Crimonal Minds is a great show, maybe not so great as of late, what has been great and still has potential, but I don't buy into the whole law and order effect. That is that not all good shows need a spin off. When I started watching this show, I hated it, I couldn't find any of the characters that interesting, and the plots seemed to be dumbed down versions of CM episodes in seasons 3, 4, and 5. As it kept going, I have grown to like it a bit more, and the characters have become better developed, but it is still not all that great.
One of my peeves is Penelope. I never liked her in the first CM installment, she was too bright and flashy, and her character had about the same depth as a ground-level fountain. If you want a big change for that, you won't get it here, though you might wonder where the hell she has the time to coordinate between two teams. As for the other characters, none really stand out, Prophet is over aggressive and seems to have a massive chip on his soulder, the British guy is, well, British, The Black haired lady is a bit stuck up and hostile towards everyone, and Gina just seems to be the insecure blond who knows that she really isn't as talented as the rest. Sam Cooper is nothing to write home about either. The problem isn't that these characters are uninteresting, but that they are essentially clones of CM characters (Black-haired lady could be Hotch, Brit Guy Prentiss and Morgan, Cooper is a bit Gidean and a bit Rossi, and Gina is almost a clone of Seaver), so they took out Reid and called it good. And okay, I didn't really expect much else, which is why I gave it a sevon, same with the L&O franchise, they stick to the same characters.
As for the plot, while later episodes show some promise, other then them being more gritty then most CM episodes, the plots are the same: bad guy commits crime, normally murder, and good guys go after them. Okay. They took out some of the more character-driven plot from the origonal series, and again, okay, good that they didn't stick to the same formula. The fact is that the plots alone are just not worth watching right now, I mean, there is no real difforence between the caseloads, and really, it just becomes average fare pretty quictly. Yes, some are interesting, but not enough to set the whole show apart.
In conclusion, this show is good if you want a Crimonal Minds without the strong character building parts of it, and if you just want a quick fix of bad guy gets cought action. Nothing really sticks out about it, but it is on an upword spike, so who knows. Had I reviewed this after the first episode, I would have given it a 2 or 3, so yes, it has improved, it just isn't as good as the origonal.
One of my peeves is Penelope. I never liked her in the first CM installment, she was too bright and flashy, and her character had about the same depth as a ground-level fountain. If you want a big change for that, you won't get it here, though you might wonder where the hell she has the time to coordinate between two teams. As for the other characters, none really stand out, Prophet is over aggressive and seems to have a massive chip on his soulder, the British guy is, well, British, The Black haired lady is a bit stuck up and hostile towards everyone, and Gina just seems to be the insecure blond who knows that she really isn't as talented as the rest. Sam Cooper is nothing to write home about either. The problem isn't that these characters are uninteresting, but that they are essentially clones of CM characters (Black-haired lady could be Hotch, Brit Guy Prentiss and Morgan, Cooper is a bit Gidean and a bit Rossi, and Gina is almost a clone of Seaver), so they took out Reid and called it good. And okay, I didn't really expect much else, which is why I gave it a sevon, same with the L&O franchise, they stick to the same characters.
As for the plot, while later episodes show some promise, other then them being more gritty then most CM episodes, the plots are the same: bad guy commits crime, normally murder, and good guys go after them. Okay. They took out some of the more character-driven plot from the origonal series, and again, okay, good that they didn't stick to the same formula. The fact is that the plots alone are just not worth watching right now, I mean, there is no real difforence between the caseloads, and really, it just becomes average fare pretty quictly. Yes, some are interesting, but not enough to set the whole show apart.
In conclusion, this show is good if you want a Crimonal Minds without the strong character building parts of it, and if you just want a quick fix of bad guy gets cought action. Nothing really sticks out about it, but it is on an upword spike, so who knows. Had I reviewed this after the first episode, I would have given it a 2 or 3, so yes, it has improved, it just isn't as good as the origonal.