Criminal Minds: The Final Season DVD Review

THE SEASON — 2.75/5

Review: I’ve been a fan of the Criminal Minds series since the beginning and while it has had its ups and downs in terms of quality, and no surprise a decent cast turnover in the 15 seasons, with the likes of A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster leaving (due to pay disputes) before coming back a season or two later, and even lead Thomas Gibson being fired (ongoing backstage issues), not to mention other leads only lasting a couple seasons (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Jennifer Love Hewitt), it was must’ve been difficult to find some sort of consistency, especially when trying to expand beyond the grisly crimes of psychopaths.

The past couple of seasons admittedly haven’t been the best, though I still manage to enjoy the show even when at times it could grow a tad stale, and no doubt Gibson’s departure certainly hurt matters. This fifteenth season was easily the worst, and it’s not even close, which does say something when you had the whole Emily Prentiss faking her death (well, retconned when Brewster returned to the show).

It didn’t take long for me to roll my eyes: at the end of the season premiere, J.J., while stupidly not only not calling for backup but is distracted attempting to pick up a gun well out of reach of the killer, is shot by Everett Lynch (Mosley); all of this to put to bed the lame and forced “love triangle” when she admitted to loving Dr. Reid. Ridiculous.

The writers tried to give each character something to do, but it’s kind of same old, same old and for most of the season, everyone involved was pretty much going through the motions, like seniors on the final week of high school. No creativity, no risks taken. Even the actors seemed like they were going through the motions, that ensemble chemistry that has sustained this series wasn’t quite working like it had in the past.

Then there is the series finale. By the time I got to the tenth episode, I was expecting to be letdown and in this instance, the show did not surprise. As I said, no risks taken here and worse, the episode was split with ‘A’ and ‘B’ stories, one with Reid dealing with a concussion (due to an explosion) and being revisited by past ghosts and the other with the team tracking Lynch. I realize the writers are in a bind, unlike other finales, so many bridges were burned (some by the actors, others by producers), where the likes of Thomas Gibson, Mandy Patinkin (whose character was killed off screen a couple seasons back),  Shemar Moore, Lola Glaudini (who only lasted the first two seasons, but something could have been done with her character).

Overall, Criminal Minds ended its impressive run, albeit with a truncated 10 episode run which might have limited proper closures for the ensemble, but what the writers did with the time they had, was sadly squandered. What a shame.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5

This 3-disc set is housed in a standard DVD case, with a slip cover (as a side, they used an old image for Mantegna, no silver hair), so if you own the other season sets, it’s not going to entirely match (each disc was housed in their own slim cases.

Features aren’t extensive, some Deleted/Extended Scenes on select episodes (‘Spectator Slowing’, ‘Date Night’, ‘Face Off’); “And in the End…” The Finale Table Read; Heart and Soul and The Finish Line featurettes.

VIDEO – 4.0/5, AUDIO – 4.0/5

OVERALL – 2.5/5