When the body of an American singer is found on a rural road in the blue mountains of Jamaica, the International Response Team is called to investigate.When the body of an American singer is found on a rural road in the blue mountains of Jamaica, the International Response Team is called to investigate.When the body of an American singer is found on a rural road in the blue mountains of Jamaica, the International Response Team is called to investigate.
Patrick Cage
- John Doe
- (as Patrick Cage II)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsEither Jamaican buses disembark into the road, or the producers hadn't realised that they drive on the left in Jamaica.
- Quotes
Mae Jarvis: [opening quote] A Jamaican proverb tells us: "Eat with the devil, but give him a long spoon"
- SoundtracksAnti-Shock Riddim Instrumental
performed by Jrk
Played at the beginning of the episode
Featured review
'Criminal Minds' goes to Jamaica
Season 2 was an improvement over the first on the most part. It did repeat a lot of the same mistakes that all the episodes in the first season did but there were aspects that did improve. That is not to say though that it was a good season, to me it wasn't particularly and even the best episodes, while certainly better than the least bad episodes of Season 1, were very flawed and the flaws sadly were quite big and very difficult to overlook. One does naturally hope that 'Beyond Borders' would have moved on from the incredibly poor quality of the first season.
One where none of the episodes rose above weak. Not so with "Obey", which sees 'Beyond Borders' go right back to "offensively bad"-land. If there was a contender for the worst episode of Season 2, "Obey" would be a more than worthy contender. It has everything that made the worst episodes of Season 1 as poor as it was and can totally see why others have found it insulting. Of the previous Season 2 episodes, "Cinderella and the Dragon" also insulted, but it least had a redeeming quality. Whereas here it is very difficult to find anything that is remotely okay, it didn't have the virtue that that episode had of starting off promising, this episode began bad and got worse each minute.
Can completely understand the criticism here regarding "Obey's" portrayal of Jamaica, its culture and its people. Calling it inaccurate is being too kind, count me in as another person to find it very insensitive and quite patronising. A common problem with 'Beyond Borders' but this is being towards being one of the worst episodes in this regard. None of the characters feel real and come over as insensitive caricatures.
It doesn't even look good, the episode that is. There is never a sense of being there and none of it feels authentic, any stock footage being typically awkwardly inserted. "Obey" does not look good on a visual level. He way it's shot and edited is incredibly choppy, with it being incredibly obvious when stock footage is used, and completely lacks atmosphere or a sense of mood, either being overly-bright or drab. The music is also annoying, it is too loud and too constant with not a sign of a break and with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, it also does not fit at all (a lot of it is misplaced actually) as well as cheap and out of date.
Even worse is the writing. Writing that condescends to the viewer and filled to the brim with cheese, convolution and awkwardness. The story on top of not being particularly original is both dull and convoluted, with it down to being quite thin and then never really properly explaining. It never rings true, both the case and the team's involvement. Complete lack of tension or suspense in action-oriented parts. There is no chemistry at all within the team with no great little character moments (one of 'Criminal Minds' greatest strengths), and the mystery elements (that 'Criminal Minds' did with profiling and psychologically delving into the unsub's mind, excelling so brilliantly at it as well) are severely under-utilised and underdeveloped to the point of non-existence.
None of the characters are interesting or compelling, and have absolutely nothing worth relating to or liking. Have also had enough with the law enforcement being portrayed as excessively incompetent. With the unsub, it is very familiar territory with nothing new and the unsub is also very vanilla, with none of the menace, feel-bad-for factor or development. None of the acting is great, do like Gary Sinise in other things but he rarely looked as though he was trying that much in this show.
All in all, awful. 1/10 (the first given out in a while)
One where none of the episodes rose above weak. Not so with "Obey", which sees 'Beyond Borders' go right back to "offensively bad"-land. If there was a contender for the worst episode of Season 2, "Obey" would be a more than worthy contender. It has everything that made the worst episodes of Season 1 as poor as it was and can totally see why others have found it insulting. Of the previous Season 2 episodes, "Cinderella and the Dragon" also insulted, but it least had a redeeming quality. Whereas here it is very difficult to find anything that is remotely okay, it didn't have the virtue that that episode had of starting off promising, this episode began bad and got worse each minute.
Can completely understand the criticism here regarding "Obey's" portrayal of Jamaica, its culture and its people. Calling it inaccurate is being too kind, count me in as another person to find it very insensitive and quite patronising. A common problem with 'Beyond Borders' but this is being towards being one of the worst episodes in this regard. None of the characters feel real and come over as insensitive caricatures.
It doesn't even look good, the episode that is. There is never a sense of being there and none of it feels authentic, any stock footage being typically awkwardly inserted. "Obey" does not look good on a visual level. He way it's shot and edited is incredibly choppy, with it being incredibly obvious when stock footage is used, and completely lacks atmosphere or a sense of mood, either being overly-bright or drab. The music is also annoying, it is too loud and too constant with not a sign of a break and with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, it also does not fit at all (a lot of it is misplaced actually) as well as cheap and out of date.
Even worse is the writing. Writing that condescends to the viewer and filled to the brim with cheese, convolution and awkwardness. The story on top of not being particularly original is both dull and convoluted, with it down to being quite thin and then never really properly explaining. It never rings true, both the case and the team's involvement. Complete lack of tension or suspense in action-oriented parts. There is no chemistry at all within the team with no great little character moments (one of 'Criminal Minds' greatest strengths), and the mystery elements (that 'Criminal Minds' did with profiling and psychologically delving into the unsub's mind, excelling so brilliantly at it as well) are severely under-utilised and underdeveloped to the point of non-existence.
None of the characters are interesting or compelling, and have absolutely nothing worth relating to or liking. Have also had enough with the law enforcement being portrayed as excessively incompetent. With the unsub, it is very familiar territory with nothing new and the unsub is also very vanilla, with none of the menace, feel-bad-for factor or development. None of the acting is great, do like Gary Sinise in other things but he rarely looked as though he was trying that much in this show.
All in all, awful. 1/10 (the first given out in a while)
helpful•81
- TheLittleSongbird
- Mar 29, 2021
Details
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- Country of origin
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD
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