Criminal Minds (TV Series) A Real Rain (2006) User Reviews

Good, But Could Have Been Much Better

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 27 January 2007]

New York City is the scene where the BAU travels after a third person is killed the same way as two others. The victims are shot, then stabbed with a flint-type knife and then blindfolded. After a fourth murder, the team has a new profile: a vigilante serial killer. All the victims are people who walked after being charged with serious crimes. The blindfold supposedly represents the blindfolded lady justice figure you see on scales.

There were a lot of interesting profiling details about vigilantes. It seems these BAU guys can't stop talking about criminals, even at dinner out at a Chinese restaurant. Sometimes I wonder if the TV writers don't add to the profiling truths that are spoken, just to embellish and dramatize, but I don't know that for sure.

Anyway, the episode was interesting but not as suspenseful in the last 10 minutes as I would have expected since they were hunting a killer about to claim another victim. It almost was anti-climactic the way they portrayed it.

I detected a bit of elitism on the part of Gideon and his group who see themselves and knowing and being a lot wiser than the public.....in this case with their thoughts about vigilantes and justice. That was brought out a few times, especially at the very end with "the man on the street interviews."

Fast paced but they miss some clues

[moysant · 7/10 · 10 November 2006]

The team is off to New York to find a vigilante killer who seems to be killing random victims, but their connection soon becomes clear. The team misses at least one obvious clue (and I can't believe they didn't have information on the murder weapon before the fourth victim!) early on - but I suppose solving the case in half an hour wouldn't make much of a show, now would it?

There is some really nice 'personal' stuff between the group especially when they go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. There is talk of a previous case Gideon and Hotchner worked on that turned out badly and it gives an indication of how they deal with the legal system when it lets them down. This is echoed in the conclusion to this case, which confused me a little - what were the writers trying to imply? It isn't clear even with the last words from the newscast. And it isn't clear whether Gideon is upset or not with the outcome. May be the writers are being vague on purpose, but sometimes it just comes out as sloppy.

Elle's attitude to the job is beginning to grate. She points out over dinner that they only ever talk about cases even when having a nice dinner in New York, and last episode she asked Hotchner if it was strange that they were all available at short notice on a Saturday night to hunt a killer. No-one else does. Hasn't she been told this is a 24/7 job?

Still, an entertaining episode.

Among the best episodes of Season 1

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 7 October 2016]

Season 1, like with all the seasons of 'Criminal Minds' (for me Season 4 is the best season), is not a consistent season. When it is good, it is very good to outstanding, when it isn't so much, it's average or worse.

There are some fantastic episodes in the season, such as "The Fox", "Charm and Harm", "Riding the Lightning", "Compulsion", "Extreme Aggressor" and "Broken Mirror" (also really liked "What Fresh Hell" and "Somebody's Watching"). Only "Machismo" (one of the lesser episodes of 'Criminal Minds' in general) is mediocre at best, though "The Popular Kids" and "Blood Hungry" also had potential to be much better.

"A Real Rain" is not without its flaws, but on the most part it was one of the season's best episodes. After such an intense build-up, it was somewhat of a disappointment that the ending was as anti-climactic as it was which did dilute the suspense. Also have never really warmed to Elle, she comes over as cold, egotistical and annoying often and played often with little personality by Lola Glaudini. While worse in other episodes, especially "Machismo", "A Real Rain" doesn't make me feel any different.

However, the production values are top notch as is the haunting and affecting use of music. The script is one of the tightest and most thought-provoking of the season, with some really nice personal touches like the interaction between Gideon and Hotch and the terrific Chinese Dinner scene so lovingly done, the profiling is one of the season's most interesting and the story is one of the season's most tautly paced and suspenseful ones.

Performances, with the sole exception of Glaudini, are very good indeed. Of the regulars, Mandy Patinkin and Thomas Gibson are particularly strong and Ethan Phillips is cast beautifully as the unsub.

All in all, excellent episode and one of the season's best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Bang

[amckee-64063 · 22 August 2017]

What I found particularly interesting about this episode was the fact that from a different angle, the unsub could actually be the hero of this story. Has anyone else recently watched a show involving a man in a hood who lives in a city and shoots people that have supposedly committed crimes(Arrow)? One show portrays such a person as a long-term hero, the other one keeps him around for less than forty minutes. To each their own.

Also, if we're talking about similarities between Arrow and Criminal Minds, has anyone thought to compare Felicity Smoak and Penelope Garcia? Both are witty, bubbly, blonde, brilliant computer hackers with a sexual interest in a musclebound main character. They also (SPOILERS) both get shot at one point, although Penelope comes off slightly better from her encounter.

Good for nothing particularly special

[lottiemarshalllm · 6/10 · 30 July 2020]

Disclaimer:I am no expert reviewer, I just need a show to binge watch and I'm going to Write a review for every episode I watch.

Some things I did like about this episode was I thought the plotline of a deranged vigilante is very intriguing yet after a while I just kind of got a little boring I guess.

And just be 17 episodes of the show that I've watched they've already betrayed a person with delusions better and I felt like the story was very repetitive and almost rushed.

The ending was not satisfying and honestly boring. I will say that I thought it was interesting that the killer was directly involved in all of these court cases.

Personally I think if the writers had dug a little deeper into the subplot about New York citizens being polarized on whether the Killer was a good or bad presence in the city would've been a lot more interesting rather than just giving us a second killer as a distraction.

Still a good episode with pretty good writing but just not as Memorable as some of the episodes that came before it.