something to smile about in an otherwise grim and creepy episode. Reid fans need to lighten up and quit taking everything so personally. He's a great character and his quirks are adorable and it's amusing to watch the members of the team get frustrated with him.
ReplyDeleteGreat episode! Can we please have 22 to 24 more just like this one next season?! Please!!!!!
I might be a Reid fan but I didn't have a single problem with that episode, I loved it.
ReplyDeleteThe JJ scenes didn't bother me.
I don't mind if once in a while Reid doesn't figure out something, it actually happens regularly and that's nothing new. And truth be told, during the first two seasons Gideon was given the lion's share of the discoveries anyway (at least if felt that way).
And I loved the scene where Hotch playfully swatted Reid on the arm.
It's clear that he wasn't angry or even annoyed in that scene, he wasn't thinking something like "By God, when is he finally going to shut up ? Just make him stop !".
Hotch didn't slap Reid in the back of the head, that gesture would have spoken of condescension and belittlement, but that's absolutely not what happened.
Hotch was being a little playful with that swat, which was so nice to see.
As someone who's got a tendency to ramble a lot, I know it's not exactly fun to be cut off, but the team wasn't mean spirited.
I also loved that scene because it showed that Hotch and Reid are really at ease with each other.
Some fans often talked about Hotch and how he wasn't close to Reid, they often thought Hotch was closer to his other teammates,....
That scene proves that Hotch and Reid are perfectly at ease with each other, because you just don't do something like that to someone you don't consider your friend or to someone who isn't close to you.
That scene subtly showed their friendship and connection, which is more than welcome in my book.
About the scene with the letter I sort of understand Zannej's point, but I don't agree.
It's true that Reid is usually the one who analyses letters (whether typed or written by hand by the way). We saw that countless times, but if for once someone else is going to do it, I won't have a problem.
I wasn't bothered by that scene during the episode.
And really, it's not like Prentiss, JJ or Rossi did the kind of analyses Reid do when he dissects letters and goes into 'genius mode'. The kind of analyses they did is something they are all capable of doing since they're profilers, it didn't bother me.
It's true that it has been a long time since Reid had to do a full linguistic profile and had to find clues hidden in a letter/book (handwriting, lexicography, patterns, semantics, punctuation,...). Maybe the writers can include that kind of scene for Reid in a future episode ?
Once again, loved that episode !
I didn't have a problem too much with JJ having recognized the heart. I don't think that Reid is unable to think outside of the box, but the heart wasn't a regular geometric shape so I can see JJ spotting that. My problem was that they seemed to feel they consistently needed her to show Reid up. The thing with the hair that bugged me was that Reid has been the one to notice cut hair in the past. He would be looking for signs that the unsub took a trophy. They didn't even seem to mention the hair being taken as a trophy did they?
ReplyDeleteI guess the problem was I felt that they were only doing it to try to bump JJ up and show her as better. If Reid had just agreed with her it wouldn't have been as bothersome. Also, it wasn't the first time this season that Reid has been given a dumb line in comparison to JJ. He's not being shown to think as clearly as he used to. I really wish they knew how to write a character as being competent without diminishing other characters. It is a minor thing in a single episode, but it has been a theme over the season.
As Cendre said, Reid does more than analyze printed or cursive handwriting when he reads the letters. There are many things you can tell by a person's word choice and phrasing. This was one of Reid's areas of expertise.
I was confused about the letter thing anyway. Didn't the letters have quotes from 1001 Nights? Based on the letters they assumed they were written by a male admirer and jumped to the conclusion it was the busdriver. But then at the end the woman asks him if he's read 1001 Nights and he hasn't. Which suggests that maybe she wrote the letters herself... That is possibly something Reid would have noticed when reading the letters if they'd let him.
To the people who said Reid never shakes hands: Have you been watching the series? Until this season Reid ALWAYS shook hands when someone first extended a hand to him. He never declined a handshake once the person extended a hand. He used to stand back and wave BEFORE they could extend a hand-- but he was never rude enough to just outright reject a handshake.
Reid is not the only one to have a birthday on the show. Hotch was actually the first one to have his birthday on the show in "Machismo".
I will say that other than the confusing ending, I enjoyed this one more for the case and was very relieved that we didn't have the unsub shown up front. It was nice to have the mystery and I wasn't fed up with the unsub by the end. I actually found the guy somewhat sympathetic. The whole divining rod thing still made no sense though.
Despite the overexposure this season, I actually missed Morgan having a contribution in this episode. LOL. I know he was there bc he called Garcia "baby girl" but I can't remember anything more than that. I need to watch again. Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I watched and I might like it better on second viewing. I originally hated Machismo the first time I watched it but grew to like it.
I would love it if they kept the unsub hidden through most of the episodes but had very detailed profiling in which everyone gets to do their thing. Did Morgan get to talk about the obsession of the letter-writer? I don't remember.
I wish I had a DVR...
Oh thank goodness someone else noticed how she asked if he had read the book that he quoted in his letters. Someone could have fixed that confusion.
DeleteThis was a great episode! It seemed like this writer actually listened to what the fans want and tried to give it to us. The main star of this episode was, finally, THE TEAM, and NOT the unsub of the week. We got to see a bit more profiling into that criminal's mind instead of just staring at the crime-spree'ing unsub for half the show.
ReplyDeleteI didn't understand the napping parts, though, unless they were just to show us how taxing their jobs are?
I don't understand why the writers need time to "adjust and analyze" Reid's character. For goodness sakes, just watch the first 4 seasons - THAT's his character! He's...Reid. He's a thorough, socially awkward super-genius with a very sweet, caring, protective personality. He's had several potentially great arcs and many amazing abilities which the rotating-team-of-writers have chosen to ignore, but other than that MAJOR oversight, there's been nothing TO adjust or analyze. They've simply chosen to shove dumbed-down Reid to the side in obvious favor of someone/anyone else.
At least THIS episode managed to show his face some. We got to see the return of some of his quirks, which was great, and we got to see how a team very familiar with him deals with his talkativeness. I thought Hotch nudging Reid showed familiarity, not contempt. But I didn't like when he was badly interrupted as that DOES show contempt...and rudeness.
I agree that Reid should have been the one "SPEED READING" the many, many letters since SPEED READING is one of his at-least-former talents. I'm so glad he didn't sound as much like a fact-spewing robot this time around. I've missed seeing signs of his genius abilities and talents.
Now: writers, if you're reading this, PLEASE pay attention: We get it - JJ is AMAZING and SUPER-AGENT-PROFILER-MARY SUE-WONDER WOMAN-bla bla bla...but...give it a rest already. You've managed to quite successfully file down all her engaging, personable, polite, soft, feminine edges. Everything I liked about her character is now officially gone. Can we go back to our regularly-scheduled program now? I loved JJ's character before she got axed. Now she's becoming Hotch. *sigh*
But...were Rossi and Morgan even IN this episode?
Yes, writers, if you're still reading this, I want it all:
I want huge amounts of time spent showing individual team members lives.
I want huge amounts of time spent showing the team interacting with each other.
I want huge amounts of time spent showing much more of Reid's genius abilities and quirks. He's why I started watching this wonderful show.
I want huge amounts of time spent showing how the team profiles the unsub.
I want minimal time spent showing the actual criminals and crimes, and I want to spend most of the episode not knowing (but being able to guess because I'm super-smart, lol) who the criminal mind actually is.
And, while I'm fantasizing, I'd love it if every single week's episode was not only new, but 2 hours long, too, while we're at it!
Great job on this episode!
To Zannej :
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what's wrong with the scene where JJ notices the victim's hair. She noticed the uneven cut and pointed it out to Reid (who was analyzing something else in the room before JJ called him). Reid wasn't sure if it was the victim's own doing (a fashion statement like he said, which was not an unreasonable possibility) or something else.
JJ just found the picture of the victim on the phone (that she was already holding when Reid got there) and it became clear that the new haircut was the Unsub's doing.
What's wrong with that ? Sure, Reid noticed the victim's hair in "The Uncanny Valley" but that's because the hair was sewed, that's something else entirely (we're not just talking about a haircut here).
And I don't think the writer thought that JJ showing up to Reid in any way. He just wrote her contributing to the case.
Bear in mind that I'm not even a JJ fan.
About the shaking hands thing :
Reid is clearly not bothered by physical contact if he's close to the person, if he's in his comfort zone and/or if he's in the right set of mind. JJ,Prentiss, Morgan and Hotch have all hugged him at least once, Rossi has kissed him on the cheeks "Italian style". He wasn't bothered by any of that.
I'm not sure if it's something he can completely control, if he isn't in the right set of mind, isn't in his comfort zone and isn't familiar with the person, he'll prefer to avoid handshake at all cost. Sure, he still shook hands before with strangers (and will probably do it again in the near future), but during that episode, he couldn't force himself to do so with the officer. I don't see this as a conscious decision on his part.
Anyway, I don't think that scene warrants any kind of fuss.
Whoops, sorry I mixed the writers up. Thanks for catching that. I do think that this writer, Bruce Zimmerman, deserves credit for listening to what the viewers want and delivering an episode that conceals the unsub 'til almost the end and gave us profiling and more of the team. Agree with FanOfTheShow!! We can sit here and nitpick over who got to do what, but the important thing is that we all want to see more of the team and less of the unsub. Let these characters return to the way they were originally written. Writers, you may be on hiatus, but it would help if you'd take some time to review the early seasons so that you could understand the characters and the BAU better.
ReplyDeleteCendre, it just bothered me at the time. I don't know if it would bother me on subsequent viewing. It just felt to me at the time I watched that they were deliberately doing it to show JJ as right and Reid as wrong to make her look better.
ReplyDeleteSomeone else also mentioned that the coroner should have noticed the cut hair as it seems all of the victims had their hair cut and that it should have been noticed with previous victims. I'm guessing maybe the haircut was not as aggressive on the first few victims, but I don't know.
Fanoftheshow, I don't want to see them spend huge amounts of time showing us the team's personal lives. I don't mind a little glimpse, but I prefer to avoid the personal drama as much as possible. I detest soap operas and hate programs that dwell far too much on the personal lives and have people behaving unprofessionally.
One of the things that drew me to the show in the first place was that these characters were able to put their personal crap aside and just focus on the cases and we weren't getting a lot of their drama. When we did, it was often subtle and via nuanced performances. But the current writers seem to lack subtlety and want to hit us over the head with the "they're a family" theme.
On the handshake thing, I think the writers are just caving to Matthew's pushing to have Reid show he's a germaphobe who doesn't like to shake hands. I know some people have suggested that Reid is haphephobic, but there has been no evidence of that-- and there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
I do appreciate that in this episode we had a mystery and didn't see the unsub within the first five minutes. I think one of the reasons I actually felt something for the unsub was because he wasn't overexposed. He got just enough screentime. I swear, whenever they show the unsub within the first five minutes I have the urge to just turn the TV off right then and say "Well, no mystery there". Because often it involves the team playing catch up. I enjoy the mystery and enjoy waiting to find out along with the team. It's like going on a journey with them and its fun-- when they actually dot he profiling.
I guess maybe many of them don't know how to do the profiling though.
If the next episode doesn't have good profiling I think I will break something. If it is titled "Profiling 101" it better have good profiling. :P
I just watched this today and I am confused about something. Maybe I missed something or misunderstood a scene. The first serial killer was executed. However twice before that happened, he was attacked while in prison and he killed his attacker. How does that fit into the story? It doesn't make any sense to me.
ReplyDelete