Magnificent Light
- Episode aired Nov 28, 2012
- TV-14
- 42m
When a follower of a well-known motivational speaker is murdered, the team suspects the speaker himself.When a follower of a well-known motivational speaker is murdered, the team suspects the speaker himself.When a follower of a well-known motivational speaker is murdered, the team suspects the speaker himself.
- Detective Harrison Chen
- (as Matt Yang King)
- Davis Cooper
- (as Rico Anderson)
- Gangbanger
- (as Caesar Garcia)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsDuring the bar scene, the patron mentions the sights of Seattle, referring to one as the Pikes Place Market. Locals know it's called the Pike Place Market.
- Quotes
Derek Morgan: A policeman pulled over a man, and he said to him, "Sir, your eyes look bloodshot. Have you been drinking?" And that man replied, "Officer, your eyes look glazed. Have you been eating donuts?"
[people laugh]
Derek Morgan: You see, that right there was last joke that my father ever told me before he died. A special gift in my life are the eleven years that I did have with him, because, as brief as they may have been, my dad gave me unconditional love. He taught me a sense of duty, and he gave me a reason to keep working hard, because each and every day, I do all that I know how to do to make my father proud. Now, my dad was taken from this world way too soon, but if he wasn't, I wouldn't be the man that I am today. Now, you may be wondering why I'm talking about him here. It's because my father, the man that I admire the most, looked up to Mr. Jason Ryder, who we honor here tonight. Jason was the most important person in my father's life outside of his family. He was his partner and his best friend. Like my father, Jason strived to be the best he could be. He inspired me to be fearless and to go out into the world and find my inner light, and for that, Jason, I am eternally grateful.
[applause]
Seasons 1-5 did have some underwhelming episodes certainly ("Machismo" and "Honor Among Thieves" being notable examples") but all the show's worst episodes were from Season 6 onwards (especially "200" and the worst of Season 11). Season 8 has been a hit and miss season, "God Complex", "The Good Earth" and especially "The Lesson" for examples were good, but "Through the Looking Glass", "The Replicator" and "Magnificent Light" were mediocre at best and "Zugzwang" was let down by the biggest slap-in-the-face ending of the whole show.
"Magnificent Light" wasn't a completely bad episode by all means. It is very well made, made with atmosphere, style and class. The music is haunting and with an air of melancholy. The regular actors do try their best despite lazy material and the disappointing way most of the characters were written, while Patrick Fabian and particularly Raphael Sbarge make the most of shallowly written roles. Did find the victim's calm attitude rather than clearly fearing for most victims' lives somewhat refreshing, though some may not like this.
On the other hand, the writing is unfortunately quite lazy here, Morgan and Blake's theories on the quote induced a massive face palm, Blake's was particularly stupid and showed a lack of research on the writers' part. Garcia's obsession is also poorly written, and feels very unnatural within the story as well as making Garcia behave out of character. Garcia was a ray of sunshine in the earlier seasons, the latter seasons often saw her as a pale caricature, that is the case here. The ending feels out of place, the whole thing with the car was more Shemar Moore than Morgan and the whole stuff with Morgan belongs more in a soap-opera, it didn't feel right within the story.
Blake still isn't fitting in, and still feels cold and disconnected, liked her more later on in her two season stint but she took a while to get used to. The team often generally feel underused or out of character, while the leads do do their best they understandably do flounder at times. The story never really comes to life, and lacks tension and suspense, while Flynn and the unsub are not very interesting, Flynn is pretty shallow actually. Most of the support acting apart from Fabian and Sbarge is wooden.
All in all, when describing "Magnificent Light", magnificent is not the right word. 4/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Sep 2, 2016
Details
- Runtime42 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD