Hope you've enjoyed today's episode, and remember that next week we'll have a brand new one!
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1105. The Night Watch - Comments Thread
Hope you've enjoyed today's episode, and remember that next week we'll have a brand new one!
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I don't know where to begin but this episode was CLASSIC...
ReplyDeleteTeam profiled the whole way...
Team was in Character the whole way.
Guest cast was excellent.
Unsub not known until 40/45 minutes into episode...
Surprise Ending....
Hotch smiled.
And we learned Tara Lewis is one helluva strong woman..
Loved her line.. "I went on a diet and lost 185 pounds."
Over all.. 10 out of 10 and A++
Bonus... We got ANOTHER Hotch smile!
It was exciting, suspenseful, late unsub reveal, plenty of profiling, beautifully written, nicely directed and there was enough Thomas Gibson to keep me happy. I consider this the best episode of the season to date.
ReplyDeleteMy only complaint is there is too much focus on this new recurring character.
agree
DeleteOh and as a bonus that baby was absolutely adorable.
ReplyDeleteNow that is the way a CM episode should be. A ton of profiling. The team lead us to the Unsub. All the characters are involved. The Unsub not revealed until the very end. I like the insight into Lewis. All around good episode that kept my attention from start to finish. This week I didn't end up staring at the ceiling wondering why, why, why.
ReplyDeleteOne minor complaint. The team took over the case. They set up shop at the police station and let the lead investigator provide information, but not once in two potentially dangerous situations did they take the cops with them as backup. It was their bust and their bust alone. Apparently the cops were only good for running the tip lines.
From what I Understand when HRT is called in on abduction (which this turned out to be while they were enroute) the BAU takes over... Just like Seven Seconds... That there were no other cops... Ok, I agree with what you're saying.. but it didn't detract from the episode for me.. because everything else was so stellar.
DeleteIt didn't distract me from the episode either. It was just something I noticed. It was still a good quality episode and that's what I want every week. So far it is the only episode that I would have no problem watching again to catch all the small details I missed the first time round.
DeleteWow CM should be like this every week! We had profiling, the story of the unsub was told by the team and their profile. Garcia was how she should always be, fed information by the team work in order to come up with a pool of suspects or get a suspect name. All the team had something to do and not one was left behind and where the viewers are left asking 'where is character X?'
ReplyDeleteLoved the story! We had a few possible suspects so we were left guessing who who the unsub was. There was lots of suspnse especially with that poor baby. Thomas Gibson directing played well on our fear for the baby. The way the camera was on her then on that coffin, gave me the chills!
Finally this episode had lots of Hotch. Hotch as the team leader, Hotch in the field, Hotch doing lots of profiling. And yes love the smile at the end :)
I am loving this new character of Dr. Lewis. When I read she would have problem on the home front I thought ' oh not not a repeat of Hotch and Haley or JJ and Will' but nope, yes Doug left because he didn't like to come second in her life after her work BUT she told him 'goodbye!' and didn't look back, as she said when she was interviewing the inmate 'I was thinking about me', Was nice to see her stand for herself and not compromise. Aisha Tyler is perfect in this role, I dearly hope she will stay for the whole season.
The ending was a big surprised. At first I thought Helen would talk down her hubby then Hotch showed up and he decided to do what he already planned killed her. I don't know if he ever planned on dying to but that was not an ending anticipated.
This episode was just pure CM, very classic CM. Writer Bruce Zimmerman wrote a great script, the cast did a great job, particularly, Tyley, Gibson and Mantegna who seesm very inspired tonight. Thomas Gibson's directing was as usual excellent!
My rating for this episode is a 9.5/10 ! Bravo CM!
Agreed that this is a definite 10/10 A++ episode of the incomparable Criminal Minds! I love how much more cerebral Bruce Zimmerman's writing has become. This episode was delivered with confidence (who can blame them, with Thomas Gibson directing) and in a classic way which reminds me of the early episodes; it is something on which I can't put my finger, but this episode was awesomely team heavy, Hotch in charge, Reid being a genius and his intellect propelling the investigation rather than being comic fodder, (which has been refreshingly rare lately) the unsub being a mystery for most of the episode, (HUGE bonus) and Garcia not answering everything with the computer but having her search parameters fed to her by the team, gradually.
ReplyDeleteThe B story of Tara Lewis' breakup with her fianceé was well written, so as not to overdramatize the episode or take away from the crime story... at all! Bruce is becoming increasingly good at this; best example would be "A Place at the Table" and another would be "If the Shoe Fits". He is good at telling a nice personal B story without taking away from the nucleus of the episode. Either way, Thomas Gibson is good at telling awesome stories on film, and he and Bruce Zimmerman gave us the perfect storm for this week's masterpiece, "The Night Watch"!
Next week's episode looks pretty interesting. Félix Alcalá, who has been with our dear show since #108 "Derailed", would not have teamed up with rookie staff writer Erik Stiller (who gave us a pretty decent episode last year) if were not something intriguing in the works. From what I hear, 1107 "Target Rich" is going to be legendary! I have high hopes for the 11th Season!
LONG LIVE CM!!!
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DeleteHmmmm....Bruce's episode often have grandiose unsubs. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't mind an over the top unsub, since most of my fanfiction ideas in my head have some out there unsubs. And The Fisher King stands as among my favorite episodes with its codes, quests and allusions to Knights of the Round Table. So I can't fault Bruce for his big ideas. But on more than one occasion, he doesn't ground his fanciful ideas with credible unsubs and believable psychologies. It was the same for me last year with "If the Shoe Fits". I liked the idea of an unsub inspired by fairy tales but felt there were some definite gaps in logic and physics. It is the same for me with this episode. I love unsubs that bring art into their crime work, but this one just did not make sense to me in the slightest. Yeah okay, I can sort of see some of what drove the unsub, but I felt the baby abduction really didn't fit into the psychology at all. It was just too damn random, and I don't recall a good explanation on how he was able to abduct that particular baby in the first place, when the family was rich and should have had top notch home security. I thought the profiling was a bit out there, and I personally don't think the team could have made the sort of connections they did to this case, and yes, Penelope's magic computer had a starring role. I WANT to like these artistic unusb episodes more, because it blends my love of art and crime thrillers, but I think Bruce just fell short in crafting a logical unsub with sound psychological profiling.
ReplyDeleteOn the main character front, I felt the team got plenty to do, even if I would have cut down on the unsub shown, because I didn't feel it enhanced the story. I usually like the way Bruce writes Reid, and it was no different here. The short Hotch smile at the end was adorable, and reminded me of his lighter persona in season one when his smile would light up his face and his eyes. I personally don't think the Tara opening scene with her fiance was necessary, unless we see some connection to a later episode (and we might). I mean, this is the first time we are seeing her fiance, so we have emotional connection to him or their relationship. So to see it implode in the course of two minutes really didn't do anything for me. I felt the ending scene with Tara interviewing one the same criminal she seemed sort of obsessed with at the beginning, COULD be interesting if they follow up on it. That guy had a definite undercurrent of menace to him and his feelings for Tara were creepy. I actually did like the interplay, but if it is never brought up again, I will have to wonder just what the hell was the point of it. We have seen plenty of relationship drama on this show, and while it may be realistic to the real BAU, I like to see something different. Particularly since Tara was probably obsessed with work when she lived in San Francisco, so it's not like this all just came out of the blue.
Oh yeah, and Thomas directed this episode. I almost forgot. Not because his direction was bad, but I was more focused on trying to understand the story since it didn't make a lot of sense to me. But I did like Thomas's direction, which is pretty consistent, since I like most of Thomas's visual choices in his episodes (even if I have had issues with the actual story). As weird as it was, I did like the combination of visuals and music in the opening scene. And the final scene with the episode unsub had good visuals. And I did like how he framed and lit the scenes with Tara and the criminal she was interviewing.
I am not quite sure how to grade this. I would give a B- for story idea, C for case execution, and an overall B for team character development. And a B for directing visual. Soooooo...maybe overall B-/C+? Hard to call.
i like this episode more than the last 2 episodes Garcia's magic computer was stelar, at least she has to work and find information, she didn't have the information right there.
DeleteY'all are not going to believe this. CMRT and my dear friend SCMA have summed up my entire feelings about this episode perfectly. So I don't need to say much more.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll just add this: thank you Bruce Zimmerman for writing a script that had more twists and turns than a monster rollercoaster. And major kudos to our cast and the TOTALLY AMAZING best d*** crew in TV with TG guiding the ship for this episode.
This episode is the Criminal Minds I fell in love with.
Any one wanna bet what Rockie's grade is? hehehehehehehehehe
A+
Well it was certainly a step up from some other episodes this season and held my attention. Did it have me jumping up and down in excitement - no. Elements of the story made little sense and again they relied heavily on the magic computer. I did like what seemed like a very conscious attempt to show that profiling was being done with the shots of map plotting and reference books. I liked that the whole team had decent screen time and parts to play which underlined that the extra profiler is not required and I am still not missing JJ at all. I thought the Tara sub story was far too much if she is only to be a recurring character and indicates to me that maybe she will maybe be lined up as a series regular. I liked that they actually failed to save the unsub and Morpheus at the end and didn't shoot him dead either which makes a change. I am not a huge fan of TG's direction - he always overuses the tracking shots and we had that awkward tracking shot on the roof at the end. It's distracting as I find myself counting every time he uses it.
ReplyDeleteBut yes not stellar by a long way but not bad either. This is a solid B for me.
I'll mostly say what I liked: I liked that we didn't see the suspect until the 36 minute mark, and didn't see the unsub until the 38 minute mark. I liked that there was a lot of Reid doing what only he can do, and no one rolled their eyes once. And i especially liked that, although there was an emphasis on Dr. Lewis, the rest of the team had plenty of screen time. Why was this? Because we only had 5 profilers! We don't need more than that, folks!
ReplyDeleteOh, I dearly loved this episode. Tense, good teamwork. I like surprises and the end was awesome.
ReplyDeleteWow, I don't think I was watching the same show as some of you. I did not love it. I felt like it was just all over the place. It wasn't as bad as the last couple of weeks, but I would not call it classic Criminal Minds. I'll agree that it was nice not to see the unsub right away and to get some decent Hotch (even though TG was directing) and the use of maps and other profiling attempts. I still think there's too much "magic computer" and Garcia really gets on my last nerve these days. I liked the look of the episode. Thomas did a good job with directing and I liked a lot of the artwork the set folks came up with. While I don't dislike the Lewis character and I understand that she is the only female agent in the field so they may feel the need to use her more, I couldn't believe how she was everywhere in this episode. It was just like what they had been doing with JJ the past couple of seasons. First they give her the serial killer interview, then trouble at home with the fiance, then she's everywhere in the case, including accompanying Hotch alone to meet with the potential unsub. I'd have to watch it again to try to remember every scene but it really felt like overexposure to her at the expense of some of the others, especially since she's new to profiling and the team and should still be learning. I much preferred the way Elle and Emily started out where you could tell they were not only learning but also under some scrutiny from the team leaders. I respect all of you here, and I'm glad so many of you enjoyed it, but I am so wishing for new writers....or for some of the really good ones from the first 4 seasons to come back. This one just wasn't that great for me. So far, for me, the first episode was the best of the season.
ReplyDeleteGood episode, but I was disappointed they didn't do a Halloween themed anything :(
ReplyDeleteWay too much Tara Lewis, Was this episode the halloween episode?? :(
ReplyDeleteI like Tara Lewis, she's the best character since Emily Prentiss.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that would have made this episode better was if JJ was there. I really miss her. She's always been a huge part of the show, and it just isn't the same without her! I can't wait for episode 7 when she returns!
ReplyDelete