Danielg342

I look at it by showing that Bruce at least has that edge...he just now has to hone it. While I'm inclined to agree with you about Essen, I think having Bullock deliver the speech made sense. Essen stood with Gordon, so likely the cops would have seen that and not listened to her; furthermore, Bullock still has the ear of the cops...he's as corrupt as the other cops are so they'd listen to and respect him.

Bullock made me cry. *sniff* Really, he did...what a stirring speech. So true too...and so touching they all jumped behind Gordon. Even Sarah Essen, who had more to do this week and was much more likeable this week. Maybe there's hope after all that things will get better. Case of the Week- actually interesting. Sure, it's a rehashed storyline, but I thought putting it in an office and have it as part of a job application was pretty neat. When Sionis says this business is cutthroat...he sure means it. Mama Cobblepot will always make me smile...no matter what. (I do wonder when someone will realize she's Penguin's weakness...but I digress) No Falcone, but I can't help but think Fish Mooney is in way over her head. Kind of doubt Falcone would leave his most sensitive information on a small sheet of paper. Methinks she's getting played. Barbara's and Jim's storyline...yawn. Until I see Kean get some real independence, I have no reason to believe this is nothing but an act. Finally...it seemed jarring to see the normally innocent, sweet Bruce Wayne turn into such a cold-blooded attacker...but, this is the guy who will be Batman, so I let it go. Good to see his edge come out. Excellent episode overall.

Read the spoiler. Not sure what to think- on one hand, I like the thought of having Gideon and Rossi in a scene together, and I think it's great that Rossi uses his experience to solve a case for a change (he doesn't do this nearly as often as he should). However, I have issues with the timeline- Gideon wasn't around at the beginning of the BAU, because in “Unfinished Business”, Max Ryan talks about how he pulled a prank on the then new agent Gideon, and if I'm not mistaken, that put the timeline in the mid-1980s. Ryan, it's been established is an original, just like Rossi, so if we were going to do a 1970s case, it should have Ryan and Rossi together, not Gideon and Rossi. I also cringe at the thought of Ben Savage being Gideon- he's too closely associated, for me, as the quirky dork from Boy Meets World to be an effective, pensive but neurotic Gideon. I grant that perhaps Gideon's emotional issues could have happened after the Adrian Bale bombings, but Gideon had a cool, calculated demeanour that goes against the normally jovial Savage. Of course, having said that, I do believe in Savage's acting ability so I have reason to think he'll pull it off, but I have my doubts. Furthermore- can we trust the writers to adequately write for Gideon? I know Erica Messer was there from the beginning (her first episode, with Debra Fischer, was “The Fox”), but it's not she's been the best as a showrunner keeping up with the character details, and she's already made quite a few flubs just this season. So I cringe here too.

What they could have done with Reid is make him someone who second guesses himself constantly. A guy with his intellect would be able to come up with many different answers and scenarios that could tackle the problem, and he could be indecisive over which one is best. I know there's the whole "I think best under extreme terror" but that can be argued as a "survival instinct"- if Reid's not in imminent danger, he'll overthink everything. He could have also been made "brilliant, but lazy". Everything, by now, should come so easy to him- why would he feel the need to work as hard as his mates? They don't have to make him this arrogant guy who flaunts how easy things are to him, but they could mix a few short instances where we see him do something like playing every iteration of chess because he's finished whatever task Hotch asked him to do. We could even get agents wanting to be paired with him because he makes things so easy; then finally we could have Hotch wonder just how to maximise Reid's potential. *shrugs* Just a few random thoughts.

I don't know about not liking Reid- there's nothing about the character that would make him "hateable". I think it would have more to do with not understanding what to do with him. At least in the earlier seasons you had the storyline of Reid trying to learn how to be a profiler and how to be the best FBI agent he could be. Seeing him grow in confidence was a nice storyline and gave him the chance to have some real character development- but now that he's "completed" his growth as an agent I can see how the writers have hit a roadblock and have no idea where to go next. Most of the issues with Reid stem from the fact that CM has just never been great at characterization at all. Hotch had his storyline- lawman who loses his family because he's too busy with work- and when that was done, Hotch hasn't had any growth as a character at all. Gideon and Elle had no character development until it was time to boot both from the show. Rossi's only storylines seem to deal with unresolved cases and his old Vietnam sargeant. Morgan has gained a few traits and had an appreciable role as Reid's "big brother" but largely they use him just to speak the lines and do the actions other characters can't seem to fill. Prentiss' characterization was haphazard at best and nonexistent at worst. Blake received nothing substantive to speak of. JJ went from being an eternal cipher to being the one character who seems to have all the important scenes, all while having little appreciable growth or storylines as a character. Garcia hasn't had much character growth to speak of- most of her definition comes from the actress herself. Then, finally, there's Callahan, who might still have time for some development but so far, I don't have my hopes up (that, and I believe Jennifer Love Hewitt might be exerting influence on the stories herself, but I've been over this before). So when I think of Reid, I think of it as an extension of what's plagued the writers since, really, Season 4, combined with the terms of AJ Cook's return in Season 7. Cook's kind of upstaged everyone at this stage of CM's life, and I think this has something to do with the writers mistaking the backlash over the firing of Cook and Paget Brewster as the fans thinking they want Cook to take over the show. We all know the writers are lazy, and being unable to balance each character and give them appreciable storylines is extension of that.

Well, what are the odds? :p Maybe I'm a good luck charm- I sure hope so, anyway.

Someone should rename this the “Raymond Reddington Show” because Red has everyone by their throat, and his grip is so hard, he'll choke everyone out of existence in a heartbeat. I mean, great that Berlin and Red have become BFF on some “eternal quest” but the way Red did it is beyond belief. How come Berlin, with all of his contacts, never thought to see if he could find his daughter himself? How come not once Red ever thought the knowledge that Berlin's daughter was alive was of no use to tell anyone, let alone Berlin himself after Berlin had kidnapped Red's wife? Why is the FBI so willing to simply go along with whatever Red says and allow itself to be an instrument of Red's personal interests? Why doesn't anyone on this show have any goals or motivations outside of Red? So many questions...and I don't know if I care to see them resolved. I saw Scandal for the first time last week, and I was thoroughly impressed. I'm thinking I'm going to switch to that and catch this show at some other time- if I bother to watch it, that is.

Well, I'm a Morgan fan so I have to disagree about not wanting more stories for him...but here I'd have to agree. On one end, we have Savannah, who doesn't have any role in the story other than to show us that “despite how busy Morgan is, he's got enough time for a girlfriend!”, but on the other is Morgan, who, despite being on the show as long as Hotch and Reid have (and, essentially, Garcia and JJ), he's never had any real character development- it's like they threw his entire history into one episode (“Profiler, Profiled”) and thought that was enough. We never got to really dig deep into his ambitions, his insecurities, or his relationships in any real meaningful way- he's almost always been a robot used to fulfill any plot point the writers seem to want to fill. My hope here is that this leads to something more meaningful, and isn't used to build a Hotch/Haley storyline for Morgan- that would be frustrating, and I think a character like Morgan deserves to have something more substantive than a recycled story. For a change, I think I'd want Morgan to triumph in his personal life- so many cop shows have downer endings, why not change it up just this once?

This was the first time I'd ever caught this show. Heard so much about it and, since its eventual competitor on Thursdays- The Blacklist- is starting to suck, I figured, "why not see what all the hype is about". I'm going to tell you it delivered. In spades...and clubs, and hearts and diamonds but I won't get too carried away. I might not understand all of the characters right now, but I still got the story. I like how I can jump right in and still know what's happening. For one, I love how Olivia Pope is, on the outside, such a strong, confident woman, only for us to know, on a deeper level, her confidence is essentially a shield for her many, many insecurities. I think this manifested itself best in the phone sex scene- some of you didn't like it because it wasn't sexy, but I think it wasn't meant to be sexy at all. It was meant to show Pope something she'd love to have but knows deep down inside that she can't. To wit- first of all, the fact that it was over the phone is symbolic of the reality of the separation. Second of all, we saw Pope's facial expressions display a sense of longing and forlornness, indicating she knows just how hard the relationship really is. Third was Fitz's teasing tone, making her wait for the kiss, indicating that Fitz knows how badly Pope wants him, and yet Fitz needs to let her know he can't, or he won't, make it easy for her. Finally, I thought the line about her being able to "taste herself" seemed to be a metaphor for Pope's views on the relationship- Fitz seems to be implying that her intentions are purely based on her own needs and desires, and that she doesn't seem to understand (or maybe even care about) Fitz's position on the whole thing. Pope bases her whole life on getting everything she wants, and Fitz basically called her out for it. I thought it was perfect and apt, and I hope there's a bit more fallout from something like this. As for the story of the week itself, I thought it was pretty well done. You knew in the end that Abby's abusive husband would get some comeuppance in the end, but I liked how the show didn't take the obvious route and showed the many challenges Abby had to face to resolve the conflict. "Out him myself you say? Yeah, well, we all know men of power come out unscathed and the female accusers disappear...plus I work for the President, how could he appreciate me taking on his favoured candidate?" It was also nice seeing Abby struggle to maintain her composure in public, facing the very real possibility that she had to see her abuser every day, and at least pretend that she's past everything when she isn't. I thought the scene with her and her ex-husband rang true as well- we didn't see some contrived strength, we saw Abby have to go overboard to show her ex that he didn't "win", indicating that the demons are still real and challenging. I also liked how it was Leo Bergen being the one to out her ex-husband to the President- it's a nice reminder from the show that "not all men are evil abusers and that some do actually care". I thought the scene at the end with the Bourbon was pretty funny, and I laughed with Abby when Bergen quipped that, after Abby was surprised she let Bergen kiss her, "we can have more Bourbon and I'll touch your boob." Very light-hearted and touching, although part of me wonders if it's at all appropriate to make that kind of a joke to an abuse victim, but I'll cut Bergen some slack. The Republican Senator...well, wasn't she a piece of work? I liked how gung-ho she was about the makeover and listening to everything that Pope wanted her to do; furthermore, I shared Pope's amazement that a campaign for a senator could be so shoddily arranged and put together prior to Pope's involvement. I get such a scenario might not be likely, but it did underscore how difficult a challenge it would be for Pope. I also liked how the Republican, despite Pope's best efforts, just wasn't "TV-ready", and how Pope needed to turn to her charismatic daughter for an effective campaign ad. I loved the child actress in this one too- she was cute but not over the top, and she commanded the screen well. Overall, pretty good overall this week. Pity there's only two more episodes left until essentially February- but I guess this means I got plenty of time to catch up. :P

I have my own issues with Edward Allen Bernero (it was under his watch the series started showing the UnSub early and began representing its victims as nothing more than rag dolls), but at least Bernero knew how to write compelling stories and understood what "subtlety" meant. Earlier on, he was still concerned about law enforcement officers following the rules; later on he started to be a bit lax about it though the characters didn't go too overboard about it. Erica Messer seems to be the real culprit- once you got "It Takes A Village" you knew things were going to get ugly. It took her a while to gain her footing and implement her plan but it seems like we're in full swing. It's quite apparent- as had been said many times before- that she has no clue what she's doing and has all the subtlety of a chainsaw. Not to mention she had made this show very politically charged, and I hate it because the show was never like this. I bring up the political point again because a few days ago I saw Scandal for the first time and I was very impressed. Here's a show that, like Messer seems to want to do with CM, is unabashedly feminist- in fact, the lead character, Olivia Pope, describes herself as one. However, the men on the show are still allowed to be strong, effective characters (even sympathetic), it doesn't devolve into the radical "everything a man wants or is happens to be bad" and although feminist ideals still win out in the end, they're portrayed realistically, with challenges being faced and without every ideal being "right". Furthermore, Pope herself has quite a few flaws- on the outside, she's a strong, confident woman but you take a deeper look and you realize it's a shield for her many insecurities. It's developed so well and I love it; CM could learn a lot from this.

I'm predicting an omnivore, with the males being used as instruments of the UnSub's torture and the final victim to be saved being a woman. Maybe this one will work because the premise could be interesting, but I don't have my hopes up. Oh, and is the only storyline they can do with Morgan and Savannah is that they're both "too busy with work to find a lot of quality time together"? They already did this once before in Savannah's first episode- why the need to do it again? I would have figured by now the two of them would have worked something out. I want to see something different, perhaps Savannah getting a promotion or something, and maybe have Morgan use her expertise in a case or something- Savannah needs to be more than just a prop to tell us how busy Morgan is.

Elementary's Captain Thomas Gregson goes out and assists with investigations, interrogations and conducts arrests- so there's precedent for TV captains who will actually do something. Now, Sarah Essen doesn't have to do the fieldwork, but I'd like it if she had more of a role on the show than just as the “one who barks orders” (as is far too often the case on TV). Essen is higher up than Gordon and Bullock and thus would have easier access to the corruption- we could see her dealing with councilors, families, her superiors, etc. as she wrestles with the cases she chooses to take. You can almost bet that Maroni and Falcone have her ear and they influence her decisions to assign cases, meaning she likely has to battle them, her morals and her better judgment just to ensure that the peace is maintained in Gotham. Just that aspect alone should be enough material to draw upon for the character, and it's maddening that in a show that's supposed to be all about Gotham that we don't see Essen in a bigger role.

I guess we're back to the procedurals...oh well, at least it means Bullock and Gordon have something to do.

She still killed a male, and was essentially doing something at the behest of a male. It's not like having a woman make a decision entirely independent of male influence to murder other women.

Just looking over the numbers on Wikipedia (which uses TVbytheNumbers as a source) and “Gabby”, with 9.42, is the current season low, and the preliminary numbers for “If The Shoe Fits” would rank it as the second lowest. Still, even if CM is the most watched show that night, the fact that the numbers are treading downward must be cause for concern (though maybe not alarm).

It's Bruno Heller...I don't think he's ever written a female character that's realistic or redeemable. On his other show- The Mentalist- he has two main female characters, one of which is written to be vulnerable and naïve (Grace van Pelt) and the other (Teresa Lisbon) who is supposed to be the strong, confident one but almost always gets shown (like the rest of her team) to have virtually no competence on her own and to serve as Patrick Jane's lapdog. The only redeeming qualities about the characters is that the actresses provide that hidden layer of strength and independence, but you wouldn't know that if all you saw was the writing. Unfortunately, Gotham doesn't seem to have actresses as talented as Amanda Righetti or Robin Tunney, so the caricatures stick out more. I don't know if this was deliberate on Heller's part- so that the acting doesn't overshadow the writing- but what it means is that I don't have much hope things will get better.

Two other points I want to make: 1) The events occurred in Missoula, Montana, presumably this week. Yesterday, the temperature hit 11C there, or 51F, yet everyone- including the UnSub and her dresses- was dressed for summer. I get that the show films in California, but the UnSub's attire was central to the plot and there's no way that she'd be wearing what she did if this happened in real life Missoula. So why not set it in Carolina or Texas (since Southern girls are already romanticized), or another warm place like Phoenix or Florida? 2) I might get piled on for this, but I gotta say it anyway- I might have appreciated the UnSub being shot and killed in this one. Heck, in fact, I may have preferred it. The reason for this stems from just how disposable the males seem this season- on top of the victims, three of the five male UnSubs were harmed by the BAU in some way (two of them killed), yet the UnSub here was allowed to be whisked away, harmlessly via a tactic, one never tried on the males. It's as if the show thinks the female criminal's life was worth sparing yet the men are not. (Aside- I realize this also makes it seem like the female UnSub might not be as “dangerous” as her male counterparts, especially considering that Hotch thought he could send Reid with minimal support, which could be an indicator of sexism going the other way)

I really don't know what to think. I mean, it was an absolute dreck, but I'm not really sure how to describe it... Maybe I'll start with what I can describe: -Reid made more appearances in this episode than I thought he would, and his expansive brain was necessary and onpoint. Liked how his explanation of fairy tales helped catch the UnSub and JJ in her predicament. -Having said that...did it really need to take half the episode for the team to figure out the UnSub was trying to live a fairy tale? Pretty sure a slipper and midnight would be giveaways. -One thing about Reid's scenes I did not dig was how he arrested the UnSub. I kept thinking about Maeve and that it seemed like Hotch was exploiting the feelings Reid had for her so he could use it against the UnSub, so it felt like a really, really low blow. -I did think AJ Cook was actually good in this one. The writing didn't do her a lot of justice- I mean, Mama and Henry chanced upon that picture, what was Mama supposed to do? She was pretty emotive and put some life into the scenes...so this makes me wonder if 90% of the time Cook just coasts. -So little Morgan, and the Morgan we did see didn't seem to gel with the one I know. Callahan delivers a low blow and Morgan applauds her for that? Given Callahan's prediliction for wanting to beat people up I'm not quite sure I like seeing that from Morgan, who used to be the guy who kept everything on the straight and narrow. -Speaking of which, if it weren't for Jennifer Love Hewitt I'd hate Callahan by now. The writing for her is atrocious...she was pretty flippant with Reid and the callousness she displays towards perps is eye-rolling. I sure hope there's some hidden layer or something because I'm tired of yet another female agent that's "tough and won't back down!" and displays not a shred of actual empathy. -I suppose the UnSub using the allure of sex might allow her to tempt all those guys and allow her to take enough control to be able to overpower them...I'm just not sure about her being able to do that as many times as she did. She was pretty tiny...certainly the guy who had her in the car could have overpowered her, easily. I also gotta wonder about bed guy...she's probably not that strong so the binds were not likely that strong either, so he could have gotten away too. -Really didn't like Rossi blowing off Reid when he started yammering about the circadian rhythm...I know Rossi was annoyed by Reid in the past but I thought Rossi was past that by now. So that's what I could explain...but, I have another point to explain, the one I've been talking about all week- CM and misogyny- and how this episode ties into all that. So here goes: Well, given the current string of cases, yet another case with male victims makes no sense at this stage. I suppose I could let this pass if the victims actually meant something to the story, and, in a sense, they did. You couldn't change the gender of the victims without changing the story, but it still rang pretty hollow...the victims still served as instruments of the UnSub's depravity. There was no real connection for the victims, no deeper exploration about why those particular men were chosen...in fact, we knew so little about them except for the one guy who was gay. I also didn't believe the case itself was all that novel...I believe we've had "black widows" before ("Jones", if I'm not mistaken), although I think this was the first time we've had someone do that because dates she went on went south. About those dates...the UnSub was spurred on by a sexual assault and thus the show seems to suggest that victims of sexual assault can be spurred on to murderous rampages. Nothing surprising given that the show loves its stressors, but given the climate of 2014, I gotta wonder if there's some sort of "meta" message here. Is this about some kind of a warning to guys, telling them not to rape women or else she'll turn into a extremely delusional psychopath? Maybe it's just me but I can think of less drastic reasons not to rape someone, and I sure don't like the show thinking that I- and by extension the vast majority of men- need some kind of "convincing" just to have basic respect for a woman. I already know that disrespecting someone else's wishes is extremely wrong- I don't need to be hit over the head with it. Could this be some kind of message about "the true nature of guys", telling girls that, no matter how you slice it, every guy's just after sex and he'll just power his way through just to get it. I probably shouldn't have to explain how revolting something like this is- we all know that the cads who catcall, grope and beat women (and, courtesy of GamerGate, send women death threats) are not numerous among the male population, so it's deeply troubling that the show would want to paint every guy with the same evil brush. It's the same tactic that radical feminists use, as they have the warped belief that men are the root of all of women's problems so therefore all men have to be neutralized. It's sickening, and detracts from real feminist causes by taking away the attention from them. Or, lastly, could the UnSub's motivations be a message about how rape victims are "delicate little flowers" who, if they're not taken care of, will go ballistic? Look, I have nothing but the utmost amount of sympathy and respect for victims of rape and would like nothing more than rapists to go behind bars; and I respect and appreciate the fact that rape is an awfully sensitive topic. However, so much of the rhetoric these days when discussing rape focuses on preventing "triggers" and getting others to understand just how sensitive the victims are and, while not bad points in of itself, the overstating of this and the lack of anyone leading victims to get help leads to this never-ending cycle of victimization, where the victims never truly get past their events. Somehow, I can't see this as productive- since rape is all about dominance and control, allowing the rapist into your head means that he still "controls" you, meaning he won. I get that getting past a trauma is never easy and that, from time to time, it'll pop back up, but we need to start focusing our efforts on making sure that people get help and not on simply avoiding triggers. Probably that's what bugs me the most, aside from the blatant misandry, is the show's handling of rape- it was such a "throwaway" that, in the year of Elliott Rodger, Jameis Winston, Ray Rice and Jian Ghomeshi, just doesn't seem right. At least if we're going to have a rape used as a part of the plot, give the event some meaning, not use it as a mere plot device.

You make some good points. Perhaps what I meant is that, given how the writing has gone in this show, if I had to send Barbara or Gordon/Bullock against Falcone, Gordon/Bullock stood a better chance, since we've at least seen that they have some capabilities whereas Barbara has shown no strengths at all. I agree that the detectives too were likely toast. I'd also agree that with better writing that Barbara's actions could have been brave. Perhaps if she found a way to snake out of her apartment and escape Butch (not impossible- it is her apartment after all, she'd known it better than her invaders) it would sell her bravery a bit more, because at least she got the upper hand on someone for a change without needing Gordon's help. After escaping, she could have been the one to go to Gordon to plead with him to leave, with Gordon turning things on her and saying, "you go. I need to stay". Then perhaps Barbara saying "no, I'm staying because that's what a fiance does" it could ring true, because then it would provide the opportunity for Gordon to see her unflappable loyalty, gain confidence from it and see that she just might have the ability to fend for herself. Then an encounter with Falcone doesn't seem so foolish, because then we get the sense that she'd have a small possibility of getting out of there unscathed. So who wants to bet that one of the things Gordon says to Barbara next week is, "why did you do that? You could have gotten hurt!" *rolls eyes* Sometimes I think if it weren't for Bullock and the Penguin (and Falcone, too) I probably would have bailed from this series and its poor treatment of women.

Heh. GamerGate...I could on all day about how the whole thing is nothing more than one big petty high school fight with people doing everything they can to bully the other side and not have an actual dialog about ethics in gaming, but I digress. That's a topic for another forum. I do think it'd make a great CM episode though...all the commentaries GamerGate raises about gender issues and how people behave in the gamer community and how it responds to criticism is ripe for lots of profiling. It'd also give Garcia something substantive to do that's actually up her alley. With regards to political correctness, just to clarify, I use the term only to mean instances where it's clear the usage is being done in a faux sense of inclusiveness, not when people are actually trying to be inclusive. For me, using "African American" versus "black" is a matter of style- the former is more formal while the latter, though having acceptable usage in a formal setting, is typically informal. Obviously, if someone wanted me to identify themselves as "black" I'd do so, but otherwise, since I believe in describing things "properly" (as in, more "exact" terms than informal designations tend to allow), I'd rather use "African-(country)" or the actual country someone is from, like Kenyan or Zimbabwean or Jamaican, than to be, for the lack of better terms, "lazy" and say they're simply "black". That's just me though. Anyway, that's the kind of political correctness I'm railing against, because I can't see how current trends really help things out in the long term. A corollary to this is something I read in "If The Shoe Fits". Zannej had said that if the UnSub is female then the victims ought to be female too, and I think there's something to this. We've had men targetting women, men targetting men and women targetting men but we've never had women targetting women (except maybe "Somebody's Watching", but even she was an omnivore), so it seems natural to me that we get a case that's like this. It wouldn't even take too thinking outside of the box to invent- a beauty pageant would be a nice venue for something like this, for instance, or even just high school or college. The only thing that would worry me about a situation like this is that, on CM, they don't tend to write for their women particularly well. As seems to be the case on a lot of TV shows, the women seem to act the way that a man seems to think they would act instead of acting the way that a woman would actually act. I do grant that the writers of CM tend to do a better job than on other shows- at least we get women that are strong, intelligent, independent women that are at least somewhat grounded in reality, as opposed to a show like Gotham that writes its women to either be vulnerable or highly sexualized, essentially creating nothing more than "male fantasy types" than anything remotely realistic. That said, CM seems to fall into the trap, more often than not, that its female characters cannot be warm or cute without sacrificing their inner toughness and we all know that's not true. We either get women who are outwardly tough and display a cold, detached "distance" from others (JJ, Prentiss, Strauss), excessively vulnerable (the preferred "female victim" type) or so cute that they're essentially overgrown children (Garcia). It seems telling that the character whose traits would present the most realistic depiction of a female is actually a male character, Reid, which I think explains part of his appeal (in fact, I'd probably argue that Hotch and Morgan too, with their empathy, can be more "feminine" at times than the women on this show). I do think Callahan might appear that she could be a warm, fuzzy woman with toughness on the inside, but so far it seems like this interpretation comes from Jennifer Love Hewitt, not from the writing, which seems to want to reinforce the idea that Callahan likes beating up perps (please just let this be a phase). I hope that the warm, loving but tough Callahan is the character we get, since it may indicate to me that CM finally realizes that "feminine" doesn't have to mean you sacrifice your toughness, but I'm not getting my hopes too far up. I also can't remember the last time CM actually tried to tackle something that's considered a "woman's issue". Sure, we've had episodes with prostitutes and rape, but, again, those seemed to be written with a male perspective in mind. When it comes to rape, as far as I understand, we've only had one case that dealt with it specifically- "Aftermath"- but that episode was more about why the man wanted to rape the women, and didn't do too much exploring about the effects of rape on women. Considering how much attention things like "rape culture" or the Steubenville high school case or the suicide of Amanda Todd got, it's apparent that there's a lot of ripe storylines for exploring the topic. I did a fic once that mirrored the Todd case and in another short story series of mine, I tried to understand one possibility about why rapists escape prosecution. Certainly I think CM could cover those topics themselves- the only question would be whether or not they'd do it well. The old writing team could. I'm not so sure about this one. Also, if the writers believe rape is too sensitive a topic to explore, there's plenty of other women's issues that they can cover. We could have an episode about a pimp that exploits women and explores why women get into prostitution. Or, if that's too sensitive a topic, how about an episode about a career woman who's held back advancing in her career by narrow-minded men? What about an episode about the difficulties of single motherhood, or even just a career woman with a family (something JJ's storyline conveniently bypasses addressing)? This is just the tip of the iceberg- we can get into other forms of sexual harassment, domestic violence, or even just simple female jealousy...the possibilities are endless. We just need CM to be visionary enough to see that.

I would have bought that if we'd seen in some previous episode Barbara actually displaying the smarts and toughness that would be required to deal with someone like Carmine Falcone. As much as I agree that "agency" gets overused, even in this episode, this is clearly an agency issue. To wit, so far in the series Barbara has done nothing that doesn't relate to Gordon in some way. To my knowledge, she's had only one scene where she wasn't with Gordon (the one with Montoya and the awkward kiss), and most of what she does is done with the kind of vulnerable, "please save me now" vibe clearly meant to portray her as Gordon's damsel to be saved (I also think Erin Richards doesn't help the issue much with her acting choices). Furthermore, when she does try to do things on her own to help Gordon- such as calling the newspaper on that tip- it winds up blowing up in her face. She's purported to be this strong, independent woman but I don't see any of evidence of that on the show itself. She seems to need Gordon to help her out with everything, and the show insists on hitting me on the head over and over again with it, which is incredibly nauseating. This is why Barbara's attempt with Falcone rang hollow- the show only did it for one reason, and that was so Gordon would (again) have to come to her rescue. At least when it came to Gordon and Bullock it was somewhat believable that they stood a chance against Falcone since we've seen how smart they can be, but Barbara? Not even once has she been portrayed as smart or clever, so her meeting Falcone meant only doom for her. Honestly, if the show keeps up this schtick with its women characters- making them all idealized, "male fantasy versions" of women instead of actual, real, believable women- I don't know how long I'll stay. It's 2014- we shouldn't have meaningless women on TV anymore, let alone meaningless "anyone".

Well, I knew Zoe was somebody's daughter. Well played show, well played. I wonder if this means that Berlin and Red are now even, considering that Berlin has nothing to actually have revenge against Red for. Of course, I do still find this storyline contrived, but at least the execution seems to be about right, so I'll reserve my judgement until 02.08. Thought Waleed Zuaiter did a marvelous job as The Scimitar (although I kept thinking the show pronounced "scimitar" wrong...or maybe it's just me). I did think that The Scimitar's presence at the "hospital" ruined any suspense that it was anything but an actual hospital, since Zuaiter commanded his presence a lot more than a bit character would, but at least his performance was engaging. Liked Liz in this episode..for a change, she was actually a believable badass and actually had some brains (and she looked cute in those hospital undies). Why we can't seem to have more of that kind of Keene I'll never understand, because that's the more entertaining version. The case itself seemed a bit too elaborate to be believable, though I guess since the whole thing was a government operation it could make sense. I do wonder how the Department of Defence could allow someone to slip in a fictitious employee without anyone noticing...for a department with such sensitive information, they sure do make themselves easy for manipulation. Loved Samar Navabi in this one..she showed she can be a badass at the bar as well as with a gun. Really thinking I'm going to fall in love with this woman...and I fear she'll be toast at the end of the year just like Meera. *sniff* Red was his usual, comic-book type snarky self but James Spader played it so well that he provided some of the most entertaining work he's done. I particularly loved seeming him casually strike golf balls into the windows of The Scimitar's contact. It's proof that you don't just need a gun to pressure someone to do what you want- it's all about hitting them where it counts, and in this case, it was the contact's windows. The Tom thing didn't seem too necessary...it was all just pointless banter but it was nice to see Ryan Eggold on the screen after having so many weeks off prior to last week. I do hope he gets something more substantive next week, because "chained, distressed Tom" will get tiring fast. Overall, did enjoy it, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Yawn. I almost feel like checking out, to be completely honest. This episode was just so boring...lots of blind action sequences, all of which I've seen done better before, and the pacing having all the urgency of a retiree on a Sunday morning stroll. I used to love this show for the layers and the complexity of the characters...I don't think we really saw any of that, just 40+ minutes of seeing just how much of an action star Ben McKenzie is...or isn't. I did enjoy John Doman in this episode...he conveys a very assured, trusting Carmine Falcone, and it's good that the writing is playing up to that. I knew, soon enough, he'd figure out that Fish was on to him and it seemed like tonight he knew where Lizzie really came from. It does help that Oswald Cobblepot gave him a nice tip several weeks ago...I thought the reveal of Cobblepot being the real mastermind was done pretty well, since it was subtle. I'm also thinking Cobblepot takes over for Maroni at some point, if only because David Zayas is only an occasional guest star and Doman and Robin Lord Taylor are part of the main cast. Really didn't like how Barbara was just simply weak in this episode, and had to be positioned in such a way that she had to be saved. *groan* Why can't Barbara Kean do anything except be a victim? I see no point in having the character if all she'll be is a pawn. I also thought they really did neuter Sarah Essen here...she wants to stand by James Gordon and help him take down Victor Zsasz and when Gordon barks at her to leave, she just meekly accepts? Seriously? Didn't like how the cop Zsasz shot was a woman...given how poorly this show treats its women, it was in poor taste. Did buy the entire department leaving on Zsasz's command...dude's creepy, and I didn't think the force liked "The Boy Scout" anyway. Zsasz himself was pretty cool, although the writing didn't allow him to really be as tough as he could be. Liked how Major Crimes did an about face and started to protect Jim, although I think it was haphazardly done. It also seemed rather quick of Jimmy to trust them so soon after they tried to take him down but I guess he doesn't have too much of a choice in his predicament. I also liked how Harvey Bullock came full circle and decided to ultimately support Gordon, though I hated how much of a cipher Bullock was here...for such an important plot point, they sure glossed over it. I do have hope that next week things will turn around and we'll get past the obvious "wham" that was supposed to be the Cobblepot reveal. Unfortunately, the show just had to have the weakest episode of the season to do it.

Yeah, but hooray for less misogyny on TV, right!...? *groan* I begin to wonder if that was a stipulation on Jennifer Love Hewitt's contract- the show “must not feature female victims week in week out” because I can't remember a string of cases quite like this. I also fear that it'll drag on to at least the New Year, based on the episode descriptions I've been reading. *shudder* Okay, CM, I get it...you've proven your point that you're inclusive by having disposable male victims, thinking that by making disposable victims the same gender as me that I'll understand how women feel about disposable female victims. Never mind that I hated it when the show used disposable female victims in the past. Never mind that, in virtually every case with omnivores there was only two cases- “Big Sea” and “A Real Rain”- where the “rescued victim” was a male, meaning the show only felt it was necessary to save females. Never mind that CM crafted- or had crafted- its males to be positive role models, never letting them fall into toxic stereotypes that derail other characterizations. Heck, never mind that, once before, there was a time when CM actually cared about the victims and didn't just use them to show how “depraved” the UnSub was. Yeah...whatever happened to that show? You know, the one that was about profiling and getting to know the victims and understanding just why the UnSub picked the targets they picked, complete with nice social commentary about how males targetted females for a fake sense of superiority? Whatever happened to that show? Can the studio that's kidnapped the CM cast and badged its filth as CM please return the cast to their rightful studio so I can have the real show for once? There may be one solace to all this- the ratings are in the tank, so I can't suspect CBS is at all happy about this. Hopefully the New Year will bring me victims- from either gender- that I'll care about, whose priorities are not imbalanced, though I may be asking for too much at this stage.

This. A thousand times this. Heck, why not a million times this? Maybe it's just me spending way too much time on the Internet but I find that I can't have a reasoned discussion about feminism and feminist topics without someone getting oversensitive, playing the victim card and construing whatever I have to say as "women-bashing". Somehow I can't see how any of this is productive- or helps out women's rights at all. When it comes to this show, it's a perfect example of just what's wrong with political correctness. You don't correct one extreme by going extreme the other way- all that does is anger another set of viewers with the net result being that you don't gain any new viewers- in fact, I think you'd wind up losing viewers, since you'd likely lose your original audience and others who might have been interested, and only gain people who'd appreciate the other extreme, which doesn't number much. Furthermore, pandering to political correctness raises questions about tokenism and just how invested the writers are in the stories. To me, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a show where the leads are solely minorities or women or any other seemingly "politically correct" setup provided that the motivation is entirely creative. Otherwise, you're doing a disservice to inclusive television- if all people see is poor programming from shows that don't feature a white male lead, it'll be harder for those kinds of shows to get picked up or even given a look at all. With CM, I see no motivation for the rise of JJ, female UnSubs and male victims as anything other than political correctness, and the show's quality is suffering because of it. I don't believe the writers seem all that invested in the stories, and the acting quality has gone down since it's pretty apparent that AJ Cook doesn't have the chops to be a lead actress. Seems to me like the rest of the actors have already acquiesced and have phoned it in realizing that Cook has pretty much taken over. It's unfortunate, and the series seems worse off as a result. Of course, the past had its fair share of problems. Did we have too many cases where the victims were female for no other reason than the writer decided they would be female? Yes. Did CM treat its female characters rather poorly? For the most part, yes. Did the show resort to misogynistic tropes (such as the "damsel in distress") too much? Yes. However, I can't see the answer to all this being "overdose on male victims" and hand the reins to the show to someone without the acting chops, just because the person in question has breasts- there are so many other ways we can make CM "feminist". For one, CM ought to have listened to its female fans and realized that, hey, Reid's a pretty big draw. So too is Morgan (maybe less so on this forum but I have a friend at work who is absolutely obsessed with Shemar Moore). Hotch too seems to be a pretty big draw. Having males who are central isn't a detriment, especially if you're careful- as CM did in the past- to make these characters less "manly" men and make them people capable of empathy and compassion as well as having vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the men of CM did their utmost to treat women with dignity and respect- even Morgan- and I think CM ought to be commended for doing that. Far too often you get men who do nothing but have perverted thoughts and get dismissive about their female colleagues, but you don't see that about the CM men. Think about it- when have you ever heard someone in the BAU get shocked the detective or the sheriff they're dealing with is a woman? I've never seen it. Sure, it might be idealized- as I understand, misogyny is still a big problem in law enforcement ranks- but I think it's an ideal that needs to be done, because it shows that men can still be tough and desirable and still have a healthy view of women, and in today's world we don't seem to have enough men like that. Second of all, why can't the show use the opportunity to deconstruct why serial killers tend to be men hunting women? I used to like how in the first season you'd get Elle and Gideon make numerous references to how the men who did this stuff viewed themselves as powerful yet, deep down inside, they were really weak. It really helped put things in perspective, because it reinforced the idea that serial killers targetting women is a social problem, thus giving the show a valid reason to populate its victim pool with XX chromosomes. I think the show really could have built upon stuff like this, and expanded upon other themes such as suggesting that societal pressures on men to be "macho and dominant" creates hunters like serial killers, as well as the idea that, more often than not, life failures lead people to lash out against the world. Of course, I'm just barely scratching the surface, but you get the idea- there's millions of individual motivations and millions of societal pressures, yet we don't get much of the latter. The show seems to have started out like this but dropped the ball, seeming to forget that you don't need to sacrifice the cerebral elements just to have action. As a corollary, I wonder why a character couldn't be a "card-carrying feminist"...I would imagine real feminists would be drawn to the topic of serial killers just because of their nature, so why wouldn't one join the BAU? I do wonder if the writers would be able to portray one well enough, but I do think having a feminist on the team would underscore the idea that the show can be about social commentary too. Furthermore, it would be worth having a team member that understands women's issues, since those things should crop up every now and then and I don't think the show does a good service to these issues. Everything seems to be done from a "male" perspective and I think this needs to be balanced out. Thirdly, and I think most importantly, the victims ought to matter. They shouldn't be used as pawns to show us how depraved the UnSub of the Week is- these should be people that we get to know on at least a superficial level and thus care that they're being hurt. I also believe that the gender of the victims should be based purely on creative reasons and nothing else. It's one of the reasons why I think "Burn" could have been a good episode, because at least the male victims served as an exposition into the UnSub's mind- those victims mattered, if for nothing else that you couldn't change their genders without impacting the story. "Boxed In"? Why just boys? Don't girls also go out and egg houses too? Then there was "The Itch" where the first two victims, both male, were shown only as instruments of the UnSub's methods of torture, and if even one of them was a woman, the story wouldn't have changed at all. Lastly, if we're going to have female leads, give us some good actresses that can carry the load. Throughout CM's entire history, I can only think of three that seemed capable of the challenge- Lola Glaudini (Elle), Paget Brewster (Prentiss) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (Callahan). I know Hewitt is new but she's impressed me so far. It's why I'm not so skittish about this direction because I think Hewitt would do a great job as CM's star- I just don't want her flanked by two actresses (Cook and Kirsten Vangsness, who, despite her comedic abilities just doesn't seem to have the flair for more emotional, "dramatic" work) that can't hold a candle to her. If CM replaces its males with toothless characters that have no business being with Hewitt then I'm out. CM is and always will be an ensemble- the showrunners should never mess with that, and should always pick the best actors for any role- regardless of their gender.