criminalxminds | "Getting Tired or Still Inspired" from EW.com

tbh I can see both sides of the argument. CM used to be a much more cerebral show in its earlier seasons but S6 was borderline unwatchable to me b/c the show seemed to be riding more on how shocking/fucked-up they can make the cases and cramming them with as much gratuitous torture porn as possible. Like I felt uncomfortable watching the show with my parents and I'm a grown adult. The musical cast members didn't help matters, of course, but I think that's just a part of the problem and not the entire problem. Having AJ and Paget back (and hopefully TGibs, although I highly doubt he's going anywhere) will likely help the show get back on its feet again but only if some serious improvements are made to the writing quality. Like say, having some writers who've actually watched the show.

The cancellation of the spinoff makes me cautiously optimistic since it will no longer be draining resources from the original, and maybe CM will get back to its roots.

In other news, TGibs and AJ are really hot

They really have *earned* the "torture porn* criticism this season. There were scenes in the finale between the female Unsub and the female undercover agent (names escape me) when she had her bound in the chair that were just...yeah. :/

They used to allude to violence...it seemed like this season they were taken over by someone with a SAW complex who went for sensationalism over substance.

The writing was...unbalanced is putting it nicely. So many OOC moments and things that just were...wrong. I think all the behind the scenes disruptions showed up on the screen, and you could tell some of the writers had no clue who the characters were or how they would act in certain situations.

*also, I think EW is still bitter about CM beating out the almighty LOST in the ratings and making liars out of them and mincemeat out of their critical darling...but that's just my opinion lol*

I'm not sure if it was posted here but there was an interview with Erica and she mentions the writing and how she wants to get back on track with it... somewhere in the chat... not sure where exactly but I'm hoping it will change. I just finished all six seasons in about a month and I could definitely see how season six was different.

Here's the chat with Erica: http://criminalmindsfanatic.blogspot.com/2011/04/criminal-minds-exclusive-chat-with_20.html

I pay very little attention to what EW has to say, especially since they continue to deny the fact that Stargate ever existed. Despite the fact that the franchise, in one incarnation or another, has been on the air since 1997.

The shows they like, they fawn over and the ones they dislike, they tend to ignore.

My issue with EW is exactly the same... just the fact that SG1 managed more than 200 episodes is something few prime time shows can say. The entire Stargate franchise gets a lot less respect than it should.

As for Criminal Minds specifically, I can see both sides of their argument. The 6th season was a bit of a gore fest, but I'm hoping that the cancellation of suspect behavior and AJ's return will really allow them to get back to what made the show great.

Somewhat torn.

On the one hand, I want to tell the first reviewer to kiss my ass, because when did it become "cartoonish" to have genuinely good people as protagonists? -_-;;

On the other, this season has sucked hardcore compared to previous ones. I don't like the Saw-tastic new focus on gore and torturing victims onscreen either, and...well, the AJ/Paget debacle. 'Nuff said.

Virtually every episode this season seemed to be about young women being victimized. And the show seemed to fixate on the unsubs' handiwork. Just because the SFX people CAN accurately replicate the results of someone being grotesquely dismembered (or burned to a crisp), doesn't mean that they SHOULD.

So yeah, I can see where EW is coming from.

The show definitely revels in the violence nowadays. When I started watching I had to marathon the first few seasons to catch up, and I never once felt that the violence was exploitative or sensationalistic. S6 has been awful. I had to stop watching because I was sick of tuning in to see yet another woman be victimised. I'm trying to start watching again for my love of Reid and Morgan/Reid, but I feel like I'm now forcing myself more for fandom than for my actual enjoyment of the show.

It's sad, CM was a really refreshing crime drama when it first started. I'm just hoping S7 will be an improvement.

I loved the first 4 seasons (except for a few eps), but felt it started losing it a little in s5, and this season has definitely been rocky.

THIS.

This season has definitely earned the torture porn cred.

Do you guys remember back when an episode didn't have to have gore to be terrifying? "North Mammon" and "Lucky" have little to no gore, but they're two of the most unsettling and psychologically disturbing episodes of the series.

Part of what attracted me to the show originally was the dignity and respect with which they treated their victims, and the way that the crimes were never glamorized. They've completely lost sight of that. "The Thirteenth Step" embodies nearly all of the issues with this: Half of it was over-sexualizing Adrianne Palicki's character and half of it was the meaningless and "fun" slaughter of victims who went nameless.

Someone (Rossi, I think) mentioned back in "Limelight" that people remember the killers, but they don't remember the victims. The murderers have been glamorized enough in society--this show didn't have to go down that road. There were maybe one or two memorable victims this season who had actual agency and drive. Most of the ones this season were just stock victims who didn't even try to fight. They're nothing like the victims in the early season who actually fought back. (In any way they could--be it playing along like the woman in "Slave of Duty" or driving a car into a building or lake like in "A Higher Power" or "Charm and Harm".)

Even the differences between the characters (going back to season five) and their traumas. Look at "Revelations" and then look at "Nameless, Faceless". Most of the horror about what happened to Reid was psychological--there wasn't a huge, huge focus on his physical injuries, but more the psychological trauma. In "Nameless, Faceless", we get this huge, overtly sexualized, drawn out brutalization and metaphorical rape of Hotch.

Look at Elle's trauma compared to Prentiss's--when Elle was shot, they showed that the paramedics were pulling open her shirt to get to the wound, but it was implied: The camera focused on her face and not her chest. Whereas in "Lauren", we get a shot of Doyle opening Prentiss's shirt and a completely unnecessary and lingering shot of Prentiss's bra. They took the last remaining experienced female profiler on the team and degraded her on film for no damn reason. That could have been implied, they could have focused on her face, but no, they have a full screen shot for several seconds. That is bullshit.

This is really long comment, but basically, I have to agree with the first reviewer about the point that, this season, the show has delved into torture porn. It's upsetting, because the show had this reputation before this season, and it was wrong--they were so respectful to the victims and the victims' families, and they never really did much gore--and now I just can't really defend it as much.

I DON'T think the show is tired, though. I'm hoping that the writing staff stabilizes (and bring Chris Mundy back for the love of my sanity) and that they get their shit together. I think that they can pull this show back from this ledge, but they have got to stop sexualizing and glamorizing these crimes.

One of my favorite 'victims' was Bobbi Baird from Open Season where the Unsubs take their victims out to the woods and hunt them and she turns the tables on them. She was amazing. We've seen nothing like that in Season 6.

Yes! I loved Maggie from "Legacy" and the first woman from "In Name and Blood" (my heart seriously broke when she died). There are a ton more that I really liked that I can't think of off the top of my head.

I have to agree that this season has had it's share of problems, not the least of which is a trend toward exploitation-sado-pornishness. The Bonny&Clyde ep and the season finale come to mind, along with others. The show seemed to be on more solid ground with the team seeing the results (crime scenes) and aftermath (victim families) and (along with the viewer) trying to understand the unsub in order to prevent more of the same.

It used to be only the occasional episode that followed the unsub right from the start, but in the latest season it seems to have become commonplace - which doesn't work nearly as well, IMO.

Oh, and the gratuitous Prentiss bra scene... that was entirely pointless. If Doyle had used his little "soldering iron" to burn a design on Emily's chest she would have been in tremendous pain, no matter how well "she can take it". Yet, IIRC, we saw no indication of that at all; which goes back to AFTERMATH. The lingering effects of violent criminal acts, whether on families, surviving victims, and maybe most of all on Our Heroes themselves, used to be something that was (usually skillfully) presented, but they can't even seem to show the immediate aftermath in this scene. Which leads me back to the conclusion that there was no reason for it other than to show a flash of Emily's upper chest. It's not like PB hasn't been seen on screen in considerably less [Huff]; that's not the point - it was gratuitous because the context just didn't support it. /rant

Sorry. I get wound up.

"Getting Tired or Still Inspired" from EW.com

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