When at its best and when it's good, 'Criminal Minds' is one of my favourites, and there are many very good to great episodes in the early seasons and the odd one in the latter seasons.
'Criminal Minds' has been hit and miss since Season 6, but the most disappointing and the worst has been by far Season 11. It started off promisingly with "The Job" and "The Witness", before going downhill drastically with "Till Death Do Us Part" and continuing the decline until redeeming itself with one of the best episodes in years "Entropy" (did like "A Beautiful Disaster" better than most but generally Morgan's exit arc could have been much better handled).
As said, the good news is that "Pariahville" is not as bad as the likes of "Awake", "Internal Affairs", "The Bond", "Till Death Do Us Part" and "Inner Beauty", which were particularly poor Season 11 episodes. However, "Pariahville" is still not a good episode at all.
It is a shame, as it did start off well with a genuinely tense and eerie opening sequence. The production values as ever are slick and very high, the music is still haunting and melancholic without being intrusive or distracting with a very good closing song and considering what they had to work with the acting from the regular leads was not bad, though all have been better with better material and when the team dynamic was better. As has been the case with much of Season 11, Joe Mantegna and Matthew Gray Gubler fare best.
On the other hand, there are just nowhere near enough of the little character moments that makes 'Criminal Minds' such a pleasure. And the team dynamic doesn't feel right, there is too much of Lewis while Reid is not used enough (coming and going and then practically disappearing two thirds in) and Hotch is almost invisible, didn't mind the absence of JJ but these more serious problems were far less forgivable.
What's more, Lewis is not gelling and is a very dull character, not helped by Aisha Tyler's stiff performance with flat line delivery. Kirsten Vangsness does what she can but Garcia was much more likable and endearing in the earlier seasons, in the last three or so seasons especially she has become an annoying caricature (at least they have attempted to make JJ closer in character to the earlier seasons in the latest two seasons).
"Pariahville", as with many Season 11 episodes, is pretty unsub-heavy, and again this when done not very well (which is the problem here, revealed too early and too much) severely dilutes the tension and suspense. Unfortunately, the unsub is not that interesting or well developed, with a personality that is not menacing and difficult to hate or feel sympathetic towards. Is it me as well, or was he rather confusingly written as well, his behaviour towards Riley especially and is more hormonal than menacing.
The story is also not that intriguing, with a shaky profile, very elephantine pacing at times and is very low on atmosphere, tension or suspense after the effective opening. Heavily suggesting that the show has run out of ideas and even worse has lost sight or forgotten completely what made the show so great. Scripting is not as tight or thought-provoking, characterisation is very little, continuity is inconsistent (though there has been worse examples on the show) and the direction lacks spark or focus.
On the whole, there's worse in Season 11 but for 'Criminal Minds "Pariahville" is a disappointment. 4/10 Bethany Cox
'Criminal Minds' has been hit and miss since Season 6, but the most disappointing and the worst has been by far Season 11. It started off promisingly with "The Job" and "The Witness", before going downhill drastically with "Till Death Do Us Part" and continuing the decline until redeeming itself with one of the best episodes in years "Entropy" (did like "A Beautiful Disaster" better than most but generally Morgan's exit arc could have been much better handled).
As said, the good news is that "Pariahville" is not as bad as the likes of "Awake", "Internal Affairs", "The Bond", "Till Death Do Us Part" and "Inner Beauty", which were particularly poor Season 11 episodes. However, "Pariahville" is still not a good episode at all.
It is a shame, as it did start off well with a genuinely tense and eerie opening sequence. The production values as ever are slick and very high, the music is still haunting and melancholic without being intrusive or distracting with a very good closing song and considering what they had to work with the acting from the regular leads was not bad, though all have been better with better material and when the team dynamic was better. As has been the case with much of Season 11, Joe Mantegna and Matthew Gray Gubler fare best.
On the other hand, there are just nowhere near enough of the little character moments that makes 'Criminal Minds' such a pleasure. And the team dynamic doesn't feel right, there is too much of Lewis while Reid is not used enough (coming and going and then practically disappearing two thirds in) and Hotch is almost invisible, didn't mind the absence of JJ but these more serious problems were far less forgivable.
What's more, Lewis is not gelling and is a very dull character, not helped by Aisha Tyler's stiff performance with flat line delivery. Kirsten Vangsness does what she can but Garcia was much more likable and endearing in the earlier seasons, in the last three or so seasons especially she has become an annoying caricature (at least they have attempted to make JJ closer in character to the earlier seasons in the latest two seasons).
"Pariahville", as with many Season 11 episodes, is pretty unsub-heavy, and again this when done not very well (which is the problem here, revealed too early and too much) severely dilutes the tension and suspense. Unfortunately, the unsub is not that interesting or well developed, with a personality that is not menacing and difficult to hate or feel sympathetic towards. Is it me as well, or was he rather confusingly written as well, his behaviour towards Riley especially and is more hormonal than menacing.
The story is also not that intriguing, with a shaky profile, very elephantine pacing at times and is very low on atmosphere, tension or suspense after the effective opening. Heavily suggesting that the show has run out of ideas and even worse has lost sight or forgotten completely what made the show so great. Scripting is not as tight or thought-provoking, characterisation is very little, continuity is inconsistent (though there has been worse examples on the show) and the direction lacks spark or focus.
On the whole, there's worse in Season 11 but for 'Criminal Minds "Pariahville" is a disappointment. 4/10 Bethany Cox
