Much of this season breaks the usual 'Criminal Minds' formula of how the stories should operates and this episode was no different.
BAU team effort and investigations are okay and the serial killer seems to be the regular deluded guy however everything else in this episode runs slightly off from a regular episode.
In this episode BAU gets less precipitated about drawing conclusions from simple evidences being more asserive, the episode paces really slow, the serial killer identity is revealed right in the beginning, the main focus is primarily dedicated in exploring a little coastal village and its villagers more than the investigation itself and even the ending is not as satisfactory as you expect from a Criminal Minds episode (it's very weird actually).
Sometimes it feels more like a CSI episode where the investigation is a mere instrument to lead into the story itself. Criminal Minds however usually works in the other way around, the unsub story is a mere background to lead into how the team investigates and figures the murder,. Not in this one.
This episode could be seen as a boring but I see more as experimental, they break a lot of their old formula when:
Ultimately, people tune in to Criminal Minds to watch a malevolent creepy and disturbing Serial Killer acting, to find out how BAU agents slowly discovers who the killer is and why and, finally, to watch the unsub get caught in the end. This episode doesn't deliver any of these criterias in a satisfactory way: the unsub is very childish and we are meant to be empathetic with him, BAU work is very shallow (but effective), all the subplots doesn't ends well, the unsub get away.
Have it be a separeted story outside of Criminal Minds spectrum and being much more developed, this could be a great film or short but in the context of a Criminal Minds episode, it doesn't quite works...
BAU team effort and investigations are okay and the serial killer seems to be the regular deluded guy however everything else in this episode runs slightly off from a regular episode.
In this episode BAU gets less precipitated about drawing conclusions from simple evidences being more asserive, the episode paces really slow, the serial killer identity is revealed right in the beginning, the main focus is primarily dedicated in exploring a little coastal village and its villagers more than the investigation itself and even the ending is not as satisfactory as you expect from a Criminal Minds episode (it's very weird actually).
Sometimes it feels more like a CSI episode where the investigation is a mere instrument to lead into the story itself. Criminal Minds however usually works in the other way around, the unsub story is a mere background to lead into how the team investigates and figures the murder,. Not in this one.
This episode could be seen as a boring but I see more as experimental, they break a lot of their old formula when:
- the killer at the end get away and the team leaves the case without catching him,
- when a BAU agent approachs the killer and get shot,
- when at the end they can't save the day/bring the solution for all the subplots that was built,
- when they don't bother too much about exploring the behavior of the unsub for the audience.
- when they focus a lot in the drama going over the town (the drought, submerging bodies, officer love interest, father looking for a son, a kid tying to befriend a random guy)
- when they used a weird jumpscare, which no one expects from this show
- when the ending gets a little poetic and the opening quote doesn't really relate to the story.
Ultimately, people tune in to Criminal Minds to watch a malevolent creepy and disturbing Serial Killer acting, to find out how BAU agents slowly discovers who the killer is and why and, finally, to watch the unsub get caught in the end. This episode doesn't deliver any of these criterias in a satisfactory way: the unsub is very childish and we are meant to be empathetic with him, BAU work is very shallow (but effective), all the subplots doesn't ends well, the unsub get away.
Have it be a separeted story outside of Criminal Minds spectrum and being much more developed, this could be a great film or short but in the context of a Criminal Minds episode, it doesn't quite works...