Criminal Minds - The Fight

Network: CBS
Time: Wednesdays, 9:00-10:00pm
Cast: Thomas Gibson, Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, Shemar Moore, Matthew Gray Gubler, AJ Cook, Kirsten Vangsness

Summary: SSA Aaron Hotchner and his team investigate the murders of several homeless men in San Francisco and coordinate their efforts with another team of BAU agents who are working on a separate case that seems to be connected.

Review: I honestly don't think I've ever finished a Criminal Minds episode and not gone, "Oh, that was a good one."  So perhaps my saying that doesn't carry as much weight as it should.  But it really was a good one.

This is the episode that many fans were waiting for, the introduction of the second BAU team that will spawn the spin-off affectionately dubbed Minds 2.0 (at least until someone gives it a real title).  And they successfully introduced the new team, while still keeping focus on the things that are important--the heart-stopping case and our usual team of superheroes.

The backdoor pilot concept is what NCIS did when introducing NCIS: Los Angeles (and JAG did when introducing NCIS, and all the CSIs did, for the matter).  Now, those of you who follow what I write know I'm a huge NCIS fan, but, in this case, CM did it better.  NCIS only sent Gibbs and McGee out to LA to work with the new team, leaving all the rest of our favorite characters at home, creating a disjointed feel.  There were two storylines to fixate on, the case (and thus the introduction of the new team) and the tension between Tony, Ziva and Michael Rivkin.  So while I certainly met the new team and fell a little bit in love with them, I didn't get the same warm feeling from watching the team I already cared about mesh with the team I was supposed to learn to care about.

CM, on the other hand, meshed everyone together right from the beginning.  Each person from the new team was paired with one from our team, and it allowed the audience to learn more about them based on the way they interacted with people we already knew. So Cooper (Forest Whitaker) paired up with Hotch, LaSalle (Beau Garrett) with Morgan, Rawson (Matt Ryan) with Prentiss , and Prophet (Michael Kelly) with Rossi.  Which left us with a little less Reid and JJ than I normally like to see, but I suppose that was okay for one episode.

The actual plot of the episode was as compelling as they usually are.  I love the way everything clicks into place when they finally figure out who the UnSub is, and the profile syncs up perfectly.  I even admit to shedding a few tears when the father realized he might never be able to talk to his daughter again and tried to tell her everything he'd wanted to.  I'm not sure I completely believed Emily would have been caught off-guard the way she was in the second-to-last scene of the episode, but I know it had to be done to establish a little more about Rawson's character (basically that he's awesome).

And I have to admit that the teenage girl part of me hopes they find some opportunities in the future to put Prentiss and Rawson together.  The flirting/banter thing they had going on was just so much fun.

I admit I was kind of iffy about the new team in the beginning, when they were alone. The interactions felt forced, and I wasn't really sure why they were so awkward around each other. But I warmed to them as I continued watching, and I'm definitely intrigued by the spin-off, though I'm still wondering how they're going to distinguish this team and show from the BAU team we already know.


Favorite Line
Rawson: So what are you wearing?
Prentiss: A gun.

Rating:
[5] Excellent
[4] Good
[3] Average
[2] OK
[1] Bad

What'd you guys think?  Did you like the new team?  Think Forest Whitaker should go back to making movies?  Wondering where in CBS' lineup Minds 2.0 could go?  Leave me some comments and let me know.

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