'Criminal Minds' has always been one of my most-watched shows and was a personal favourite for a while. Seasons 1-5 was its best period, Season 4 was especially great. It did get hit and miss from Season 6 onwards, with a mix of good and more episodes and disappointing and less episodes. Season 11 was, apart from about 5 episodes, pretty weak. Season 12 was inconsistent but generally an improvement, its weakest episodes nowhere near as bad as the low-points of Seasons 6, 9 and especially 11.
Season 13 so far has not been too bad, in fact it's been quite good. It is already so much better than Season 11, which started off well actually but quickly went downhill, and has generally settled quicker than Season 12. As far as the previous Season 13 episodes go, the only one to be less than mediocre was "Annihilator", a season and show low point and the worst episode since Season 11 with "Inner Beauty". Most of the episodes actually ranged from decent to very good, though there aren't any classics.
"Ex Parte" is one of the season's weakest episodes. Was also underwhelmed somewhat by "Submerged", but actually as said the only low-point was "Annihilator".
There are obvious good points. As always with 'Criminal Minds', the visuals are stylish and atmospheric. The music is not too over-bearing or low-key. There are intriguing moments in the writing and some of the direction is alert and accommodating.
All the acting from the leads and support is without complaint, and Matt has settled well. Far more so than most new team members that either took a while to gel or never did. The team work is nice, the start intrigues and Kristy is a rootable character. Story-wise, the stuff with Leonard is far more interesting than the case and has creepiness, Harry Groener's performance helps quite a bit.
For all those good things, there are some debits too. The case for me was underwhelming, definitely one of the weaker ones of the season, though still much better than "Annihilator". It did from personal opinion lack tension and suspense, sometimes going the unintentionally goofy route. The story was fairly routine, the unsub was not one that was particularly interesting or menacing and this is another episode where an unsub's motivations for such elaborate crimes and methods are rather ordinary. Some of it was on the vague and under-explored side too, as well as messy and sometimes ridiculous.
Pacing at times could have been tighter, as could have other parts of the writing. The climax was somewhat too pat and could have done with more tension. The team work and procedural aspects within the team worked well, would though have liked more character moments and little things and that it balanced better with the case which is somewhat too heavily focused on. There were for my liking not enough and it was only with Matt and to a lesser extent Rossi that was particularly memorable and even that could have gone into more depth.
In conclusion, not bad but disappointing. 5/10 Bethany Cox
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