Criminal Minds

Truly a great series worthy of praise. Many may say that this is a 'rip-off' of CSI but I've watched CSI and it caught me on for a bit, but after a while it just seemed to closed. Where CSI guides you through the story and gives a picture perfect ending and how you're supposed to perceive it, Criminal Minds lets you explore and judge for yourself. It doesn't preach too much and the stories are engaging and suspenseful! Excellent writing and great performances from the stars. It may begin cliché, but if you stay long enough it is a rewarding and entertaining view, and I don't feel it's going to let down any time soon. Give it a chance, or just watch episode 7 'The Fox'. It shows the best writing and acting in the show so far, in my opinion. Diving into minds of lunatics and psychopaths has never been more entertaining! Fantastic!

Hotchner is the legal mind, and the one to keep everything together. The show now suffers without him. "Wheels up in 30," just doesn't sound the same coming from others. Don't get me wrong, I like the other characters, but Hotch was the glue. Egos need to let it go and do what is right not what you can do to throw the playground tantrum to get what you want. No respect for people with money using that as a means of getting their way...childish!!! Hotch started on this show and his character was the most interesting. He needs to be back on the show or I feel the show is going to reach a slow demise.

I loved this series.

But, it started a nosedive crash into boredom and sloppiness with the introduction of new actors in place of Thomas Gibson and Matthew Gray Gubler.

The new characters are dull, drab, hamming their roles and do not fit with the group nicely.

The run-time of the episodes also dropped and they wander off into the personal lives of the characters.

Is it just me who feeling the show is going downhill or other fans too?

I hope they will come back to bring the show to its former status.

This is one of my favorite shows, EXCEPT that nearly every scene is filmed so darkly it's almost impossible to watch anymore. I was watching season 17 episodes 4 and 5 this afternoon. The scene in the jail, the scenes in the BAU offices, are all extremely dark. Here they are in the BAU office but there are no overhead lights on. Penelope is working at her computer in a dark room. It's gotten to where it's just ridiculous how dark all the scenes are. Nobody works in any kind of business where everything is constantly unlit. I understand if you're outside at night it's dark out, but not in an office building. Buildings have lights turn them on and film things so that we can actually see who the damn people are. If the cost to turn lights on is so prohibitive then maybe you shouldn't be making this show.

(2 episodes in) This review is subject to change over the course of this season. As someone who just couldn't finish those final seasons of criminal minds since the quality took a bit of a downturn, trust me when I say this has been as good as the trailer hyped it up to be. Will it be anything special? That remains to be seen, but so far there is a solid foundation and it's a breath of fresh air for the BAU.

Something about this just seems fresh. The more realistic tone, the lighting, and the ACTING is great as always. This has a lot of promise, really hope it sticks the landing.

Solid 8 for now.