Reviews and More

I finally finished watching all of Criminal Minds Season 2 on DVD, and am now beginning to catch up with Season 3 via DVR and reruns on CBS. Let me just say that I had no idea Gideon (Mandy Patinkin’s character) would be leaving the show! He’s not one of my favorite characters anyway, so I’m going to keep watching, but still… it was kind of a shock. Now if Hotch was the one leaving, I’d be devastated!!

Here are a few random thoughts about the final 5-6 episodes of Season 2:

– Although I wasn’t looking forward to a storyline involving Reid as a drug addict, I didn’t like the way the whole issue was pretty much just swept under the rug. I mean one week, they’re totally hinting that he’s going to have major problems, then the next thing you know, he’s fine. That was just weird.

– I am really starting to like JJ. I didn’t think she added much during S1, but now that the writers are giving her character more to do, I find that she’s actually pretty interesting. I especially liked her with that New Orleans cop during the “Jones” episode. They were great together, so I hope there will be some way to bring that guy back once in a while.

– “Honor Among Thieves”, the episode where the BAU gets involved with a Russian mafia kidnapping scheme, was not a good one. It just goes to show that certain shows need to stick with a formula, and Criminal Minds is definitely one of them. Serial killers, yes. Mafia kidnappings, no.

– Emily Prentiss bugs me to no end. I can’t tell if it’s the actress who plays her or if it’s the character. She just doesn’t seem to have much of a personality, and is bland and boring. I know Hotch doesn’t exhibit much personality in these eps either, but at least with him you can tell that there’s something interesting under the surface. I don’t sense anything deeper with Prentiss, though.

– Garcia is still one of my favorites. No lack of personality there! I love how she’s now involved in BAU briefings and even gets to go out in the field every once in a while. She knows a lot more than just how to tell the difference between a CAT5e and CAT6 cable, so it’s good that she’s finally getting some recognition.

– I used to find Reid interesting because of the genius angle, but in the last half of S2, it seemed as though the writers started to downplay that a little bit. Now that he’s coming across as more of a “regular” agent, I find him kind of boring. Oh, and I just have to ask: why is it that so many female fans of the show are attracted to him? Ewww!

– I thought the first case involving that prolific serial killer Frank was good, but the second one veered way off course and didn’t go the way I expected it to. And then when Frank and Jane jumped in front of that train…? Man, was that some cheesy CGI, or what?!

Well, I can’t wait to see how Gideon actually exits the show. It won’t really be suicide, will it? That would be a pretty bold move on the writers’ part! I’m also anxious to see how his replacement Joe Mantegna fares. I hope he’s good!

Last night’s brand-new episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Everything Must Go”, and was probably one of the weakest efforts I’ve seen out of all three seasons thus far. It was dull, unfunny, and didn’t do anything to move the Stella/Ted or Barney/Robin/Ted plots along, so it ended up being 30 minutes of filler. I don’t mind filler eps when they’re well done, but this one just wasn’t.

Barney/Abby: Britney Spears was back to reprise her role of Abby, Stella’s receptionist. This time around, Barney discovers that she was they mysterious blond who had been going around telling women not to sleep with him (from back in “The Bracket” when he kept getting slapped). They start talking about Ted, find out that both want to prove to Ted that they don’t need him, and decide to work together to accomplish this (after sleeping with each other once more). The plan Barney and Abby come up with is to act like a loving couple in a long-term relationship, which I guess was supposed to show Ted how lame he gets whenever he’s in one.

Marshall/Lily: The floor in their apartment is going to cost $1500 to repair (that seems kind of cheap, doesn’t it), but since they don’t have that kind of money, Marshall insists that Lily start selling her designer clothes and shoes in order to raise the cash. He even creates a website called lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com (a real site, BTW, that redirects to charity auctions where you can buy HIMYM items), but Lily objects, saying that she’ll try to sell her paintings for $500 a pop instead. Marshall lets it slip that he doesn’t think anyone would buy Lily’s stuff, so she redoubles her efforts just to prove him wrong.

Lily finally does end up selling a painting to a gay couple, and has fun rubbing that fact in Marshall’s face. Later, however, she learns that they weren’t interested in the painting at all; they wanted the valuable frame it was in. They dumped the painting as soon as they got home and just kept the frame.

A vet ended up picking the painting out of the trash, and noticed that it had a calming effect on dogs after he hung it in one of the exam rooms. Marshall convinces the guy to buy four more paintings from Lily, and then tells Lily that they’ll invest the money in her — which I guess means they’ll buy more painting supplies or whatever.

Ted/Robin: Ted paraded around all episode long in hideous red cowboy boots that he said he could “pull off” like no one else. Of course, he tucked his jeans INTO the boots, which is a big fat no no for guys, isn’t it? Anyway, the boots looked awful and so did he. Robin did zero in this episode (such a waste…).

My reaction: I don’t have much to say about this episode besides what I already mentioned above about it being boring and unfunny. I thought Ted’s boots were stupid, and there’s no way in hell any guy would think they were cool. Just how clueless is Ted supposed to be here?

Britney was atrocious (seriously, people, she CANNOT act), and I was pissed that the writers turned her into the mystery woman that was plaguing Barney before. I would be willing to bet almost anything that that’s not how the original storyline was supposed to go. It seems like the execs just couldn’t pass up a chance of having Britney guest star again, so this was voted the best way to fit her in. It sucked.

I think the only thing I liked about this episode was that it showed Marshall wearing yet another motorcycle/motocross themed t-shirt! How many does he own?? Someone in the wardrobe department is a motocross fan, that’s for sure!