| O 813. MAGNUM OPUS O |
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Written by: | O Jason Bernero O |
| Directed by: | O Glenn Kershaw O |
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| Original Air Date: | O January 23, 2013 O |
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| O While Reid copes with a loss in his personal life, the rest of the BAU travels to San Francisco to investigate victims discovered in the Mission District. O |
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| O 814. ALL THAT REMAINS O |
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Written by: | O Erica Messer O |
| Directed by: | O Thomas Gibson O |
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| Original Air Date: | O February 6, 2013 O |
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| O When the daughters of Bruce Morrison, a writer whose wife mysteriously vanished a year ago, go missing on the anniversary of their mother’s disappearance, the BAU is brought in to study Morrison as a possible suspect. O |
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- What worked? Why?
- What didn't? Why?
- What could have been better? Why?
- What was nearing perfection? Why?
Magnum Opus was an alright episode. It had a decent case and the team came across more like a family in this episode than they do in the cheesey, let's clink wine glasses moments.
ReplyDeleteMy personal nitpick, is my own preference and I don't want to get Reid's fans knickers in a twist, but for me emotional angst Reid is annoying. I know he's grieving and that it's great continuity that wasn't just dropped after Maeves death, and yes everyone grieves differently. But whenever Reid is upset/emotional, he reminds me of a whiny toddler. I know that people love Reid and I get it, he's vulnerable and cute and you just want to take care of him, but I prefer Reid bitchy or funny, to emotional Reid.
But saying that, he was grieving, it followed nicely from losing Maeve and I don't have to watch it again, if I don't want to.
All That Remains is one of my favourite episodes since season 5. I know more people would chose Zuzwang or Hit and Run or Lauren etc, but IMO All That Remains was great. Yes there were some minor plot holes, but personally, it felt like an old school CM episode that would have fit in nicely back in seasons 1-5. I loved the whole feel of it and I loved the supporting cast. I forgot this one was directed by Thomas Gibson as well. I liked his approach, with the constant rain and the ominous moments.
It had lots of Hotch which I loved, he was completely in charge, and I love boss mode Hotch rather than in a teenage romance with Beth, Hotch. His sparring with the unsub was great and while the multiple personalities thing has been done before I thought the actor playing the unsub did well and I liked the damaged family plot.
I loved JJ in this episode too. I thought this episode showed profiler JJ, the way I thought profiler JJ was going to be. She was caring and involved and yet she could handle her own against Morrison in the interrogation room as well as keeping calm during his daughter holding a gun to her head. If they had her talking about the media as well it would have been a home run, for the character for me.
Now while I don't think the episode was Seven Seconds standard, I do think it was excellent for a post season 5 episode.
I thought Magnum Opus was a decent episode and a good effort at showing some continuity after Zugswang. I don't agree about Reid being like a whiny kid - I thought MGG did a great job at showing Reid trying to come to terms with the appalling outcome of the previous episode. I thought it was absolutely right that he needed time alone to process things. It was great that Morgan was the one who realised the best way to start drawing him out again. And for once, Garcia was very good in this and not miles over the top as she seems to be too often lately. I did think that Hotch would have been more hands on supportive of Reid, given what he knows about him.
ReplyDeleteOther pluses were Reid's apartment which was spot on - so well done set designers. And there were some nice scenes with Rossi and Blake - Rossi is a legend! All in all, a pretty good episode with some great family atmosphere that actually felt authentic - unlike others I could mention (the wedding!!!). I will definitely be watching this one again.
All that Remains is a different matter. Not one of my favourites. I felt there was this pressure before it aired that we should all think it was amazing because Thomas Gibson directed it. In fact I found the excessive and often overly fast camera panning and odd angles quite distracting. Ken Olin was a great guest actor as the father. The local detective was waaaay over the top. Hotch was much better in this - back on form as the strong team leader. If anyone from CM production is reading this can we see Hotch like this more often and please lose his awful teen romance that no-one over the age of 14 can buy into!
JJ was better in this episode than in the whole of the last two seasons and much more like her original self. If she was like this more as a profiler I would warm to her more - not a snark or a super-ninja kick in sight here, just a great team player showing care and sympathy.
On the down side, once the alter personality was revealed it was obvious that the father was a red herring and when Sarah turned up it was equally obvious to everyone that she was the unsub.
I was left with a profound sorrow for the father who had to deal with a split personality and alcoholism and had lost his entire family so the dark rainy ending was appropriate. An alright episode but not a favourite.
/
After reading the previous 2 comments, I find myself with little new to add as I agree with nearly everything from one or the other!
ReplyDeleteMagnum Opus
- Great continuity showing Reid's grieving process, even if I too prefer snarky-Reid.
- Good case-of-the-week, and better development of the profile, with the whole team pitching in.
- Good understanding of the team dynamics, but specially of the "family" ties inside the team: Morgan figuring out how to bring out Reid from the worst of his grief, JJ and Penelope helping and showing their deep care for him, and Hotch giving quiet advice but unable to be overly emotional (let's remember that Hotch feels deeply, but shows very, very little if he can help it!).
- BAD unsub. Or better said, bad choice of actor to play the unsub. In an episode where the team is on the great side, and the rest of the guest cast was, as per usual, so good, he stands like a sore thumb. A total miscast, IMO; thankfully is more notable only because saying is unusual for Criminal Minds, is the understatement of the year.
All That Remains
- For me too, one of my favorites of the series hands down.
- No gore: several flashbacks of what happened that worked way better than a single drop of blood would have.
- No great action scenes: this is the show of "brains over brawl"; action scenes are fun to watch, and sometimes fit like a glove, but abusing them? No, thanks!
- Great atmosphere. The subtle acting of TG transformed to subtle direction; details galore, nothing on your face. Makes me feel like a observer in the house first, and later in the precinct, with the camera moving in the directions I would move my head to miss nothing.
- Mystery.
- A great twist in the last act: we've so hardcore fans, that by now is normal for us to figure things beforehand, but I started suspecting Sera at the same time that JJ did, after they entered the house.
- Everybody on the team pitching in, but everybody playing to their strengths from where they belong in the hierarchy: Hotch being BOSS, & this JJ, are the highlights for me.
- Great, lengthy interrogation: FINALLY they got back to that!
- Semi-contrary LEO: again, FINALLY one of those!
- Heartbreaking last scene: poor, poor father, and Hotch feeling sorrowful for him.
Well this time, I can truthfully say I liked both ep's, and what Reid was going through was not at all unusual. Grief often can render people non-functional, and I loved the support the team displayed toward their colleage; Garcia's plants, nuts and seeds, and back to the compassionate caring person we so loved in the past, Morgan's subtle urging him out while at the same time helping Pen with her angst, the looks from Rossi and Blake when he did show back, JJ's support, and while Hotch is not demonstrative, there was enough to show that he did care a lot. The ending was very touching, and the family thing came off without the cheese. This was one time where the secondary story came off better then the unsub downing.
ReplyDeleteAs for All That Remains, I really liked Hotch's strong show in this ep. The Hotch of old, and what a difference that makes. An immediate comfort at seeing him so in control. There were a few vague spots, and it was quite easy to guess who was the guilty party in the end, but the "constant sorrow" ending was most appropriate. (and it's raining, raining in my heart, as the song goes) Some people just get life's burden's piled high.
To me, the magnum opus was a great episode. I'd like to see a little more depth of the artist's mind, though... Because the idea was really amazing, I just wish there was more love for art, after the obsession, at least.
ReplyDeleteAlso, not only in this episode, but through the whole rest of the season I was really dissapointed by the lack of portrayal regarding Reid's perspective. I thought Maeve' death had been something by which we'd be able to get to know more about him, his conflict, and grave.
I also felt like the ending episode could've been different as to the way the stalker planned the ending and behaved... I wish there was a "stronger" motive behind what he did, and a message to be comunicated.
But I still love It, can't live without it, counting the minutes to next season!
8x13 divided me.
ReplyDeleteI thought the over all episode was good. There was an interesting case and the was plenty of the team. There was also great follow up and continuity.
But while it was great follow up, a part of me felt like I just wanted the Maeve/Reid arc to be over with already.
Don't getme wrong, I thought it felt well that Reid was grieving and it was great to see that the wroters hadn't glossed it over. I wouldn't probably change the fact that this episode existed, I think it was necessary to see that Reod was struggling and that the writers hadn't just moved on.
But then, there's the cynical side of me, who doesn't really love Reid and who was over the Maeve/Reid relationship by her third appearance and who didn't want to see Maeve die causing Reid pain that the writers obviously wanted to cause earlier on rather than creating a different story for him.
I did love Maeve, I thought she fit better with the show and had better chemistry with Reid than Beth has with Hotch or JJ has with Will. But I didn't like where the arc ended up. I thought it was great that they tied Maeve to Reid through his headache story line and I didn't begrudge the weirdness of them never meeting but him being in love, but I didn't like the stalker story line or her being killed when the team had been in loads of similar situations and saved the day. I also didn't like how the writers/MGG wanted it to end tragically and just created a character like Maeve to kill her off and which for me gave her actual death little impact as it was obvious by the time Zuzwang came around that it wasn't going to end well.
That being said, I thought 813 showed great follow up, but there was so many other arcs/episodes/stories that I want to see having some follow up other than Maeve/Reid. I did think it was right that they had the follow up, I just didn't care so much at this point.
814 was awesome. Great episode, that was true Criminal Minds. Yes some of it was obvious and yes some of it had some faults, but overall, it was one of my favs. I loved Hotch in the episode, while it was penned as having some JJ focus, I thought it was more Hotch centric. I did love JJ in 814 though. I thought it showed a good mesh of old JJ and New JJ, I liked the mention of her sister and how she got involved in the case, I thought that reminisced back to JJ, pre-profiler. I liked her interrogation scene and Hotchs interrogation scenes, and I liked the balance of the team being involved. I do prefer these kinds of episodes where there is no big fight scenes or explosions just mind games and profiling, I didn't even mind the extent of showing the family, because it felt more like they were showcasing victims rather than seeing the inner workings of the unsubs killings, if that makes sense.
I hope we get more episodes like 814 in season9.