Criminal Minds (TV Series) A Shade of Gray (2009) User Reviews

One of CM's best.

[CameronWoods · 9/10 · 10 December 2012]

*** This review definitely contains big spoilers ***

Superb episode, one of my favorites. I was going to give it an eight but bumped it up to nine for Kendall Ryan Sanders' performance, it was a masterpiece of subtleties.

From the first two minutes I could see from his behaviour he knew something while still looking like the distressed brother. Within five minutes of the start I knew he was involved. A very clever and intelligent performance that, I suspect, most would have missed if they weren't watching closely, the hints so subtly demonstrated. The casting agents have a talent for finding superb child actors on the occasions they feature prominently...brings to mind "Into The Woods" with Gattlin Griffith and "The Big Wheel" with Jake Cherry.

The rest of the episode was no less satisfying for the knowing and up to their usual high standards. One of the rare ones where their profile is wrong along with a couple of false leads to confuse and a frightening detail revealed right at the end.

Shades of creepiness and tragedy

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 3 February 2017]

A very good episode on the whole, that just falls short of being a Season 4 classic. This said, Season 4 is for me the best 'Criminal Minds' season and one where picking favourites is hard and where even lesser episodes of the season are significantly better than the worst episodes of Seasons 6, 9 and 11.

It is the sort of episode where the "truth being closer to home than one initially thinks" was strongly suspected early on, the killer's coldness and indifference to me was noticeable but unusually not picked up upon by the team until later on than the viewer. This said, "A Shade of Grey" did do a great job with its twists and turns and one really does believe that it could be what is strongly suspected for most of the episode.

Plus, the truth is actually very shocking here (more so actually on repeat viewing, because the killer was creepier on repeat viewing than on first viewing) and one where even when suspected earlier than hoped you just pray it isn't true. The truth of something so shocking and tragic and the nonchalant creepiness, with the calmness and lack of remorse, of the killer indeed stayed with me for a while.

The rest of the story is absorbing and tautly paced too, with a scary and poignant atmosphere throughout and on-point execution of its twists and turns. The subject was an interesting one and dealt with with a lot of impact. The script is thought-provoking and intelligently written, it and the adroit direction doing full justice to the actors.

All of which do a marvellous job, nothing to complain about with the regular lead actors (Paget Brewster sells it in the latter parts of the episode when the truth all comes out where the writing and acting are so well done) and a surprisingly masterfully subtle turn from Kendall Ryan Sanders. John Billingsley also makes the stomach roll.

Production values as always are very high in quality, being atmospheric and stylish, while the music (agree that this component is pretty underrated on 'Criminal Minds') has the right amount of the ominous touch and the pathos.

In conclusion, creepy and tragic and almost one of the season's best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

One of the best of the series!

[teca-arantes · 9/10 · 9 August 2010]

I admit that most episodes of Criminal Minds don't get me too excited - the finding of the criminal is most of the times too easy, or too simple, or even boring... but not this one!

Although anyone who is versed in cinematic tricks (such as focusing the story over a character a little bit too much for them not to be a suspect...)could easily at least be suspicious of who really "done it", this episode had a few good surprises and the real resolution of the case was very very good!!

It touched on a very interesting subject, not very common in scripts...

You will understand when you watch it!

This one will stay with you for a while.

[paikia · 10/10 · 13 February 2012]

I've been watching a lot of crime-drama movies and TV shows, so I don't get shocked by them very often. Most of the times I think to myself something like "Hmm... K, nice episode" and I move on. But every once in a while comes an episode like this one, which leaves me thinking, unable to shake it for a while, like I do most episodes.

And the thing is, I feel that way *despite* successfully predicting who the UnSub was right from the start. There was no surprise for me there, but I still found myself shocked. I suppose it goes a long way to show how well produced this episode really was from every possible aspect - writing, directing, acting, editing, and last but not least - the music, which tends to be underrated, but in my opinion, is very important.

I love Criminal Minds, and this episode made me love it even more. Well done, guys, and thanks for a memorable episode!

Well done episode

[kellielulu · 10/10 · 18 October 2022]

Destruction of a family. Parents try to hold together what is left of their family even knowing the truth or part of it. The actors playing the parents do a good job playing the heartbreak and devastation of loss.

The lead detective is a personal friend and in attempt to protect his friends he contaminants the crime scene and misleads the BAU and the press . The BAU of course starts piecing it together. The first mistake is trying to pin it on the wrong man and the team closes in on the real killer. The details devastate the parents even more.

This is a hard one you feel for the parents and understand the detective's desire to protect them but he does literally everything wrong. He wasted time, money and resources that could have gone elsewhere and there was no way to leave that family intact after what happened.

Good team effort and good guest cast.

Another subtle winner

[akicork · 9/10 · 6 July 2021]

I'm sorry that this review is far too long. But persevere - I believe you will find it worthwhile in the end. For me, this is way up towards the top of Criminal Minds' performance. It takes a subject which attaches the hearts of the audience (particularly parents) and leads us through a maze of suspense and events. It points us to suspect after suspect, keeping up the suspense without revealing which one is the perpetrator until fairly close to the end. It points up the decisions which might have to be made by family and friends in stressful situation under pressure of time. What would we have done? I disagree with another reviewer on their point regarding the children's dialogue. My son (now considering his own retirement plans!) was always intelligently articulate. In his primary school days there was nothing surprising in him saying something well beyond his years: the time comes to mind that he told his teacher she was wrong in some assertion about dinosaurs because he actually knew more on the subject than she did. I know myself that the words of the young are often belittled. When I tried to explain the obvious truth and beauty of Plate Tectonics (although I didn't use the term!) to my Primary 2 (Second Grade) teacher, she said "Yes, dear, that would be very nice, but it doesn't work like that." (I remember the words from 1953 as if they were yesterday!) It wasn't until the late 1950s and early '60s that Wegener's 1912 papers became fully accepted even in academia, let alone the world model of a 60-ish primary school teacher in 1953! (And I just thought the maps fitted really nicely!) So I don't blame her. But it still remains, that children can communicate, verbally, musically, artistically (and particularly mathematically!) well beyond what might be expected of an adult in the middle of the bell-curve. Add to that that the child in question in this episode is an amoral sociopath: I am not surprised that the character uses vocabulary and verbal structures different from normal speech.

I do agree with the same reviewer that one of the strongest performances of the show was from Gretchen Egolf. I have seen her several times in different programmes and she always commands her role. Actors are required to mould themselves into the chararacter of another, and that is what she does. I have noticed that really great actors tend to have "rubber faces" - they convey completely the face of the character they represent, but when that is gone, so is that face. I think that Gretchen Egolf is blessed with such a face, and the ability to control it. Without photos on IMDb I could pass her in the street and not connect her with any of her characters. I look forward to seeing her future roles.

Replica

[ttapola · 7/10 · 7 December 2010]

Despite being a memorable, shocking episode, this still falls short of greatness. Why? The core plot, from beginning to end, has been done on TV at least twice. If you've seen any of the earlier variations of this plot, you can predict from halfway onwards how it will all unfold. Even if you haven't seen the story before, but watch a lot of criminal procedural dramas, you probably will be able to guess just by keeping an eye on the running time that there must be some plot developments coming to fill up the running time. Sure, it has its own identity, but the basic twists remain the same. And if it's been done before, the only way to avoid coming off as a rip-off is to improve on the original(s). Unfortunately, this is not an improvement. It's a good 7/10 version, but offers nothing new to the basic formula.

Child actors.

[spock-billy-spike · 5/10 · 28 April 2021]

I'm sorry but Criminal Minds has some dialogue that just sounds ridiculous coming from child actors. The roles asked a lot from the kids but it didn't work out. Half an the episode felt like a bad highschool play. One saving grace was Gretchen Egolf as Sarah Murphy, she was absolutely phenomenal as the grieving but conflicted mother. I definitively want to see what else she's done.