b-adams44 Reviews

Criminal Minds: 100 (2009) Season 5, Episode 9

Stunning

[10/10 · 16 August 2014]

I dare you to find me an episode of Criminal Minds that is written this well to provide tense and interesting story, as well as the superb acting from all actors involved.

I always enjoy when procedural shows start at the end, especially when the tension created at the start is actually shown to carry through right to the end (tension created at the start of an episode that is then diffused halfway through the episode in a poor way = a big no-no).

From the first second, you knew something terrible had happened. It was immediately made clear that Hotch was involved somehow, but quite rightly, they never showed Hotch in the present-day interview scenes until after it was shown that he had survived The Reaper's attack.

The two scenes with Jack and Hotch, talking about Jack "working the case", are two of the most emotional scenes I have ever seen on television. Couple that with the final exchange between Hotch and Haley and you had all the emotion that an episode needs.

The fight scene between Hotch and Foyet was superb. You could feel the anger flowing through Hotch, and were completely cheering him on to kill Foyet.

Though the episode was Hotch-focused, Matthew Gray Gubler was superb, in particular, in his interview scene.

This was one of the best, if not the best, episode of the show.

Arrow: Seeing Red (2014) Season 2, Episode 20

One of the best endings... but not much else

[8/10 · 4 July 2014]

This episode was a mixed bag for the show. While the final seven minutes made for some of the best, most tense television I've seen, the rest of the episode's mediocrity is only partly made up for by the ending.

Roy's story was, by this point, nothing short of a bore. While Colton Haynes played the role fantastically, there was very little from the story that was interesting.

Caity Lotz played an abysmal story well. After being convinced by Laurel in 2.17 that she is a hero, and not wanting to be a killer any more, the second Roy spirals out of control: 'Yeah let's kill him'. While I don't disagree with this mentality, it felt ridiculous that Sara said it. Then her whine at the end followed by her leaving town? Irritating.

The flashbacks felt placed solely for the purposes of Moira's death, though the introduction of a child for Oliver will play out eventually. Again, while Amell and Thompson played those scenes well, there was some poor dialogue there.

Luckily, the ending managed to save this episode from being totally terrible. Shocking, emotional. Susanna Thompson was incredible. It was a great way for Moira to go out, and narratively logical (Slade's quest for revenge upon Oliver, as well as mirroring Shado's death).

The directing and editing in the ending was also spectacular. The staging of the choice scene similarly to Shado's death (blonde on Oliver's left, brunette on his right) was fantastic, as was the zoom out shot of Moira in the flashback transforming to Moira lying dead in the present.

A mediocre episode (that would otherwise have been given a 5/10 from me) gets a 7/10.