There are not many shows out there where none of their episodes throughout their run are good. 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' is one of the few examples of this, am a fan of the original 'Criminal Minds' but 'Beyond Borders' did nothing for me from the get go and never really improved (some sporadic individual improvements aside). None of Season 1 for example rose above weak and most of the episodes were actually downright awful.
"Iqiniso" is one of them. It is not quite as offensively bad as the previous episode "The Matchmaker", which would offend even those not usually sensitive (especially the way the Turkish and their culture are portrayed), but boy isn't it close. It is every bit as awful for almost all of the same reasons, although the case is different and not as gratuitous in content here and the stereotypes not quite as offensive so it is not exactly the same.
Arnold Vosloo is the least bad thing about "Iqiniso". He is the only one of the cast to show much signs of trying, he does bring a good deal of authority to his role sorely lacking everywhere else, and the episode's one attempt at authenticity. Alana De La Garza is usually a small redeeming quality but not when she has practically nothing to work with and when her limited material is so weak.
Otherwise, "Iqiniso" is a disgrace and one of the show's worst out of a very consistently bad lot. And although the inaccurate, sloppy and biased portrayal of South Africa and its citizens (one-dimensional stereotypes passing as character) is blatant and very distracting, indicative of the writers once again not being good at research, there is much more wrong with the episode. Vosloo aside, the entire cast look absolutely miserable, Gary Sinise is much better than this, and Mae still gets on my nerves. None of the team members are that well defined and they just don't gel as a team, they don't gel cohesively and they seem disconnected from each other. The supporting characters don't fare much better, there is nothing menacing about the responsible who would have benefited from being revealed later and used less. That way there would be more suspense and less predictability.
Because the story has nothing new to it really, it is very indifferently executed and it goes at a leaden pace. There is no tension or suspsense at all, because there is an over-obviousness throughout. The writing is awkward and constantly condescends, and even the production values look quite under-budgeted.
In a nutshell, awful. 1/10
"Iqiniso" is one of them. It is not quite as offensively bad as the previous episode "The Matchmaker", which would offend even those not usually sensitive (especially the way the Turkish and their culture are portrayed), but boy isn't it close. It is every bit as awful for almost all of the same reasons, although the case is different and not as gratuitous in content here and the stereotypes not quite as offensive so it is not exactly the same.
Arnold Vosloo is the least bad thing about "Iqiniso". He is the only one of the cast to show much signs of trying, he does bring a good deal of authority to his role sorely lacking everywhere else, and the episode's one attempt at authenticity. Alana De La Garza is usually a small redeeming quality but not when she has practically nothing to work with and when her limited material is so weak.
Otherwise, "Iqiniso" is a disgrace and one of the show's worst out of a very consistently bad lot. And although the inaccurate, sloppy and biased portrayal of South Africa and its citizens (one-dimensional stereotypes passing as character) is blatant and very distracting, indicative of the writers once again not being good at research, there is much more wrong with the episode. Vosloo aside, the entire cast look absolutely miserable, Gary Sinise is much better than this, and Mae still gets on my nerves. None of the team members are that well defined and they just don't gel as a team, they don't gel cohesively and they seem disconnected from each other. The supporting characters don't fare much better, there is nothing menacing about the responsible who would have benefited from being revealed later and used less. That way there would be more suspense and less predictability.
Because the story has nothing new to it really, it is very indifferently executed and it goes at a leaden pace. There is no tension or suspsense at all, because there is an over-obviousness throughout. The writing is awkward and constantly condescends, and even the production values look quite under-budgeted.
In a nutshell, awful. 1/10