Danielg342

I get the sense that "Angels and Demons" would be a better pair of episodes to watch when one already knows what's going to happen, like "The Fisher King" would be now. The whole "who's going to make it?" vibe with the stress it induces is detracting from the storytelling, I find.

I think we call that a "wham" episode, no? I thought it was great to learn that, all along, despite being rather slimy about it, deep down inside, Mycroft actually does care about his brother. I thought the whole explanation and the way it was built up was perfect. Yet another example of how great this show is at characterization- writers can learn from this. I also thought it was wonderful that Sherlock, too, also loves his brother. He could have let Mycroft get arrested and have to fend for himself after the police deduced his "fingerprints" were on the gun, but as soon as Sherlock realized what happened he rushed to warn him. Maybe all along Sherlock's contempt for Mycroft has more to do with Mycroft not understanding his abilities and his intellect than Sherlock believing he is actually stupid. Regardless, this was also very well played. Only quibble I have is how Sherlock exactly deduced that Mycroft is being framed. I'm not sure I saw anywhere in the episode where Mycroft had a viable alibi for the night of Arthur West's murder, nor did Sherlock produce a reason why he believed the fingerprints were not genuine. Perhaps we'll get that answer in the next episode. As for "Joancroft": I object to it for the basic reason that I look at Joan and I look at Mycroft and I see a beautiful woman who's being paired up with a caveman. Mycroft without his shirt on was probably one of the ugliest things I'd ever seen...surely Joan can do better than that. As soon as they kissed I could picture a million TV viewers puking into their toilets...I mean, no offence to Rhys Ifans...I'm sure he's a nice man and that Anna Friel gets to see a much better side of him than I do, but Elementary staffers...if you're going to make Joan shack up with someone, how about pairing her up with someone who looks like they're actually aware a shower exists? Please? Other episode notes: -Was waiting all this time for Gregson and Bell to start wondering what Joan and Sherlock are being so secretive about. I know Gregson made a look, but that was it. I would have loved to have heard a line, at the very least. -Might have liked it better if Graeme de Soto was revealed to have been working with Mycroft all along- hence why he could have gotten away- but the alternate explanation wasn't too bad. -Even though I understood why Joan was mad at Sherlock for quickly dismissing her idea of moving out, it still surprised me. Joan's been with Sherlock long enough to know that he's never too quick to provide an explanation and has no tact in presenting it...she should have been more upset that Sherlock was too easily dismissive of the idea instead of being upset that he "turned it into a psychological cliche".

My first reaction was "wow, these people are taking things *way* too seriously." Then I thought, "if this isn't the best example of the perils of toying with your characters, then I don't know what is." CBS, you better have made the right call.

http://www.fashionnstyle.com/articles/19358/20140506/criminal-minds-season-9-finale-spoilers-matthew-gray-gubler-leaving.htm ^ According to this, it's only Matthew Gray Gubler whose contract is up- everyone else, including Jeanne Tripplehorn, is apparently signed. So what do we make of this?

So I guess it's confirmed that someone is leaving. Cheap, cheap storytelling, writers. Unless, as I hope, it's just a play on words (Q: “who is leaving FOREVER?” A: “No one”), which is what I hope. Although if one leaves my money is on JJ...the promo did talk about a “sad secret” coming out and the writers did talk about her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder coming out, so we'll see. Regardless, it's still shameful writing...one more reason why I turn to my fic writing, to do the episodes the CM guys won't give me.

Okay, so what did I just watch? That final scene was pretty good...and that scene at the coroner's office was pretty funny. Overall, though, I was less than impressed for a number of reasons: 1) Reid didn't have to go down for this to be an effective cliffhanger. Just the thought- or the realization- that the FBI is working against the Briscoe County police would have been good enough, because then the case gains the idea of "this is bigger than it seems". 2) Gunning down Reid is lazy writing for another reason. Not only has our poor boy genius been through enough- seriously, from "L.D.S.K." to "Revelations" to "Amplification" to the broken leg to the headaches to Maeve, hasn't he been through enough pain?- using the "team member in peril" is just cheap storytelling. It's the easiest way to unnerve the audience because you're threatening someone they care about, so if a writer wants to add "quick tension" to an episode, putting a main character in peril is the best way to do it. It's also why storylines like these need to be handled with care- putting a character through too much risks getting the audience angry because, let's face it, beating a guy too much is abuse. It's exploitative of the audience's emotions, and tells the audience you don't care how much they care about the character. Doesn't matter if Reid- as expected- makes it out in the end: by beating him time and again (lazily too), the writers have already told us what they think of him, and it's disgusting. 3) I rolled my eyes at the fact a "moral guardian" episode takes place in Texas. Seriously, show, could you not pick a more cliched place for something like that to happen? I grant there wouldn't be a lot of places where "preacher takes on prostitution" would be a shock, but putting the case in a cliched version of Texas is underscoring a bit much just how conservative that place is, isn't it? Plus, with the team down there to "make things right" the episode gains some political undertones, doesn't it? Also, as a corollary to this, having a preacher actually be a pimp has been done to death too much...it's no longer a shock. Especially when that preacher is a cliched Texan who grew up as a cliched Albertan. 4) Accents really bothered me. I've been to Amarillo (which is close to Briscoe County) and elsewhere in Texas (including the small towns)...that accent is pretty rare, yet they gave it to everyone. 5) Didn't dig Dinah...she was way too one-dimensional. Something tells me she's in on this whole plot, just to get back at the preacher. 6) Also didn't dig the overeager police officer...I guess they were trying to make her "cute" or something but I just found her enthusiasm annoying. 7) Finally, that scene where the blonde prostitute died...I knew as soon as they panned to her facing the window chanting "I am beautiful...I am beautiful" that she'd be shot before she could finish the third chant. The show does these scenes too much that they no longer have the power they once did. Besides...I actually thought the character was likeable. Waste of a talent, if you ask me. However, bottom line is that we got yet another emotionally exploitative, cliched cliffhanger. Sometimes I think CM is far better at crafting its cases than it is at writing stories, because their stories always seem to go through the same, lazy styles. In this case, why does a team member have to be in peril for the show to have a cliffhanger? Don't they know there are other ways to write one? I also don't get why Reid has to be the whipping boy all the time- I think it's about time he gets another, happier storyline. His fans have been through enough.

Glad you were entertained. :) I based that case on two real life cases- the story of the “Slane Girl” in Ireland and the story of Rehateh Parsons in my native Canada. Hope you check out the rest of them, though I understand I have a lot. I'm proud of all of them but I'd say the ones I go back to quite a bit (aside from “What Goes Around...”) are “Zoe's Redux” (a reimagining of “Zoe's Reprise”), “The Chessmaster” (a reimagining of “Zugzwang”) and “Reopening Old Wounds”.

I think what jarred me the most about this episode was how quickly Lizzie made an about face and started to care about Red's welfare right after learning about Berlin despite not adequately forgiving Red. I thought she was doing so well with the "get this case over with" vibe that she had no reason to have any concern for Red outside of work- meaning she shouldn't have cared if Red was in jail because then Red would be forced by the authorities to give some answers, especially if the interrogation would be as mean as the show said it would be. Harold Cooper also unsettled me here because he was so shady...no Harry, I don't buy for one second that you think Lizzie is strong enough for the task force. You're only saying that so that Lizzie stays on and your own behind gets spared. It was such a selfish act for a character that had more integrity, making the exchange pretty disappointing. To me, the episode would have worked much better if Lizzie had outright quit the FBI after dealing with the Kentucky Fried Doctor (how else can you describe the crazy Dr. *Sanders*?). By that point, she stopped believing- or caring- that any of this stuff was real or important (remember, after dealing with KFD, she accused Red of orchestrating the trip just so he could be alone with her), which I think would have been a nice moment for her to go incognito. Her position with the FBI would be compromised, but so what? She quit, and probably only Cooper would be upset that she's not there, with Ressler and Malik understanding why. What could have then happened was the rest of the team uncover the truth about Berlin and the shady doctor (the team has done far better with far less, sometimes comically so), with perhaps something uncovered that makes the team realize Berlin's coming after Lizzie as well and not just Red. Red could then be the one to court Lizzie to come back, with what could have been a nice character moment about why he couldn't be upfront with her about all this (since he didn't want her to panic), and, with Lizzie understanding the purpose, agrees to come back. At least this way Red as a character isn't compromised and Lizzie's vulnerabilities make sense, instead of what we have now as a convoluted mess of contrivances and coincidences. I only hope the conclusion is much better, and that the episodic writing improves- I think this show is great with its arcs but average to terrible in its individual episodes, with this one being a prime example of the latter.

Just did that. :)

As discussed in the "Small Talk" thread, here's the links to my various CM fics, which go under the series of "Cases of the BAU". There's no "slash" going on, and, while I do my best to stick with canon (mostly just up to Episode 6.1, "The Longest Night"), sometimes I play around with it if it makes creative sense. The team started out as the team we all knew and loved from "About Face" to "The Longest Night" (Episodes 3.6-6.1), but as the stories developed, eventually The Mentalist's Patrick Jane joined the BAU. The stories don't take place in our world but an alternate world I've created, which is *very* similar to our world only that it has a different history (the central theme of which is that the Roman Empire survived to today, with Canada and the US replaced by a "European Union"-like entity called the "North American Union"). You can read more of that here: http://vicendum.wikia.com. Oh, and be forewarned: the stories *can* get graphic at times (though no more graphic than CM gets)...so reader discretion advised. Here's the links to the first batch of stories I did (all of which have the label "Cases of the BAU"): http://eastcup.blogspot.ca/search/label/Cases%20of%20the%20BAU ...and this part one of a "mega fic" I'm working on, where The Blacklist's Raymond "Red" Reddington and White Collar's Neal Caffrey join forces with Jane and the BAU to take down a human trafficking ring: http://vicendum.blogspot.ca/2014/04/the-price-of-love-part-1.html Other than that, I'm working on another web series that's completely original called "The Virus", where the central enemy is not a person but a website- a wiki that's all about how to commit crimes and get away with them. I'm hoping to get that up by the end of the summer. Happy reading.

My all-time favourite character...he's more than just your rudimentary tough guy...he's a tough guy with brains, smart enough to follow along with Reid and not get lost. Plus, the comedic timing he has with Reid...those two are gold.

-Snow. I find it hard to believe that a show that depicts a nationwide crime fighting team has not once had to endure a single snowflake. They've been in many places where it would snow at the time of their visit, plus Quantico gets winter as well, so there's really no excuse as to why we haven't seen a single episode with snow on the ground. I get that winter sucks and that filming in twenty feet of snow would be difficult, but if other shows can account for the seasons, why can't CM? -Better work at "world building". What do I mean by this? CM needs to do a much better job with its peripheral elements, such as characters and settings. Far too often, the stories centre exclusively around the team and its efforts to catch the Bad Guy of the Week (or the "Arc of the Month/Season") without anything else affecting the plot in any way. Think about it- aside from the BAU Section Chief, Diana Reid, Haley Hotchner and Kevin Lynch (and the latter three have been used too sparingly), has there ever been a recurring character that pops up every couple of episodes and helps or hinders the team in their case? Stuff like this adds spice to the episodes, being something else the writers can draw upon to throw a curve every now and then, and it's a shame they don't do it. I mean, wouldn't it be great if we learned there's a police department the team hates helping because they're run by a lazy sheriff who can't procure clues correctly? Or a couple of specialists- such as a coroner or forensic scientist- that the team doesn't need every week but calls upon every now and then for more assistance with its clues? Or how about just a janitor at the office that always pisses Rossi off by moving around his pens? This of course says nothing about the fact we never hear from rescued victims after their episode is finished, and that only one peripheral character- Det. Owen Kim- has recurred in two separate storylines. This is just the tip of the iceberg- there are so many other possibilities to draw upon, and I think after nine seasons, the show should start thinking "outside of the box" and bringing in outside elements. -Recurring villains. I know the show has had villains that have been in multiple episodes, like George Foyet and Ian Doyle- but those villains only appeared in self-contained arcs that never lasted more than a season. What I'd like is to have a criminal or two that the team investigates but never seems to catch, with a couple of cases stretching over a few seasons before we get an actual resolution and the criminal is caught. I'm not talking about having super-villains- I'm talking about simply a villain that gets away because of luck or cleverness (if not both) who doesn't get caught because they don't leave a lot of evidence behind. Many real life serial killers took decades to capture (Dennis Rader, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, to name a few), so it would be nice if the show acknowledged this and made a few cases the team had to revisit every now and then before an actual resolution. The show already has an opportunity to do this- Shane Wyland ("Into the Woods"), Darlene Beckett ("The Pact") and The Killer Woodsman ("Blood Relations") are all still at large, providing the opportunity for the team to revisit their cases and make an actual arrest. -Cliffhangers that don't involve putting the team in distress or peril. Or just simply an arc or three that doesn't involve a storyline where "someone is targeting a team member/the team!" It's cheap storytelling, since it's an easy way to tug at the audience's heart strings, and, if used too much, it feels like the writers are abusing the character (Reid comes to mind in this regard). As other shows have proven, there are many different ways to create engaging storylines and cliffhangers that don't involve this trope, so as part of my plea for the show to get more inventive, this is one clear way to do it. For example- why don't we have a case that starts off as a simple kidnapping only for the team to find out at the end they're dealing with a huge trafficking ring that's run by a drug cartel? Or a series of murders that eventually leads the team to a "Villain with Good Publicity" that is hard to take down? Or a case where it's revealed that the FBI Director has been involved in some shady dealings? Point is, think outside the box, CM writers, and stop tugging at our heart strings, please!

I realize I'm late with this, but I'll do it anyway. Like some of you, I'm a refugee from TWoP, as I got annoyed at how nitpicky the moderators were over there. This place seems like a nice relief from all of that, and the plus is that I'm encountering many of the same names I encountered back at TWoP. Good that we can connect again. :) CM's my favourite show, with my seasons of choice being 1-6.01, although I find this current season to be pretty close to my favourites (some episodes- like "Final Shot"- I would put in my favourites). I've always enjoyed how cerebral the show is, as well as how deep and layered many of the cases are. I credit CM with making me rediscover my love for writing- I've written many a fanfic for CM and I'm currently writing my own original web series, inspired by CM and many of the other procedural shows I watch. Favourite character is Derek Morgan. Never understood how that happened (I'm not gay, so I have no sexual attraction to him), but I always figured it had something to do with that "tough guy with a brain" vibe he gives. Plus his interactions with Dr. Spencer Reid (who I count second on my list of characters) are just golden- Shemar Moore and Matthew Gray Gubler have such great chemistry and comedic timing that I firmly believe the two of them should have a show all to themselves, just so we can see the two characters bicker and snark at each other all day. Other things about me: I'm a university graduate (in history and research analysis) and I like long walks on the beach (no joke)...but I live in Canada, so my beach walking isn't as often as I like :( . I love to travel (been to many of the places CM has been to, and other places), and, as I said before, I love to write. I watch mostly other procedurals- right now, in addition to CM, I'm currently into Elementary and The Blacklist, though I do occasionally catch CSI since it comes on right after CM. I also used to watch The Mentalist before Red John made it silly, as I think Patrick Jane is one of TV's best characters (I've often wondered how he'd do in the BAU- he has the right skillset, and I think it'd be funny to see him pull tricks and annoy a guy like Hotch). If I'm not watching a procedural, I'm watching sports, especially hockey (Sabres) and soccer (Inter), so right now, with the Stanley Cup playoffs on, I've spent a lot of time in front of the TV but I'm enjoying it. That's me...so, hello guys. *waves sheepishly*

For the case itself, I'd agree. For Harding's story, we only learned what other characters explained, and I don't think that's enough for me to sympathize with an UnSub (as was meant to be the case here). I'm not asking for his life story, but it would have been nice to have seen some pivotal moment shown- we've seen more displayed with "lesser" UnSubs, I think Harding deserved a bit more. Garcia did provide the key clues- such as that he's a cancer patient, and the clue that narrowed things down to six potential suspects (I'm blanking on which one it was)- and was the one to piece it all together. I might admit much of this was flat acting and that Garcia was the only one who seemed to have any energy, which may explain why I only noticed her, though. LOL. Forgot about that...loved that scene.

As I said last week- and I still believe this week- every now and then, at least, The Blacklist ought to devote an entire episode or two to providing answers to its mytharcs, because the Case of the Week gets in the way too much. I'm glad The Kingmaker had something to do with Red, but, as we've seen all season, we got too much posturing, too many cryptic messages and no answers, and I fear it's getting too late into the season to resolve things adequately. Also...I liked seeing Fitch, and learning that he's a Danza (in that Fitch's first name is Alan, just like Alda), but I fear with Fitch leading yet another "Nebulous Organization" the show is getting bogged down too much with them. I mean, not only is there Fitch, but we've also got Red's empire (which strains credulity at times), Berlin, some of the Blacklisters (if not the entire Blacklist itself) and even some factions within the U.S. government itself it seems...I mean, I'm all for complex storylines and having so many different factors and players to consider, but let's start organizing these groups and fit them into the greater story somehow. I'm not asking that I know everything right away- it's too early for that- but I think, at the very least, I'd like to see what these groups' motivations are, at least, if I'm asked to somehow care about them. (As a corollary I do hope the show resolves that point soon...there's a real opportunity for the show to delve deep into the criminal underground and deconstruct it and provide some interesting perspectives. For example, far too often, the "shady underworld" is always shown to be evil and I feel like the show has the opportunity to show that some factions in the underworld aren't as evil as we think; plus The Blacklist could really paint that it's the criminals who really run the globe and resolve things for people, especially considering the FBI in this series seems to stand for "Forever Bungling Idiots". This is an opportunity the show can't waste) As for the case itself...I liked it. Linus Roache was great as The Kingmaker, and I thought the idea- like quite a few of the criminals on the show- was incredibly novel. Not just that, but I felt like the concept was believable too- why couldn't "kingmakers" exist in reality, if they already do? I'm not sure I buy that The Kingmaker could really do everything by himself, but at least it led to his undoing. Other points...I liked seeing Elizabeth Keen go to Donald Ressler at the end...at this stage, Ressler's the only friend she's got left, so it's natural for her to go to the last person she can rely on. I didn't quite like seeing Keen "break up" with Red because I feel like it's hollow storytelling- we all know that Red and Keen will link back up again sooner rather than later- but I'm also willing to see where it goes. Finally...Dembe just calmly eating ice cream after developing the munchies...that was so funny.

I was about ready to write this one off...until I saw that final scene with the UnSub. Bruce Baumgartner, the guy who played William Harding really sold how despondent he was that fate had short-circuited the chance for him to live his dream life in Greece, not just once, but twice. I really felt for the guy, even though his ends don't justify the means. Having said all that...this episode was pretty wonky. I felt the story was there but the execution wasn't. Until that final scene, Baumgartner was way too stiff, and a lot of the mechanics of the story just didn't seem to make much sense. For one, I wonder- is it really that easy to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and get someone's license plate? I imagine you can't just walk right in with a number and some clerk says "here you go". Secondly, I felt like many of the clues really didn't mean anything- Reid's geographic profile was off (and done without the fanfare we're accustomed to), Morgan didn't seem to add anything at all, Rossi spent more time whining about how he could have saved Janice than investigating (and he's usually level-headed about those things), JJ was a cipher, Blake provided a few hints but mostly just prattled, and Hotch gave his orders but little else. It was all just Garcia clicking away at her computer solving things, with Hotch annoyingly having to remind her how to do her job. Also, thinking about it some more, this episode could have really benefited from "show, don't tell"- wouldn't that avalanche story have been so much better- and have so much more effect- if we had seen it, as opposed to simply hearing Harding talk about it? I also think having a scene at the hospital- where we at least hear a doctor tell Harding, "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do"- would have worked so much better than simply learning from Garcia what happened. As for career day...well, that was cute, the Case of the Missing Stapler. I wondered afterwards how Hotch concocted it, but since it wasn't a plot point, I let it go. That teacher though...I know the show probably doesn't want to pair Hotch with the teacher, but I sure hope I can convince them otherwise...she'd be so much better for Hotch than Beth is. All in all, not bad...but not a classic.

Sometimes I wish the show would take a break from its "Case of the Week" format just to have an episode to focus on its mytharc and this episode was a great example. This was supposed to be the "big Tom episode" yet all we got was posturing and answers that put us no further than we were in Episode 18, all because the show just had to have a throwaway story about The Pavlovich Brothers kidnapping a Chinese scientist. I mean, aside from the Archimedes clue, did the Chinese scientist plot really provide anything memorable? Furthermore, if Red shows that he's willing to hire The Brothers for a job, why couldn't he do it anyway, without them having to be conducting another unrelated kidnapping first? Having said that, I hope we have a "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" storyline where we find out that Tom and Red are really both being played by Fitch to perhaps go after the same target (Liz, or maybe just the FBI in general), with Tom and Red realizing they're being played and it's beneficial for the two of them- and "Berlin"- to work together. This way, Red stays a "good guy" and Tom can be redeemed in the eyes of the audience, without losing his "villainous" ways- and perhaps allowing him to maintain his marriage to Liz after all.

I'm uncomfortable with how the storyline with Mycroft is going. For most of the time we've known Sherlock, he's been ultra protective of Watson, doing just about everything he can- even if it violates her personal space, like her privacy- to keep her from trouble. Most of the time it's kept to a tolerable level, but sometimes Sherlock seems to get so overbearing that it borders on abuse. Yet, frustratingly, we hardly ever see Watson take a stand for herself outside of making a snide remark, telling us, the viewer, that what Sherlock is doing is right, when it isn't. Then, once Mycroft came around and started flirting with Watson we see Sherlock's overbearingness come to a head. Here was the perfect situation to remind Sherlock that Watson is an adult capable of determining who is right for her to associate with and who is not, and I think Watson gaining that level of trust from Sherlock would have been another layer of character growth for him. Watson was the first person he cared about since Irene, and I think seeing him realize that he can still care and "nuture" someone without having to be overbearing about it is a wonderful lesson to learn. Instead, with Mycroft being evil- as it seems like this storyline is going- undoes all that. Sure, Watson may be right that Sherlock should respect her privacy- but why would that matter? She put herself in danger, telling Sherlock that she truly cannot be trusted to make decisions on her own so he must make them for her, and Watson wouldn't have a leg to stand on. It's not like things turned out okay which would allow Sherlock to see the value in trusting the judgement of those he cared about- no, to Sherlock, someone he cared about put herself in danger because his efforts to control her failed, proving to him he has to do a better job controlling her in the future. I might have found this storyline palatable if- onscreen, at least- it wasn't Sherlock that first realized that Mycroft was doing something untoward but Watson, with perhaps Watson deciding to keep up a "ruse" to throw off Mycroft, because at least it looks like Watson's judgement is still intact. I would have no problem, then, if Watson got into peril- she is the more daring one, after all, and just because she can anticipate trouble doesn't mean she can avoid it (plus this gives Mycroft the added bonus of being up to task with Watson all along). Instead- as happened already this season with the dreadful "detective backlash" storyline- we're stuck with characterizations contriving themselves abnormally just to fit the plot and I'm not sure I like that.