In the episode JJ mistakenly refers to the Boston Common as "The Commons" a mistake not in line with her character in the previous 11 seasons.
3 Reviews
Boston Common
mattl-483-13870520 April 2021
School list inaccurate
shellygirl-2687916 July 2021
Such a let down after "Entropy"
TheLittleSongbird3 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
While marginally better than "Till Death Do Us Part", "Internal Affairs", "Awake", "Inner Beauty" and "Future Perfect", "Drive" is yet another disappointing episode in a mostly underwhelming Season 11.
Not that Season 11 has been completely unwatchable. The season started off promisingly, "The Job" was great and "The Witness" was excellent. Sadly "Till Death Do Us Part" started a drastic decline in quality, before the show showed possible signs of fully redeeming itself after one of its best episodes in recent years "Entropy". After being bowled over by "Entropy", it all came crashing down again with "Drive".
There are good things here. It was interesting to have a way of killing (one of the show's most brutal easily) that was strongly indebted to a method of public executions which has not to my knowledge been done before on 'Criminal Minds', and despite tackling a very over-familiar and common theme for 'Criminal Minds' to have somebody other than an abusive parent was interesting and a nice change. There are two moments that bite the nails, Amy pleading for her life and the unsub waiting for the phone call to be returned. One also has to wince at the coroner's comments about the victims to JJ and Rossi, anybody who has nightmares already at even the thought of a guillotine are going to have their nightmares intensified.
Again the production values are very high in quality, and the music is hauntingly and melancholically scored. Apart from Aisha Tyler (again) the acting is just fine.
"Drive" is let down by a lot of the things that made Season 11 so underwhelming. A lot of the team are underused, although Rossi and Reid have some very nice moments and Reid is almost single-handedly integral to the case being solved, in favour of a far less interesting and significantly inferior in acting character in Tara Lewis, whose presence is stiff and dull and her connection with the rest of the team is next to none.
The same can be said for the unsub, the episode makes the common mistake of Season 11 of having too much of him and when revealed at the start the suspense and tension is already diluted. Things that came in spurts in the whole forty five minute running time but it was never consistent. "Drive" is very predictable, with many elements having been done before better in even earlier episodes of 'Criminal Minds', only the method of killing and to a lesser extent the reason for the unsub's killings are for this show have any spark of originality.
Much of the case could have been much better expanded upon. Some interesting ideas here, pretty much all glossed over. A notable example being the unsub's fascination with the guillotine, don't remember that being covered in the episode. The same can be said for the unsub's source of rage, made clear in the episode but could have been expanded upon more. While there is some decent profiling, which is better than most of the Season 11 episodes, there is also a very heavy gore count, and while being guillotined was brutal it just felt a bit gratuitously macabre at times, many viewers already know that the way they died was brutal and terrible so it didn't need to be somewhat shoved in our faces as much as it was.
Script-wise, "Drive" really wasn't one of 'Criminal Minds' finest hours. Not awful, there are some intelligent moments but not as tightly paced or tautly structured as 'Criminal Minds' has shown in the past of more than being capable of. Did find myself cringing a little at the exchange between Tara and the CEO of Zimmer, more her dialogue than his. The brief flashbacks to the unsub's childhood felt rather thrown in and the climax did lack tension or excitement because it felt so rushed and too conveniently wrapped up, easily one of the most painfully predictable scenes of the episode in an episode with only a few surprises in a sea of predictability.
Overall, not quite one of Season 11's worst but after such an outstanding previous episode it was such a let down. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Not that Season 11 has been completely unwatchable. The season started off promisingly, "The Job" was great and "The Witness" was excellent. Sadly "Till Death Do Us Part" started a drastic decline in quality, before the show showed possible signs of fully redeeming itself after one of its best episodes in recent years "Entropy". After being bowled over by "Entropy", it all came crashing down again with "Drive".
There are good things here. It was interesting to have a way of killing (one of the show's most brutal easily) that was strongly indebted to a method of public executions which has not to my knowledge been done before on 'Criminal Minds', and despite tackling a very over-familiar and common theme for 'Criminal Minds' to have somebody other than an abusive parent was interesting and a nice change. There are two moments that bite the nails, Amy pleading for her life and the unsub waiting for the phone call to be returned. One also has to wince at the coroner's comments about the victims to JJ and Rossi, anybody who has nightmares already at even the thought of a guillotine are going to have their nightmares intensified.
Again the production values are very high in quality, and the music is hauntingly and melancholically scored. Apart from Aisha Tyler (again) the acting is just fine.
"Drive" is let down by a lot of the things that made Season 11 so underwhelming. A lot of the team are underused, although Rossi and Reid have some very nice moments and Reid is almost single-handedly integral to the case being solved, in favour of a far less interesting and significantly inferior in acting character in Tara Lewis, whose presence is stiff and dull and her connection with the rest of the team is next to none.
The same can be said for the unsub, the episode makes the common mistake of Season 11 of having too much of him and when revealed at the start the suspense and tension is already diluted. Things that came in spurts in the whole forty five minute running time but it was never consistent. "Drive" is very predictable, with many elements having been done before better in even earlier episodes of 'Criminal Minds', only the method of killing and to a lesser extent the reason for the unsub's killings are for this show have any spark of originality.
Much of the case could have been much better expanded upon. Some interesting ideas here, pretty much all glossed over. A notable example being the unsub's fascination with the guillotine, don't remember that being covered in the episode. The same can be said for the unsub's source of rage, made clear in the episode but could have been expanded upon more. While there is some decent profiling, which is better than most of the Season 11 episodes, there is also a very heavy gore count, and while being guillotined was brutal it just felt a bit gratuitously macabre at times, many viewers already know that the way they died was brutal and terrible so it didn't need to be somewhat shoved in our faces as much as it was.
Script-wise, "Drive" really wasn't one of 'Criminal Minds' finest hours. Not awful, there are some intelligent moments but not as tightly paced or tautly structured as 'Criminal Minds' has shown in the past of more than being capable of. Did find myself cringing a little at the exchange between Tara and the CEO of Zimmer, more her dialogue than his. The brief flashbacks to the unsub's childhood felt rather thrown in and the climax did lack tension or excitement because it felt so rushed and too conveniently wrapped up, easily one of the most painfully predictable scenes of the episode in an episode with only a few surprises in a sea of predictability.
Overall, not quite one of Season 11's worst but after such an outstanding previous episode it was such a let down. 4/10 Bethany Cox
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