Danielg342

Can you provide me a link? I can't find that article.

I'll reserve my judgement until the show premieres, though I hope it's not the end of CM (maybe, hopefully, the end of Messer with CM). I certainly think it would be odd if CBS uses the spinoff to end CM this year, since it would seem like it was a waste of time bringing in Jennifer Love Hewitt. What I do like is that the new spinoff seems to actually have a workable premise this time, unlike “Suspect Behaviour” which never made any sense. So from that perspective, I already like the idea. They just have to execute...which I'm not sure these writers are capable of doing.

About the story itself...I felt the Yellowknife stuff needed its own post, because it was especially irritating. What exactly did I just watch? That made absolutely no sense whatsoever...the guy just seemed to pop whomever glanced at him the wrong way, and for what? Because his uncle, who seems to be equally unstable, picked up his knife and tried to kill him? Oh, and I get that Porter's lackey is a pretty scary dude, but he's not especially big, and he had absolutely no control over his nephew and niece...why didn't they just decide to try to make a run for it? Same thing with the niece in the woods...sure, he's got a gun, but you're in the woods and standing a good three or four feet away from him, with your legs having all of their faculties. Just gun it and make the guy try to shoot you through the bush. It's not like he was out in the open and could have a clear shot, and even if he did, he's not a trained gunslinger so he'd have awful aim (though I grant that may not cross the niece's mind). Then we see the lackey shoot the lady who tried to help him, perhaps out of a fear that she'd recognize him later, but then when the hikers come by and suspect they know the niece...he just lets them walk? Seriously? That's not being unpredictable, that's being stupid. Then we get to Porter herself...she knows she's a wanted fugitive. First of all, I call "BS" on her being able to cross the border into Canada, because our border police are not idiots and don't let convicted criminals cross (as far as I know, she didn't have an alias when she crossed into Canada). The Mexican border, where Mexican officials don't even bother to check your ID (and I have crossed the border into Mexico, so I know this happens) would be different. Of course, not only all of this, Amelia Porter is so stupid that she doesn't just return to the US, but she returns to the exact same house she had lived in before. I get that she had an alias at this point (although if she really was "sleeping with the moose and bears" I wonder where she found a document forger), but she'd have to go grocery shopping or go to work or something where people in the community would see her...and she'd be outed pretty quickly. I'd make a point that perhaps she wanted to be captured, but that would imply this is a well-written show, and it's not. There are a few questions I have to raise here: -First, why did Porter decide to leave the wilderness? There was no explanation given, and for a fugitive, I have to wonder why she'd even risk going back to a city...if she stayed in the woods, she would have been much harder to find. I also think she had enough time to get to Russia, who wouldn't extradite her at all. The distance from Salt Lake City to the Chukotsky District, right across from the Bering Strait from Alaska, is 6222 km. To get to Magadan, which is the easternmost terminus of Russia's highway network, it's 8184 km. If we say that she does 4 km in an hour and walks for 12 hours each day (or 48km/day), to get across the Strait it's 129 days and to get to Magadan, that's 170 days. Just for kicks, if she wanted to hoof it all the way to Moscow, that's 384 days...so, easily doable, especially if, as the show painted her out to be, she's this "super survivalist". -Second of all, why did Porter decide to go back to Utah? If, as I presume, she got bored of the survivalist lifestyle and decided she wanted to live in an urban area again, why not stay in Canada? It's not like we don't have cities. Plus, as Whitey Bulger knew, you have to cut off all ties from your previous life...so moving back into a house you once lived in made no sense. -Third of all- why did she decide to move back now? Because SLW decided it was most convenient for her? If this were the earlier seasons, where Edward Allen Bernero understood every story has a million different moving parts, there could have been a nice angle about how Porter wanted to get out of hiding to warn the authorities about her lackey, with the lackey doing something that pushes her into action. Instead, we've got Erica "I like it when things blow up!" Messer, so when Porter decides to move back to Utah, it's only because to make it easier for SLW. *sigh* Now for my predictions: -I was right that the killer was an omnivore, although the only on-screen "pawn"-type victim was a woman, the one who stopped her car. Furthermore, the episode centred around having a dominant male having power over two females who were practically helpless (females who were also saved by a male, Reid). So it's almost a complete reverse of the "politically correct" cases we've seen so far this season, but it's not quite there and it still doesn't remove the sour taste in my mouth that the previous cases left in me. At least, though, the victims actually had a plot purpose for a change. -I was also right- and much more bang on about this one- that this would be another case where I wondered why the BAU is there in the first place. I can't really recall any actual profiling being done, and most of the clues- and the leads- were provided by the local detective. This could have very easily been solved by rudimentary police and forensic work (they even had his shoeprints), so why the BAU was brought in is a mystery. At least SLW didn't have the team feed Garcia clues and she puts in all in her digital blender and out pops the solution. As for the team- quite a lot of Reid. In fact, I think he was pretty much the only team member who actually seemed to provide any actual clues or do any actual work. Callahan might as well have not been there, Morgan had, maybe a few lines, Hotch did a lot of standing around and ordering, and JJ- yes, JJ- had very little to do, outside of the press conference. The only factors here were Reid, Garcia and Rossi (though this was to a much lesser extent), really. I'd say this would be a triumph for Reid since we got so much of him and he was front and centre...if this was a vintage Reid performance. Credit, full credit, to Matthew Gray Gubler for giving the role life, because the only thing Reid did was do little more than recite the ingredients of a milk carton. Aside from some random (incorrect) facts, would anyone have noticed if it were Morgan, or Rossi, or Hotch spouting much of Reid's lines? I don't think so. Lastly...the one part I did enjoy was Rossi and Hotch out for a night on the town. They just looked so relaxed and looked like they were having so much fun...the two of them are quite the charmers. In fact, I think I'd like to see Rossi and Hotch club hopping again some time, and not have Hotch settle down so quickly. I think it'd be a nice quirk for Hotch to learn- he's always had someone so to see him date and actually live the bachelor life would be a new angle. Besides, he might actually enjoy something that isn't so rigid. I wished this had come in Season Six or something and not now, but better late than never. (Of course, one of these days we need to see Morgan and Reid do the same thing because that would be fun...but I digress) Overall...one huge F. I don't think SLW even tried for this one, and it goes down as one of CM's all-time worst episodes...if not the worst.

So...Yellowknife. The capital of the Northwest Territories. A city of approximately 20,000 people, located on the northern shore of the Great Slave Lake, which is visible from the air. It's a mining town, first inhabited because of gold but now it's one of the centres of Canada's diamond trade. It's also, believe it or not, a tourist destination, mainly among Japanese tourists. It actually does have a summer- in fact, it has a yearly beach volleyball tournament where competitors have gone on to compete in national championships- and is one of the prime locations of Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. What does this mean? Well it ain't the Sin City or the Big Apple, but Yellowknife has plenty going for it. To get to Yellowknife, you can fly, or, if you're the adventurous type (or have a severe case of vertigo), you can drive there via Northwest Territories Highway 3 (of which Yellowknife is the end of the road), which connects southward at NT Highway 1 which connects southward with Alberta Highway 2 that will take you to Edmonton, and then on to Calgary. You can then take Alberta Highway 3 to Lethbridge, which takes you to Alberta Highway 15 which eventually turns into Interstate 15 that leads to Salt Lake City. Meaning that if Sharon Lee Watson had bothered to look things up on Wiki for all of about five seconds she would realize the "difficult to get to area" where Porter escaped to where she could "sleep with the moose and bears" is really an established city with a vibrant culture that is no harder to get to than San Diego. I'm sorry, I hate to get snarky about this but this really irritated me. I've never been to Yellowknife (it's on my bucket list, though), but as a Canadian it bugs me when writers continue to fall back on frankly inaccurate stereotypes instead of bothering to do simple research; all, it seemed, to generate a few laughs (what else was that line about "sleeping with moose and bears" supposed to be about?). Granted, I probably know more about Yellowknife than 99.999% of the world does (and likely most of Canada), but much of what I spouted I found in about five minutes of Googling, something I wish writers would do so they'd stop looking like loons. This is 2014, not 1974- ignorance, especially when you're making it one of the points about a focal character, is just not acceptable. I think the City of Yellowknife deserves an apology from SLW. Now, does this mean SLW could have used other cities to plant Amelia Porter in? Well, why not places like Grise Fjord, or Southampton Island, or Cat Lake, Ontario, places you actually need to fly to in order to get to them? Or why not Alert, the northernmost settlement in the world, at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island? Again, a quick look on Google Maps is all that would have taken.

Ditto. I still have to watch it too, but I agree- Hong Kong is a quagmire. Plus, if Hotch wasn't going to let a three hour train ride get between him and Beth, why would a trans-Pacific voyage? I'd say it's a sign that things aren't right and there's more to explore but this isn't that well written a show, so I won't expect anything.

Agreed. It's like Reid is a mouthpiece for anything “cool but questionable” the writers come up with, when the character is so much more. Thus, I don't think too much of it when Reid makes a factual error, because it's really the writers- are provably not geniuses- who made the error. The real Reid (if he ever did exist) would not make that flub. Another error to point out- “True Night”, where Reid tells Morgan that LA is 2265 miles (or thereabouts) from Washington, when it's really 2600 miles.

Picking Reid for that role seems...random. It's stuff like this that confirms the show has no idea what to do with the characters, because as most of you pointed out already, JJ already has support options, most notably Will. You know...Will LaMontagne? JJ's supposed husband? Whom, I don't believe, we have seen once this season? Nor, if I am not mistaken, once last season? Gee, where is Will? Could the PTSD episode be the episode where... *Daniel, don't say it...Danny...don't say it...I said Danny...oh go right ahead* Could the PTSD episode be the episode where JJ finally breaks it off with Will? *goes to the bathroom* *distinct hurling noises are made* *goes to the wine cellar* *goes back to the bathroom* *hurls again* *returns to the computer* Well, I guess having family drama might be a good opportunity for JJ to do something substantial and real for a change, even though it's annoying that the only storyline Erica Messer can seem to come up with are family ones. Then again, having a divorce would feel like a retread of Hotch's early storyline, but...then again it's realistic and if JJ and Will called it off, it'd give JJ a story to build on, instead of the show going back to the "same old same old" it would by just wrapping everything up with a nice happy bow at the end. Because...darn it, if JJ's going to be a character worth her weight in salt...it's about time she deals with some adversity and something to actually build on and develop. Yes, it's three seasons too late, but better late than never. As for Reid, if there's a silver lining perhaps JJ learns she was too dismissive of him earlier and learns to accept hardship and loss. After all, if Reid can suffer as much as he did and yet still come in to work every morning with a big, eager smile, that's something JJ can learn from, no?

I think I liked this one. I think. I mean, I feel this one was pretty convoluted and needed a lot of exposition from the characters just so I could follow along with the crime plot, but, overall, it felt nice. Almost a favourite. Almost. I agree with theatremouse that not showing Zachary was more effect than showing him, because then it's up to the audience to see who's right- Sherlock or Watson- in their approach to him. If we saw Kitty with Zachary, it would risk slanting the episode towards one approach. Having said that, I think Watson was incredibly pushy of Sherlock in this one. I think this had more to do with Lucy Liu than the writing, because I think Liu over-emoted badly by treating the lines as if Watson thought Sherlock was an authoritarian dad when Watson was really trying to get Sherlock to recognize that Kitty has grown to the point where she doesn't need 24/7 protection. That said, I did like how Kitty herself was scared of her new found growth...I think if I was her, I would be too. Change is scary, and I totally understand why she just chose to be Sherlock's lapdog instead of trying to forge ahead with the relationship with Zachary- it's new territory for her, one that she doesn't yet know if she can traverse, so she chose to stick around where she was comfortable. I am hopeful, though, the show doesn't turn Zachary into some kind of cad- that'd be too "easy"- and allows Kitty to keep on growing, because I think if Kitty entered a wonderful relationship and truly emerged happy, it'd be beautiful. :) (almost as beautiful as Ophelia Lovibond is...but I digress...) I also think such an arrangement would be triumphant because, as much as I really like Kitty, I think the case showed me that there are too many cast members. Having just Sherlock and Watson working the cases kept everything streamlined, with Kitty involved things get muddied and I feel like the characters just step on each other's toes. Maybe if the writers stuck to some kind of "speciality" it would help because when one talks it would be natural, because the episode's dialogue felt forced at times. As for the case itself...I thought the lady gave herself away from the start, but I did like the journey to how they got there. We did have a bit of a Deus ex Machina in the career criminal at the end, but it didn't detract from the episode too much. I liked seeing Skipp Suddith- he had one of my favourite roles on Criminal Minds- and thought he did great as the slimy real estate mogul. The idea was pretty nice, even if I actually did need a map to get there. Lastly, though we didn't get much of Bell and Gregson, seeing Bell at the park with the guy terrified that he was chatting with an underaged girl was a great scene. So...overall, it navigates to a B+.

I predict another omnivore and yet another case where I'll have a hard time understanding why the BAU is there in the first place. Makes me wonder why anyone bothers paying police officers in the CM world when it seems like the team can handle everything just fine.

It perhaps could have worked better for JJ if the show took all of S7 to show her growth as a profiler with all the struggles that would be involved in that, instead of glossing over it with a few throwaway lines. Sure, it might have meant that JJ would be “the focus” of S7, but at least we'd have a believable and frankly more intriguing storylines than the “Supermom” stuff we get now.

You know, it's appropriate for me to mention that it is in fact true that men are able to lactate. In fact, Rossi should know it very well...the scientific discovery was made in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

I'm not sure if it qualifies as irony, but the actress herself is attracted to women...

Never seen the BBC's version, but based on CBS' version, I think Reid could definitely outquirk Sherlock. It'd be hilarious TV. This a S7 thing? I don't recall a "sperm donor" thing in the Reid storyline...

LOL. You have won the Internet.

Say it with me: Morgan & Reid, the TV series. :D It'd be like how Elementary is supposed to be.

Maybe in the '80s and early '90s it was like that but most of the shows I see nowadays have a minority filling that role. Just off the top of my head we have: -Boston Public (“The Dragon Lady” school superintendent, who was a black woman) -Criminal Minds (Erin Strauss, until she was killed in Season 8, and she did have some actual character development) -Sleepy Hollow (whose police department captain is a black woman) -The Blacklist (Diane Cooper was the FBI Director before she was killed halfway through Season 1, only to be replaced by a black woman, with the leader of the taskforce being a black man, who talks tough but rarely delivers) -Gotham (Sarah Essen, a black woman, is the captain of James Gordon's precinct) -House (Lisa Cuddy, though she eventually became a character in her own right) -Brooklyn 9-9 (captain is a black male) -The Mentalist (had Madeline Hightower and Teresa Lisbon, who despite being a regular character whose actress, Robin Tunney, made her strong, was written to be essentially ineffectual) Granted I may have just “lucked out” and found the shows that don't have a male leader, but that's some kind of streak. I also grant that a lot of shows eventually replace the token with a white male, but it doesn't change the fact they started with a token. TVTropes, on their page for “Da Chief” (which documents this trope) also notes that nowadays the role is filled by a minority. It's one of the few takeaways I appreciate about State of Affairs- that Constance Payton will actually be a character. It'll remain to be seen if she'll be effective, but based on the pilot I do have my hopes up. Word. Maybe the show should have made Charlie- or, better yet, the President- lesbian. That'd be different.

True...though there aren't a lot of lesbian/bisexual heroines on TV (at least not right off the bat- shows tend to make them “shocking reveals” years later), and very few that lead “normal” lives. So it may also be tokenism but it'd be novel at the same time...though you are right to wonder about the ratings.

I think you've missed my point- I don't cringe at the thought of having a woman in power on a TV show. What bothers me is when a show creates a character who is a minority and is supposed to be the protagonist's boss but does nothing but shove them into the background, occasionally trotting them out just to bark some orders at the protagonist. That's what bothers me- the character is there just to fill some "token" minority but is pretty much useless as a character, which begs the question of why that character is there in the first place. With regards to this show, I also mentioned I'm glad that Alfre Woodard is going to get a role to play and that she won't just be in the background. My only issue is that Woodard's and Heigl's characters are only sprung into action because they both lost the same man they loved, which follows another unfortunate Hollywood trend where a female character has to have some strong ties to a male to have any value in the story. I find the premise to be pretty weak, but it's not the end of the world if it's executed right.

Other choices for Lizzie? My picks: -Katherine Heigl (I know she's got State of Affairs now and she's got a diva reputation, but I think she can act- she can go from confident to vulnerable in seconds and it's that dynamic Lizzie needs. Heigl is also young enough to be Spader's daughter (Heigl is 38, Spader is 61)). -Amy Davidson (if we're thinking of Lizzie being more of a “go-getter” and eager to learn, which I think would work) -Jeanette McCurdy (yeah I know...but, she had a pretty good turn on Law & Order: SVU and I think she deserves a shot at something meatier than Disney) -Lola Glaudini (on the old side (43) but she could be sold as young enough to be Spader's daughter...plus she got the shaft from Criminal Minds and I think she deserves much better) -Summer Bishil (Jazira from Towelhead, she plays “vulnerable” very well) -Amber Tamblyn (she could add some snark to the role, meaning we could have a Lizzie that actually goes toe to toe with Red from time to time)

Watson is back! Yay! She's also having issues with Sherlock's perception of boundaries! Yawn. At this point, I'd like to think Watson knows Holmes by now and thus knows that Sherlock won't ever stop meddling with people...it's what he does. I also wish it wasn't the only thing he's able to do, but I think at this stage, it appears that Rob Doherty is beginning to run out of ideas. Yes, the ratings are in the tank, but can we stop trying to manufacture drama and get some real stories for a change? Man, Season 1 seems like such a long time ago...

Bullock and Gordon had split up to search for the building where the fights were taking place (since the building itself was unknown). Bullock came up empty and called Gordon to see if he had any luck. Gordon didn't pick up the phone- multiple times- so Bullock gave his rousing speech and got the help of the rest of the force to look at the addresses Gordon had on his list. Also, if I'm not mistaken, there was a regular cop, Bullock and Essen who came to rescue Gordon...I think they needed that scene as a visual to show Gordon that the precinct turned the page on him.

Erin Richards said she took the part believing she'd play a “strong” character, someone who might appear vulnerable but isn't. The only thing I can say is that I hope Richards either: 1) Knows something about Barbara that we don't- and I hope it's something epic like getting the drop on Maroni or something 2) Isn't happy at being lied to about how her character would progress Because as it stands now she's nothing more than a damsel who has absolutely no emotional strength to speak of. I wonder what Jim saw in her in the first place- I hate to be cruel, but I'd have lost my patience years ago with someone as needy as Barbara is. At some point I'd have to tell her, “come on now, suck it up!”

Just some random thoughts: -Of the nine episodes we've seen so far, Reid has been featured prominently in two episodes- “Burn” and “If The Shoe Fits”, with a strong supporting role in “Boxed In”. So I don't agree that he's been shafted for screentime (at least not completely). He seems to be getting more screentime than Rossi (who really only had quality screentime in “Fate”) and Hotch (whose only real episode of note was the “vanity project” otherwise known as “Boxed In”), while he seems to be equals with Morgan (who had a big role in “The Boys of Sudworth Place”, the bookends in “#Hashtag” and a strong support role in “Burn”), Callahan (who seemed to only have much to do in “X” and “A Thousand Suns...”) and Garcia (whose only big role was in “Burn” but her supercomputer has solved the last few cases). He only seems to be behind JJ, with the only episodes she didn't have much of a part in being “Fate” (where everyone other than Rossi didn't have much of a focus) and “Burn”, and though she only really had one centric story- “If The Shoe Fits”- she's pretty much been a strong support character all season. -That said, we haven't had a Reid-centric episode since he had the Maeve arc in Season 8, and it seems that lately if something doesn't involve Reid thinking of Maeve, he doesn't get much of a story. It's been on par with Erica Messer's writing since she took over the show- the only real character stories she can do are “personal” stories with love interests and families...she doesn't seem to know (or care) that characters can have other interests behind wanting to have or taking care of babies. -I would agree that the current writers have no clue how to write for Reid, since I don't believe we've really explored the man's mind and feelings since about Season 4 (save for the “headaches” of Season 6). I also think that, despite the fact he's had some focus since that time, S4 was the last time the show really wrote well for Morgan too. The show also dropped the ball on the closest, most organic friendship the show has had- the Morgan/Reid relationship- since that time as well. So I look at “The Reid Problem” in the same way I look at “The Morgan Problem”- the show hasn't delivered the character we've loved for some time (you could probably argue the same thing about Hotch (and JJ too in a roundabout way) and maybe to a lesser extent Rossi and Garcia). I've pretty much given up on waiting for the show to revive the “old” characters because I think at this stage, Messer's not changing her style of showrunning. -I also wonder how much of an effect the upper brass at CBS has. Perhaps they feel that since they were forced to bring JJ back, they forced Messer to overuse her, with the even more cynical suggesting that they forced Messer to make her a “bad” character as a way of saying “FU” to the fans that forced CBS' hand (which I don't think is too likely since I doubt CBS would want to intentionally ruin its product but you never know). -Or, as already discussed, Messer thought that since the fans clamoured for JJ they wanted her to be front and centre, and though she misfired on that, she's refused to relent for some reason. -Corollary to all that- the “anti-misogyny” point I always go back to: perhaps Messer wants to (or was told) to make a female character front and centre and shove the male characters to the side. The fact that this season hasn't had a single episode with only female victims (aside from “X”) leads me to think this could be a possibility, but then again, Callahan hasn't had too much focus either, so I wonder how big a role this plays.

Reid a virgin? I think I could go triple or nothing on my bottom dollar that he is...since when has Hollywood ever portrayed a “geek” differently. I do, however, like to think that once he is with a girl he'd know right away what to do...because he's the team's “expert in everything” after all. :p

First of all, I think the Hannah Gregson story should have made up an entire episode, or at least a multi-story arc instead of being “neatly” wrapped up at the end. There was a nice story for exploring- just exactly why Hannah wanted to handle things by herself and not have Papa come to her rescue- and the show dropped the ball. Badly. Because what we were left with is a story that says: -What the victim wants doesn't matter -The perpetrator basically got to walk free without any real justice for his crime ...and I find both concepts very troubling; this could have all been avoided if the show had bothered to do some exploration instead of just relying on what the Gregsons were telling us. The central question behind the subplot- as I see it- is just why Hannah wanted to keep things “under wraps” and felt the need to “appear strong” in front of the rest of the force. Perhaps- as is probably likely in real life- there's a culture of “machismo” that dictates that cops settle scores with their fists and would look down on Hannah for not doing the same thing. Maybe then Thomas could have heard what happened to Hannah and asked Sherlock and Kitty to investigate it covertly. Maybe Hannah could have been investigating Stotz herself and Kitty, recognizing what it's like to be an assault victim, offers to help, with Sherlock simply supporting Kitty's investigation. Maybe this ends with the reveal that Stotz has a history of violence on the force and gets arrested for that history, with a PSA by Thomas at the end reminding his troops that “we beat the perps up, not each other.” Or maybe this ends with the reveal that Stotz also beats up his wife or significant other and gets arrested for that. That's just me spinning my wheels. Point is, I think we were owed a better explained story than what we got.