'Criminal Minds' is one of my most watched shows and in its prime (Seasons 1-5) it was one of my favourites. There were still plenty of good and more episodes in Season 6 onwards, though the quality was more hit and miss with a fair share of bad episodes too (the worst of Seasons 9 and 11). The post-Season 11 seasons have been better though, though few of the episodes, while several were solid, are outstanding.
Hearing that there were spin off shows 'Suspect Behaviour' and 'Beyond Borders', it was hard not to be enthused. Both were severely disappointing, disgraced the original 'Criminal Minds' and never really got into either of them, 'Beyond Borders' which has lasted longer was especially bad. Always give short-lived shows a fair chance, and some of them were really not that bad and were not given a chance (put it down to mostly low ratings), but in this case it is hard not to see why.
"Strays" may be one of 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour's' better faring episodes, along with "Night Hawks", "Smother" and "The Time is Now" (the first and third of which at least trying to do something different, especially the former, even if not successful) as it did have two great performances and one scene, but it still has too many flaws to be good.
The particularly great performance came from Michael Kelly, who gives his best performance of the whole show and one of the better overall performances for any of the show's regulars. With Prophet being the one character "Strays" tries to give any spark too. Richard Schiff gave the other great performance as the more conflicted Fickler, who is much better written than he was in "The Time is Now".
In terms of the great scene, that was with Prophet and the unsub when Prophet talking about how bad prison life is. While not wow-worthy, the photography is slick enough.
However, just when one had thought that the show had vastly improved on the character interaction and chemistry between the team, it was almost as if the improvement had not happened. The only standout team character moment was Prophet's scene with the unsub, the chemistry elsewhere is very wooden here, apparent in how they act and move in scenes not helped by the limp direction, and they seemed completely distant with each other. The profiling is too little and what there is doesn't feel necessary and too convenient and conventional. Only Kelly and Schiff give good performances, the others are mediocre at best especially Janeanne Garofalo. Even with Beth being given something meant to be useful, she is still annoying and that something comes over as silly.
Found the case rather dull, empty and predictable, with a lack of tension or suspense. Did find myself scratching my head less than other episodes from trying to make sense of what was going on, so that's sort of an improvement. The unsub was neither threatening or interesting, instead pretty vanilla. The dialogue is as ever awkward and lacks tautness. As said above, the direction is perfunctory at best and mostly limp actually, while there is nothing memorable about the music.
Concluding, one of the better episodes but lacklustre. 4/10
Hearing that there were spin off shows 'Suspect Behaviour' and 'Beyond Borders', it was hard not to be enthused. Both were severely disappointing, disgraced the original 'Criminal Minds' and never really got into either of them, 'Beyond Borders' which has lasted longer was especially bad. Always give short-lived shows a fair chance, and some of them were really not that bad and were not given a chance (put it down to mostly low ratings), but in this case it is hard not to see why.
"Strays" may be one of 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour's' better faring episodes, along with "Night Hawks", "Smother" and "The Time is Now" (the first and third of which at least trying to do something different, especially the former, even if not successful) as it did have two great performances and one scene, but it still has too many flaws to be good.
The particularly great performance came from Michael Kelly, who gives his best performance of the whole show and one of the better overall performances for any of the show's regulars. With Prophet being the one character "Strays" tries to give any spark too. Richard Schiff gave the other great performance as the more conflicted Fickler, who is much better written than he was in "The Time is Now".
In terms of the great scene, that was with Prophet and the unsub when Prophet talking about how bad prison life is. While not wow-worthy, the photography is slick enough.
However, just when one had thought that the show had vastly improved on the character interaction and chemistry between the team, it was almost as if the improvement had not happened. The only standout team character moment was Prophet's scene with the unsub, the chemistry elsewhere is very wooden here, apparent in how they act and move in scenes not helped by the limp direction, and they seemed completely distant with each other. The profiling is too little and what there is doesn't feel necessary and too convenient and conventional. Only Kelly and Schiff give good performances, the others are mediocre at best especially Janeanne Garofalo. Even with Beth being given something meant to be useful, she is still annoying and that something comes over as silly.
Found the case rather dull, empty and predictable, with a lack of tension or suspense. Did find myself scratching my head less than other episodes from trying to make sense of what was going on, so that's sort of an improvement. The unsub was neither threatening or interesting, instead pretty vanilla. The dialogue is as ever awkward and lacks tautness. As said above, the direction is perfunctory at best and mostly limp actually, while there is nothing memorable about the music.
Concluding, one of the better episodes but lacklustre. 4/10
