S12.E10: Seek and Destroy

[thewhiteowl]

Quote

The BAU team investigates a series of home invasions in upscale neighborhoods in San Diego involving casualties.

[zannej]

Well, I'll admit I almost turned it off before the opening credits. I do not enjoy seeing the unsubs so early on. And I felt like the acting from the guest stars was not that strong. I kept fighting the urge to just turn the TV off because it was boring and uninteresting. I ended up browsing wish.com during the episode (I normally turn my monitor off so I can focus on the show). I didn't even look at the TV for long periods of time- I just listened and rolled my eyes.

If they had just relied on the profiling and team stuff, it would have been ok. But the amount of time being spent on the unsubs just ruined it for me.

This one was riding the FAILboat. Big Fat F.

Edited January 12, 2017 by zannej

[ReidFan]

meh.

I had the actual boss unsub figured out in their first scene.

and other than that, I spent some time on Facebook, some time at amazon (bought seasons 8 and 9 for a song!), surfed for Matthew info and photos (he tweeted a piece about his new movie coming out and invited everyone to make snowmen at Sundance), used up all my lives on Candy Crush before the opening credits. The most interesting part of tonight's episode actually for me, was the opening quote, the band of robbers quote by Mark Twain. That just felt funny to me, in part because Matthew isn't even in this episode but that quote tied him to it for me.

PPS, I was at the dentist today and that was more fun than this episode (and I hate going to the dentist)

Edited January 12, 2017 by ReidFan
forgot something

[CrimeFan12]

To me this was their first misstep of the season.  It was nothing,but the UnSub show with the team as guest stars.  There was very little profiling because the team was hardly there.  I didn't care one bit about the gang and I thought the one girl's acting was way over the top.  I was expecting her to start chewing the scenery at any second.  I give this it could have been a heck of a lot better if they actually used the team.

[MMC]

I missed Reid like crazy. But I didn't even notice Tara wasn't in this episode either until I saw a comment online about it. I seriously can't believe that they didn't even bother to mention Reid in this episode either. If they read their social media sites that must be aware of the fact that many fans are insecure about the status of his character on the show.

[autumnmountains]

Yeah I thought so too, about the Unsub Show and the quote.

This episode seemed like a hodge podge of other, better, episodes. 

Also, selfishly, I wish Reid had at least been mentioned. I didn't mind last week, at least the episode was ok, but this one, I wish he'd been mentioned. like I said last week, I don't expect the show to mention characters every time they aren't there, but this week would've been a good time to mention him.The show won't be back until February 1, a lot of CM fans that aren't on social media probably think he's out of the show (despite being in the credits). A mention of him would've alleviated that. 

Hmm, until someone mentioned it, I didn't realize that Tara wasn't there. Then again, like I said, I'm not feeling all that well. Also probably doesn't help that I was surfing the net while the episode aired. Oh well.

I am not feeling up to par, so maybe it was better than I thought it was but my impression was that it was far too much of the unsub show and for some reason I found the unsub scenes when they in mayhem at the houses, dizzying. 

I think the plane scene where Prentiss was saying how quiet Scratch has been, is foreboding. 

[ForeverAlone]

Ummm...hmmmm...whatever. That is pretty much my response to this episode. I do think when the team was profiling the actual crime scenes, it was interesting and the profiling seemed to be pretty good. But everything else? I don't know about that. I am not a fan of cases like this- murderous, drunken and high teams. So my interest level was lowered to begin with. Plus the excessive focus on the unsubs is one of my chief complaints about the writing for this show (especially when I don't find them particularly interesting in the first place). Plus I really do think Penelope pulled some profiling computer magic out of her ass, without which there would be no resolution. Plus I just found the supposed trigger for this murder spree to be rather off, and the fact that Bethany was supposed to be the alpha but she didn't kill the first victims and Ezekiel who actually killed the first victims, balked at her wanting to kill the couple who turned out to be her parents, just rang false to me. Plus of course the gang shoot out in the end. So while I do like the few scenes that were focused on the team profiling the crime scenes, it wasn't enough to keep me interested in the entire episode. 

[Willowy]

Ugh. Did not like.

[secnarf]

Immediately deleted after watching.

Add me to the list of people who didn't notice Tara was missing - though that's not new for me.

The girl was quite OTT but actually reminded me (in a really unpleasant way) of someone I used to know - or rather, all of her worst qualities. Not the murdering/violence/crime part, but some of her other behaviour - especially the scene at the end where she was screaming in the back of the police car.

I do feel Emily is fitting in well, but maybe it's just because they've all become interchangeable. I don't know that we've seen enough to see how her style is any different from Hotch's.

[zannej]

To be more specific about what made it suck:

1. There was absolutely no mystery because we saw the unsubs within seconds of the show starting.

2. Watching the unsubs making out, drugging themselves up, and so forth was not very interesting at all.

3. This was not a BAU case by any stroke. I mean, wouldn't there have been fingerprints and DNA all over the place? I don't recall them wearing gloves or cleaning up before they left.

4. As ForeverAlone stated, it didn't make sense for the male unsub to suddenly not want to kill people. And going from having him as the leader to revealing that the girl was really in charge to try to do some twist did not work. It just fell flat.

5. We never actually found out what triggered the bad behavior from the female unsub in the beginning. I mean, we know she was written off by her family, but what started her off in the bad behavior before they disowned her? Did something traumatic happen or was she just a spoiled brat? More insight into her mind would have been nice.

6. I've never been a fan of the gleeful laughing type of unsub. It was too reminiscent of 13th Step and I despised that episode.

7. The acting from the unsubs was not very believable. They were boring and I couldn't muster up any interest.

8. The team scenes, while easily the best parts of the episode, were sort of disjointed.

9. Garcia solved the case with her magic computer once again.

10. Why is the new guy the only one looking at the files for Peter Lewis?

It would have been nice if they had mentioned Reid and/or Tara to say why they weren't there (as a reminder for anyone who might have missed something).

I actually like the new guy so far-- even if I can't remember his name.

After seeing a CSI: Miami episode recently I realized that Adam Rodriguez is doing MUCH better in acting on this show than on that show.

[CrimeFan12]

4 minutes ago, zannej said:

10. Why is the new guy the only one looking at the files for Peter Lewis?

Because he can look at the case with fresh eyes.  He's hasn't been involved in any way in catching him so his perspective is new.  He might see something the team has missed.

[Willowy]

The team is just too big. Time to scale back, PTB. Lose Walker.

[The Wild Sow]

1 hour ago, autumnmountains said:

This episode seemed like a hodge podge of other, better, episodes. 

That's it!

Take Amber from "Perfect Storm", hook her up with Michael from "Middle Man" (jeez, Zeke even looked like Michael!), and throw in a bit of the boys from "Hopeless" -- and you have tonight's episode.

Been and done.

[MMC]

5 hours ago, secnarf said:

Immediately deleted after watching.

Add me to the list of people who didn't notice Tara was missing - though that's not new for me.

The girl was quite OTT but actually reminded me (in a really unpleasant way) of someone I used to know - or rather, all of her worst qualities. Not the murdering/violence/crime part, but some of her other behaviour - especially the scene at the end where she was screaming in the back of the police car.

I do feel Emily is fitting in well, but maybe it's just because they've all become interchangeable. I don't know that we've seen enough to see how her style is any different from Hotch's.

If that is not a sign that this cast is either too big or this character is superfluous at best, or maybe both of these things are a factor, then I do not know what is. They need to dump new guy. Then either dump AT or seriously limit her screen time.

Edited January 12, 2017 by MMC

[normasm]

The writing has the BAU, especially when Reid is absent, being completely interchangeable with 2 dozen other procedurals.

Unsub-porn! Yet again!

The good guys, who might as well be all new because they are all the same, even Garcia, are boringly written, making leaps of logic and spitballing everything. And they have to lay off 2 main cast and curtail lines for the rest of the main cast because there are TOO DAMN MANY ACTORS ON THIS SHOW!!!

I can't wait until they give Reid something to do. Anything. Bring back Morgan, lay off Tara, Luke and Walker.

[Bookish Jen]

While watching Seek and Destroy (Bookish Jen's viewing pleasure), I couldn't help but think how expertly this episode would have been handled in CM's earliest seasons.

As for the unsub? I couldn't give a rat's patootie about her poor, little rich girl problems. 

Edited January 12, 2017 by Bookish Jen

[Chaos Theory]

The Good:  I ALWAYS like a good crazy psycho female case.  They are always my favorites.  I enjoyed watching the young teens lose their shit and i telegraphed Bea as the real alpha pretty early still fun times!!!!

The Bad:  I don't like the new guy.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[ReidFan]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

The Good:  I ALWAYS like a good crazy psycho female case.  They are always my favorites.  I enjoyed watching the young teens lose their shit and i telegraphed Bea as the real alpha pretty early still fun times!

I think we all did :)  She was incredibly OBVIOUS from the get go. Absolutely nothing subtle about her. And the OTT acting *eye roll*

 

however, mama taught me to always say something nice so:

1. I take comfort in two things: a) second year in a row that the single worst episode of the season was one he wasn't in, ergo, Reid isn't the problem :D and b) as bad as this one was, last year's worst episode (Awake, for those who wonder) was worse, for a host of reasons and it DID have a Reid mention---that singularily gawdawful mocking of him on the jet.

2. Reid's back next episode, and from all accounts he'll be the focus in an arc this time too, not just one episode. Entropy followed up the worst of last season with the season's best; here's hoping we're gonna see that again this season.

Edited January 12, 2017 by ReidFan
fixing bad grammar

[ReidFan]

10 hours ago, qwerty said:

Well, that was terrible. 

I regret watching the trailer because it spoiled the 'twist'  

I didn't actually see the spoiler because ctv doesn't run the promos for next week the way cbs does (they prefer to give us news and weather inserts, because we're apparently too dumb to check I dunno, the weather and news channels maybe? for that). I did see it after the fact, someone had posted it online and I thought WTF?! why would they give that away in the promo? ridiculous!

[Bookish Jen]

13 hours ago, zannej said:

Well, I'll admit I almost turned it off before the opening credits. I do not enjoy seeing the unsubs so early on. And I felt like the acting from the guest stars was not that strong. I kept fighting the urge to just turn the TV off because it was boring and uninteresting. I ended up browsing wish.com during the episode (I normally turn my monitor off so I can focus on the show). I didn't even look at the TV for long periods of time- I just listened and rolled my eyes.

If they had just relied on the profiling and team stuff, it would have been ok. But the amount of time being spent on the unsubs just ruined it for me.

This one was riding the FAILboat. Big Fat F.

Blaine and Antoine would make for excellent unsubs. We can call the episode, "Two Snaps and Rewind."

[JMO]

Just random thoughts.

I agree with ReidFan, that the best thing about this episode was that Reid was smart enough to make sure he was out of town for it.  Not sure Reid could have saved this episode anyway, because he would probably have been crowded out of screen time by this way-too-large cast. 

I did appreciate the women doing some intellectual work together, instead of just a takedown or a sensitive/empathetic/provocative interview.

I’m concerned that the new new guy has a buddy at the Miramar Air Force Base, since it doesn’t exist (it’s a Marine base). Could he be a Mr. Scratch plant?  Did Emily miss the clue?

Without Hotch as an age-buffer, Rossi looks so much older than the rest of the team.

The new new guy got the opening quote already! 

They’ve added more people to the cast so they can spend the majority of the time on the unsubs?

Maybe they’re paying so many salaries that they need to save money on lighting?

Another example of the BAU doing the work of the police. 

Maybe there really are no more stories left to tell, nor surprises left to spring.  I hope not. 

[autumnmountains]

1 hour ago, ReidFan said:

I think we all did :)  She was incredibly OBVIOUS from the get go. Absolutely nothing subtle about her. And the OTT acting *eye roll*

 

however, mama taught me to always say something nice so:

1. I take comfort in two things: a) second year in a row that the single worst episode of the season was one he wasn't in, ergo, Reid isn't the problem :D and b) as bad as this one was, last year's worst episode (Awake, for those who wonder) was worse, for a host of reasons and it DID have a Reid mention---that singularily gawdawful mocking of him on the jet.

2. Reid's back next episode, and from all accounts he'll be the focus in an arc this time too, not just one episode. Entropy followed up the worst of last season with the season's best; here's hoping we're gonna see that again this season.

Yeah, despite my wishing there had mention of Reid in this episode, since it was his second he missed and people not on social media may think he's out for good, I'm actually happy he wasn't in this episode.  

I never got what the motivation was for Bea. Mind you, I wasn't feeling great yesterday so I very well could've missed it, but it seemed like there was no reasoning. 

Edited January 12, 2017 by autumnmountains

[ReidFan]

she just came across as a spoilt, entitled little rich bitch; expelled from schools and enabled by rich parents. And jealous of the little sister. I'm not sure whether we were supposed to feel for her, blame the parents or what. But it just smacked of the real life trend of the generation of not taking any responsibility for anything in their lives. I work with a couple young ones who think nothing of not bothering to show up for a shift because 'they didn't feel like working today' (never mind they're screwing over six other people by doing so) or have Mommy call in their shift or don't feel the uniform, hygiene and tattoos/piercings rules apply to them. (*um yeah. health and safety*) . "Mommy I'm taking the car today" but never bother putting gas in it. etc.

[autumnmountains]

16 minutes ago, ReidFan said:

she just came across as a spoilt, entitled little rich bitch; expelled from schools and enabled by rich parents. And jealous of the little sister. I'm not sure whether we were supposed to feel for her, blame the parents or what. But it just smacked of the real life trend of the generation of not taking any responsibility for anything in their lives. I work with a couple young ones who think nothing of not bothering to show up for a shift because 'they didn't feel like working today' (never mind they're screwing over six other people by doing so) or have Mommy call in their shift or don't feel the uniform, hygiene and tattoos/piercings rules apply to them. (*um yeah. health and safety*) . "Mommy I'm taking the car today" but never bother putting gas in it. etc.

Very true. several like her at my job too. 

I'm glad I didn't miss  any reasoning for her actions. I'm hoping this episode was the worst one of this season. It's hard to imagine a worse one.

[TheGreenWave]

1 hour ago, JMO said:

I did appreciate the women doing some intellectual work together

At least the scene reminded me of profiling...even though most of their assumptions were not really based on any actual information.

 

1 hour ago, JMO said:

Mr. Scratch

I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I hate when the team refers to him as "Mr. Scratch" - we all know his real name, why would you use this preferred AKA?

[arjumand]

14 hours ago, ForeverAlone said:

Ummm...hmmmm...whatever. That is pretty much my response to this episode. I do think when the team was profiling the actual crime scenes, it was interesting and the profiling seemed to be pretty good. But everything else? I don't know about that. I am not a fan of cases like this- murderous, drunken and high teams. So my interest level was lowered to begin with. Plus the excessive focus on the unsubs is one of my chief complaints about the writing for this show (especially when I don't find them particularly interesting in the first place). Plus I really do think Penelope pulled some profiling computer magic out of her ass, without which there would be no resolution. Plus I just found the supposed trigger for this murder spree to be rather off, and the fact that Bethany was supposed to be the alpha but she didn't kill the first victims and Ezekiel who actually killed the first victims, balked at her wanting to kill the couple who turned out to be her parents, just rang false to me. Plus of course the gang shoot out in the end. So while I do like the few scenes that were focused on the team profiling the crime scenes, it wasn't enough to keep me interested in the entire episode. 

Nothing about this episode made sense, and that's leaving out the fact that this was Those Crazy Unsubs! (the movie), with some profiling put in. I actually didn't like the twist - I was looking forward to some Manson Family shenanigans, but then when it turned out to be poor little rich girl, I just rolled my eyes.

And also - they never once saw a news report somewhere saying how the nice couple whose house they'd trashed turned up dead?

Also, that final meltdown was just a complete mess. When the gang broke into the parents' home at the end, and three of them were wearing balaclavas but blondie wasn't, I though, aha! They're cutting her loose and leaving her to take the fall for everything. But then all the balaclavas started coming off, and then what was the point in putting them on? Ugh.

[smoker]

4 hours ago, ReidFan said:

I think we all did :)  She was incredibly OBVIOUS from the get go. Absolutely nothing subtle about her. And the OTT acting *eye roll*

 

however, mama taught me to always say something nice so:

1. I take comfort in two things: a) second year in a row that the single worst episode of the season was one he wasn't in, ergo, Reid isn't the problem :D and b) as bad as this one was, last year's worst episode (Awake, for those who wonder) was worse, for a host of reasons and it DID have a Reid mention---that singularily gawdawful mocking of him on the jet.

2. Reid's back next episode, and from all accounts he'll be the focus in an arc this time too, not just one episode. Entropy followed up the worst of last season with the season's best; here's hoping we're gonna see that again this season.

please please Reidfan, don't forget Outlaw! That one is a mayor crap too.

5 hours ago, Bookish Jen said:

While watching Seek and Destroy (Bookish Jen's viewing pleasure), I couldn't help but think how expertly this episode would have been handled in CM's earliest seasons.

As for the unsub? I couldn't give a rat's patootie about her poor, little rich girl problems. 

LOL Booky

[Bookish Jen]

2 hours ago, autumnmountains said:

Very true. several like her at my job too. 

I'm glad I didn't miss  any reasoning for her actions. I'm hoping this episode was the worst one of this season. It's hard to imagine a worse one.

I've worked with her type at my various jobs, too. Ugh, they are a tiresome bunch aren't they?

I swear to dog, Bea is short for Bea-yatch!

[Bookish Jen]

Bea-yatch - the early years.

[Reghan]

I actually enjoyed this episode, but I hate the new guy. 

[normasm]

I don't hate the new character, personally, I just think he is SO not needed. And he talks in this slow, syrupy drawl - i can't wait until he has a scene with hyper-speed speaker Reid! OK, maybe i can wait...

[Danielg342]

Maybe I'm in the minority in that I thought- when she actually had something to do- Stevie Lynn Jones (Bea) was actually good. She certainly sold some pretty rote material.

That was the only highlight, by far.

In keeping up with this season's theme of retreads, this one was an obvious rip-off of "The Thirteenth Step", with the only difference being that a gang was thrown in. Just like Sydney Manning and Ray Donovan (whom Bea and Zeke reminded me of, respectively), this gang did absolutely nothing except go on drunken benders and kill people...there was nothing really "new" about the concept.

In fact, the gang didn't seem to need to be there except to provide the police the ability to catch them. Let's be honest, if the gang didn't self-destruct, there would have been no reason why they couldn't have continued killing in perpetuity- it's not like the police were able to find them beforehand.

Which leads me to my next point- why did the BAU get called in when Michael Sale (the big guy) was killed? There was absolutely nothing tying him to the home burglaries- he was just another homicide victim at a motel. It was just lazy storywriting at best, one that shouldn't belong on network TV, really. Only thing I did appreciate is that Sale put up a fight before he was shot, but it's a Pyrrhic victory.

What would have made more sense is if Kay or Sale had fled and ratted out the gang to the authorities...yeah, it removes some of "glory" from the BAU, but at least it would have made sense, from a "realistic" and from a storywriting perspective. From here Zeke and Bea could still be on the lam forcing the BAU to profile them in order to find where they might go.

At least then the gang part serves a purpose, even if they were "tacked on".

Speaking of the gang, it's a classic example of the novice writer's mistake of "telling and not showing"- the writer essentially wrote a few lines to explain why the gang didn't bolt from Zeke and Bea and left it at that, when he needed to do more. Much more. I never got a sense of what brought the gang together and why they stuck together, which made the gang's interactions fall very flat.

Yeah, Zeke and Bea "bailed them out"- but how? Why?

I also need to roll my eyes that this was yet another CM case where the group is "controlled" and the unravelling of that control is what tears about the group. Seriously, the show forgets there are plenty of other expressions of group dynamics, and many times, group members are extremely loyal to each other. Why can't we have a group of criminals where the members actually want to follow the leader and aren't doing so because the leader has some kind of "leverage" on them?

It's way too predictable writing...so much so that I had the conclusion barely ten minutes into the episode. As soon as Rossi said it, you just knew that's how it was going to end- the gang would implode, leading to their undoing. The show goes to this well way too many times.

Which makes me wonder how the BAU doesn't implode, but I guess CBS wishes I don't ask that question.

All this and I never addressed how the team is too big, how this really should have been just a regular police case, how the "profiling" was just random leaps of logic, how the team did too much talking and nothing else...all of which were true.

However, what really takes the cake was how poor the case was written. You could almost excuse the other faults if we had a compelling case...which we didn't get tonight by a mile.

One last point- when Agent Syrup (I'm stealing from you, @normasm!) was examining Mr. Scratch, it struck me that Prentiss reassured him that the BAU would catch Peter Lewis because "people smarter than him are in jail". On a better written show, I'd say that could be speculation that this time the result could be different, but CM is way too predictable.

Episode Grade: F. If I wanted to watch a bunch of kids get drunk and destroy a house, I'd watch The Real World. Not Criminal Minds.

[MMC]

Final ratings for this episode are 1.4/5 demo and 7.54 million viewers.

Network average for that night was a 1.2/4 demo and 6.65 million viewers.

[ReidFan]

4 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

 

it struck me that Prentiss reassured him that the BAU would catch Peter Lewis because "people smarter than him are in jail".

foreshadowing.

:)

[autumnmountains]

6 minutes ago, ReidFan said:

foreshadowing.

:)

I see what you did there. :) I really do think (besides that qoute) that Scratch will play a big role soon per Prentiss's "he's been quiet" thing.

[Danielg342]

21 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

The Good:  I ALWAYS like a good crazy psycho female case.  They are always my favorites.  I enjoyed watching the young teens lose their shit and i telegraphed Bea as the real alpha pretty early still fun times!!!!

I liked her too...I just wish the case was about her and not her and her gang. I thought Stevie Lynn Jones (who played Bea) was wonderful and should have had the opportunity to have the episode to herself. She could have carried it.

It wouldn't have been too hard. Give her a cell phone jammer and she would have been good. Her MO was doable and realistic- she took down the mother first, attacked just couples and used a gun to gain control- so there's no reason why she couldn't have had the episode to herself.

[Bookish Jen]

Considering Bea was the unsub, in charge and was totally able to manipulate the gang to due to her manipulation, I couldn't help but think of my idea of a female Charles Manson who inspires her followers to commit mayhem through her blog and various social media. I actually know of a blogger this type of character could be based on, but I'm not going to name her because I don't want her to get any hits. 

[thewhiteowl]

Not enough of the stuff I like and way too much of what I don't. Not a good one, for me.

[Autistic Queer]

6 hours ago, qwerty said:

Emily says 'And with this motel centrally located to the crime scenes, he must be one of ours.'

So...geographical profile is apparently the reason...? If only they tried.

They also tied in the weapon used. That's why Emily's sentence starts with and.

Totally forgot about Reid until someone linked him and Mark Twain, WTF? 

Missed Tara a lot, but AT is a busy woman, they're lucky to get her at all. 

Not usually a fan of unsub scene but you couldn't tell this story without them, so it worked for me. 

I loved in charge Emily. I'm saddened they chose to get rid of her in season 6 when what they should've was get rid of Thomas Gibson then, and promote Prentiss. At least they've got it right now. 

I love the new guy, honestly without Prentiss coming back and the new additions from the past couple of years have really rejuvenated the show for me. 

[Droogie]

12 hours ago, ReidFan said:

foreshadowing.

:)

So maybe they did mention Reid, without mentioning Reid.  Get it?  Good point, RF!  That, and the BoR quote -- pretty cool.  

[Old Dog]

February can't come soon enough for me! I do hope that was a hint about the jail story coming up and we get a really great Reid arc - it's about time. It would also give the show a boost when it is flagging so badly.

[Bookish Jen]

On 1/12/2017 at 0:14 AM, Franky said:

The team is just too big. Time to scale back, PTB. Lose Walker.

This so much. We don't need the Duggar family-BAU. Four profilers are enough, and use Tyler and Alvez on as needed basis. And if you need another character make he or she a media liaison.

On-topic: I missed Reid.

[Autistic Queer]

Wouldn't Reid and Rossi be the easiest to write out? Rossi is obviously past retirement age, and Reid obviously has family obligations, and he doesn't have the specialities that Alvarez and Walker do. 

Having said the team was initially 7, it's now 8. And it may well have been done for very sensible reasons. Making 24 episodes a seasons involved a lot of working hours. Both MGG and JM direct, KV writes episodes, AT has her own show plus Whose Line and Archer, AR, AJC and JM all have kids. It allows them to reduce the hours each person works. PB probably still has the most hours as the show's star. 

[Droogie]

1 hour ago, Old Dog said:

February can't come soon enough for me! I do hope that was a hint about the jail story coming up and we get a really great Reid arc - it's about time. It would also give the show a boost when it is flagging so badly.

Spoiler

From what I am seeing on IG and reading online, the back half of the season is going to be pretty continuous -- and one of the dudes who will be guesting in the prison arc has said he will be in through episode 17 or so!  It bodes very well for this of us who believe the show has been short on the genius for quite awhile.  And I agree -- it definitely should give a boost.  I don't think it's a coincidence that it will all start with the February sweeps.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Droogie

[Old Dog]

I'm sure they know Reid is their last trump card. I haven't warmed to the new guys, I never notice if Lewis is there or not and the team seem to have lost all chemistry. It can certainly only get better - I surely hope it doesn't get worse.

[Droogie]

Agreed.  The comments I saw on social media for this ep all amounted to "Where's Spencer?" With promises to stop watching altogether if he is gone.

[Autistic Queer]

Just now, Old Dog said:

I'm sure they know Reid is their last trump card. I haven't warmed to the new guys, I never notice if Lewis is there or not and the team seem to have lost all chemistry. It can certainly only get better - I surely hope it doesn't get worse.

Why would you think that?

All the comments I see outside this forum support the opposite view. AT brought in fans with her, I've specifically said I was going to stop watching until she was cast, and i know others who said the same. I've seen people who love JJ and Prentiss, or who are excited for the new guys. Don't get me wrong I know Reid has his fans, but I see no evidence that he's the main draw in the show. He's barely used in the promotion, tends to focus on JJ and Prentiss in the main. 

[Autistic Queer]

9 minutes ago, Droogie said:

Agreed.  The comments I saw on social media for this ep all amounted to "Where's Spencer?" With promises to stop watching altogether if he is gone.

I went through the twitter hashtag and the only tweet I saw missing Reid also wondered where Tara was. 

[Old Dog]

22 minutes ago, MsJayTee said:

Why would you think that?

 

Hmmm let's see - who has the most followers by a mile on Twitter, Instagram etc, who gets all the panicked comments on FB when he misses an episode, who is always asked about when they do interviews about upcoming episodes, who has done most overseas promotion, who has directed some of the most accomplished episodes and who is the subject of most of the fanfics out there? I think it is fairly clear that Reid is probably the most important character left on the show.

 JJ lost a great tranche of fans when she became SuperNinjaMom although they have been trying hard to redeem her. The new guys are just new guys and most of the comments I have read about Lewis is that she is fine but unremarkable, which is also my view. Also I'm not a big fan of Prentiss since she returned - she overacts.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Old Dog

[thewhiteowl]

Please be aware of which thread you post your spoilers in. Some have been hidden.

Also no one needs to justify their opinion here. Don't ask them to do so.