| A Family Affair; s7 ep16; Feb 29, 2012 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 17 2012, 12:56 AM (393 Views) | |
| suceress | Feb 17 2012, 12:56 AM Post #1 |
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Season 7 episode 16 Title: A Family Affair Director: Rob Spera Writer: Kimberly Ann Harrison Airdate: February 29, 2012 Synopsis: When the BAU travels to Atlanta to investigate the murders of women, the clues lead them to look for an unsub who is not working alone Guest Cast: Cade Owens, Bellamy Young, William Russ, Kathy Baker, Merle Dandridge, Fiona Gubelmann Edited by suceress, Feb 17 2012, 12:57 AM.
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| BABruin | Mar 1 2012, 07:51 AM Post #2 |
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well, I guess this episode says= a family that slays together, stays together! Same ol' formula where we know who the unsub is from the get-go and it's all about the unsubs. Not much Reid in this one along with not much suspense. It was kind of a weird premise to have the parents be so enabling. That's pretty twisted to go as far as murder to keep sonny happy and stronger. I liked the family ending with Reid as baby-sitter. I wonder if he did physics magic or card tricks to entertain Henry. Reid cheering Hotch on at the race was sooo MGG at his animated best. Really, Reid should go to more sporting events. He's never looked happier than when he wasa'hootin' and a'hollerin' for Hotch.
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| suceress | Mar 1 2012, 12:07 PM Post #3 |
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If this had not been an episode of Criminal Minds it might not have bugged me so much. Normally when we see the unsub up front I am so bored/disgusted with it I just fastforward through unsub scenes and watch for the team. Unfortunately in this episode it was the team moments that actually ruined the episode for me. The beginning sequence with what appeared to be a couple making out just dragged on too long. It took too long to get to the part where we learn she was a hooker and then he kills her. It was so slow and boring I almost changed the station. I kept waiting for the killer to break in and kill them or something, then saw the guy in the wheelchair was the killer. *sigh* Then we get Hotch and Beth with the "chai" thing. I couldn't help but think that Reid probably informed Hotch that "chai" meant "tea". That scene didn't bother me. Cut to JJ drinking 5 hour energy drink and exposition dialog that was a bit clunky and not delivered believably by all of the actresses. Exposition dialog sets up the plans for girl's night out. Having that in this episode when we already had the Hotch/Beth drama was a bit superfluous in my opinion. Reid's line delivery was super fast and as much as I don't want to diss Matthew, it felt like he's getting bored and just spewing out words in quite a few episodes lately. JJ was stating information that Reid would normally know and say. Reid's hair while visiting the crime scene was inexplicably very messy. There was very little profiling and waaay too much unsub. I admit it was mildly interesting to try to figure out what was going on with that weird family and in the end we still didn't quite get the insight we needed. What was the medication the unsub was taking? Antipsychotics? Was it for something caused by the accident or something caused by genetics from his crazy mother. I just didn't buy the motivations. I get that the mother was always a bit crazy, but it was so weird that there was that tension between the family constantly and something didn't break sooner. I just couldn't buy it. I liked the girl that was the physical therapist/trainer type who seemed to like the unsub, although she seemed awfully young to be in that profession and it was cliche and unprofessional for her to be so interested in the unsub. The dialog in this episode was very clunky and the scenes did not all seem to flow well-- particularly the opening and closing parts. Despite watching long scenes of the unsub family interacting I still felt we got very little insight into what caused the killing. Then we go to the plane scene which is usually the ending of the episode and get Rossi's veiled speech basically asking Hotch if he's sure he's ready to jump in to a relationship and the scene with JJ lamenting that she has no babysitter. Umm... Doesn't she already have a babysitter to watch Henry while she's away on the case since Will is away somewhere? It didn't seem plausible that she couldn't find one and it was very predictable that Reid would volunteer. The writer obviously does not grasp Reid's character. She gave him no personality throughout the episode and then she wrote him as an immature idiot. What lines does she give to the resident genius? "I watched an episode of Mr. Belvedere. What could possibly go wrong?" Such a cloyingly bad bit of dialog that even the delivery couldn't help but be campy. First of all, Reid knows there are thousands of things that could go wrong. He is the statistics guy. He is the one who would be the first one to step in and say something in answer of just what could go wrong. My second gripe was that his reason on why he can babysit by himself was having watched an episode of a tv show... I invite Kim Harrison to go back and watch some friggin' previous episodes of the series. JJ picked Reid as the godfather of her child, showing she trusted him to be able to take care of Henry. The women questioning Reid's abilities to babysit just didn't seem realistic. This is a guy who was a caretaker from the time he was 10 years old. He had to take care of his mother by himself for 8 years. I can bet she was a handful and, unlike a small child, he couldn't just pick her up and put her in the time-out chair when she was being unreasonable. Reid has BA's in psychology and sociology. He has studies human behavior. Part of learning about serial killers is learning what factors from nature and nurture helped lead them to killing. You can bet he researched all sorts of things about child rearing. He probably read hundreds of books on how to handle children. It would have been more realistic for him to say "I read 453 books on techniques for caring for a child" rather than some bs about watching something on TV. The only way I can accept that scene is if I pretend that Reid was just joking. Then not only do we get robbed of seeing what could possibly go wrong during Reid's babysitting, but we don't even get to see the hyped girl's night out. Instead we get wet, panting, smiling Hotch in shorts-- which I suppose is supposed to make us forget about how horrible the writing and dialog was. Sorry, doesn't work for me. Having the triathlon at the end seemed sort of like it was tacked on in an unnatural way. Reid was too un-Reidlike. I really got an "out of character" feel from that part. It was not as bad as the Pasta Party scene though. I think Reid was deliberately being loud because he knew the ladies were hung over and he was getting back at them for being gone all night instead of "a few hours". The thing is, from what I've seen of Reid in the past, he would enjoy getting the time to spend reading to Henry and showing him magic tricks and entertaining him. I think Reid would be very good with Henry. So to have him be irritated about it just didn't seem in character-- unless he was worried about them and thought something had happened to them. Then we get to the fact that these three supposedly intelligent and professional women were out all night drinking in excess to the point that they were so hungover the next day they wouldn't be able to function well at work. In their job they can't afford to do that. It's so cliche to have them get drunk. It is irresponsible and really doesn't seem in character to me. At the very least if they were going to drink they would know to stay hydrated. There were just so many cliches in one episode... Ugh. Lastly we had Hotch being invited to go eat with the team but he forgets all about them and goes to talk to Beth and we get the scene with Jack that I guess was supposed to be cute but ended up being too cheesy for me. Then Hotch invites Beth to go eat and they walk away while completely ignoring the team. No nods or waving or any indication and then the group looks from the team that just seemed unnatural to me. It was all so out of character. It was hit you on the head "this is a team family moment". Ugh... Until the last scene it was like the episode was a sandwich. The plane scene was the top piece of bread but then they slapped another piece of processed cheese on the top. I'm losing hope for this show if the writing is going to continue on this path. |
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| Mirri | Mar 2 2012, 01:20 AM Post #4 |
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Extremely dull episode. The time did not pass fast when watching it. The Hotch/Beth previouslies were way too long and a waste of time IMO. So was the opening Hotch/Beth scene. Way too much unsubs and no where near enough team. J.J has become this new super profiler, making the other more experienced profilers look stupid. I miss the old liaison J.J. I did love that she gave the press conference though. I did like the last couple of scenes. They gave a bit of life to this boring episode. While I really am not interested in a Hotch romance I don't mind so much as long as there is not too much focus on it. I found though that there was too much focus on it this episode. To me Hotch did invite Beth to join them to eat. He did point towards the team. Rather rude of him not to introduce them to her though. |
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| suceress | Mar 2 2012, 06:22 AM Post #5 |
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A few questions were answered at the chat with Kim Harrison. The Lady's Night Out bit was cut because of time. Gee, I wonder what they could have cut to let them have time. When asked what she would do differently with the episode she said she would have demanded that they make time for Girl's night out. She chose to have Reid babysit to show Reid as being responsible and change things up a bit. Huh? Since when has Reid not been responsible? He's been taking care of himself (and his mother) since he was 10 years old. She also said that the hardest character for her to write is Reid. Big surprise eh? Reid's hair was messy at the crime scene because of the humidity or something like that. Will was at work or something the night Reid babysat. He arrived home in the morning to find Reid asleep on the couch with Henry. JJ arrived home later. Henry was left with Will while the rest of the team went to the triathlon. I think she was joking, but Kim said Reid read his favorite bedtime story (something about US employment statistics or something) out to Henry. She clearly does not have a bead on Reid's personality. They had JJ knowing things Reid should have known in this one. The writer doesn't really seem to get that too much unsub is not working. That's all I can think of for now. |
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| BABruin | Mar 2 2012, 07:37 PM Post #6 |
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thanks for the chat info. Reid always seems to be the hardest for new writers. He's either too super-smart or dumb down to embarrassing. It's hard to get a balance but one thing remains, he's still socially retarded to all writers. Hotch already has a new relationship while Reid gets zippo. |
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| Mirri | Mar 3 2012, 01:18 AM Post #7 |
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The chat transcript has been posted at www.cmsetreport.blogspot.com . I'm a bit confused about the first answer as to why no Reid baby sitting scene and no girls night out scene. Did Kim want a scene with Reid and Henry showing that Reid is responsible in taking care of kids but others didn't? Did they shoot a girls night out scene but it was cut for time, or the script was long enough so it was never written or filmed in the first place? If it was filmed I sure hope it shows up on the dvd extras. Either a badly worded answer or my brain is too tired to comprehend it right now. Anyways I'm tired of the "Reid effect". It was just a small humourus line in the very first episode that seems to have lasted in many peoples minds. Reid has shown that he is good with kids in episodes like Seven Seconds and Coda. BTW not knowing what Green Fairy is I googled it and it is just another name for absinthe. Pretty potent stuff, no wonder the girls had a hang over the next morning. p.s. I just googled the actor (Derek Magyar) who played the wheelchair bound unsub as he looked so familiar to me. If we have any star trek fans here he played Commander Kelby for a few episodes in the very last series, Star Trek Enterprise. Edited by Mirri, Mar 3 2012, 01:25 AM.
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| suceress | Mar 4 2012, 05:14 PM Post #8 |
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She wasn't very clear. I think she was suggesting things were cut for time but she didn't say whether they were filmed or not. I guess she might have to answer that on twitter or something-- if she bothers to answer. I do agree that the writers never get his voice or personality right. I don't think they ever make him too smart but they make him be just an encyclopedia with almost no personality at some points. All he does is spout facts with some writers and then others have him act like he's stupid. But yeah, he does come off as a social retard with the new writers. I am a Star Trek fan so I did NOT watch the last few episodes of Enterprise. JK. I just didn't see when the episodes were airing and I heard the cast said not to bother with watching the last few bc they were bad. I still think it was really stupid for them to have the girls drinking something so strong. In their line of work it is very dangerous to do that. |
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Really, Reid should go to more sporting events. He's never looked happier than when he was

7:48 PM Jul 11