Old Dog

Way back in Season 2 Garcia told JJ she had 4 brothers. It was in P911 where she identified the shirt the kid was wearing as a Tadpole shirt.

Just watched this episode. MGG looked spectacular. That's about it. Not much else made sense and the comedy assignments for the team seemed just like cheap parodies played solely for laughs - which I guess was what they aimed for but seemed horribly out of place in what could have been a really tense arc. It was all wrapped up far too quickly - they could have built much more around the BAU juggling their new assignments and working the case. A great shame. But at least MGG was drop dead gorgeous.

Whoops! I haven't seen it yet as we are about 4 weeks behind over here.

Wick is not that uncommon a name. I thought it might be just over here in the UK but reading this there have been prominent Americans also. Edit: Ignore this - I didn't realise they used it as a first name. This episode hasn't aired yet in the UK.

Thanks Senin - I'll see if I can get that on Catch Up TV. It'll take a bit for me to recover from the pirates though!

Note to self: Listen to Riff!!

This just aired in the UK this week and I broke my rule of No Reid, No Watch. I won't be breaking that rule again. What a rubbish episode!

Not much chance of that with time running out - isn't he down to miss a few more episodes?

I'll watch most of the episodes in the first five seasons over and over. After that it gets really patchy and over the last five seasons there are only a couple of memorable episodes in each season for me. I find it hard to even remember most of the other episodes although there are some absolute shockers that are memorable for the wrong reasons like 200, The Black Queen, Brothers Hotchner, Route 66, Awake etc!

I've watched almost all the episodes in the first five seasons more times than that! There are a few I pass on that I don't like - such as "Riding the Lightning" but most of them I've seen often enough to know a lot of the dialogue. So you are not alone! Later seasons, not so much - just the outstanding episodes there.

A much better episode - I didn't check the clock once to see how long there was to go! Decent amount of grown up. professional Reid which I always appreciate. I'm not and never will be an Alvez fan but I can see why people like the character and for once the cheese level of the bookends was acceptable. Someone give me a nudge when Reid returns - isn't MGG away for at least 3 episodes? I guess that means we won't see him until the New Year so A Merry Christmas or Seasonal Winter Solstice Greetings to all!

I amused myself more imagining them all crammed in should the elevator break down than when actually watching a very subpar episode. I know they insist on giving most of the story away in the promos but they do seem to have totally lost the art of creating a sense of suspense and jeopardy.

They need a bigger elevator.

Yikes! I fell asleep in the middle! I guess the magic is really gone.

It was OK. I guess it underlined just how important the characters are to the show now. If, like me, you are only interested in Reid and the occasional times they let snarky Rossi out and you either don't like or don't particularly care about the other characters then the story has to be really banging to make up for that. And it wasn't. And there are too many characters for sure. Thinking back on it I had to wonder if Tara was in it at all but she did have about one line then seemed to "pull a Reid" and disappear. And for years I've been one of those complaining bitterly about the lack of profiling in recent times. Well lookee here, there was actually quite a lot of profiling in this episode - and yet somehow they made it not very interesting. And the denoument itself just seemed to happen without any real sense of jeopardy or anticipation. Also why was Simmons out in the alley after the unsub on his own - he should have had back up. It was probably solely to put the focus on him by giving him a "dramatic" solo takedown but honestly it would have made more sense to me if when the unsub had him on the floor with a knife to his throat, Prentiss appeared and bopped the unsub on the head. The knife in the unsub's back didn't seem to slow him down at all and he ended up sitting demurely in the back of a police car! I'd swear there was at least 5 inches of blood on that knife when he pulled it out. I liked that there was profiling but wish it was more engaging. I liked that Reid is slowly returning to himself and is back in tie and the soft maroon cardigan and I like especially that they finally seem to know how to light night scenes so you can tell what's happening. But overall it wasn't terribly interesting and not a keeper.

Mine are:- 1. Compulsion - always been my favourite S1 episode. 2, LDSK 3. Derailed 4. The Fisher King 5. Extreme Aggressor But I'll happily watch reruns and my DVDs of any Season One episodes over and over.

I suggest you use the Past Seasons threads to discuss the early years because there is universal love for the "golden years"! I find it harder and harder to find any positivity as we enter S13 but there are occasionally a few nuggets of goodness in recent seasons as well!

The first 4 seasons are far and away the best of all seasons. I liked Elle's relationship with Reid but for me it was more like an older sister/younger brother relationship. I loved the whole ensemble back in those days also. Sad that things change.

Not too bad an episode. Too much crammed in. I liked how they showed Reid's fragile state. Rossi was really good and sharp like he used to be. I disliked Scratch's underwhelming end - would've preferred someone to actually take him down comprehensively. I don't believe he would have let go like that. He got out of jail before and I think he would have carried on with his vendetta right till he died of old age in prison if necessary. A really, really good thing was that they seem to have listened to all the fans' moans about night scenes being dark. You could actually see what was going on this time - they used to be usually almost pitch dark with odd shapes running around. Much improved lighting for the night shots - hope they keep it up. Hokey ending. Team still too big. I wish they had just mentioned Diana and how Reid managed to leave her. Overall I'd give it a C+

My unpopular opinion is that, in my opinion, in recent years Paget Brewster has a distinct tendency to over act. The Season 13 premiere did little to change my opinion, although to be fair she was quite believable when she "died!

He was an interesting unsub for sure. Not sure if I can take an episode with too much of Garcia's wibbling though so I hope it is more about the unsub than Garcia!

This is interesting. http://tvline.com/2017/08/01/criminal-minds-jamie-kennedy-season-13-floyd-feylinn-ferell/

I know this has been said many times by others here but please, please, please - enough with the character/reader stories! I read fanfiction more during the hiatus and story after story is Spencer Reid/Reader with lots of Y/Ns for presumably the reader to insert their name! I just flip past them. Has anyone read any that are worth reading? I've only tried a few and quite frankly those I've read were poor and a waste of time. But I am open to suggestions if there are any good ones out there. Thank goodness there are some good stories out there like those by JMO and Riff! I'm currently re-reading old stories by Blythechild, another of the great writers on AO3.

Agreed Norm. This is how to write drama. JMO really gets inside the character of Reid.

I just watched this old episode aired here this afternoon in the UK. Back in the day I didn't rate this as a stand out episode but by gum, they made great episodes back then, even in Season 7 which is not usually well regarded. This one in particular made me realise just how much I miss Hotch - when he takes down the unsub in the boiler room the intensity was tangible. This was also the prank war episode which was enjoyable although I always think Reid's payback on Morgan was a bit lame. I think I must pull out the DVDs and do a summer rewatch of Seasons 6 and 7.