Criminal Minds

Agreed.

I don't mind the new team member.

So, last episode was interesting. At first I thought they would do some "video games are evil" stuff, but it seemed a bit more differentiated. Also, they got bonus points for bringing up Rossis gaming knowledge again, and for creating a realistic looking video game. Many Shows trying to display a video game fail, but this one looked like it could really exist.

Horrible episode. Especially the end. They've shot a number of people who had hostages at gunpoint before, but now when the unsub actually points the gun briefly away/is clearly going to pull the trigger, no one takes the shot. But even if they had done that realistically, it wouldn't have saved the catastrophe of an episode. They completely failed to sell the Reed relationship aspect.

I bought the PC game.

Haven't read or watched any reviews or anything, so in terms of how it plays I'm going blind.

So what did people think of the finale last night? I enjoyed it, especially the contrast at the very end where everyone is back in J.J's backyard from last season's finale...also, I want to coin Special Agent Skywalker as the official fan nickname for Mark Hamill's character

Just started watching this show. Am I the only one who finds the subtle Running Gag of Reid giving his little wave when he's introduced to people hilarious?

Likely. I wasn't aware it's a running gag until now.

It's he kind of thing that's easy to miss, but once you notice it, you can't un-notice it

Well, I noticed he waves, but I can't see why it's funny or a even running gag. It's just how he says hi. Or am I missing something?

I just find it adorkable. Guess its just me.

Did anyone else find this season's opening rather weak? The best episodes let you connect with someone, be it one of the agents, the victims, or even the unsub, but this was very emotionally shallow. I did like the schizophrenic dad and the scenes involving him. Reid's calm acceptance of him worked well, even when the rest of the story didn't.

I'm mostly ok with the first 2 episodes. They were not spectacular, but at least they got the usual finale angst "WILL SOMEONE LEAVE THE TEAM?" resolved. I didn't look foreward to a half season of Hotch wondering if he wants Strauss' job and feared they'd drag it out, with him taking the promotion, then stepping down again and so on. They just replaced a main character. The team didn't more shake ups or uncertainty. So the prospect of a new boss as minor character is fine. Since that was my main concern, I can live with a medicore case.

So...Jennifer Love Hewitt is officially filling the brunette vacancy left open by Jeanne Triplehorn. I'm goign to find it extremely difficult to separate this from her Ghost Whisperer stuff :/

Oh, and there will be boobs :P

edited 2nd Jul '14 4:04:31 PM by Sisi

So Whatserface Alex has left? She didn't last long...

edited 2nd Jul '14 4:19:36 PM by Ghilz

Nope. I guess she'll be the team 's Chuck Cunningham. Got to love how they just trade in one brunette for another. From Elle Greenaway to Prentis to Blake to the new chick. Same deal when they had to replace JJ for a while. One Blonde for another.

edited 2nd Jul '14 4:59:28 PM by Sisi

A small part of me wonders if its because they've run out of things to do with their cast. Hotch has had multiple arcs (Managing work and Family, dealing with Haley's loss, rebuilding a normal life). Others have sort of got their issues resolved (Reid is much more "Normal" and has dealt with most of the issues he had at the start of the series, even Morgan's dealt with his background stuff and now he shows a willingness to settle, he's moved from being then paradoxically social guy who keeps his personal life to himself and takes huge risks to being Hotch's lancer.) Others never had much of an arc to begin with (JJ was always the normal one and her biggest arc was getting married and cranking out a kid. Rossi's entire metaplot was dealt with on his first season in one episode). Even Garcia has sort of "normalized" from her excentric self from the early seasons. I sort of feel they keep doing cast changes to see what sticks. If they can crank up a new character to inject some life in the show and getting rid of the attempts that don't work.

The shows been going on for so long, it's honestly not rare to see this type of plot fatique. Just look at CSI who by this point is more a shambling corpse of a series than anything. Even its much sillier spin off CSI Miami knew to call it quits.

edited 2nd Jul '14 8:10:57 PM by Ghilz

One thing I liked about Criminal Minds is that it doesn't constantly focus on the team so them not having big character arcs to play with suits me fine. Things like Reid and Maeve was as much as I want interferring in the murderin' and the crazy.

Finished season eight recently. Mark hammil was awesome as the replicator. Anyone else get "joker" vibes?

I knew CSI was starting to necrotize when they dumped 3 characters in a season and half. The only originals left now are Greg and Nick and Sara (I feel like she was only supposed to be a temp, but got stuck on regular duty when they couldn't find anyone else). Even Brass left. They are launching a new spinoff but with Miami and NY gone and Vegas limping towards the finish line, I think the era of forensic procedurals is done.

The reason why Criminal Minds is still going, I think, is because the team is so tight and cast changes have been very minimal. As witnessed by the mess that was the Suspect Behavior fiasco, the producers know that any kind of extensive cast change is going to elicit the worst kind of fan rage.

Part of me is wondering if Hewitt was cast for name recognition over anything else. I just don;t see her playing a convincing profiler. I fell I'm gong be stuck watching each episode expecting her run up to to someone and start rambling about how she has "a gift".

And Mark Hamill was indeed very Joker like. I still think Tim Curry was scarier, though.

edited 3rd Jul '14 5:54:04 AM by Sisi

Paul Guilfoyle, the guy who played Jim Brass, wasn't given a choice to leave. Instead, he was booted out.

I don't think the CSI franchise has much longer to go and this show isn't on terrestrial television over here. Sucks.

The cast was the least of Suspect Behavior's problems. The writing was terrible. The premise made no sense (The whole concept of Red Cell teams was absolutely meaningless), the show was obsessed with appearing "Cool" over such things as "Logic" (They operate out of a gym! One's a former convict! One's former SAS! They like the Justice League... of the FBI!) The casting wasn't bad, most of the actors were fine, they just had nothing to work with.

True, but you get the feeling the show's running out of ideas on that aspect too. The season finale was... meh. And featured the dumbest plan from the dumbest crooked cops in the universe (Lets kill the Sheriff and FBI agents to cover our tracks. That will in no way draw any scrutiny).

It's sort of funny when I go back to season 1 and 2 and realize how criminals on the show have gotten more... convoluted over the years in both their MO and psychosis.

Show's still got some life in it, but it does feel like they are trying to inject more life into it, with the new cast changes and what not. I have no doubt Hewitt's casting is to draw him more viewers, or limit the bleeding of viewers the show's suffered over the last few seasons.

edited 3rd Jul '14 7:14:36 AM by CobraPrime

What I meant about the Suspect Behavior fiasco was that the producers decided to write out A.J Cook and seriously minimize the screen time for Paget Brewster in order come up with the funds for the spinoff. The fans and even the writers were royally pissed over this leveling of the cast, which probably led at least partly to Ashley Seaver becoming the series scrappy. After the spinoff failed, the cast was fully reinstated.

You can rally see the seething hate for the producers the writers had in the episode where J.J. is forced to leave the BAU to work for the Pentagon against her will because of bureaucracy.

On another note, what idot producer decided it was a good idea to boot out one of the few remaining original cats members of CSI Mothership?!

edited 3rd Jul '14 10:19:21 AM by Sisi

why exactly was Foyet in Hotch's near-death experience? and why was he shown as "friendly"?

Is it possible that it meant that hotch forgave him? That he didn't hold him responsible, since foyet was crazy and thusly not in full control of his compulsion to kill?

No...Truthfully, that confused me too, but I think it had to to with him coming to terms with dying...