nixsight

The Office 0505-0507
A sequence of mean episodes, these ones.

0505 – Employee Transfer sees Holly transfered immediately following the events of the last episode, and it is terrible to watch the dissolution of Michael and Hollys’ lovely relationship over the course of the long van journey that they take to get her to New Hampshire. Neither character is happy, and it’s either genius or terribly cruel that the showrunners decided to take this relationship away from Michael so soon after giving him it.
Dwight, also is particularly harsh, if hilarious, in his ongoing torment of Andy Bernard, who actually hasn’t done anything to deserve it, and remains oblivious as to why it’s happening. I don’t like seeing Dwight this cruel – it’s tragic how the humanising relationship that he had with Angela is now having the exact opposite effect on him.

0506 – Customer Survey actually has Dwight and Jim united for a common cause, but it’s an uncomfortable episode. Since Ryan’s decision to discipline Jim last season, there have been a few moments where Jim’s position – or at least his confidence – as an employee in the office have been shaken, and this episode continues that theme.
As it happens, it turns out to be down to KellyKapoor. Kelly is a character who has always been horrid in her insane girly exuberance, but her worse character traits – her pettiness and her lack of a sense of appropriateness – are really coming to the fore this season. She’s a bit of a monster in this episode…

0507 – Business Trip features some very odd developments around Andy Bernard. Andy, Oscar and Michael go on a business trip that is supposed to be a treat for Michael, but ends up being a massive let down, during which he really feels the loss of Holly.
It’s always nice when Michael has a moment of clarity and sticks up for himself – and in this episode there’s a nice moment when he berates his boss for forcing her to move.
But the real revelation of the episode is Andy and Oscar’s interplay, which comes out of nowhere but is totally natural. I’m a bit fan of Oscar, but it’s interesting how well he handles Andy’s bizarre personality.
They end up getting on pretty well. The internet seemed to think a few weeks back that there might be a bubbling storyline about Andy being gay in the offing, and I don’t know if that came from this episode, or something else that’s coming up, but it was interesting how actually unsurprising it would be if they did take Andy in that direction.
However, I also wonder if establishing a line of communication and mutual affection between the two isn’t also going to be a way for Andy to find out about Angela’s affair – after all, he’s unlikely to work it out for himself, and Oscar is smart, and sits, like, right by her.
The other cool but mean-spirited moment is Ryan and Kelly’s reunion, and Darryl’s complete joy at being let off the hook of his relationship with Kelly. And Ryan’s subsequent change of heart that unfolds entirely through his facial expressions, where it becomes obvious that he mainly wanted Kelly because he thought somebody else wanted her. It’s mean but cool, because at that moment you realise that both Ryan and Kelly have ended up with exactly the relationship that they deserve.

Criminal Minds 0303-0404
Really hammering through these episodes. Actually, we’ve generally zoomed through the seasons of this show, because it is quite addictive.

This will slow down a little, now – we’re almost up to date, and the real reason for deciding to watch the show in the first place was the episode that we watched last thing yesterday. More on that later.

This batch of episodes is the first that we’ve watched that have had absolutely no Gideon, and it changes the feel of the show a little, but he’s not as missed as you’d expect.

The team goes three episodes without it’s venerable grumpy old man role filled, before introducing Joe Mantegna as Rossi. He takes a few episodes to really fit in, with an awkward meanness and independence that puts him at odds with both the rest of the team and the viewer, until circumstance softens him. His hidden agenda for coming back to the BAU is thankfully dealt with relatively quickly, in 0314 – Damaged, and this brings the team together around him somewhat, while also offering up a strong vignette as Reid and Hotchner give a death-row convict one final interview about his crimes.

Character developments, or at least the appearance of them, abound throughout – JJ has a secret relationship with a familiar face, Penny Garcia has a traumatic plotline which gives birth to one of our favourite supporting guest stars ever as her new beau, Hotch has family problems that – while unsurprising – are still sad, and then gets blown up which has continuing repercussions, Reid continues to cope with his addiction, and Morgan does… uh… stuff. The strength of this show is – quite aside from the intriguing murderer-of-the-week – the warm and sympathetic characterisation of the regular cast, so even if very occassionally the situations that they get in are contrived, you care enough about them that it makes for intense viewing.

One thing that Girl One noted about these episodes, mind, is that recently, every episode features one of the team having doubts or some sort of emotional response to the case. They wouldn’t be believable if they didn’t get involved, but she’s right that it’s an uneasy balance to strike between humanity and mawkishness, and it’ll be hard not to be bothered by it if it starts to slide too far in that direction.

Talking points of these episodes:
Guest Francis Capra – a favourite from “Veronica Mars” – appears as a tragic Angel-Of-Death character, who actually makes you feel a little sorry for him, despite him being a child-killer, in 0304 – Children Of The Dark.

0305 – Seven Seconds: A formula-busting episode – which to be honest didn’t really need the BAU’s profiling skills, but did benefit from their characters – takes place entirely in a shopping mall, as what seems to be a serial child-abduction degenerates into a strong family drama.

Morgan has a strong scene as Rossi, screwing with him, insists that he follows a lead that means him walking into an armed-militia packed bar, in 0307 – Identity.

Garcia has some great scenes with Morgan, and some great scenes on her own, in the story that unfolds incidentally in 0308 – Lucky and explodes into 0309 – Penelope. There’s a lot of team-bonding and some lovely character work on JJ, as well as an almost unrecognisable but wonderful appearance in support by Nick Brendon from Buffy, in a role that I hope won’t just sit forgotten. This is also probably the point where Rossi stops being a total prick, and starts working for the team, a little, which is a turning point for his character.

0310 – True Night: Another episode that breaks with the show’s formula, and while I can see what they were trying to do, it’s a badly misjudged episode. It’s good to see Frankie Muniz trying something different from his role as the titular character in “Malcolm in the Middle”, but the character doesn’t really work for him.
It’s a comic-centric episode, and Muniz plays a comic creator that appears to have been written by an enthusiast rather than someone who actually researched the field. There are some interesting and fairly well produced visual gimmicks that ape the “Sin City” movie style, but by about midway through the episode you’re tired of it. This is a show that at times can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a cinema thriller, so to see it only competently aping that medium seems odd, somehow – it doesn’t need to.
The clever aspect of the episode is that it tries to take the investigation from the point of view of the killer, and only access the regular team’s investigation in passing, but it breaks it’s own rules too often for that to really work. At which point the murder mystery is too slim to carry itself, and doesn’t seem to fit with the generally realistic psychoses normally seen in the show.
And that competent but slightly misguided aspect of the writing I mentioned before carries through – the idea that it’s written by a fan of comic books rather than someone who did their homework – because the use of comic-related quotes at the beginning and end comes off as totally gimmicky, rather than smartly chosen as usual, and the only really insightful scene in the whole episode is an incidental discussion between two comic geeks and their comic shop guy that perfectly captures the fragile arrogance and posturing alpha maleness of fandom, which falls apart the second the shopkeeper exerts any authority.

0312 – 3rd Life is another intriguing episode, in which the team try to find a kidnapped girl. Before long it becomes clear that something else is going on with the girl’s father, and eventually it becomes obvious what it is – he is a murderer for hire for organised criminals, in the witness protection program, and either it’s his old employers who have taken the girl, or her kidnappers have bitten off more than they can chew.
This episode also triggers off an emotional relapse of sorts in Reid, which comes to light in later episodes.

0316 – Elephant’s Memory is when this really comes out. It opens with a great scene, with guest Michael Ironside meeting Reid at an Addicts Anonymous session, and features another one in a string of tragically sympathetic murderers that Reid begins to identify with. Reid’s responses throughout the episode are convincing, and when his behaviour puts him at odds with the rest of the team, it is difficult not to be engaged.

0319 – Tabula Rasa is a very rare example of an episode in a procedural investigation show that tackles the subject of guilt and punishment, in an involving story about a suspected serial killer who has woken from a coma – which he fell into as a result of an accident during the team’s pursuit of him in 2004 – with absolutely no memory of his past.
The episode is reflective in tone, which is quite unusual for this show, but it’s outstanding.

The season finale – 0320 – Lo-Fi - and the subsequent continuation of the story in 0401 – Mayhem, is a much bigger scale story than we normally see in the show, and is more like a season of “24″ or a decent “Die Hard” movie than an episode of “Criminal Minds”. The first part of the story is a pretty cool investigation story, but the conclusion that opened this most recent series is fraught and stressful, and brilliant.
THERE ARE EXPLOSIONS!

It’s taken a while, but this year the show finally had their Waco episode, in 0403 – Minimal Loss. Two of the team are undercover with a cult and get trapped inside due to a screwed up federal raid. With Reid and Prentiss on the inside, and the rest of the team trying to negotiate from outside, it soon becomes apparent that the cult leader – played with oily charisma by Luke Perry – isn’t willing to be taken captive, and plans to take out the whole cult with him.
Perry is great, and Reid has some great dialogues with his character. There’s some nasty insinuated deviation going on in this one, too, which makes for a hard and cool episode.

And finally, 0404 – Paradise. This is the episode with Wil Wheaton in. It was Mr Wheaton Tweeting about this airing a couple of months ago that first brought the show to my attention, so there was an interesting feeling of coming full-circle watching this one, and it amazed me how quickly we got to it.
It’s a good episode, though pretty quiet after the excesses of the last few, which also has a strong performance from William Mapother.
Episodes of “Criminal Minds” tend to either be BAU or criminal centric, and this is certainly the latter – we know a lot more about Wheaton’s character from seeing it first hand than we learn through the investigation – and how good those are always tend to rest as much on the quality of the actor playing them as on the script. In this case, Wheaton is better at playing his character in “charisma” mode than he is at being menacing – it’s easier to believe the scenes where he is using his social camoflague than when he turns it off – but he’s still damn good. If anything, there’s a fraction of uncertainty with his face and body work, and I kind of wish people would give him more practice doing live-action acting, because aside from that, he’s brilliant.