my 12/8 CM ep commentary...
I posted a fairly long comment on criminalxminds , but I thought I'd post my thoughts here, too, in case any of my friends care/want to read them w/o wading through that rather hysterical thread over there. :)
Basic plot: in Las Cruces, NM, someone has killed three women in their homes in the same gated community. That leads the team to believe that the UNSUB is someone in the community, and therefore they can't use traditional profiling methods to weed him out. Rossi brings in a cadet, Ashley Seiver, to consult with the team. He feels she's uniquely qualified because her father was a serial killer, and she can recognize...the way a serial killer interacts with his family, I guess. After some blatant misdirection, we realize the UNSUB is actually the third victim's husband. He holds Seiver at knife point, and then commits suicide-by-Hotch.
The main problem with this ep was the writing. It was overtly repetitive in more than one spot. Seiver comes to the door and tells the husband how the UNSUB's family would feel, and then once she's in the house she says the EXACT same words again. She also tells him, "My father killed 25 women before I was a teenager," which were the exact same words she used when she told the team. It was a clunky turn of phrase once, and using it twice, word for word, just highlighted its strange clunkiness even more. That was just lazy, and makes me feel like the writers had this idea for her story, for the plot of the ep, and for her reason for going to his house, but they were too lazy/uninspired to actually flesh it out.
The writers have been fairly lazy all season, and this ep was no exception. There was the word-for-word repetition, but also they didn't bother to explain anything about the UNSUB. What was his trigger? Had he killed before? The daughter told Seiver she didn't want to move "again," so that makes me think he'd killed before, maybe in several cities, and they kept moving to escape it. If that's the case, why didn't Garcia find out? Basically we're just left with the oh-so-convenient parallel of Seiver and the little girl both having murderous fathers, with no explination of WHY or HOW Heather's father became a killer.
We're introduced to Seiver as she's running the Academy obstacle course; she solves a problem, we're told, in record time, and no she hasn't faced the challenge before. I'm not too stressed with the "she's the best on the course" intro for two reasons. 1) she's overcompensating for her past, so of course she's going to push herself to be the best; and 2) it was clearly an homage to Silence of the Lambs. We meet Clarice Starling when she's running the course, and she's called in by Jack Crawford all sweaty and yuck and assigned to Hannibal Lecter. Jack Crawford and Rossi are based on the same RL profiler, so it was basically the exact same scene. I could, if I were feeling sorta grumpy, make the argument that it's the writers being lazy again, but I won't. I hate it when anyone who shows exceptional talent is instantly written off as a "Mary Sue." She's good. Some people are just good. Get over it.
Reid thinks she's pretty, btw, which has some people seeing red. We all know it's not going to happen, so there's no point in stressing about it either way. Of course he thinks she's pretty: he thought JJ was pretty, and she's basically a JJ clone. If you think one's pretty, you're gonna like the other.
Small things: why the hell was there a dog in the church? Her father was so serial killer cliche that he killed a puppy right in front of her? I loved Rossi in the mentor role; I feel it's a role he should've taken all along on the team, and I'm glad someone is finally bringing it out in him. Maybe she won't annoy him as much as Reid does. :) I thought Hotch should've been tougher on her, but not on the plane; that was unprofessional.
I hated how Morgan started out flirting with her. Not for any rabid fangirl reasons, but just b/c...ok, he can flirt with Emily and Garcia and it's ok: they know him and know that's just how he is. But flirting with a cadet who's consulting with the team?! She could slap him with a sexual harassment suit before you could say "Jack Robinson." It was stupid, irresponsible, and unrealistic. I don't think Morgan would be that unprofessional when meeting a new agent, especially one so young.
I wasn't bothered so much by her or even her story (though b/c of the constant repetition in this ep, it got a little heavy-handed) so much as I was bothered by the fact that they got rid of AJ...and are replacing her with an actress who could be her sister. Could they have cast a brunette? A redhead? At least someone with brown eyes! It's just cold. And ridiculous.
And, Emily should never wear turtlenecks. She looked...stumpy. Open up that neckline, girlfriend!
Overall, I think Ashley has potential. I really freakin' wish she didn't look just like AJ Cook, but whatcha gonna do? I hope the writers shed some of this laziness and ennui they seem to have developed, b/c ugh. Next week is a Morgan-centric ep with Kyle Secor as a serial killer! Get un-lazy, you lazy bastards!!
Basic plot: in Las Cruces, NM, someone has killed three women in their homes in the same gated community. That leads the team to believe that the UNSUB is someone in the community, and therefore they can't use traditional profiling methods to weed him out. Rossi brings in a cadet, Ashley Seiver, to consult with the team. He feels she's uniquely qualified because her father was a serial killer, and she can recognize...the way a serial killer interacts with his family, I guess. After some blatant misdirection, we realize the UNSUB is actually the third victim's husband. He holds Seiver at knife point, and then commits suicide-by-Hotch.
The main problem with this ep was the writing. It was overtly repetitive in more than one spot. Seiver comes to the door and tells the husband how the UNSUB's family would feel, and then once she's in the house she says the EXACT same words again. She also tells him, "My father killed 25 women before I was a teenager," which were the exact same words she used when she told the team. It was a clunky turn of phrase once, and using it twice, word for word, just highlighted its strange clunkiness even more. That was just lazy, and makes me feel like the writers had this idea for her story, for the plot of the ep, and for her reason for going to his house, but they were too lazy/uninspired to actually flesh it out.
The writers have been fairly lazy all season, and this ep was no exception. There was the word-for-word repetition, but also they didn't bother to explain anything about the UNSUB. What was his trigger? Had he killed before? The daughter told Seiver she didn't want to move "again," so that makes me think he'd killed before, maybe in several cities, and they kept moving to escape it. If that's the case, why didn't Garcia find out? Basically we're just left with the oh-so-convenient parallel of Seiver and the little girl both having murderous fathers, with no explination of WHY or HOW Heather's father became a killer.
We're introduced to Seiver as she's running the Academy obstacle course; she solves a problem, we're told, in record time, and no she hasn't faced the challenge before. I'm not too stressed with the "she's the best on the course" intro for two reasons. 1) she's overcompensating for her past, so of course she's going to push herself to be the best; and 2) it was clearly an homage to Silence of the Lambs. We meet Clarice Starling when she's running the course, and she's called in by Jack Crawford all sweaty and yuck and assigned to Hannibal Lecter. Jack Crawford and Rossi are based on the same RL profiler, so it was basically the exact same scene. I could, if I were feeling sorta grumpy, make the argument that it's the writers being lazy again, but I won't. I hate it when anyone who shows exceptional talent is instantly written off as a "Mary Sue." She's good. Some people are just good. Get over it.
Reid thinks she's pretty, btw, which has some people seeing red. We all know it's not going to happen, so there's no point in stressing about it either way. Of course he thinks she's pretty: he thought JJ was pretty, and she's basically a JJ clone. If you think one's pretty, you're gonna like the other.
Small things: why the hell was there a dog in the church? Her father was so serial killer cliche that he killed a puppy right in front of her? I loved Rossi in the mentor role; I feel it's a role he should've taken all along on the team, and I'm glad someone is finally bringing it out in him. Maybe she won't annoy him as much as Reid does. :) I thought Hotch should've been tougher on her, but not on the plane; that was unprofessional.
I hated how Morgan started out flirting with her. Not for any rabid fangirl reasons, but just b/c...ok, he can flirt with Emily and Garcia and it's ok: they know him and know that's just how he is. But flirting with a cadet who's consulting with the team?! She could slap him with a sexual harassment suit before you could say "Jack Robinson." It was stupid, irresponsible, and unrealistic. I don't think Morgan would be that unprofessional when meeting a new agent, especially one so young.
I wasn't bothered so much by her or even her story (though b/c of the constant repetition in this ep, it got a little heavy-handed) so much as I was bothered by the fact that they got rid of AJ...and are replacing her with an actress who could be her sister. Could they have cast a brunette? A redhead? At least someone with brown eyes! It's just cold. And ridiculous.
And, Emily should never wear turtlenecks. She looked...stumpy. Open up that neckline, girlfriend!
Overall, I think Ashley has potential. I really freakin' wish she didn't look just like AJ Cook, but whatcha gonna do? I hope the writers shed some of this laziness and ennui they seem to have developed, b/c ugh. Next week is a Morgan-centric ep with Kyle Secor as a serial killer! Get un-lazy, you lazy bastards!!