Criminal Minds Forums

I agree with almost everything you said Finn so I'm not going to make the big quote thing. I thought the first abuction was interesting in that the mother was actually trying to protect the child, not really neglect him. Of course, she should have checked to see that the grandmother was indeed home. That was definitely a mistake on her part. I found it interesting that the unsub turned out to be a 911 operator.

I also agree that this might have been a good episode where Reid could have added something from his childhood experiences. It's not that I mind the personal things we find out about the team but it's almost like there's too much of them, if that makes sense. For six years we were only given brief glimpses of the profilers' lives outside the BAU and definitely not in every episode. I know everyone wants to learn more about their lives but suddenly we seem bombarded with it each week. I think sometimes the brief things we saw like Reid walking home carrying a keyboard was enough. It told us that he was going to teach himself to play the piano after his experience with Sammy. Or the time we found out Morgan owns four properties. That slid right in when they were talking about wiring in the bathroom. A simple conversation on the case. I think I liked learning about our team more that way morethan now expecting every week there's going to be a case and some aspect of one of their lives revealed, where in the past all you thought about was there was going to be a case and anything you learned about the characters was just icing on the cake. I understand wanting the family feeling back that seemed to be missing in season 6, but I hope they don't go overboard with it. And Emily now seems to hone in on anything involved with the men and become the Dear Abby!

I too have to concur with the previous two posters.

Just to add to what has already been said, this could have been an ideal episode for Reid and the whole Rossi thing was ridiculous. I also don't think I've ever seen J. J. act so cold towards victims and children. She didn't smile until they were talking to Reid about shoes which isn't the character I remember.

It was ok but not brilliant. Hope we get a good one with lots of suspense next week. I also hope that we don't keep getting a mish mash of personal versus professional.

It looks like I'm in the minority but I don't mind the personal intertwined with the professional. And I think it would be far too cliche if each personal "reveal" mirrored the case. I've been a fan of Criminal Minds from the beginning and I've enjoyed the more personal side. It gives me more of a vested interest in the characters. "Case of the week" style is interesting, but I can take it or leave it. This way, I'm more drawn to the show. I suspect that's the angle the writers are working.

What I liked about the episode:

1.I thought it was a solid enough episode. I actually like the personal elements being implemented. It's been a good seven years now, it's about time that we got personal with the charcters we've come to love. I like seeing more from the characters. I love the interactions that they continue to have. I love the overall vibe that the closeness and personal stuff brings. I like that they are going there.

2. I thought the case was interesting. I like it when they have those killers where they leave you with mixed feelings. Clearly you're appalled by the things that they've done and the behavior that they are exhibiting, but sometimes there is something about the unsub where you feel bad for them, or you understand somewhat what they are thinking. Like his concern over the unfit parents. You understand his feeling like that, but he takes it farther than any normal, sane person would. It makes you think. It's intense. And this unsub was kind of intense, horrifying, and pathetic in the same way. hard to explain.

3. The pairings. I like when Morgan and Reid work together so I was pleased with that. I also am not surprised that JJ and Hotch paired up and Rossi and Prentiss paired up.

4.The 9 year old kid. I don't know maybe it was how mature he was but I really liked that kid. He was very interesting to watch. I felt so unbelievable bad for him, but he had a survival instinct that was well executed by the child actor.

5. Seeing Rossi have something. He's probably one of the more underdeveloped, enigmatic characters out of the bunch. I liked seeing his house again. Liked seeing his ex and how he interacted with her. I liked the ending, even though I suspected it would be somethng sad like that.

6. Morgan and Garcia's sexy flirting. I love those two. I love everytime they flirt together,. I'm glad that it's back and somewhat intensified. For awhile it wasn't as prevalent and I for one missed it. It always adds a bit of humor to show. I did notice that it got more risque, if you will this time, even Hotch raised a brow to it. I know some people probably didn't care for it, but it was fine by me.

What I didn't like:

1. Am I a fan of Prentiss? Not really. However, I usually can remain unbiased when I critique her. It still seems to me that they really don't know what to do with her character. Honestly, they never have...and the fact that they continue to over and misuse her character now speaks to how they sucked at using her before she departed. Her scene with Rossi, while it was pleasant enough, and stayed true to her at times overbearing, but genuinely concerened friend thing...it was so forced to me. it was like the scene was thrown in as an afterthought, or they substituted Hotch for her. There was nothing inherently special about it...it was as if they needed to come up with something for her character to do or say in the episode so that was it. It's been like that since the premiere,( her ridiculous speech to the boards that swayed their minds, her annoying chat with Reid on the plane, that lonely played scrabble with JJ thing) it's almost as if the writers are trying to makeup for the backlash that the show recieved from her dpearture, by putting her in whenever they can. They don't need to use her constantly or uselessly...they just need to use her right.

2. Okay. I love the Personal storylines. I'm all for him, because it's fun to finally "get in bed" with the characters that we've adored all these years. I'll never critique or complain about too much personal stuff because for me it can never be enough. My one criticism could be...that maybe they're overdoing it a tad. I know the season is dedicated to learning more about each of them, but they don't have to take a specific character and give them something solely focused on them at the beginning and end of every episode. They could take a week off of that to avoid it being too cheesy or overdoing it. I like the personal team moments...those are great...and then sprinkle a centric episode for each character throughout the season. But if they do an each week one character faces some issue it comes off a little cheesy. This week it was Rossi that ended with a non answer, last week it was Hotch taking on Jack's bullying at the end. Sometimes I'm have waiting for one of those messages to appear at the end. That would be my only complaint if you would call it that.

3. JJ calling Reid, "Spence"- This one is biased. For some reason the fact that everytime she talks to him she uses that nickname annoys me. She NEVER did that. She'd bust out with a "spence" on occasion. It wasn't a regular occurence. When it wasn't as frequent it was cute. Now that she says it all the time, it's annoying and cringeworthy. That's just my personal thing though.

For the record, I don't care for JJ as a character either. But as I said previously I call 'em as I say 'em and try to remain unbiased most of the time. Other than JJ annoying me in general just because, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary about the way she interacted with the kid. I think her slight change in seeming cold (which oddly enough she always seemed rather Ice Princess like to me....almost like a female Hotch) I think her slight changes may be due to her change in position. She's officially a profiler now, it requires a bit more detachment than it did when she was just the liasion. She can't be as "human" if you will, interacting with people now. She didn't have to be as...professional, for lack of a better word, when she was the Communications Liasion. Part of her job description there was to go with the emotions a bit, but as a Profiler her demeanor had to change a tad. i think that's what happend, for those who have noticed and are slightly annoyed by her shift in character.

I really enjoyed this episode. I thought the storyline was interesting, with a creepy twist of the unsub being a 911 operator. I appreciated the lack of gore and gruesome crimes against children. I enjoy seeing little scenes of the characters' personal lives. Seeing something personal every week is definitely a change from previous seasons, but so far, I have been satisfied with TPTB's time balance between personal lives and crime solving. The scene with Rossi and Prentiss seemed a little forced. TPTB apparently have a plan that each week Prentiss will tell a different character to take advantage of second chances, thus reminding us of her faked death.

Thanks for letting us know, Phf. That slow hand clapping scene is my favourite "CM" moment of all time ... NOT. Something from Season 2 or 3 would have been nice to watch and remember.

I will cheer for the Texas Rangers.

Yes, Reidfanatic, the writers have clearly done a lot of hacking and slashing to the J.J. we all knew before. It does indeed seem as though Jennifer Jareau, profiler, is a completely different person to J.J., Media Liaison. I hope this trend doesn't continue because J.J. has always been such a nice and popular character that to change her seems as though the actress and the fans are the victims of a disservice. I have truly never seen her act without any emotion, not even a flicker that I could see. Maybe she is just trying to do what she thinks is expected but it still doesn't look right from this angle.