Criminal Minds spoiler thread for "The Fight" written by Chris Mundy and Edward Allen Bernero and starring Joe Mantegna, Thomas Gibson, Paget Brewster, Shemar Moore, A.J. Cook, Matthew Gray Gubler and Kirsten Vangsness.
** Beware of spoilers in the comments **
** Quote and song info will be posted once the episode has aired on the east coast **
171 comments:
Honestly not crazy about the idea of a spin-off (trying to remain open-minded) but it will be good to see our team back in action. They've been missed these last few weeks.
Appears that Rossi and the Forest Whitaker character know each other--probably worked together before the spin-off team went rouge.
I'm excited to see our BAU team back in action but not excited about the spin-off
I can't wait for tonight's episode. It looks great and the new team looks interesting.
I love the idea of having 2 hours a week with BAU teams!! Bring on the spin-off!!
-mmadeen
This episode will be a action pack story!!! Can't wait! Go Team BAU!
The fact that Rossi and Hotch know Cooper from the old days will maybe brings us some good reminiscing moments...
Cooper "just like the old days"
Rossi "don't go getting all sentimental on me"
note: happy to see the team back again and in a great action episode but not happy about the spin-off.
can't wait for this episode! I miss CM, three weeks without a new episode is pure torture!
Brigitte
I'm cautiously looking forward to tonight... I'm in dire need of a CM/Hotch fix and hoping our cast aren't merely guesting on their own show. We'll see...
I'm really looking forward to the new CM epi!! but still don't like the idea of a spin-off.
I'm not looking foward to the spin-off and I won't watch it unless if there's a crossover with CM.
But I'm really excited about this episode...
Go Emily!!!!
LOL, they should know we fanatics love our cast too much.. if they were to put them into 'shadow' on their own show with this new team.. there'd be some pissed fans. :]
Just saying.
But seriously, I'm looking forward to this episode. It'll be awesome.
My first impression on the episode was a good one! I really liked the british guy, it was an interesting case, and I liked the team dynamics.
If it continues like this I could see myself watching the spin off
:-D
Have a problem with this show as well. Don't get the new team. Is it the trash unit? They sure are dressed for the "job" of garbage collection. Impressive, all of them are supervisory special agents ... How is that possible? Most agents remain special agents until they retire and those youngster look like college kids who don't know how to dress or shave.
Seems like neither producers nor writers care about being authentic. Really hope this show doesn't turn into a poorly done "action" show. Who's the producer again? Die Hard Bruce Willis? ;)
Lost a fan here. Don't like where CM is going. Are we going after the wrestling, cage fighting crowd now?
Strauss is the division chief! How come they call her director now? The show has become increasingly inconsistent. Sad. Perhaps it was a mistake to fire so many good writers ...
Yuck, yuck, yuck. I thought I was watching fight club. Didn't like that movie either but at least it had Pitt in it and had a much better story line.
Whitaker is a great actor. He was the highlight of the episode. Otherwise disappointing: Not much of a real life drama or FBI show anymore. That's what attracted me in the beginning. Where are you taking CM?
A concerned fan :(
Great to see Hotch & Co again. Didn't like "The Fight" and the new team though. After watching tonight's episode I must say I'm not interested in the spin-off at all. Keep CM clean!
Why is it that you need to make your current team look like incompetents just to boost the other team? Lost my respect and any chance for watching a spinoff. And when did Strauss get promoted and why was she sucking up to Cooper? Good grief. Only saving grace was some decent time for Hotch; been way too long.
Bring back our show minus the intruders!
Let me guess, Jim Clemente had nothing to do with this episode and the spin-off ...
Looks like it was written by people who have absolutely no clue.
Cheers Megan, Nina, Ashley!
Couldn't have said it better!
D.
I wasn't expecting much this episode because I knew the focus would be on the spin-off cast but I still ended up being disappointed. Did not find the case or the spin-off cast interesting, not even the wonderful Forest Whitaker.
Got to erase "The Fight" from memory. Watch first seasons of CM. I don't think Bernero cares about the show & fans anymore. Horrible! Step down B. and let Clemente take over! He should be available now that he's retired.
Does NBC still show SVU? I think I switch back to that show. Can only be better than the "new" CM.
I'm mad. Thanks for messing up a good show! >:(
I'm disappointed in the spin-off. Forest Whitaker's always good, but is there a rule that says that they have to have a 3 men to 1 woman ratio? (Also, I'm annoyed that, when a woman's in charge, they have to show what a maverick the new male lead is by having him disobey a direct order and then not suffer any penalty for it. I don't care if he's right or wrong. I'd fire him.)
Even better, one of the men on the new team sexually harasses female team members. I didn't love that Shemar did it, and I don't think it's charming here (nor does his British accent make him more interesting. By now, that's a cliche).
I had faint hopes that a spin-off might mean seeing Nicholas Brendon more, but I guess not.
Overall, much as I enjoyed seeing the regulars, this new cast was really not very interesting.
Nope, didn't like it. Didn't like the new BAU team at all. There's only one BAU team and that is Hotch's team!
In case you writers don't know: BAU doesn't do undercover work and doesn't have to dress down like that! Get your facts straight!
I really *want* to like the new show, but this ep has so far squashed my hopes. Where's the psycholgical insight? Where's the human drama? It just seems like lots of guns and helicopters and testosterone. Not to mention completely unrealistic cases.
Which is fine, but completely generic and lacking in what makes Criminal Minds so interesting. If the new show really is like this, why should I watch it instead of, say, NCIS: LA?
Seriously, didn't like the new team and theme. That's all.
Long time lurker, first time commenter here. Been watching CM since the beginning. I must say I absolutely hated tonight's show (with the exception of Hotch). I don't like this new BAU team, and I found the writing to be lackluster at best. I hope this ep isn't the future of what I consider to be the best show on TV.
Yeah, that's it. I was wondering the entire time what other show this epi reminded me off. NCIS LA. Bernero must be a fan. I'm not.
Okay. I got a stiff vibe from the entire cast of CM during this episode..
I did not like it. Spin-off team wasn't appealing to me, at all.
I did not like that Brit hitting on Prentiss. She didn't seem -too- happy with it either. I don't know, egotistical scruffy guys have that effect on me, I suppose.
AJ and TG were right. -.-
I didn't hate it. I thought it was well acted and well written. It just isn't going to work..the spin.
We got to see Hotch smile. That was nice.
Whitaker is not a good lead for a new show. Like his work but he doesn't have what it takes.
Tonight....blah! And why weren't they working out of an office?
The story was predictable. And boring.
Matt Ryan was the only cast member of the new group that I would care to watch weekly. He was terrific. The rest, not so much.
I've liked Forest Whitaker & Michael Kelly in every role I've ever seen them in, but I didn't care for either of them on this.
Very disappointed.
If this doesn't move forward, I hope they let Matt join up with Hotch & bunch!
Hotch in his suit looked so out of place. Doesn't look like an FBI show anymore.
Is that why Bernero wanted to get rid of TG?
Did not like!
Well...that was interesting.
Forrest Whitaker was great - as always.
I liked that the other BAU members are very different from the original team BUT they make me think of the new NCIS team...kind of had that feel to it - which I don't like.
There were several things that I just didn't understand...maybe I missed some dialogue along the way that explains it.
It was good to see our team...I've missed them.
It was better than I thought it was going to be and I will watch - at least the first few episodes.
...and the British guy is cute...but not as cute as Reid...no one is as cute as Reid. :)
Not as bad as I thought it would be. Not great either.
Good things
- More Hotch than in recent episodes.
- Lots of Emily and I always enjoy snarky Emily.
- We had a plane scene, love those.
- Like the ending with the teams relaxing.
- I did like the brit guy, he was kind of funny.
Things I didn't like:
- the new team looking anything but FBI agents working for the Elite squad that is the BAU. I am sure the only reason the woman did open the door to Cooper and Hotch it was because Hotch did look like a FBI agent.
- How can an ex-con be a FBI agent?
- Since when is Strauss the director?
- Why Is Strauss so happy with Cooper and gives him praise for basically going against her orders and yet if Hotch does step a bit away from rules and regulations she suspend him?
- why reuse an actor, Jason Wiles who played an unsub in Psychodrama as the vic? that threw me off for a sec.
- the profiling felt a bit rush as if with all that was happening the writers thought ' Oh we need some profiling somewhere'
So, the big question is, will I watch the spin off? No, not as it is sold to us as another BAU team. For me there is just one BAU team, that is how the show was established at the start and now we are told they have another one. Sorry don't buy it.
But I wish you Chris Mundy and Ed Bernero good luck with the spin off.
Brigitte
I watched tonight out of respect for the one and only BAU team cast. They did not disappoint but unfortunately, they didn't get much chance to shine. I am sooooo not remotely interested in a spinoff. Leave CM team be, they're much more interesting.
Nice to see the boss-man smile! Hoping for a return to some normalcy next week... less violence, more subtlety.
Nope, didn't like it one bit. Please don't go the Prentiss/sniper route. This show does so well without those types of relationships.
Well...I do love Forest Whitaker, I didn't enjoy the flirting between Prentiss and the British guy.JJ and Reid were practically non-existent for the whole episode. I also found myself a little confused at times, were they BAU or not?
Strauss seems a little inconsistent. She almost has apolexy when Hotch dares to step out of line ,yet Cooper's insubordination barely merits a slap on the wrist. Maybe she's nuts.
There wasn't too much profiling in this episode.I missed it.
On a side note. The season is almost over, are we Reid fans going to get at least one Reid centric episode?
Dear TPTB:
I'd take Hotch and his team over those others any day of the week.
If you want us to be on board with a spin off, don't do it by making our wonderful team take a back seat.
This was not a CM epi. Too macho and testosterone filled. What happened to leaving it to the audience's imagination, EB & CM?
Keep our characters IN character. Strauss was a joke.
A message to CBS: Enough with the spin-offs!
This episode lacked everything that makes Criminal Minds such a hit. Way to ruin a great show.
Episode was... fine... We saw a lot about the other team but not much of ours. There were some good moments of interactions between the member of each team, Hotch and Cooper (which was great because we saw Hotch smile a lot) Emily and the Brit, Rossi and the ex-con, Morgan and Gina. It was mostly an intro to the other team and I guess it was what CBS and the production was aiming for.Did watch it because it was CM and our team. Emely was awesome in the running scene and btw, hope Paget didn't hurt to much after that stunt scene.
I sure hope that we won’t get too much cross over in the future because tonight wasn’t the action pack story I was hoping for. It was deceiving to see that some of the members of our team didn’t get much appearance. JJ, Read and Garcia weren’t there a lot and most of all to my own deception Rossi was there for 7 minutes maybe... Felt like there were a lot of cliché.
Strauss congratulating Cooper felt so...ugh! She has a hard time saying to Hotch that he has done a good job! I did love the idea thought that Hotch went out of line a little to to the job. But I can't wait to get back to ur team doing there awesome job together.
Not going to watch the spin off for sure, unless Rossi or Hotch cross over... (Hope they won't. Please Joe and Thomas don't go to the spin off to often )
I'm sure that some people who read this comment section act surprised or hurt. I wonder why. You had a good show going, focused on real FBI work and now digress. Is it really that surprising that many of us loyal fans don't like where CM and its dumb spin-off is heading? It all started with Morgan who evolved from a clean cut believable FBI agent into this pseudo combat dude. The new team is even worse. The only one of the old team who fit in was Morgan. What losers! Do you really have to call it CM spin off? A BAU unit? "Supervisory" special agent my ass. You got to be kidding. So ridiculous. Hotch looked misplaced. Give him a Mohawk, 3 day beard, nose-ring and put him in ripped, baggy jeans that hang below his ass and he won't look quite so out of place. Perhaps you can have him knock off some 20+ new girl-friend and you have a real "good" new thing going! Let's see if your new fans will be as loyal as your old ones.
Love to have (finally) a new episode with our team BUT I didn't like the spin off! Agree with other comments: this was just crappy, too much violence, too much like any other TV crime show. Not the old smart case !
I truly hope this was just because of the spin-off and not a new habit.
really if someone from the production or creative team reads this: Please please please bring the old smart cases, bring OUR team back and be careful with continuity please
I'm very disappointed in Mundy. Oh do I miss our old CM writers!
Weak show. Don't feel like tuning in next week. If something better comes up, I won't watch.
CM has had one of the most loyal fan base. Nice way of repaying that loyalty!
Sorry folks, not my type of show.
Valerie
Ick. Cliched plot, cliched characters (an arrogant Brit, a former convict); cliched nicknames ("Prophet"?), and what's meant to be ramped up action scenes? The spin-off looks like it'll be flat as can be. If CBS wants me to watch it, they'll give it a good first hour on its own, with better writing than this stinker of an ep.
In one word? Meh.
The story didn't interest me. I didn't care about the characters - I did kind of like Mick, but the others are forgettable.
We did get a bit more of Hotch and Emily but the rest of our team was MIA.
I certainly hope that the spin-off doesn't take all our writer's time and efforts away from CM, because it would be a shame to take the talent away from a proven hit show to work on a spin-off of dubious quality.
So dissapointed!
Valerie has a very valid point here: CM has an extremely loyal fan base so you guys have to be careful here, this wasn't anything like the CM we love and care for.
Can't believe Mundy, who has given us great episodes like Demonology or Penelope wrote this thing
Are we allowed to bash the new "team?" I went WTF about every 5 minutes. Boring, predictable and ridiculous, unbelievable character and theme. Is real life and real police work, real-life cops/agents that boring that you have to embellish and distort that much Mr. Bernero?
Can't see any real FBI agent signing off on that episode nor the new spin-off.
I wasn't opposed to the spinoff going in and I'm still not exactly.
Can't say this was my favorite CM episode of the season. I watch CM for the profiling, which was missing here. I never really got that the profile caught the unsub. The second reason I watch is for the characters, who were present but not exactly there. There was too much effort to cram too much characterization into a single episode, and everyone suffered for it.
I think I would have preferred to see Hotch and team work an 'A' case and Cooper and team work the 'B' case, as proposed in the first few minutes. I had high hopes in the first scene, but then it became clear that Cooper's gut had led him to the 'real' case and Hotch & Co quickly got on board. Hazards of a back door spinoff.
Seriously, if this spinoff gets picked up, I hope that the team either gets on board with the BAU, or gets branded as something else entirely. Secondly, I hope that the team gets dismantled and Cooper ends up with some believable agents-- not ex cons and British snipers. CBS needs to quit competing with itself for the most bizarre collection of crime-fighters. The ex con is probably the one that jumps the shark for me. You cannot tell me that in a post 9-11 world someone who spent six years in prison would be offered a position in the FBI. I can't suspend my disbelief enough for that one. I can buy Cooper, I can probably buy Gina. Snipers and ex-cons though? No. I might have bought Cooper as a rogue agent with an unusual collection of 'contacts', but do not try to sell these people as agents.
And why couldn't there have been just a little conflict between the teams? All of the fuss all the time about needing to be invited in, but Hotch and the entire team just disregard that for this episode. How convenient. It would have been a much more interesting episode if Hotch had told Cooper to keep his involvement on the down-low and Rossi had found out and ripped him a new one for being a hypocrite.
Anyway. Looking forward to future episodes and will reserve judgment of the spinoff for the fall, if it gets picked up. In the mean time, I'll just wait patiently for the return of the show I arrange my schedule around.
I was anti-spinoff, still am. But I actually liked the episode. We had team interaction, which we really haven't had in the past few episodes. We had a Hotch smile, not once but twice. We even had a small bit about Rossi's backstory.
Someone mentioned upthread about Strauss being called director. I think that was honestly an editing flub. They did have someone cast as the director, but her part was cut out because I don't think she is doing the spin anymore. It was still great to see Jayne Atkinson as Strauss; even though it seems like she gave Cooper an easier time than she would have given Hotch had he done the same thing.
Not loving that they used a helicopter. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't like it. I realize it was the only way to actually find the guy, but it didn't fit.
Still confused about Cooper. Is he actually still BAU? I know they said he got to pick his own team, which was why the others were there. I like Matt Ryan's character. I want to know more about Mick and Gina. But Michael Kelly's character just felt so out of place.
The music? I don't usually comment about that stuff but it was a little overwhelming.
I was expecting not to like it, but this was way worse than I expected. I'm not even sure I was watching CM. Hotch being submissive and ordered around by Cooper (really?), all the breaks being made by the new team and our team looking like newbie incompetents (again...what do our guys do for a living?), Prentiss shamlessly fishing for information(if she did she'd be a little more subtle) Give me a break!
Garcia was nowhere to be seen, neither were JJ or Reid...So I ask again, was that CM?
No, that wasn't CM. That was a slick version of the CM actors acting like a support cast whose sole and unique purpose was to make the new team shine. Badly done and a huge disappointment. I would have thought our writers would care more about this show.
Wow. That was a pale imitation of a show I so highly respect. I get that CBS & the CM producers want to make money. Messing with one of the top rated shows, running the spin-off concept into the ground and putting together a ridiculous "team" that actually mocks what's so important about the CM team. It's pretty insulting, and I'd much rather these brilliant, creative minds get back to doing what they do better than anyone out there - write and produce complex, fascinating episodes of Criminal Minds. If you need a reminder as to what that's like, I can give you many examples.
Don't even know where to start, the violence was brutal, the thought of a former inmate now being a FBI Agent is so ludicrous I won't even go there.......like 10 seconds of Reid, JJ and Garcia just was an insult.......Whittaker as always a great performance, wonderful to see Hotch being well, Hotch........thought Rossi looked really good in this episode, very dapper.......the new blonde agent acted like a bimbo........an agent leaving their scope and firearm on a rooftop, pahlease..........all in all I disliked this intensely and have no intention of ever watching the spin-off, actually like Strauss in this one..........and btw does anyone know why I cannot access the criminalmindsfanatic.net site, it's down..........so no message board, which is driving me crazy......the Celt
Hi does anyone know when "the fight" was filmed in SF? I was dining in SF with my BF and he said to me the guy next to us is Joe Mantegna. I said no way , why would he be in SF. Now that I am watching tonight episode. I believe it was him & regret that I didn't get a chance to say Hi =(
Let me start off by saying that Chris Mundy has always been one of my favorite CM writers. In Name and Blood, Penelope, The Instincts, and of course Demonology all rank amongst my favorite CM eps of all time. This, however, will not.
OMG! Our team was made to seem incompetent, like thank god this other team was there or they would have never solved this case. Frankly, I expected more from CM than what we were given tonight. It's as if it was forgotten that our original BAU team is the best in their field.
I mentioned before the episode aired that it would be good to have our team back in action. I guess I'll have to wait one more week for that. I can only imagine how tough it must have been for Thomas, Paget, AJ, Kirsten, Joe, Matthew and Shemar to shoot this episode. They deserve better.
In short, my opened mind in now closed.
In fact the more I think about tonights show, now I am just mad, I have been watching CM since episode 1, have never missed one show and do not watch any other TV ever, so if this spin off turns out to cause the demise of the only show I watch I am going to be so upset.....I cannot believe with the feedback that is showing up so far, that they will even consider continuing with a spin off, do yourselves a favour creators and save yourself a lot of money and drop it now..............the Celt
What we saw tonight was Criminal Minds? Seriously?!
Where was the real profiling? Where were JJ, Pen, Reid?
Bring CM BACK
Oh and please tell me that guy is not going to be around Emily anymore?!
I never thought I'd dislike a Criminal Minds episode as much as I disliked this one. This wasn't CM to me and it's the worst episode I ever saw. I didn't recognize any of the characters. They might as well have been Jim, Joe and Judy not Hotch, Morgan and Emily. It didn't sound like CM, it didn't feel like CM and like someone said before me...it felt like just a shameless promo for the spin off team and everything was set up so they could make that team shine at the expense of our own. The other team caught all the breaks, made all the important discoveries. Unfortunately that made our team look like incompetent rookies. I didn't like it, to put it mildly.
The CM producer(s) and writers don't seem to longer care about making a believable, realistic show. Perhaps it's greed, perhaps laziness. Who knows.
It was a joke. Hotch and his team-members (the few we got to see) were pathetic pawns of the new "stars." Strauss suddenly promoted to director? Oversight or not, a bad mistake that shows how little the writer and producer cared. While we all caught it they didn't even though the episode was reviewed, edited etc.? I'm not just COMPLETELY turned off when it comes to the new bogus BAU team but if this is an indication of how little time and effort will be devoted to this CM in the future I'll move on.
As a mature and educated viewer I feel insulted.
Honestly this is the worst Criminal Minds episode in all seasons
I can't believe, like other comments says, they make the team look so incompetent. And give me a break is the other team really a group of profilers?
Gee such a bad episode.
Production really needs to put back the attention on the original CM group, give us way much better episodes
Extremely bad episode. Why bother to even have our cast there since they were little more than window dressing.
Complete lack of respect...for fans, for cast and for characters. Shame!
I hated this episode. This wasn't my show! Infact, it made me really angry! They made our originals seem incompetent! Why make Prentiss out to be some damsel in distress who needs a man to save her, she is more then capable of looking after herself.
The British guy bugged me more then words can describe! Couldn't stand the forced flirting with Prentiss.
Don't get me started on ex-con in the FBI... I can't even...
The blondes acting in the roof scene was so awlful that I would've jumped too!
What happened to Reid & JJ? Did they decide this 'cool new team' had everything under control so they'd just hang out until everyone came back for a beer?! The toast at the end (that sound you hear is me banging my head against a brick wall)
I was willing to give the spin-off a chance... I'm not anymore! I'm just glad the new team has gone now so we can get back to the show & cast I love!
I couldn't even watch it to the end..
This was one of the worst episodes I have seen. like someone said Cliche. The new team bothered the heck out of me, I couldn't even watch it to the end. They made it seem like our team were just back-up. :[
Were we all watching the same episode? It almost seems like a conspiracy here! I loved The Fight. Was it the best ep. ever? No. But I'd say way way up there. Top 5 even! I thought Cooper and the new team were very cool. It was good they were a little different, not carbon copies of Hotch et al... And I hope to god they pick it up! Then it'd be two hours of CM! Lots of opportunities with this rag tag group! Cool episode!
ok "Anonymous" who started their post......"I hated this episode", you rocked it, I laughed my socks off at your comments...........so true..........me thinks we have sent the message loud and clear, give it up now before you cause yourself anymore embarassment or lawsuit from the FBI....basically this show was a joke and I am thinking that AJ, Matthew and Kirsten phoned in sick for the entire filming rather than be associated with this episode...........unfortunately the other poor cast members were probably required to show up..........what I don't truly understand is that Ed B was a police officer, I cannot imagine why he has associated himself with this garbage..............
I alternated between Zzzzzz and a desire to have some wine with my "cheese". Because MAN, that episode was boring as hell and beyond CHEESE CITY!! The cheesiest line in the entire episode: "And so the Prophet speaks." *GAG!!!!! GAG! GAAAAGG!!!* The only good parts were the parts that were in the promo!! (Hotch smiling, Prentiss being sassed and her reply "A gun", and Hotch "we need a chopper") I am just as shocked as everyone else seems to be. It seemed like they spent a lot of time on this episode so why did it still feel like it was slapped together??? Forest Whitaker is an intense actor so why did his performance feel flat? Was it because the episode itself was flat? Why is Strauss the director all of a sudden? Why wasn't she her usual praying mantis self and bite Cooper's head off at the end instead of promising him more cases? Is it because she only has it in for Hotch?? Where was the awesome Mary Steenburgen? Why didn't the British guy sound British? Why do you need a sniper on the roof when all you need him to do is basically look through a pair of binoculars/telescope to try and spot the unsub (no shooting involved). Geez, you don't have to be a sniper to do that. And why sniper as his specialty? That's way too specialized to be useful in every case. Why were the B team members' stories/character so cliched? Why were Reid, JJ, and Garcia barely in the episode? Why would Hotch allow such extreme rule breaking when he wouldn't even allow it for one of his own (Prentiss in Demonology). Why has the consistency of quality of the show and continuity/consistency with the character traits/story lines of the original characters gone downhill??? Why have a spinoff if it's going to hurt the original this much? Someone mentioned EB wanted to get rid of TG?? Why would EB want to get rid of TG when Hotch is the anchor of the team and TG has the largest fanbase (IMO anyway)?? Why get rid of writers and then possibly lose more writers to the spin-off?? Why would CBS keep wanting to do spin-offs? If they're not careful they're going to end up like TLC. It used to be The Learning Channel but now all they do is family reality shows or short people family reality shows. They are now The LAME-O Channel. Please don't take that route, CBS. I already think of you as the Cop channel with all your NCIS and CSI spinoffs. Is that ALL you want your network to be known for? Ugh. I am terribly frustrated and disappointed..... after 3 whole weeks of no new episodes (which were preceded by a "meh" episode), this is the episode they bring us? UGH!!!!!!!!!!! You know the episode is bad when I would rather watch Kate "the Beyotch" Gosselin "dance"/writhe/walk like a zombie on the dancefloor. OY!!!
Dear Santa,
Please scrap the spin-off and instead, use the money to re-hire some of the writers that were cut due to budget and bring the level of CM back to where it was before. Maybe even hire someone to be in charge of continuity and consistency. I promise to stay off the naughty list.
Sending all my love to Rudolph and the elves,
CB xoxo
P.S. I'll even make you some tiramisu cupcakes instead of cookies this year. Just please grant me my wish. kthxbai
I tried to watch the episode without thinking about it being the BIG spin off episode so I could just enjoy the CM part of it but I think the new cast out shadowed our cast. I liked the case they worked on but I would have liked to have had our BAU team acting more like themselves. All in all it was an okay episode. I do really think things will get back to normal now that this episode is over.
I am afraid I missed the episode.
WasMary Steenburgen in the cast?
she was supposed to play THe Director of The BAU.
If Strauss filled her role instead She was probably acting as The Director of The BAU ,
not the Director of The FBI.
CheetoBreath.....I love you.......like seriously maybe this was actually a "Candid Camera" episode for TRUE CM fans.............I would not insult my dog by asking him to watch this, what a waste of money and time............no brilliant Mary Steenburgen and he did not sound Brit because....here's a surprise, he isn't I am and would know a phoney accent a mile away...........TG is an awesome actor and it must have truly humiliated him to act in this episode.......now, since we already know we are the absolute best fan base out there, we need to do something about this insult to the best crime show on TV..........
LOL
Better laugh than cry...it made me laugh because it was sooo bad, inconsistent. Why is Emily suddenly the girl in danger who needs a guy to save her? Why, like other comment said Strauss allows this behaviour on Cooper but would cut Hotchs head if he does something similar?
Bad bad for CM
I really hope we get back much better storylines for the team and the characters (another question, why spending money and time in developing this new people when we preffer to know more about the team -I mean, backstory-?)
I think the creators of CSI Miami, New York.........etc.....blah, blah..... NCIS are so happy right now that the creators of this farce have just put them in a stronger position are laughing their hearts out, like come on ED.B what were you thinking?
Let me just start by saying this, CheetoBreath, please sign my name to your Santa letter as well. Matter of fact, turn it into a Santa petition, I’m sure there will be lots and lots of signatures. Oh, how I miss Andrew Wilder. Omnivore, Minimal Loss, Lucky…. And that’s just one writer.
So how bad was this episode? Let me count the ways.. I didn't read all of the comments but it seems a safe assumption that I agree with the majority of the people here. This episode was awful, the darkest spot of the season, to say nothing of the series itself. I don’t know if I agree on the reasons behind its being so bad though. For me, the writing, the storyline, neither was even close to being the worst produced by the show. (Personally, I believe that title belongs to either Brothers in Arms or House on Fire but that’s just my opinion. And they kept that Holly chick around. Go figure.)
I feel that the horrid nature of the episode lies in the fact that, and it's already been said, there was such a huge mishandling of the characters. And considering a lot of people, myself included, were already wary of the spin-off, I don't think the best way to go about setting up this new "team" was to make a mockery of the characters we already know and love. They all looked like they were fresh out of training. And is anyone else annoyed by the fact that we got almost as much (if not more) personal information about these new people than we have about Hotch & Company in the five years they’ve been appearing on our screens? How’s that for a slap in the collective face of the fans? Or perhaps a nice one finger salute…
I was very disappointed, and I wasn’t expecting all that much, so what does that tell you? The new cast seem like cut-outs from the crime-drama handbook, Forrest’s character rang as fake as a wooden nickel, and there was just nothing there to make me interested in a new show. I’m pretty sure it decreased my interest in the current one, especially if they don’t find their way back to the path they were on last year real soon.
There’s more I could say but it’s been said already and really, I think I’ve devoted more time to this episode than it was worth already, so I’ll just sum it up with this: It was going to take an act of writing and acting genius to make me have even a minor interest in the spin-off. This episode, which I thoroughly believe should be completely discounted from Criminal Minds canon, wasn’t even within spitting distance of being okay, let alone good. Stick with what was working for you, CM people. Rocking the boat is okay, drilling giant holes in the bottom is not.
I must admit I didn' like this episode too much. The new team is featureless, almost boring. Except Whitaker, but I think I only liked him because of his great interaction with the wonderful Thomas Gibson. It was nice to see them working, acting together. But I'm still saying I won't watch the spinoff. I've never watched any spinoff, cuz I don't like them. In my opinion they are just for money-making. I love and support the old, original team. They are the best!
Thomas Gibson, Kirsten Vangsness, Paget Brewster, Shemar Moore, AJ Cook, Matthew Gray Gubler, Joe Mangtegna! We love You!
Anonymus up: i agree we with you we love and support the original team!
Joey and Ashley: you are right! why spending time with this when we want (and deserve because as fans from 5 seasons we do deserve it) more info on the original team
Over in England so won't technically see it for another few weeks, but think I'll be out that Friday when it's shown. I like my crime shows to be entertaining while being as realistic as possible. This sounds the opposite.
What I liked about this episode: Hotch smiled. Repeatedly!!
My condolences to Thomas Gibson & the gang for having to be part of such a stuporous and unnecessary event.
I've read all your comments, well most of them, and I have to agree, it was a letdown, completely. I hate it....
But, I don't get why some of you are saying that this is "the new CM" or that "they messed with the show". This is not how CM is going to be from now on, the other team is going to have it's own show (hopefully not but whatever) and the next episode is only going to feature our team... didn't you get what a 'spin-off' is all about?!?!?
Long time CM fan in Australia, and just finished watching the ep online. My gut feeling when I heard Forest Whittaker had signed up to headline the show was - wrong casting altogether. This episode proved that point. The other three were okay, but the guy who played 'Prophet' has played more bad guys that I'll never get used to him being a good guy - and the 'prophet' speak - rubbish. Here's hoping CBS does NOT pick up this spin off (we all know they will), it will dilute the brilliance of the original and make its shelf life much shorter. My condolences to the entire cast for having to go through that drivel.
Well, the story in itself wasn't too bad.
This new team is different, and the actors were good, but I didn't find it believable (and the ex-con...now that was jumping the shark).
I would have loved to see more of Reid, I miss him so much...The fifth season is almost over and he barely had anything to do.
Please, let him shine !
Not interested in the spinoff!!!
Leave the original show alone, lets not go dwn the CSI/NCIS route!
Gud to see TG smile!!! :)
Painful to watch. Best part, Hotch being more relaxed.
Many inconsistencies: Hotch as unit chief following Cooper's leads and "orders," acting like a castrated bull (perhaps that was why he was smiling?)
New unit consisting of young, undercover type cops but all have supervisory status? Oh please.
Strauss' role? WTF was that all about? Now she's director?
People get your story straight!
Thumbs down on the spin off cast.
OMG, am I the only one who thinks it wasn't that bad?????!!!
I like the new Team. I'd like to know them more. The Story, wasn't that good, ok I agree.
Loved Emily she was so badass!!!!!!
Mick and her flirting was only onsided, nothing special, I only laughed about it.
Hotch smiled, finally!
No Reid, I didn't bother, i'm sure we will see more of him and also JJ, Garcia next time.
Cooper should speak more clearly, I couldn't understand him.
For the rest, I didn't hate it, it wasn't perfect, but not that bad either.
Someone up there asked whether there's a conspiracy against the new show. That's a load of crap. Hey, if you liked it good for you. I just didn't. Others didn't. That doesn't make it a conspiracy just a majority vote against spin-off. Did you scream conspiracy as well when Obama was voted into office?
Geez, grow up!!!
An ex-con as FBI SUPERVISORY agent who dresses like a homeless dude. His mercenary BAU team, our people playing servants to them, a nasty, gory fight scene to attract juvenile boys and immature men to the show? Hey, it's my opinion and I can voice it too.
Tried to watch th episode with an open mind - I was prepared for an hour of good old-fashioned entertainment. It didn't happen; on the contrary, I felt like my head was about to explode for most of it. Definitely looking forward to a resumption of normality next week.
Hey guys! Have been reading the comments and WOAH no one liked it. I thought it was just an off night for me. I look forward to CM all week. Its the one night a week that I put up all my PA notes and just enjoy tv. I was bored last night. I honestly love the little bit of comedy and dialogue that CM has. Everyones snarky comments and feeling of the team as family. It makes me happy. I love the psychological profiling too. Lately that seems to be lacking. And as a vement Reid fan (sorry so cliched but I'm a sucker for MGG)I felt short changed this season. I know part of it can't be helped but I don't feel like we got many character driven episodes this year. I miss those, what can I say I don't like blood and gore I like human characters.
I did love seeing Hotch last night. I've always liked Hotch but never really loved him. I loved him smiling last night!! It really was the only bright spot in the episode for me.
Maybe the show will get the hint. I don't mind rogue agents but come on they are still agents. We don't need another NCIS: LA we can watch that if we want!
Aside from the actual fighting scenes (which I hated), the overall episode wasn’t all bad.
I particularly am pleased that the producers made Hotch’s character equal to Cooper’s; and I hope it stays that way. As the leader of the spinoff, Forest Whitaker is the understood front man, like Gideon was before he left (and I’m really glad he’s gone); even though the producers claimed Gibson and Patinkin were co-leaders. However, unlike the leads on other shows (NCIS, CSI, The Mentalist), the producers seem to push Hotch to the background in order to drive the idea of an ensemble. Well it’s okay to focus on other team members as the others shows do, but they don’t push Mark Harmon, Laurence Fishburne, or Simon Baker to the background. I don’t see them doing that to Forest Whitaker either, if the spinoff is picked up. So they shouldn’t do it to Thomas Gibson, who has more than earned that distinction.
I thought Thomas Gibson looked good and was glad to see him smiling. Forest Whitaker was good; and there appeared to be an easy relationship between him, Hotch and Rossi.
Now for the bad:
I hated the plot and the unnecessary fight scenes; the violence was gratuitous and really didn’t make sense. The lighting was off, especially in the bar scene, everything appeared red on my TV.
The new cast is forgettable, especially the JJ clone. She even wore her hair like JJ does sometimes. It probably would have been better to cast someone of a different ethnicity. I kept saying to myself, JJ could be doing what she’s doing, or at least she could have gotten this screen time. I know these are separate shows, but this was a missed opportunity to do something different. But I guess the BAU doesn’t have or doesn’t hire ethnic female profilers.
The grunge look doesn’t really work for me. I guess I’m used to appreciating beauty, and CM gives us plenty of man-candy and beautiful women to balance out the ugliness, darkness and the violence. The producers and other say that it’s the cases that keep bringing the audience back week to week. That may be true to a certain extent; but Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore and Matthew Gray Gubler are handsome and have amassed their own following because of their looks and talent (especially Gibson’s acting). The ladies are beautiful and have their own following. To look at grunge on top of darkness is a double-negative that simply will cancel each other out. Without Hotch or someone else from the original, this show has little appeal. Aside from Whitaker, who is a known quantity, I found the rest of the cast ordinary, or ordinary with a British accent.
I’m sure this show will be picked up, but I’m happy to say it will be easy for me not to watch it, unless Hotch is making an appearance.
All in favour of pretending last night's episode doesn't exist?
For everyone freaking out about the "NEW" CM, I really don't think you'll have to worry. This season has been consistantly strong and I think that the complete crap that is the new cast brought this episode down more than anything (besides watching our beloved profilers not profile).
I say we all pretend last night was a late April fool's joke, isn't part of CM canon, laugh and move on to looking forward to the REAL return of Criminal Minds next Wednesday! :)
P.S: Ed, if you're reading all this, care to reassure your loyal fans??
I think Hotch (Thomas Gibson) and the team were great. But I don't like the new team and I think the directing of this episode was strange! Sorry, but we need good writhers for the Hotch team.
I don't even know what to say. I feel like almost saying...who are you and what have you done with the CM writers? I see people are excited about Hotch screen time and smiling Hotch. I'm heartbroken about out-of-character Hotch. Hotch being told by Cooper what to do and him being so obedient and always complying is a difficult thing to see. And Prentiss? She was so much out of character last night that I don't know where to begin : gossip, complaining about her being on the street and the guy on the roof, carelessly leaning over the railing, acting like a rookie at the crime scene and leaving the profile to the ex-sniper british guy? Where has the professionalism of our team gotten to? It must have been hard for them to pretend to be working, but not really work so the other team could solve the case. It seems like the writers either don't remember who these characters are or they don't care.
I love Forest Whitaker and think his "Cooper" has some potential. Beyond that, I thought the rest of the new team was disappointing. The blonde woman couldn't look more like JJ if she tried!
Did they really fire writers last year? I'm late to CM, having gotten hooked with reruns on ION at the beach this summer. Since 100 I've found the writing to be pretty spotty. There hasn't been much in the way of real profiling and there's been no character development to speak of. I'm still shocked that Hotch hasn't been shown calling his son since Hailey's funeral - he hasn't even seemed that bothered by all the cases involving children since he's returned - what gives? I'm missing the tight, intriguing show I got hooked on.
I really enjoyed this ep. The only think that really creeped me out was Forest Whittaker's eye. I know he has left eye ptosis but still. I liked Emily's interaction with Mick and that final scene with the unsub was awesome.
Seeing Jason Wiles here was odd. He played the unsub in season 2's Psychodrama. Jason Brooks was typically creepy. He was Stefano's son on Days of our Lives after all.
Over all, I did notice the similarities to Fight Club (which I never saw) and the scene were Jane "turns" on her father was heartbreaking but easy to see that she was protecting her father. I would have liked Strauss to have been a little more humbled but all in all, great ep.
Found Hotch's smile pathetic. So as long as someone in ratty clothes and looks like he hasn't showered in weeks tells him what to do he's happy? Well, then the man should have retired when Strauss offered him. He was weak in the show. Oh yeah, nice to see him smile but like that? Perhaps they new rogue team gave him some dope to smoke. Sure would do the man good anyway.
Cooper's team was entertaining and a lot more fun than the oh so boring and bland Hotch team last night. Made Hotch, Morgan, Prentiss, Rossi look like school girls ... What I don't like is that they are supposed to be FBI, especially BAU. Bernero should sell the show to the SciFi channel.
Poor writing, lots of inconsistencies. If that continues not just spin-off BAU but also CM will go down the toilet.
Where should I start? this was definately the worse CM episode of the entire series! I cannot believe that in the same season and from the same writers we got the best episode of the series '100' and the worse of the series! Wow way to go CM writers!
I don't care for the rebel team that hate bureaucracy but would still work for the FBI. Speaking of FBI, did they lower their standards? How can an ex-con be part of not just the FBI but the elite of the FBI?
Oh and thanks CM writers for making the Hotch team look like idiots on their own show. Since when does Prentiss make stupid mistake like she did on the roof? Since when Hotch is so passive that he took orders from Cooper? Did I miss the episode where they promoted Strauss to director position?
Please CBS, forget the spin off and let the CM writers concentrate on CM.
CM writers, you already have a great show, give us backstories on the characters we love, in case you forgot their names are Hotch, Reid, Prentiss, JJ, Garcia, Rossi and Morgan ( see unlike the spin off I DO know the CM characters name). Writers, give us good, creepy case, team interaction. Just give us our CM back, after five years of loyal viewership, we, the fans, sure deserve it!
Dawn
The "New Team" didn't leave much of an impression, though I did like the british guy. What really bugged me was how (aside from Hotch) the Team was really shoved aside in this one. I don't think Reid had more than 3 scenes, top and the others weren't much better.... Heres for Hoping next week gets better ^^
It was nice to see Hotch smiling and Prentiss being awesome. I liked the British guy, it's interesting to see a sniper. Is he now going to be around Emily?
But that was all. I didn't like the new team, I din't like the episode, I definitely won't watch the spin-off and I want my show back!!
Thomas, Paget, Joe, Shemar, AJ, Matthew and Kirsten...we love you to death!!
I can't wait for the next week episode!!
Can we get the spin-off NOW please! I want to know more about these people! For instance, if the bald guy ( I think they called him Prophet ) used to be a criminal ( it seemed that way from when he and Rossi were talking to the guy in the prison ) how can he be in the FBI???? Who is that dark haired cute British sounding guy and how did he come to be one the team?? There wasn't much said about the blonde other then she was at West Point and then left, but I WANT MORE!!!!!!!!! How long do we have to wait for the spin off???
I though last night's eppisode was great! Didn't much care for the fighting in what looked like an empty pool, but it was great! Loved the interaction between the dark hair guy ( name??? ) and Prentiss! That was great! I liked when the team leader ( name again, I know it's Forest Whitaker, but the character he played ) called Garcia and she was marveled that he was calling her! Got to love our girl Garcia ( love her red hair! ) Wish there was more Reid though! ( and what was he eating out of that large jar at the end???? )
cmwinner ( Im at a computer at work in the lunchroom, so I am not attempting to sign in under my name, it's going up as anonymous, though it is me! )
oh no.... i read the spoiler thread to see what you guys thought before i have watched the episode!!! i really shouldn't do this,, but i did... and now i don't want to see it... i've been looking forward to this episode for AGES!!!! but sounds like it was a real dissappointment!!! - i'm still going to watch it to see Hotch smile though!!!! :-) hehe xxx
Criminal Minds: So Edgy It Hurts
No, seriously. I'm still in pain this morning. We have a sorely miscast "maverick" team leader of a renegade bunch of summer-movie cliches operating out of something that looks like an industrial laundromat. For notes on how to do a series like this right, see Human Target. The trouble is, this kind of show and the original Criminal Minds don't exist in the same universe and shouldn't be made to. Although the depiction of the BAU in CM makes concessions to the needs of TV drama, there is a concerted effort to live in the real world. Here, they want a series with all the cachet of the FBI but none of the realism. That leaves Hotch indulging things he'd actually rip someone a new one for, and Strauss blessing insubordination she'd really suspend people over. So we wind up with this awkward hybrid of the smooth professionalism of Hotch's team and the trite amateurism of Cooper's bogus bunch adding up to a hot mess of an episode. Ugh.
so, i let it sunk in, slept over it, thought about it, even watched it again.... still i am surprised how much i disliked it. and it makes me sad, because i love my show and the cast!
i honestly was one of the people who wanted to give the spin-off a fair chance, and i tried through the whole episode, but i was relieved when it was over (sad!)
they rather should have made a real pilot out of this, with maybe 2 or 3 cm cast members guest-starring. it didn't feel like a "spin-off" but more like a totally new show (which would be just fine), so why treat it like a spin-off, to sell it?
because this really wasn't a cm episode for me. and let the fans wait weeks for a new episode and then they show us this? in em's words: wth?
if this ep would have been written well and the characters would have been a little more believable, i wouldn't mind that the cm cast was mostly mia, because it was, after all, the introduction of the new cast (i get it), but it just felt flat and boring to me.
why had cooper already looked into this case in the first place? did they ever say that? did i miss it?
what did we learn about cooper's team? he handpicked a few......specialists? an ex-con? in the fbi? a brit (irish?) soldier/sniper? a girl straight from the academy (ok, she was at west point before that)? and they are all supervisory special agents? but profilers they are not!? the girl (really?) and cooper are, the other two?
is this supposed to black ops? or just "not so by the book" fbi(bau) team?
the story, for me, was somewhat thin and felt rushed. they hopped frome scene to scene, from clue to clue, and yeah, here we are, having a name and an adress and case solved!
despite of the horrible fight scenes, the episode didn't touch me on an emotional level at all, which is really rare for an cm episode, and it didn't challenge me intelectually. not even snarky/action emily and smiling hotch could have saved this one for me.
they never actually said that strauss was meant to be director, they just mentioned a female director a few times, and then later had strauss on the phone..... so this was just bad writing, bad directing, bad editing? not impressed!
i wasn't really annoyed by strauss and her reactions, i think cooper isn't a competition for her becoming director one day, hotch on the other side sure is/was, and she knows it! so i can see, why she would be harder on him than on cooper.
and then: emily asking the brit these stupid questions? was that really necessary? as a diplomats child she would know most of the answers (believe me! she would!), why let her look so dumb?
and in the end? she really goes checking if the unsub is dead/hopped off the roof without her gun drawn? just so that "sniper" can save the day? bad writing!
best to stop here and hope for next weeks episode to be a real cm ep again, and i will erase this one from my memory and will live a happy fan life!
Mixed feelings, mostly disappointment, story line was probably okay (maybe I’ll pick up more if I watch it again, although I must admit I’m not in any rush to do that!), didn’t like the fighting. I like Forest Whitaker & he’s done some good movies but didn’t like him in this context or his team, and what kind of botch set up was that?? And what happened to our CM team taking the lead on this?
I’ve only skimmed through some of the comments which I will go back and read .. but when did Strauss become director and has she gone soft in the head or something?? Since when does she applaud the kind behaviour by Cooper and give him more cases, when if the roles were reversed she would have poor Hotch on the rails … double standards if I ever saw any!!
Felt very rushed, I realise they were trying to cram a heck of a lot in with introducing the new team, the case & the profile, 10 mins to the end and I sat there wondering if they would actually wrap up the case.
Was nice that Hotch/TG had more screen time, good to see him smile, plane scene was good, not sure I liked the Prentiss / British guy scenes. So little screen time for the rest of the team, felt like if you blinked you missed Reid & all of two seconds of Garcia!!
Overall case felt very disjointed/disconnected .. I’m not sure that this is the right description, but I sat up late to watch it seeing I’m not in the same time zone & I’m tired & very disappointed. I think I’ll go back to watching my DVD’s of my favourite CM team.
Please bring them back!!!
Okay, I think that it was 'o.k.a.y' not the best...but okay. seeing hotch smile a bit was nice :)
I like some of the funny banter between Emily and Matt (the Brit), loike "what you wearing?"...."A Gun!", but other than that it was to much trying to be like Morgan/Garcia....
To clear up on a few points though, Erin Strauss is the section chief, on the CM wiki, it titled someone else playing the director, but obviously they didn't use 'her' scenes... also they weren't dressed like FBI because they wasn't technacily FBI/BAU, they were out-of-action agents or something.... i think :? lol
I love FW but wasn't overly impressed with his presence in the show...They did put 'our' amazing team on a back burner abit and i really didn't like that at all...but i will give the spin-off a chance, hell it can only get better lmao! i just hope they don't make it a regular action theme with OUR CM, i would be gutted if it lost it's versatility, cleverness and sophistication :(
I think the writers were concentrating tooooo much on intros and explosive action but i didn't think it worked to the desired affect the had in mind!
But on the plus I loved TG in this ep. HE SMILED lol more than once ha-ha :)
This episode was difficult to watch. I understand introducing new characters as a spin-off cast would take away time from the main cast.
That said, the way this was written and presented was done in a way that made the main characters appear that they were not the experts they are known to be. They took more than just a backseat, they were dummied down. Which was insulting to CM's fanbase.
Also, the suspense was not there, nor the process of getting inside the unsubs mind. The latter is what drew fans and allowed them love the charachters/actors.
I taped and re-watched the episode twice, becomming more and more disappointed. This episode did not differ from any other typical cop show.
The episode also featured problematic dynamics of character interaction, such as, the ex-con who spent 6 months in San Quinton. Had that been undercover for a federal case, ok, that I would have bought for his character background. Unfortunately, I personally found it difficult swallow that an ex-con turning straight becoming a special agent with the BAU.
Then there was the one hitting on Prentiss...no chemistry there. Really difficult to watch. There is a fun, smooth transmition between Garcia/Morgan. If this was to be some sort of rendition of that chemistry, the writer failed.
The female lead in the new cast of characters delivered nothing of interest. I am not putting down the actress, she was only working with what was written for her character.
Also, the character of Emily is very bright, intuitive and has inner strength...not the Emily that was shown last night.
Even David seemed dummied down a bit.
I would say not enough Reid, but there hasn't been enough Reid in a while! So I won't waste time in expanding on that.
Even Garcia was a little flat last night.
The bright side is now the characters were presented, they can now move on to there own spin-off show and let our team we know and love back to doing what they do best!!!!
I'm sorry Ed, unless there is a character cross-over in an episode, I will not be watching the spin off. I do still believe in our original characters/cast of CM though and will continue to support that.
I liked the episode, EXCEPT for the lack of Reid!! Little thin on Garcia too. I know, I know, we had to introduce the new kids; I'm just giving you a hard time.
Look, I notice some didn't like it. Any intro episode is going to be rough. They're trying to give us the usual episode, plus introduce 4/5 new people and their back story. Lighten up a bit.
Bring back Andrew Wilder, please!
Before this episode aired, I was positive and open-minded about the spin-off. I even thought I might become a regular viewer of that one, but this episode left me ultimately unimpressed. I might end up watching the spin-off occasionally if I’m bored and nothing better is on, but that’s it.
I’m not going to repeat all the insults this episode threw at our regular CM, because there’s nothing really to add to that.
The episode was dark and dirty and it almost “smelled” of sweat and men that haven’t had a shower in at least a week. Disgusting. I was itching to take a knife and personally make sure that the misogynist Brit dude will sing soprano for the rest of his life. Prentiss, why didn’t you do that for me? He certainly rubbed me the wrong way.
I’m still angry, to say the least, at Ed B. for an interview he gave a while ago in which he elaborated on CM’s predominantly female viewership, his view on women in general and his wish to create a show for a male target group. My guess is that this is exactly what’s happening here, trying to address a predominantly male audience (which would also explain the rather stereotype blonde barbie on the new team). Well, good luck with that one.
I don’t like the cast of the new team, the case was flat, too much action and violence (which I can enjoy in a show where it fits in, just don’t like too much of it on CM which is about brains and psychology for me), too dark and too dirty looks.
The best part of this whole episode for me was the fact that in the very last scene Reid took a bowl of candy instead a bottle of alcohol - so much for the case.
I’m looking forward to the “real” CM being back next week. Ed & Co better make it up to me with the few episodes left for this season, because I haven’t been happy with this season so far at all. I’ll probably be back after the summer break, but season 6 needs to get a lot better (and have a lot less drama off camera) to keep me a true fanatic and not just become an occasional viewer.
We need to call in the BAU because somebody has kidnapped Chris Mundy and replaced him with worn-out TV cop drama cliche man.
this was a very poor effort, with shoddy characterisation and a ludicrous new team.
Disclaimer: I hate the idea of spin-offs, and the way they come about, therefore I was predisposed to dislike this show. However, I do feel that I had good reason to dislike last night's episode despite my predisposition.
Didn’t like the new characters. I found them unbelievable and awkwardly (poorly?) acted. How much of this is the casting and how much is first-episode jitters, hard to say. I'm not in the mood to give them another chance (granted, I wasn't even willing before this episode). The "banter" between Mick and Gina them felt extremely awkward to me, forced and not friendly. Very unlike our team. “Prophet”?! Ex-con?! Six years in San Quentin? You’ve got to be kidding me.
The biggest piss-off was Hotch’s characterization. As much as I appreciate a smiling Hotch, last night was all wrong. It felt to me like he was drugged or something, completely complacent. He showed none of his true leadership, and once again (read: Gideon) he was treated like he wasn't the boss! I'm sick and tired of big names/characters coming in and being written to completely overshadow Hotch. Hotch has a personality and abilities in his own right, and he is the F***** BOSS! One of the things I love about him is that he can step back and let other people take the lead when they are the best equipped for the job, but in this case, there was no reason for Cooper to take over! Nowhere in that episode did I see Cooper as a better leader than Hotch, or even a good leader. We were just supposed to take Mick's word that he would die for him. Hotch has presence; I did not feel a presence from Cooper other than a guy playing at being a cowboy.
Though the episode made our team look like incompetents who were just there for window-dressing (though apparently JJ, Reid and Garcia didn't make the cut; not pretty enough to stand in awe of Cooper's magnificence), the fact is that they are kick-ass at what they do, and there is no way on earth they needed Cooper's team there to do all that work! Basically, there was no plausible, realistic reason for Cooper's team to be there.
I wanted Prentiss to smack Mick upside the head. The only good thing about him was the eye candy. They really did not need a sniper at all in this episode, except for the end, and he wouldn’t have had to "save Emily's life" if he had said over the radio, "hey, guys, he didn't actually fall, he's there on the ledge!" Poor writing. There is no way that he had time to get there, set up his rifle and take the guy out perfectly and yet NOT have time to warn them that the guy hadn't actually fallen to his death! So much for Cooper's, "I want everyone on the radio."
The case felt forced, cobbled together from spare parts for shock value. I am tired of the elaborate plots we have had lately wherein people get kidnapped and kept for long periods of time and act out play-like fantasies. What happened to your basic serial killer and profiling?
In addition, WTF is with Strauss?! She is either schizophrenic or has multiple personality disorder, because she is not consistent. And I am sad to say that I can't even blame that on the spin-off, because she is a recurring character. Since when is she the director?! And why does it appear that Cooper is teacher's pet?! If Hotch breaks rules (for a lot better reasons, if you ask me, again, I say they didn't need Cooper or his team to solve this case!), she threatens to fire him or break up his team. If Cooper does the same thing apparently he just gets an indulgent smile and weak threat of a lambasting when he returns. Bullshit.
Basically, I was extremely pissed last night. The spin-off never looked as bad as when I finally got to see it. The only good thing about this whole disaster is that next week looks like a return to the old Criminal Minds, with a good case, writing and acting, and the spin-off can go to it's own little corner and stay there. Thank God.
All I have to say is that I HATED the new cast! Hopefully, nxt week we'll get the old cast back doing what they do best. There's no way in hell I would be watching the spin off!!!
Ditto, ditto, ditto!
It was dissappointing and an I won't be watching the new show. I hope now that the dreadful episode is over they can find their balance once again and finish the season on a high note. It started great with 100 and has gone downhill ever since.
I had to switch over to something else in the middle of one of the fight scenes in the empty swimming pool, or wherever it was. I was actually feeling like I was going to hurl, and I thought CM was a gruesome enough show up until now. To say that the violence shown in this was gratuitous is an understatement.
Echoing what others have said already - didn't like this from what I was able to watch. Just awful and rife with clichés and inconsistencies. The ever wonderful Thomas Gibson looked like he was gritting his teeth and bearing it all (and doing so admirably, and with good grace, considering what he had to work with)throughout.
Love Forest Whitaker, but this role is miles off for him. It doesn't fit at all. The rest of the new bunch - utterly unmemorable, perhaps apart from the 'Brit' who I initially thought had a hint of a Liverpudlian accent, to a definite Welsh twang. Yes, that, sadly, was the most riveting part of the ep for me...'guess the accent'.
To Thomas, Joe, Paget, AJ, Kirsten, Shemar and Matthew: we adore all of you and please know that you are our ONLY BAU team. Now the sham of a spin off is over, we look forward to seeing you all again AND in character for a long time to come.
To tptb, Ed Bernero and Chris Mundy: shame on you all!!!
A superb cast and a loyal fan base are what allowed the idea of a spin-off to be feasible in the first place. In return you have let both down horribly. I'm extremely pissed off and insulted. I truly hope that whatever writers remain get us back on track with the characters we all love AND some damn continuity for them too. You've ignored cast/fans since January, get it together and I'm sick of it.
As for the spin-off, I hope it takes a long walk off a short pier.
'K. I get it that this was the episode to introduce the new team for the possible spin-off. But I have to agree with the majority of the comments I have read here. It was disappointing. And as a die-hard CM fanatic (and devoted TG/Hotch admirer), I did not like the way our team came off at all. And the end scene? All I can say is "What the..." I have been anti spin-off from the beginning but really tried to be open minded and give it a chance. I just couldn't like it. I am not on board.
This was awful. Utterly awful. I retreated to a shoe sale on Amazon.com by 9:30 and checked in every 15 minutes to catch up in .03 seconds.
What the hell was with Erin Strauss playing Jane Lynch's character in "Glee" at the end? And the Musketeer salute? What'll they do next? Put on a show in the barn?
UGH! Love CM. Ditch the spinoff. It blows.
come on this was fresh don´t be so hard on them, lately CM was full time sad and dark this was lighter and i think the show need it and we need it
Sorry, there is 'lighter' and there's producing a totally different show. Unacceptable.
Hotch is nobody's lapdog, Mundy, you should know that.
This was not lighter this was a joke. And not a good one. Had they not treated the cast and crew like second class profilers and helpers of the spin off crew reducing them to incompetents and humiliating them throughout the episode, I would have given them all the breaks in the world. But they did, so they don't deserve a break. They deserve the truth. And the truth is that it sucked. The truth is that it was an insult to the cast and fans alike. This show deserves better than that. This cast deserves better than that. It was a complete humiliation and I won't stand for that. Everyone is welcomed to give them breaks if they want. They won't get any from me. They don't deserve them.
Seemed so much like a spin off in process which did not add to the episode. In fact, it was a distraction. On top of it all, I don't find Forest Whitaker very engaging in the role. I would not watch him. I have watched Criminal Minds since the beginnning but I would not watch him.
PS - I was NOT AWARE of the possibility of a spin off before reading this blog. I did not know that was the intent. It merely reeked of one and a BAD one at that.
I would not watch a spin off with these goons. NCIS LA is crap. CSI NY is good. CSI Miami is only so-so. I rarely watch it. There are few spin offs that work well and have a life of their own.
Let the producers do as they like but I predict this is a loser as a spin off.
Forest Whitaker was NOT engaging in the role. Came across as some schlub. The whole grungy look was unappealing and unrealistic too.
I'd be interested in some kind of a spin off with Gideon ... he would not have to be back in service. His character had a lot of interesting issues. I'd like to see some episodes showing his character.
This episode as a whole was one of the worst ones I've seen and I've seen them all repeatedly. I don't think I'd bother watching a re-run of this in the future. I'd rather watch the shopping channel.
Julie, I could not have said it any better.
Wow I have just read all the comments.
Things i did like about this episode:
Thomas Gibson
Joe mantegna
The 5 seconds of Reid
The 1 second of Garcia
Prentiss's "gun" line and her chase scene.
The party at the end and Reid with his jar of nuts.
Things I didn't like:
The grungy look, seemed out of place.
Strauss, usually i love her vileness.
The new team's David Caruso like cheesy dialogue.
The sexual harassment of Prentiss, It was not sexy or fun.
Confusing backstory of Sam Cooper.
Lack of Reid, though he has been glaringly absent for most of the year. Do the writers not like him anymore?
Lapdog behavior of Hotch and Rossi.
I actually looked forward to this episode, Forest whitaker is one of my favourite actors.Chris Munday is one of my favorite writers. I'm afraid this episode left me feeling flat and not like I've an actual episode of CM just one really long promo.
Sigh! Here hoping next week is better.
Such a bad episode CM team seems out of character: like Prentiss for christ sake! since when does she makes this rookie mistakes? and need to be saved? "She can take it" , Hotch is an Alpha guy not the one to close his mouth and follow orders! and why cant we have a 'relaxing' 'chilling out moment' with the team in the regular episodes? why have it with this pseudo profilers team?
OK, now I have guilt. LOL. I would like to apologize to anyone whose feelings I hurt if my comments were too harsh. Perhaps in the future I should sleep on it first before posting a rant on the interwebz. Nobody wants to have their work criticized to death. Especially if they worked hard on it and thought they were doing a good job. So, sorry. I still stand by my thoughts but perhaps I should have said it nicer and not so snarky. LOL. Perhaps the spinoff will appeal to some other people, just not my cup of tea. It's just that I really like the original CM so please just don't mess up the original, ok? OK. Happy Friday! =P
So I've just finished watching and I think I just had higher expectations. It wasn't an awful episode it just didn't mesh well imo. The writing and inconsistancy wasn't in line wih the subtle and classy writing we're used to on CM.
I tend to like the episodes where everyone on the team has a purpose and equal time on screen.
We've had some amazing episodes this season; 100, Risky Business and Mosley Lane to name a few. But when the team starts the get seperated a little eg Hotch, Rossi, Morgan and Prentiss on one side and then the rest of the team get ignored or little to do, its then when I start to lose a bit of interest.
Some of my favourite episodes happened straight after Patinkin left (thank god by the way!) because thats when the cast became a team! 'The fight' wasn't as bad as some are saying, I just think it might have worked better as a stand alone pilot rather than in this season of CM.
Can't wait for next weeks episode though!
A lot of ad around « The Fight » to be at least a true big disappointment (besides I stopped watching in middle (what was the second time in this season et the third from the season 1 !).
Hotch, Rossi and Prentiss become the foils. Reid, JJ and Garcia reduced to the congrue portion and all that for what ?, just to introduce the new team by emphasizing it (to the detriment of FBI agents we foow for 5 years now).
Result: Cooper & Cie look a sorry sight (I summarize: a boss who could compete with the tramp of the corner - clothing held side -, an ex-convict who bought a behavior (hey, I believed that it was necessary to be clean to enter FBI?! Ok there is Garcia who is an ex-hacker but well, at least, she is funnu spirit !), a handsome boy who could be turned for sexual harassment towards one of its colleagues of day -> 1) I would indeed like to see Prentiss with somebody but certainly not him and 2) it is strange that Emily did not blow him quickly!) and I was going to forget the bimbo blonde who is a very very pale copy of JJ (though I’m not a particular fan of this character !)...Yeah, what a terrific team which makes « cliché » !
I don’t know how will be the show – if there is still a sequel (because further to all negative comments already read – which represents at less 90% - it appears to me quite difficult to continue in this way and even, it would be a financial abyss to invest in a program which would gather little audience, especially after to have fired so much writers (and not the worst ones last summer !)! And I do not speak about - the loss of credibility for all the team (Bernero and all writers -current and past-) which has worked so hard until now to impose Criminal Minds in the American broadcasting scene (on CBS which can count on high rates on Wednesdays evening) AND abroad - I feel very sorry for Gibson, Montegna, Brewster, Gubler etc…who played in this crap episode SOOOO despicable of what is generally proposed to fans viewers !
-> 2 solutions : if CBS and Bernero want to go on, they change almost the whole casting (even Whitaker - whose I like a lot - but this role isn’t for him !) in offerring more credibility
to characters AND they propose some true intreresting stories OR they give up the idea of their spin off and re-invest money in hiring writers who were fired last year and concentrate their efforts on Criminal Minds, THE ONLY…Guess where goes my preference?! :-D
Anyway, I can’t wait the next épisode which should mark a return in normal…Well, I hope ! :-D
Oops I just sent the comments without signing them at the end as seeing as my ID doesn't appear in the title...
Sorry! :-)
gbraeme71
I am trully, trully disappointed. I wanted to stop watching the episode before its end (which has NEVER happened with CM to me before.
The new characters are poor. Mr Whitaker is a very good actor, but this role is not for him. He doesn't fit in the CM universe. And I'm not talking about the 3 others. The lady who is a pale copy of all the female characters we've ever seen on TV mixed together, the British guy who looks like an old-fashioned sea man ready to die for his captain and trying to find himself any lady to spend a night with and the ex-con or whatever... I mean since when can such people be in the FBI?!
None of them fit in the CM universe.
The story was disappointing as well. What was that? A lighter adaptation of Saw? You win, you live, you lose, you die...
Garcia appeared only after 30 minutes ! And what was Reid actually doing here? And JJ? Seems like the writers forgot them =(
Since when is Strauss a director? Did I miss something?
This episode is to forget. What happened to episodes like Conflicted, 100, Sex, Birth and Death, Revelations, Profiler Profiled, Mayhem, Amplification, Masterpiece (which CM is, indeed) and more?
I will definitely NOT watch the spin-off (if there is a spin-off after all the negative comments xD) and I hope to see our beloved team back next week and forever !
We love Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss, Reid, JJ and Garcia ! Bring them back, please !
The promo looked interesting, but the episode itself was uninteresting and even boring, and the contrived plot made it difficult to focus on the story. I felt that it lacked that psychological aspect which sets this series apart from others. The more interesting part of the episode for me was that small twist when Prentiss went to check out the unsub and he was still alive. It doesn’t go on my list of best episodes definitely.
From what I've seen on the last episode this spin-off didn't impress me very much. The "new" team doesn't look believable and the characters are even somewhat stale. The "old" cast seems to work quite well together and they’re a strong ensemble. I like the way they interact with each other, so why ruin that? Instead of developing a spin-off they should try to develop more the original CM and their characters.
great performance of Forest Whitaker!! I liked the episode!!
rosalioka
Ed and Chris - you guys are wonderful, truly. You are talented, you have great ideas, and you've proven that time and again But - I didn't like this, plain and simple. I won't rant about the bits and pieces that didn't work in this episode, rather, I'll take you back to CM's pilot episode and throw out that great Beckett quote uttered by Gideon: 'Try again. Fail again. Fail better'.
Please, remember this thread is about the Criminal Minds episode 'The Fight'. Keep your posts on topic and no personal attack will be tolerated.
I don't understand why my post was the one that got deleted. I wasn't making a personal attack, in fact I only posted because I was concerned about the other (several) posts above that do contain personal attacks and possibly false claims. It was a bit off topic but was only in response to posts that were also containing off topic. If that's what I get for trying to be a responsible contributor to this blog then forget it.
Puh-lease, you guys! So many of you are talking like spoiled children, ranting about one episode. Can we not be patient and wait and see what develops? Can we not be constructive, letting Ed and the writers know, in a more gentle but still constructive fashion, what we liked and didn't like about this episode without putting them all down so blatantly?
Yes, the characters on the new team were very different. I, personally, enjoyed the differences. We don't need more of the same, that would be boring and this was def not boring. I actually liked the Brit guy, and Forrest was wonderful (how could he not be?) the female seemed abit lacking and the ex-con story didn't sound real credible, but maybe we will learn more if we listen and watch abit longer.
Yes, I missed there being so little of 1.) Reid, Garcia & JJ but we have seen this before - everyone cannot get equal time every time. This was a down-and-dirty setting and these 3 characters did not fit as well as the other members of the CM team AND they needed time to showcase each of the new to introduce us to them.
I say, let's wait and watch. Let's be patient. I have every confidence in Ed and the good writers we still have won't let us down - look how many stellar episodes we have seen this season!
Give it a chance. Let's not be so judgmental so early. How about it, guys?
Still a fanatic; hugs to you all.
(Pls don't attack me, too, this is just MHO:)
I enjoyed the episode and would love a CM spin-off. It's beats another crappy reality show any day!!!
Chris Mundy has been amazing and truly deserves his chance. I will fully support him on his move and not only watch the shows but do my best to bring in other viewers.
I tried to support The Forgotten when Deb moved there. I wasn't even a big fan of the show but I watched all the episodes.
I think this show has potential to be just as great as CM. Look at how far CM has come from it's pilot episode.
I'm totally willing to give the spin-off a chance! I hope they even do a few overlapping episodes with our loved characters!!
PS.... if it was up to me, CM would create a spin-off for every day of the week! I could then watch the BAU Monday through Friday!
:-)
-mmadeen
I feel like this episode shouldn't count as a "real" episode if all they wanted to do was to prop up our beloved team as window-dressing while showcasing the new guys. Ugh!! It was unfair to the fans to have to watch inconsistent behavior of characters we are invested in. With all the money CBS spent on actually filming some scenes on location in San Francisco,it would have been better spent on maintaining a pool of good writers who cares about the direction CM is going in. In an attempt to milk out another cash cow,all the fans got was a lot of bull.
PS, as a Reid girl, please let there be some intelligent scenes for him before season 5 ends. I'm not talking quantity but quality.
I have not gotten any sense that he is a genius at all this season.
Sorry for ranting but this is another unhappy camper about the whole spin-off thing. Will definitely NOT be watching it.
It wasn't CM and imho opinion it wasn't good.
I have confidence in Ed and in Chris but this just wasn't CM and I didn't like it.
BUT....only 5 more days till we get a real CM episode. YEAH!
Jason Wiles? Wow! Is anyone left at Criminal Minds paying any attention to details? They really didn't think any of the fans would notice? Season 2.
Sloppy and lazy.
I'm not opposed to spin-offs since sometimes they turn out better than the original, such as the case (IMHO) with NCIS which spun off from JAG. And I love Forrest Whitaker, Ed B. and Chris M., so I hoped the CM spin-off would turn out well.
I am extremely sad to have to say that this CM spin-off was a complete bore for me because it reminded me of every other cop show on TV. It had a cast of unbelievable (and, in the case of the Brit sniper, irritating) characters, and it had none of the specialness of CM, which at its very best is a subtle psychological thriller that does not need to resort to explosions, shoot-outs or helicopters to get my heart rate going. Case in point: One of my favorite scenes is when Gideon hangs up on the unsub in "Broken Mirror" and we're left wondering for a few breathless seconds whether the unsub will kill the victim or call back.
If CBS decides to proceed with the CM spin-off, I wish them well, but I will not be watching it. Instead, I hope that our beloved BAU team will be back for real next week, with all of their intelligence and characterizations intact.
After watching this episode a second time around, I liked it even more.
While FW still doesn't impress me, I liked all the other characters, especially the Brit. He had a real witty side that I like in certain characters. He was fun to watch, and sort of realistic (Kste Joyner was British right? Could be same deal)
Prophet kinda reminds me of the real life Frank Arbulage, who was an ex-con that joined the FBI. And Gina seems interesting, but I wish we could have gotten more on her.
The episode had two distinct flavours, one of CM and this new show which blended nicely. Cooper with his team was different (music and cinematogropy wise)while they still managed to retain some Criminal Minds.
The case was just as good as any other Criminal Minds plots. Prehaps a bit more gory, but every once and a while we get those.
I didn't feel like the team was playing second fiddle or acting 'stupid'. Not at all. I did not have that impression. I took away that both teams equally contributed and profiled. Yes a couple times Cooper's team figured out something but it's supposed to be a give and take. Hotch's team works with people and they do not always have to work everything out.
I always really enjoyed the flirting between Prentiss and the Brit. I think she can hold her own and she certainly did not let him walk over her. She gave it like he gave it.
Lastly, I think the writers did a great job, and if the spin off picks up I may be watching it! (Besides the fact that my partner thinks this episode was 'awesome' as it is)
CheetoBreath: I am really sorry your post got deleted, because it was spot on and honest. I guess certain people have problems with criticism... if all they wanted to hear was that it was amazing, blah blah blah, then they SHOULD have made an amazing episode! Not this lame joke!
Again, I honestly hope someone in CM is reading all these comments, so they can do something about it, like thinking better before letting go amazing writers like Andrew Wilder!
I have absolutely no argument with any of the negative comments about the episode. I do argue with the idea that we should "give them a break" or "wait and see what develops." I've recently re-watched the pilot for CM and I'll tell you that "the Fight" doesn't even begin to come close to the craftsmanship of that episode. When starting something new you are supposed to put your best foot forward. If this is the best the writers can do for the spin off, it's already dead.
One other comment on the comments, and it is NOT criticism, just a humorous note:
"Rouge" is something women put on their face. "Rogue" is someone who doesn't follow the rules. I'm sure you all know the difference, I just find it amusing how many of you got your fingers tangled.
Well, lets all cross our fingers on purpose and maybe we'll get our show back next week.
Has anybody considered contacting Ed ?
There has definitely got to be a reason for Strauss being in the episoode instead of Steenburgen.
Remember, she was supposed to play the Director of the BAU,
which probably led to the Strauss/Director confusion.
Steenburgens departure probably happened when it was too late to do a rewrite of the script .
So, Strauss became The Director of The BAU.
She was known face to the fans So it probably seemed like the best option,
maybe the only option given the time constraints .
Find out what happened behind the scenes, I am sure that it will explain a lot.
Another possibility is That Srauss being so complimentary of Cooper and his team might have been part of Steenburgens original lines.
Watched it a second time and dislike it even more. I think the try to milk CM's success and hope that with all the loyal CM fans watching the new show may have a chance. Get it in your heads, it doesn't have anything to do with FBI & BAU! Don't be so freaking lazy and come up with a new idea, unit, whatever and it may even have a chance.
It's nice that a few (and there are only a few) like it. Good for them. There many other shows on TV I don't like and that's ok. What I have a problem with is taking advantages of CM, making the CM team look like incompetent beginners and distorting what the real FBI and the real BAU are all about. Can't you few fans of the new team understand that?
Watched the episode yesterday and turned it off after the 30 minutes. Lame and dumb, can't say anything else. Poorly done. Sorry.
Oh man, gotta say something too. WTF, WTF, WTF???? What were you thinking? Nothing seemed to make sense and I love Whitaker but not in this role. Nothing fits. Hated the gory fight scenes. Where's the investigation? The other new members are rookies who think they know it all. Wow. Have a great title for the show (instead of CM spin-off): Street justice!
Wow, this episode sure got all the fans riled up, didn't it?? LOL. OK, even though they deleted my post I'm gonna stick up for the blog because I don't like it when people are unfairly accused of something because of a misunderstanding. Just to clear the air, In defense of the blog, they DID NOT delete my original post which was my "dislike the episode" post. The post that got deleted was one in which I expressed concern over certain possibly slanderous statements/accusations about Mr. Bernero in some of the posts above. Thank you for your concerns though. LOL
And once again, I would like to apologize to any of the cast, crew, writers whose feelings I may have hurt with my initial post. These reviews have been brutal and I feel for you. I did dislike the episode but should have said it in a nicer way.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, sorry to stir up trouble; that was not my intention.
Poor writing, poor research, unrealistic, dumb characters ...
Felt sorry for the actors. Waste of time.
I feel insulted by the turn the show has taken. Had to laugh though when those sloppy characters were introduced as "supervisory special agent." Who on the show is that vain? Get real! Is there nobody with some law enforcement background or connections on the show? Someone must know better!
Ok, loved the fight scenes but the "agents" were a joke. Especially Hotch & Cooper, Prentiss & "the sharpshooter dude." Haha. Funny.
Gack. Found myself actively disliking the new team -- at least in terms of being aimed at "Criminal Minds." On its own, OK for a show. It just didn't fit in with the profiling whizzes.
Hi, guys!
I am a fan from Brasil, I love the serie!! I am anxious to watch the 19th episode.
I would like to know where is the Criminal Minds' set is located! I will check the blog frequently now that I've found it!!
From South of Brasil,
Amanda.
I definitely was not thrilled with this episode. It just did not feel like CM. At times it was hard to believe it was a show about profilers. I actually got bored and did not pay attention - something I never do. I Really missed the "team". The new team seemed more like an action show instead of profilers. Hopefully we will be back to a normal CM this week. Season five has not always been my favorite but I never missed an episode and enjoyed most of them.
I want my Hotch back! He's been virtually non-existent since January and finally he gets some time but is made to look like FW's personal assistant. Ridiculous!!! Let TG shine and get him back to leading our one and only CM team.
Wow.... folks are harsh here huh?
Did you not know it was going to be an introduction to a whole new team, therefore the original team would take a backseat?
Of course the new team was different than everything we know about Hotch and company - they are NOT Hotch and company
Personally, I will watch the spinoff and give them a chance to develop the team and their stories.
Oh... and there WAS an ex-con in the FBI IRL..... google it
whaaaaaaaa i haven´t seen it yet.... almost 4 weeks without a new epi. that is soooooooooo bad.
so i absolutly CAN NOT WAIT to see the epi.
the idea of a spin off.... well, i am not really crazy about it. but i try to remain open-minded. lets see what is going to happen.
german fans are still waiting for season 5 to be translated and aired in regualar tv
to the Annonymous ( why can people post a name ) who posted about the FBI having an ex-con: Then why was it that Hotch and Gideon had a problem with Morgan having a record as a youth?
beside they may HAVE employed an ex-con but according to today's rules they do not ( yes I did google it) have a look:
"EMPLOYMENT DISQUALIFIERS
There are specific elements that will automatically disqualify job candidates for employment with the FBI. The FBI Employment Disqualifiers are:
Conviction of a felony
Use of illegal drugs in violation of the FBI Employment Drug Policy (see the FBI Employment Drug Policy for more details)
Default of a student loan (insured by the U.S. Government)
Failure of an FBI-administered urinalysis drug test
Failure to register with the Selective Service System (for males only)
Please note that if you are disqualified by any of the above tests, you are not eligible for employment with the FBI. All of these disqualifiers are extensively researched during the FBI Background Investigation Process. Please make sure you can meet FBI employment requirements and pass all disqualifiers before you apply for an FBI position. "
you'll find more at http://www.fbijobs.gov/51.asp
Dawn
To the same anonymous...Do you understand that people's problem isn't with the fact that the team was given a backseat but that they were made to look incompatent and were written out of character? Because like with many others you seem to miss the point. Of course no one was kidding themselves thinking that our team was going to be the focus. Of course everyone knew they would be window dressing in this episode. But they were made to look dumb and incompetent and were humiliated the whole way through. That is people's problem. And that coming from one of CM's best writers is what's worse.
They know these characters, they know better than to think Hotch would be a lapdog...like someone so eloquently put it, they know better than to think Prentiss would lean over the wall without her gun (heck even TV Guide knows that she does know better). So people's problems is with the fact that our characters weren't our characters, they were silly obedient replicas of our characters at the whim and mercy of the spin off characters.
I really hope that they do get the point and bring our characters back for good. Because you see anonymous, people are not just unhappy here, people are unhappy everywhere...It's enough to take a tour of the known CM communities online and see what people think. And trust me, it's even worse somewhere else. So if someone is thinking of brushing this away, filing it under the fans exaggerating I suggest they think again, because it's not just these fans exaggerating, it's about 80-90% of the fandom. And if I were them, I'd start listening, because when so many people tell me there's a problem I'd at least seriously consider it and try to step out of my bubble and see that perspective as well.
I just want our CM back. I want our strong, smart, competent, outstanding characters back. The ones that have me tune in every Wednesday evening, the ones that kept me coming back for a new episode over and over, the ones that made this show what it is. Don't disrespact that, don't insult the cast by making them play so stupid versions of their characters, don't destroy what you have fought to build for 5 years.
I'm hoping that the time for experiments is over, on CM at least and we'll get back to normal next week. But I won't hold my breath.
Thank you, Julie. So well said. I appreciate you took the time to write this long post.
CM's success is something the producers & writers should be very proud of. I don't understand the need to alter the concept. Taking the name and trying to sell a show to the audience that doesn't really have anything to do with the original doesn't seem fair to me. Looks like deception. So if the makers of the new show would have named it something else the fans would have probably not reacted so angrily.
NCIS is one of the most successful shows on TV. It's not only the cases the work but even more so the characters of the show. I like their interactions, dialogues, human aspects AND that they don't sleep with each other, have major skeletons in their closets or have to be survivors of some sexual or physical abuse.
I have started watching CM season I again and find Hotch so refreshing in it. He smiles, is humorous and more talkative.
Instead of spending time on making a CM spin-off work let's work on character development again, have some lighter interactions and background information (the cases are dark enough) and we may just give NCIS a run in seasons showing here. CM is in my opinion still one of the best shows on TV and one of the very few I watch religiously. I did not, however, watch the entire "Fight." After the new team was introduced I turned it off. How they all made it to supervisory status, the status Jim Clemente had in his last years, strikes me as more than odd. I didn't feel like watching something that would just upset me later. :)
Cheers!
Did i miss something? Have the feeling i watched the new spin off? The story was not that bad, but i watched better ones from Chris Mundy.
I´m a fan from the old CM,the original with great stories, Team acting, fantastic profiling, little jokings between the Team members,brilliant Dr. Reid, Hotch and Rossi together....No other show or Team can top this. Honestly, was this another FBI Team?. The higlight was Forest Whitaker,great actor.
Since the best writers are gone it´s not only "wow" to watch a new episode, it´s more then "mmmh.." what comes now. They lost some quality.
I hope our writers spend not that much time for the spin off.
Our CM needs their whole attention.
I don´t know, at his moment, if i want watch the spin off again. But when, i agree with KIRSTEN, only in respect for our Team when there is a cross over.
I think all who are included into the new spin off try to give their best and i wish them good luck.
Looking forward to next week and hopefully we get the good old CM back.
I will take a reminder from this episode, a smiling Hotch. Done.
Walburga, Germany
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Hotch was so cool...Cooper not at all :(
Forest Whitaker is not the problem, the writing is. In the past year or so CM has moved away from its roots as a police (FBI) procedural to becoming nothing but a weekly graphic and up close portrayal of the latest techniques in the real time art of murder and mayhem. That's not Whitaker's fault. He's a good actor, badly used.
I was actually really REALLY disappointed with this episode. I didn't know about this episode beforehand so I thought watching it would be the highlight of my week. Boy was I wrong. The entire episode I was like "Where's my TEAM!!!!" where was JJ? REID? GARCIA???? I felt like I was watching a really boring episode of Law and Order (I kinda like that show actually). I watch CM for the team dynamics -- and for the interesting cases, but really mostly for the team! and they were just not in this one! I was very disappointed. And a spin-off? I won't be watching it.
I still love our team.
How great, MGG had two lines and around 50 seconds screen time! Where were Garcia and JJ? The episode sucks. But CM original series is getting six season (via Joe's twitter), so it's not so bad aferwards.
Beyond awful. I'm so disappointed in general with this season, barr a few episodes like the dolls one and the one MGG directed. Criminal Minds works so well because the characters aren't cliched and have the best interactions on television. And the writing and plotting is so inventive and original. This episode could have been lifted from NCIS, which I personally avoid like the plague. There is so much potential for Criminal Minds, and I have been a devoted fan, even though I am not a crime buff. But if this is the way it is heading, I'm going to have to sign off. So disappointing in general, particularly as season 3 and 4 which got me hooked were so unbelievably strong.
I never expected much but beside this being the episode for the new spin off (that still reminds me of the A-team) It just wasn't a good episode.
hy did they go through so much trouble finding the father and daughter while they could just have called garcia?
It just didn't do anything to me
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