Confessions of a Streamaholic

This is a show I really love, I binged it last summer from June until September, 18 Seasons, 3 months, madness I know. It has everything I like in a show, lovable characters, a family feeling to the team and yes, even the crime stuff is interesting I love a true crime documentary so when someone told me about this show I was hooked from the off. I seen the growth of all the characters and even shed a few tears saying goodbye to some of the most loved faces from the show. So when I heard the new season was coming out I was so excited and thought I’d share my thoughts so far after watching the first 3 episodes.

The first episode was nothing less of what I expected for a season opener from Criminal Minds, ‘Sound of Silence’ booming watching a car drive down a deserted road. The storyline this episode followed was quintessential BAU, a survivor of a kidnapping who mentioned she birthed twins and finding out they are the unsub’s going to their dad the original kidnapper with evidence of what they were doing, blew my mind! Then another episode with an equally as spine-tingling, army vets getting lobotomised by an unsub in pain due to a tumor which is risky to fix, did not see that one coming after the first scene, always a plot twist you don’t see coming.

The third episode storyline, although he is seen and mentioned in the first 2 episodes is based around a mother and daughter who went missing 4 years ago and because they find one of Sicarius’ kits at the crime scene thinking he has done this. In the end we find out it wasn’t him but he was going to take the fall for it, after last season I didn’t think we would see any more of him but here he, they keep hinting at an escape which I really hope doesn’t happen because it means more of his storyline. I am enjoying watching this season but the original appeal of Criminal Minds was the fact that each episode was a new unsub and sometimes a more prominent one that ran over the course of a season along side these individual episode ones. Elias Voit/Sicarius and his network has had 3 seasons of cover and although it looks like they are introducing a new unsub that might come to light in the coming episodes from the small snippets we’ve seen of them I think they will use Voit/Sicarius to help the BAU find the unsub.

However, Voit aside it is nice to get an insight into the BAU’s team and there lives, like JJ and her boys moving after what happened to Will. Alvez losing Roxi, that was hard to watch she’s been his best bud for so long. We have Tara and Rebecca being married, classic Prentiss & Rossi moments and Penelope enjoying being the baby girl she is – you go get it girl Derek Morgan would be proud. These moments give the seriousness of the job part of Criminal Minds a softer edge but in no way dulling the horribleness of the acts committed. I am a hypocrite for saying that continuing the Voit storyline is annoying because bringing back Brian Garrity to annoy Emily was so funny, she is just so unsettled by him but they seem to conclude whatever was going on but I have no doubt he’ll be back. The podcast scene was incredible Voit calling out all the listeners was giving me Joe Goldberg’s final point in the finale of ‘You’ giving it out to the consumers of the podcast.

I am intrigued to see where they go with the rest of this season the ending of episode 3 gives a glimpse of the new unsub getting ready to something big after being annoyed by Voit’s comment on the podcast, sending all that paper with ‘I am not pathetic’ on it. Could the paper be a code as it’s all in different shapes, and once the unsub is on the BAU’s radar we will start to learn the behavioural analysis and see what they continue to do. I am still hoping for Penelope to find love and I would be so happy if it was with Tyler or Alvez she has a great connection with them both but she also had that with Derek and I think rightfully that always stayed as friends but Alvez and Tyler seem not solely friendships with either of them.