Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

[corrinalaw]

I know a lot of people on my flist watch and love Criminal Minds but by the time people started talking about, it was three seasons in and I just didn't feel like jumping into the middle of a show.

And the chances of my finding time to watch the previous seasons are right up there with pigs with wings.

But I saw that there was a spin-off, Suspect

Comments

[corrinalaw]

So it's not just me. The pilot made me think of a Without A Trace episode. (Though I like WoT right away.)

And the second one...heck, I don't read much serial killer stuff and I figured it out in ten minutes. Which would have been okay if they'd given the characters any personality. How can you have Forest Whitaker and Garafola and have their characters be so dull?

[scribblerworks]

On the upside, Goren and Eames return on Law & Order: Criminal Intent shortly to close out the series. Only 8 episodes, but watching D'Onofrio playing Goren will make me happy. Best profiler on TV.

[corrinalaw]

I didn't know Goren & Eames were coming back. Excellent! Wonder how they'll get them both back on the force, given both were gone in the series finale.

[ex_fashioni]

It's not well done yet, although I have hope for it.

Yeah, in the original flavor, you'll often see at least a portion of the case from the POV of the killer, but generally, it's been done well, and it's a seamless aspect to the storytelling. (This season has been a bit rocky, however.)

With CM, seasons 2-5 were pretty exceptional (actually, beginning with the season finale of S1)-- just some of the tightest writing on any procedural series because it dealt as much with the people as the crime and the solving of. If you can catch it on A&E or Ion, it would be well worth it.

In the meantime, I wouldn't worry about CM2: Electric Boogaloo. It's really not like the original at all.

[nutmeg3]

I've seen the original a few times and actively disliked it. They go for the grossest possible crime, and then they just spout info like "The killer is a bla blah blah," without any explanation of why, or how they arrived at that conclusion, or anything else that would make it interesting. So I didn't even bother to try the spinoff. Glad to hear I made the right decision.

[corrinalaw]

Well, from what I see of the original, it is a serial killer show, from clarentine, a good one, but I could definitely see why a person would avoid that.

Watching cop shows requires suspension of disbelief because cops, obviously, have real lives that aren't similar. A cop show centered on catching serial killers stretches my suspension of disbelief because there really aren't that many.

Whereas, on Without a Trace, sometimes there wasn't even a crime at the end and I bought that there would be a lot of missing people for a new case every week.

But, obviously, I'm not consistent. Goren went after murderers quite a bit, frex. :)

[clarentine]

We tried the spinoff (or spinout, as Bear has it) with the opening episode and both decided it was not worth the bother of recording and watching later (as it's shown well past our bedtimes!). Terrible dialog, and you know if I notice it, it's got to be bad. We adore CM, but will not be going on with this version.

[corrinalaw]

Heh on the dialogue.

It's good to know that the original is much better. I hope less predictable, too!

[clarentine]

Yes and no. I mean, sometimes you know what has to happen, but CM's writers generally are good enough to keep you riveted anyway - it's a combination of character development and the car crash syndrome, I think. *g*

Sometimes, even knowing someone's going to get hurt, they still manage to surprise us with the how and the why. And the character development - of both the profilers and, occasionally, the unsubs - is awesome. (Or, well, to be fair, it was awesome before this current season, when some of the writers were let go; the loss shows.)

It's definitely a show that repays repeat watching, IMO. You ever decide you want to watch it, let me know and I'll loan you our season 1 DVDs.