"Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior" Death by a Thousand Cuts (TV Episode 2011) Poster

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8/10
Good episode
cfraley-2623720 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I loved the episode, it had some good twists. The one thing I do not like is the fact that it was left with a cliffhanger with no season 2 to see the resolution of said cliffhanger. One of my biggest pet peeves is if you are going to do something like that know if it will be resolved. It's why I gave it the rating that I did.
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5/10
A thousand disappointments
TheLittleSongbird11 June 2019
A large part of me was expecting to see the dark and gritty tone seen when the original 'Criminal Minds' was at its best (Seasons 1-5), and the darkness and grit has been present still in quite a number of latter season episodes too, carried over here in 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour'. With intriguing and thought-provoking profiling and procedural aspects, and characters worth investing in.

Really did give 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' a chance, and have been known to find short lived shows much better than given credit for. But a vast majority of this show's episodes really haven't worked for me sad to say and even the best episodes could have been much more. As one can tell, consider 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' a bad and disappointing show on the most part, and am feeling really bad about saying this as a big fan of detective/mystery/procedural series and as a fan of the original 'Criminal Minds'.

"Death of a Thousand Cuts", the last of the thirteen episodes, is one of the better and more watchable episodes (top 3 along with "Smother" and "Girl with the Blue Mask"). Unfortunately, while nowhere near as bad as my review summary sounds, it still underwhelms. It had every opportunity to, even though the future of the show was nowhere near definite at the time of being made, have an ending to the episode that was a real cracker and made one excited for a possible follow-up. That excitement never came and the incompleteness further added to the disappointment.

Will start with the good things. The best thing about "Death of a Thousand Cuts" is, surprisingly, French Stewart in a chillingly morose performance that is one of the show's best guest turns. There is a little eeriness and tension to the case, with a touch more momentum than most, and the unsub is one of the show's more interesting and creepier ones, as effort is made to develop them no matter how deep or not it is (it isn't really and it's pretty predictable).

Visually, "Death of a Thousand Cuts" is slick and stylish, with some eeriness in the lighting. Of the regulars, Michael Kelly fares the best making the most of his material without trying too hard.

However, the team (again) have absolutely no chemistry, everyone is underdeveloped (there were times in previous episodes where there were glimpses of development but it was never more than one person really, Prophet and the unsub are the most interesting characters here) and they just look so indifferent and disconnected together. The acting mostly is less than great, Janeanne Garofalo is not much more than an annoying robot and Forrest Whitaker over-compensates.

Even though the case was one of the better ones, it is a long way from being perfectly executed. It was in need of more suspense and wouldn't have said no to clearer explanation and more twists. The profiling is obvious and doesn't add much even. The dialogue doesn't flow and the soundtrack is forgettable at best. Worst of all is the tension-free, rushed and incomplete ending that leaves a lot of unanswered questions that nobody cares that much about being solved. Find these sort of endings (am trying not to spoil) very dangerous, in case there was a risk of an early cancellation. Which the show did face with the ratings not being very high and the reviews not being great.

On the whole, didn't do much for me again but watchable. 5/10
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