Like "Cinderella and the Dragon", "Blowback" actually had more potential than most other episodes of 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders'. While the story is far from an original one, it actually sounded very intriguing and promising, also more complex than the usual 'Beyond Borders' episode. Part of me was still skeptical, being somebody who intensely dislikes and in most cases hates most of the show's episodes with one halfway decent fluke exception ("La Huesuda") and a couple of other episodes that slightly rose above weak.
While there is nothing that is as offensively bad as anything in "Cinderella and the Dragon", "Blowback" in its own way severely underwhelms and is another waste of potential. Again it is not one of the worst episodes, actually it is one of the least bad, but there are again so many problems (all pretty much the exact same ones other episodes have) executed poorly. "Blowback" had real potential of being one of the most tense episodes of 'Beyond Borders' but ended up being fairly ordinary and trying to do too much.
"Blowback" is not irredeemable by all means. It did start off with promise, which seems to be a common trend with Season 2.
Did appreciate too that it is one of the few episodes of 'Beyond Borders' to not be culturally insensitive, one of the show's biggest frequent issues, in fact of all the 'Beyond Borders' episodes it is actually perhaps the episode to suffer from this problem the least.
However, "Blowback" has a lot wrong. It does suffer big time from having a character that manages to be even more intolerable than Mae. Barnes was a recurring character on Season 13 of the original 'Criminal Minds', she was universally panned amongst fans for good reason. She is every bit as bad here for similar reasons. Am aware she was meant to be a hostile character, but the episode took that to extremes and made her extremely domineering. Warmth and personality are next to none and she is not even very good at her job, some of her dialogue was also face-palm inducing. Sorry if that sounds over the top, but yeah she didn't work at all as a character for me and her conflict with the team takes over too much of the episode and lacks tension, on top of being derivative and over-stretched.
There are other problems too, including a story that is too complicated, is more predictable than the synopsis sounds and lacks suspense or tautness and a rushed-sounding script that is at its worst with Barnes' dialogue. The direction is pretty workmanlike, the responsible is underdeveloped and lacking in menace and nobody stands out in the acting apart from Kim Rhodes' hamminess. It is not too impossible to figure who was responsible.
'Beyond Borders' was never a well made show visually and "Blowback" is no exception, the time constraints do show in the disorganised looking photography and editing. There is little chemistry between the team, not in a natural sense, and their pretty routine investigating is overshadowed too much by the conflict between them and Barnes and Barnes herself. The music is forgettable at best.
Concluding, weak episode. 3/10
While there is nothing that is as offensively bad as anything in "Cinderella and the Dragon", "Blowback" in its own way severely underwhelms and is another waste of potential. Again it is not one of the worst episodes, actually it is one of the least bad, but there are again so many problems (all pretty much the exact same ones other episodes have) executed poorly. "Blowback" had real potential of being one of the most tense episodes of 'Beyond Borders' but ended up being fairly ordinary and trying to do too much.
"Blowback" is not irredeemable by all means. It did start off with promise, which seems to be a common trend with Season 2.
Did appreciate too that it is one of the few episodes of 'Beyond Borders' to not be culturally insensitive, one of the show's biggest frequent issues, in fact of all the 'Beyond Borders' episodes it is actually perhaps the episode to suffer from this problem the least.
However, "Blowback" has a lot wrong. It does suffer big time from having a character that manages to be even more intolerable than Mae. Barnes was a recurring character on Season 13 of the original 'Criminal Minds', she was universally panned amongst fans for good reason. She is every bit as bad here for similar reasons. Am aware she was meant to be a hostile character, but the episode took that to extremes and made her extremely domineering. Warmth and personality are next to none and she is not even very good at her job, some of her dialogue was also face-palm inducing. Sorry if that sounds over the top, but yeah she didn't work at all as a character for me and her conflict with the team takes over too much of the episode and lacks tension, on top of being derivative and over-stretched.
There are other problems too, including a story that is too complicated, is more predictable than the synopsis sounds and lacks suspense or tautness and a rushed-sounding script that is at its worst with Barnes' dialogue. The direction is pretty workmanlike, the responsible is underdeveloped and lacking in menace and nobody stands out in the acting apart from Kim Rhodes' hamminess. It is not too impossible to figure who was responsible.
'Beyond Borders' was never a well made show visually and "Blowback" is no exception, the time constraints do show in the disorganised looking photography and editing. There is little chemistry between the team, not in a natural sense, and their pretty routine investigating is overshadowed too much by the conflict between them and Barnes and Barnes herself. The music is forgettable at best.
Concluding, weak episode. 3/10
