Have always loved detective/mystery/procedural shows and there are so many great ones out there emcompassing a very wide range. Whether it's the slow-burns, , ones that mixed comedy and drama, anything Agatha Christie (namely 'Poirot'), the light-hearted ones or the gritty ones. Plenty of all around and many classic examples of all too.
'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' was watched with great anticipation despite being short-lived, being such a great fan of 'Criminal Minds', if more in the early seasons. Watched it not using that it was short-lived as an excuse to show any kind of prejudice. 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) and was actually pretty excited. 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' unfortunately never seemed to settle or get off the ground, would have forgiven a slow start, not every show settles straight away and actually that is pretty rare, but 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' made the same mistakes over and over in every episode with small glimpses every now and then of improvement in a few areas.
Despite being one of the better 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' episodes, "Here is the Fire" unfortunately for me is not much of an improvement. There are good things though, and they are to do with a degree of improvement in a few aspects in comparison to the previous episodes.
Forrest Whittaker still is inconsistent, do find him too overly serious and he has never looked completely comfortable, but he does give his best and more engaged acting of the series in my view, or at least so far at this point of 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour'. Did appreciate the (some degree of) effort in making Cooper more interesting, it is certainly the most interesting he ever was
"Here is the Fire" does have one of the best scenes of the series and there is finally signs of profiling that actually does intrigue and serves a purpose. That is the scene where the suspect profile is laid out with some nice back and forth.
A lot of things are wrong still. Again, the production values are good but never anything extraordinary, lacking the darker, grittier touch that the original 'Criminal Minds' show brought to its darker scenes which were neither frequent or memorable. The music is still generic and not very memorable, music you would find on a lot of similar shows. The writing is no improvement on the all over the place standard of the previous episodes, constantly not knowing what to do with itself and filled with poorly written lines delivered like wood. All of it just sounded rushed, on-the-surface with no development whatsoever and often over-the-top. Other than that one bit, there was very little profiling otherwise and what there was was pretty pointless and with little distinction.
Engaging the story was not. Again feeling derivative of similar stories for the original 'Criminal Minds', and other shows, but with no tension, suspense or emotion of any kind could be found. It was all just so dull and bland, parts were ridiculous and motivations and events are vague which meant that almost everything did not make sense and there were no surprises. Some of the back and forth lacked clarity too, apart in that one scene aforementioned. Cooper is the only character "Here is the Fire" attempts to develop, the others are nothing to write home about, what is the point of Beth if the show is going to do nothing with her and only have her as a just there character.
Interaction between them is barely existent and there is not enough of them working or gelling as a team. How they work in solving the case shows little spark or interest, and quite awkward and there are no little character moments, which was a constant strength of 'Criminal Minds' even in several lesser episodes. The unsub, again is again very forgettable, not creepy enough to be anywhere near as detestable as the best villains on the original and their development is at best sketchy to feel anything else for them. "Here is the Fire" also makes even more of a mistake than the previous episodes of having pointless moments. Especially, and this part made me cringe and should have been left on the editing room floor, the part between Beth and the police detective, showing Beth out of the blue to be some kind of health nut. It just felt thrown in and like Janeane Garofalo has injected her personal life into the character when it was not the place to do it.
Acting is still weak, apart from a surprisingly improved for this episode Whittaker. Michael Kelly doesn't have enough to do to shine when usually he was the one in the cast who tried the most.
Janeane Garofalo has always bothered me, she shows the emotions of a robot, if she was trying to be serious it comes at the expense of personality, and Beth is annoying as a result. Garcia continues to not fit or seem necessary, other than for convenience to compensate for lack of profiling or team-work. Kirsten Vangsness also doesn't have the same spark.
Summing up, a marginal improvement but still weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox
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