There is a very wide range when it comes to types of detective/mystery/procedural shows. Whether it's the slow-burns (some of the Scandinavian shows), the "intellectual" ones ('Inspector Morse'), ones that mixed comedy and drama ('A Touch of Frost'), anything Agatha Christie (namely 'Poirot'), the light-hearted ones ('Murder She Wrote') or the gritty ones ('Taggart'). Many classic examples of all of those too, and there is also plenty of all.
'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' was greatly anticipated regardless of its short lived run, being a big fan of the original 'Criminal Minds', if more the early seasons as it did become very variable later. Tried to be fair to the show, not using that it was short lived as an excuse, it actually sounded interesting. Just because a show is short-lived that doesn't necessarily mean they are bad, and was really genuinely determined to give it a proper chance (some short-lived shows were not). This show had every opportunity to be good but started off very ropy and apart from a few sporadic improvements along the way never got completely better.
"Night Hawks", despite still being problematic and for the same reasons as the previous episodes, is an improvement over "Jane", which saw the show go backwards after a very slight if not much improvement. Up to this point the show was at its best, and if there is a contender for the best 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' episode it would belong to "Night Hawks". Far from a hitting its stride standard, but there are quite big improvements here.
It starts off really well, with an intriguing opening scene. The best opening for any 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' episode and one of the best individual scenes of the show. "Night Hawks" is the best-looking episode of the show, up to this point the production values were at best competent but never anything special, by 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' standards both the camera work and editing are incredibly clever and quite beautiful to watch. Had not given either of those distinctions previous to this for the previous episodes, so that is praise indeed.
William Sanderson does incredibly with what he has and makes the absolute most of it, being both menacing and deeply felt. The unsub is quite some way the most interesting one of the show, have problems with him but no other episode of 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' did better than "Night Hawks" at making an unsub detestable and rootable, that sounds oxymoronic but it felt that way with me. Or giving him a back-story that had some degree of depth and was easy to swallow. Just like the episode had the best opening of the show, it also has its best climax, the only one up to this point really that had some degree of tension or momentum as well as not being rushed, anaemic or anti-climactic.
Didn't think that the unsub was a complete success though. He tended to behave illogically and erratically, which affected the plausibility and distracted me from taking the story completely seriously. He was also for my tastes, and these are problems that even latter season 'Criminal Minds' had, revealed too early and used too much, meaning that any shocks and suspense were nowhere near enough. Despite a great beginning and end, everything that happened in between for me had major problems. The structure of the story, while unique for the show, was too bizarre, at times jumpy and at other times confusing, with its attempts at misdirection (especially its attempt at a big reveal before being told differently shortly after) never really ringing true due to not really making sense. At least there isn't any real gratuitous shock value though, despite the brutality of killings, and the stupidity not as strong (though there) as most of the previous episodes. Some of the episode is rather dull, needing a tighter pace and more suspense. Too many things and bits of information, no it is not just the unsub, are revealed too early and then unnecessarily re-capped/reiterated a moment or two after.
Music is generic and forgettable at best, the direction too often perfunctory and the dialogue is constantly wooden. Still feel that there is not enough chemistry or connection within the team and excepting Cooper, whose behaviour is far too off the wall in an over the top way, nobody shows much personality, even irritating Beth (who still irritates if not as much, as she doesn't have as much that makes one want to hit their head against a wall). Again, no little character moments which further added to the blandness, lesser 'Criminal Minds' may have had a good deal of major problems but at least had those. Almost everything is forgettable here, with all the best moments coming from the unsub. The profiling adds little to the case and there is nothing new or surprising about it, basically the odd observation when the episode is reiterating things already known. Sanderson gives the only good performance here, otherwise the acting is weak, again either hammy or robotic. Forrest Whittaker sounded like he was recovering from a hangover or something.
Overall, started off great and ended great with the show's best unsub (despite still being problematic) and camera work, but lacklustre everywhere else. 4/10
