While being a regular viewer of the original 'Criminal Minds', loved it in its early seasons and although the quality has been very hit and miss for a long time there has been enough to keep me watching, neither of its spin offs did anything for me. 'Suspect Behaviour' started off very ropey but did gradually get marginally better. 'Beyond Borders' was offensively bad in its first season and while Season 2 was an improvement it still repeated most of the mistakes made before ("La Huesuda" was the only halfway decent episode).
"The Ripper of Riga" turned out to be the final episode of 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' before it was cancelled after two seasons. And while by 'Beyond Borders' standards it could have been a lot worse it really isn't a great way overall to end a show. It is one of the better episodes of Season 2, a huge improvement over the dreadful previous two outings, and one of the least bad episodes of 'Beyond Borders', but is still very flawed and still not particularly good.
Am going to start with what "The Ripper of Riga", attention grabbing episode title don't you think, did good on. William Forsythe brings a good unnerving edge to his role in what is by far one of the best individual performances of 'Beyond Borders' run. Gary Sinise gives by far one of his better performances of the show, as there is actually some intensity to his acting here that wasn't there in most of his previous episodes. The subplot between the two does have tension and is actually more interesting than the case.
Like most episodes of Season 2, "The Ripper of Riga" also starts on a promising note. The unsub is one of the better ones, one that has more menace than most for the show, most unsubs compile a long list of unsubs with vanilla personalities and development.
Did think though that there was too much focus on Garrett's subplot, which meant that the rest of the team were on the underused side. Other than Mae, but only because she is so annoying so of course she would stand out in a jarring way, the rest of the team don't make much of an impression. Alana De La Garza often was a saving grace, but she has little to work with here. Most of the acting is not very good, with the only "great" performance coming from Forsythe. Anya Monzikova seemed rather stiff to me as a somewhat cold character. The supporting characters, other than Forsythe, are not very interesting and don't come over as real people.
Most of the chemistry is disconnected apart from the Garrett subplot, just no development with the rest of the team and Glazunova is a cipher. The less said about Barnes the better. On paper, the climax sounded exciting but actually for my tastes it was on the predictable side. Very like the story overall, initially intriguing but could have done with a lot more tension and urgency and there is not an awful lot of surprises here.
Further non-improvements are the production values. It still looks choppy and there is nothing authentic about the setting. The music could have been less in tone and placement and the direction lacks momentum and personality. Merely "getting the job done and going through the motions doing so" like. The dialogue is stilted and difficult to take seriously, was cringing a good deal of the time.
Concluding, mediocre end to a mostly very poorly done show that had only one fluke halfway decent episode ("La Huesuda"). 4/10.
"The Ripper of Riga" turned out to be the final episode of 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' before it was cancelled after two seasons. And while by 'Beyond Borders' standards it could have been a lot worse it really isn't a great way overall to end a show. It is one of the better episodes of Season 2, a huge improvement over the dreadful previous two outings, and one of the least bad episodes of 'Beyond Borders', but is still very flawed and still not particularly good.
Am going to start with what "The Ripper of Riga", attention grabbing episode title don't you think, did good on. William Forsythe brings a good unnerving edge to his role in what is by far one of the best individual performances of 'Beyond Borders' run. Gary Sinise gives by far one of his better performances of the show, as there is actually some intensity to his acting here that wasn't there in most of his previous episodes. The subplot between the two does have tension and is actually more interesting than the case.
Like most episodes of Season 2, "The Ripper of Riga" also starts on a promising note. The unsub is one of the better ones, one that has more menace than most for the show, most unsubs compile a long list of unsubs with vanilla personalities and development.
Did think though that there was too much focus on Garrett's subplot, which meant that the rest of the team were on the underused side. Other than Mae, but only because she is so annoying so of course she would stand out in a jarring way, the rest of the team don't make much of an impression. Alana De La Garza often was a saving grace, but she has little to work with here. Most of the acting is not very good, with the only "great" performance coming from Forsythe. Anya Monzikova seemed rather stiff to me as a somewhat cold character. The supporting characters, other than Forsythe, are not very interesting and don't come over as real people.
Most of the chemistry is disconnected apart from the Garrett subplot, just no development with the rest of the team and Glazunova is a cipher. The less said about Barnes the better. On paper, the climax sounded exciting but actually for my tastes it was on the predictable side. Very like the story overall, initially intriguing but could have done with a lot more tension and urgency and there is not an awful lot of surprises here.
Further non-improvements are the production values. It still looks choppy and there is nothing authentic about the setting. The music could have been less in tone and placement and the direction lacks momentum and personality. Merely "getting the job done and going through the motions doing so" like. The dialogue is stilted and difficult to take seriously, was cringing a good deal of the time.
Concluding, mediocre end to a mostly very poorly done show that had only one fluke halfway decent episode ("La Huesuda"). 4/10.
