One-line Criminal Minds review
That, despite having all the ingredients to be spectacular, was spectacularly "meh."
+ The New Girl: Eh. I want to like her-no, that's not it; I do like her. I'm just highly skeptical of how they're going to handle her. This whole thing has the smell of "the powers that be have the feeling that the show needs shaking up, so they're going to try new combinations on the formula in the hopes of snagging a broader audience." And that sort of approach all too frequently leads to seriously hackneyed drama.
Seaver herself: a very interesting idea, and I like the actress. In this episode, at least, they're erring waaay far toward the sweetness and light, and I have to say, if it keeps up, it'll drive me crazy. That she's calm and thinks on her feet is awesome; that she controls whatever edge she has only makes sense. But damn, I certainly hope she's got an edge, because she needs one.
The writing of her intro: much more wobbly. The conversation between Reid and Garcia about her simply didn't make sense-"What's that in your voice?!" There isn't anything in his voice, FFS-and if they continually attempt to write UST or whatever that clumsily, it's going to get painful. I don't really care if Reid ends up having a thing for Seaver, so long as it never gets much play (and I feel the same way about any other "official shipping"; leave me my one gen fandom, won't you?), but I am extremely skeptical of the writers' ability to pull it off without committing character assassination. So much of the last two seasons has made me doubtful (their portrayal of Reid has especially suffered. I don't know why; it's like someone came along and decided he was too interesting and needed to be more stereotypical so as to be accessible to morons).
+ I definitely have one specific concern about Seaver's addition: They already too often talk about "psychopaths" as if they were one coherent group, rather than presenting varied pathologies. Partly this is a function of the dramatic necessity of collapsing what are IRL separate, specialized divisions within FBI profiling into one team, probably. The potential problem with Seaver is that they'll too often use her as a mouthpiece for What Serial Killers Are Like, generalizing across lines in ways that a) are inaccurate, and b) are boring.
The flip side of that, though, is the the character possibilities. It would be very interesting to see Seaver learning the limits of her personal knowledge of one killer when confronting the whole mass of behavior that goes through that office. Hell, if they don't write it, I might.
+ I like the idea of seeing a mentor-protégé relationship unfold between her and Rossi; it would show us another side of Rossi, and it would just be a nice element to have to play with in fanfic. I doubt I'll ever find it as compelling as the symbiosis Reid and Gideon had, but there's potential to be sure.
+ I'm less enthusiastic about her than I was before I found out she's supposed to be a series regular. When I thought she was there for a specific arc, I expected better, tighter writing. Now that she's a regular, I am worried about them loading the character up with Doodads That Might Make a Cool Moment Later! If We Ever Remember to Follow Up!!, rather than making a coherent character. But that is a worry born out of my general cynicism about this show that started back in S5 when things got dull.
Also, I dunno how well she'll mesh. I am worried about her getting disproportionate screen time simply because she's so young (and we all know that life ends after 30, so Prentiss, say, can't have anything interesting going on, and hell even Reid's nearing his expiration date). But, then, I have never complained about Reid getting disproportionate screen time and probably never will, so, yeah, bias.
+ In sum: I don't hate her; I don't love her. I'm just waiting to see what they do with her. So pretty much business as usual, really.
Also. More and more I hate Reid's new haircut. Knock it off, motherfuckers.
Also also: MORGAN EPISODE NEXT TIME W00T. One with a premise full of, like, actual conflict and stuff. Double-w00t.
+ The New Girl: Eh. I want to like her-no, that's not it; I do like her. I'm just highly skeptical of how they're going to handle her. This whole thing has the smell of "the powers that be have the feeling that the show needs shaking up, so they're going to try new combinations on the formula in the hopes of snagging a broader audience." And that sort of approach all too frequently leads to seriously hackneyed drama.
Seaver herself: a very interesting idea, and I like the actress. In this episode, at least, they're erring waaay far toward the sweetness and light, and I have to say, if it keeps up, it'll drive me crazy. That she's calm and thinks on her feet is awesome; that she controls whatever edge she has only makes sense. But damn, I certainly hope she's got an edge, because she needs one.
The writing of her intro: much more wobbly. The conversation between Reid and Garcia about her simply didn't make sense-"What's that in your voice?!" There isn't anything in his voice, FFS-and if they continually attempt to write UST or whatever that clumsily, it's going to get painful. I don't really care if Reid ends up having a thing for Seaver, so long as it never gets much play (and I feel the same way about any other "official shipping"; leave me my one gen fandom, won't you?), but I am extremely skeptical of the writers' ability to pull it off without committing character assassination. So much of the last two seasons has made me doubtful (their portrayal of Reid has especially suffered. I don't know why; it's like someone came along and decided he was too interesting and needed to be more stereotypical so as to be accessible to morons).
+ I definitely have one specific concern about Seaver's addition: They already too often talk about "psychopaths" as if they were one coherent group, rather than presenting varied pathologies. Partly this is a function of the dramatic necessity of collapsing what are IRL separate, specialized divisions within FBI profiling into one team, probably. The potential problem with Seaver is that they'll too often use her as a mouthpiece for What Serial Killers Are Like, generalizing across lines in ways that a) are inaccurate, and b) are boring.
The flip side of that, though, is the the character possibilities. It would be very interesting to see Seaver learning the limits of her personal knowledge of one killer when confronting the whole mass of behavior that goes through that office. Hell, if they don't write it, I might.
+ I like the idea of seeing a mentor-protégé relationship unfold between her and Rossi; it would show us another side of Rossi, and it would just be a nice element to have to play with in fanfic. I doubt I'll ever find it as compelling as the symbiosis Reid and Gideon had, but there's potential to be sure.
+ I'm less enthusiastic about her than I was before I found out she's supposed to be a series regular. When I thought she was there for a specific arc, I expected better, tighter writing. Now that she's a regular, I am worried about them loading the character up with Doodads That Might Make a Cool Moment Later! If We Ever Remember to Follow Up!!, rather than making a coherent character. But that is a worry born out of my general cynicism about this show that started back in S5 when things got dull.
Also, I dunno how well she'll mesh. I am worried about her getting disproportionate screen time simply because she's so young (and we all know that life ends after 30, so Prentiss, say, can't have anything interesting going on, and hell even Reid's nearing his expiration date). But, then, I have never complained about Reid getting disproportionate screen time and probably never will, so, yeah, bias.
+ In sum: I don't hate her; I don't love her. I'm just waiting to see what they do with her. So pretty much business as usual, really.
Also. More and more I hate Reid's new haircut. Knock it off, motherfuckers.
Also also: MORGAN EPISODE NEXT TIME W00T. One with a premise full of, like, actual conflict and stuff. Double-w00t.