The range of types of detective/mystery shows/dramas is very wide and there are many classic examples of all. Favourites include 'Inspector Morse', prime-'Midsommer Murders' (Seasons 1-9), 'A Touch of Frost', prime-'Taggart' (pre-Burke era), 'Foyles War', 'Law and Order' (namely with Briscoe), most Agatha Christie and of course the original 'Criminal Minds' itself, well Seasons 1-5 before it became relatively hit and miss, with some great episodes but when it missed it like the worst of Seasons 9 and 11 it misfired badly.
A large part of me was expecting to see the dark and gritty tone seen when the original 'Criminal Minds' was at its best, and the darkness and grit has been present still in quite a number of latter season episodes too, carried over here in 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour'. With intriguing and thought-provoking profiling and procedural aspects. Really did give the show a chance, and have been known to find short lived shows much better than given credit for, but a vast majority of this show's episodes really haven't worked for me sad to say and even the best episodes could have been more. As one can tell, consider 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' a bad and disappointing show on the most part.
Not all the episodes are bad just to say, or at least in my view, most are lacklustre at best but a few are watchable. "The Girl in the Blue Mask", the best 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' episode since "Smother", is one of those. Although the teamwork, chemistry and investigative elements have not improved in the slightest, "The Time is Now" was the one 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' episode of the thirteen that tried to address what were major debits throughout the show, the episode does boast one of the show's (marginally) better cases.
In that there was an eeriness, sometimes a sadness and there was a little momentum that most cases of the show did not have. An effort to give the unsub some development was welcome, too many vanilla unsubs on this show, and they were easily one of the creepiest. Jason Connery does bring the right amount of creepiness to his role, which surprised me a lot being someone who doesn't usually rate him very highly as an actor. The "When you are falling down, don't you ever bruise that pretty skin" line is enough to give one the shivers, that does go down as the single creepiest line of the show and one of the few lines of the show to have any kind of impact.
Visually, it is slick and stylish, with some eeriness in the lighting. Did appreciate that "The Girl in the Blue Mask" finally made an effort to give Gina some development and a personality, just when you thought that wouldn't come.
With that being said, couldn't help thinking that it came too late. In that effort, and it was appreciated, it didn't come off quite successfully, because there is too much of Gina, her development is soapy and her personality still didn't strike me as very interesting. This is the twelfth and penultimate episode and the team still have absolutely no chemistry, everyone is underdeveloped (there were times in previous episodes where there were glimpses of development but it was never more than one person really) and they just look so indifferent and disconnected together. The acting mostly is less than great, though most have almost nothing to work with, with Connery giving the only credible performance. Beth just irritates me, if not quite as much as in a few of the previous episodes.
Even though the case was one of the better ones, it is a long way from being perfectly executed. It was in need of more suspense and wouldn't have said no to clearer explanation and more twists. The unsub is revealed too early and there is a little too much of them, do think too that their motivations (like why their face is hidden most of the time) could have been much clearer as it didn't make sense to me. Their conflict is an emotional one, but couldn't get properly behind it as it did feel underdeveloped and the episode's attempt at mysteriousness perplexed and annoyed rather than disturbed. Other than one line the dialogue is wooden and rambles, the profiling is just too conventional, is not always necessary and observations can be random and obvious and the ending is rushed.
On the whole, watchable and one of the show's better episodes but still left me underwhelmed. 5/10
A large part of me was expecting to see the dark and gritty tone seen when the original 'Criminal Minds' was at its best, and the darkness and grit has been present still in quite a number of latter season episodes too, carried over here in 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour'. With intriguing and thought-provoking profiling and procedural aspects. Really did give the show a chance, and have been known to find short lived shows much better than given credit for, but a vast majority of this show's episodes really haven't worked for me sad to say and even the best episodes could have been more. As one can tell, consider 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' a bad and disappointing show on the most part.
Not all the episodes are bad just to say, or at least in my view, most are lacklustre at best but a few are watchable. "The Girl in the Blue Mask", the best 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' episode since "Smother", is one of those. Although the teamwork, chemistry and investigative elements have not improved in the slightest, "The Time is Now" was the one 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' episode of the thirteen that tried to address what were major debits throughout the show, the episode does boast one of the show's (marginally) better cases.
In that there was an eeriness, sometimes a sadness and there was a little momentum that most cases of the show did not have. An effort to give the unsub some development was welcome, too many vanilla unsubs on this show, and they were easily one of the creepiest. Jason Connery does bring the right amount of creepiness to his role, which surprised me a lot being someone who doesn't usually rate him very highly as an actor. The "When you are falling down, don't you ever bruise that pretty skin" line is enough to give one the shivers, that does go down as the single creepiest line of the show and one of the few lines of the show to have any kind of impact.
Visually, it is slick and stylish, with some eeriness in the lighting. Did appreciate that "The Girl in the Blue Mask" finally made an effort to give Gina some development and a personality, just when you thought that wouldn't come.
With that being said, couldn't help thinking that it came too late. In that effort, and it was appreciated, it didn't come off quite successfully, because there is too much of Gina, her development is soapy and her personality still didn't strike me as very interesting. This is the twelfth and penultimate episode and the team still have absolutely no chemistry, everyone is underdeveloped (there were times in previous episodes where there were glimpses of development but it was never more than one person really) and they just look so indifferent and disconnected together. The acting mostly is less than great, though most have almost nothing to work with, with Connery giving the only credible performance. Beth just irritates me, if not quite as much as in a few of the previous episodes.
Even though the case was one of the better ones, it is a long way from being perfectly executed. It was in need of more suspense and wouldn't have said no to clearer explanation and more twists. The unsub is revealed too early and there is a little too much of them, do think too that their motivations (like why their face is hidden most of the time) could have been much clearer as it didn't make sense to me. Their conflict is an emotional one, but couldn't get properly behind it as it did feel underdeveloped and the episode's attempt at mysteriousness perplexed and annoyed rather than disturbed. Other than one line the dialogue is wooden and rambles, the profiling is just too conventional, is not always necessary and observations can be random and obvious and the ending is rushed.
On the whole, watchable and one of the show's better episodes but still left me underwhelmed. 5/10