Today’s Guest-clacker is JJ, who lives in Austin, TX and is a Systems Engineer. He claims he watches waaaayyyy too much TV and he’s always looking for the next “better” show. To date, he’s never found anything better than Showtime’s Brotherhood.
First off I think I should preface by saying I’m a pretty big fan of Criminal Minds. I started watching it religiously, probably back mid-season two, and have watched Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) grow as a leader then turn around and fall as a failure. This episode is the first episode where Hotchner is no longer the team lead and in the “changing of the guards” Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) becomes the lead FBI agent.
This episode is pretty straight forward; it’s focused on the new leadership style of Morgan and didn’t have many — if any — twists in the episode, which is very unlike Criminal Minds. It had the typical start of the dark and depressing “killer beginning” attempting to set the mood of the episode, but honestly feels as if it fell short.
I did notice something that isn’t very typical for Criminal Minds which is we actually see a majority of the killer’s face in the first few scenes; the show usually attempts to hide the killer with overcasting shadows. This actually turned me off from the episode almost instantly because unlike the norm for the show, they concentrated on the character development instead of the crime.
Another thing about this episode that just got under my skin was that the religious undertones were too contrived, almost to the point where it was ludicrous. Something I’ve always loved about Criminal Minds is that it distances itself from any major hot button issue, and tells original interesting stories. This episode, it just seems that it just didn’t care; this just stunk of a filler episode. Religion is always a hot button issue, and they did a horrible job attempting to hide the influences. A couple examples being: the cross that Morgan gets, the “savior” for his off-limits love interest and the BAU, the Buddhist, “my sister can’t rest in peace because she’s not complete,” and the quote of scripture “Matthew 5:29.”
I do feel that Morgan will be a great leader, but this episode just didn’t give him the assertiveness that he needs. Close to the end of the episode, Hotch did do something that Morgan would have done, and then showed complete role reversal, Morgan scolding and Hotch smiling, but this also seemed contrived and fake. I have better hopes for the episodes to come.
In all seriousness though, if you’re a fan of the show, you do need to watch this episode, it’s truly the “changing of the guard feeling” (I can’t stress how much I felt that watching this), but if you catch episodes here and there, stay away, FAR FAR AWAY. I give this episode a lame 4/10.
Clacked by Guest Clacker
on Nov 07, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
