Review for Criminal Minds PREMIERE Ep 11×01, “The Job”
Review for Criminal Minds PREMIERE Ep 11×01, “The Job”
This won’t hurt a bit!
Here we go. Bounding into season 11 like baby deer fresh from the thicket, our team scores a HUGE hit with this jubilant premiere. I kept cheering “Wooo!” throughout, and was carried along, the story sucking me in, our actors enthusiastically embodying the characters they, and we, know and love so well.
I have to say, going into this season could have been a downer, morale low due to missing team members could easily have been the way they went and they’ve been doing this for now over a decade so isn’t it getting a little stale?
No. Exactly the opposite. The BAU hit the pavement with renewed vigor and deliberately flew in the face of anything that might have dragged them down. A warm, charming cameo featuring JJ and her beautiful real life baby son Phoenix (named Michael in the show, we’re told) was necessary and important, and seemed to be telling us that everything’s alright. Don’t worry fans, we aren’t kicking her out – Hotch’s “Your job is here whenever you’re ready” layed all thoughts of that to rest.
Aisha Tyler. Damn, girl – come right on in and make an impression! When I interviewed Erik Stiller a couple months ago he said she has ‘Such a presence’, and now I have to agree. Dr. Tara Lewis waltzed in and impressed our Aaron and our Garcia right away, and wasn’t afraid to step up to the plate when called, even before her job had begun, actually. But she wasn’t forced, or obnoxious. She was professional, steady and sincere, and I liked her immediately.
But back up – we start with local law enforcement checking out a murdered meth-head’s apartment, freakishly adorned in tin foil from floor to ceiling. Said dead meth-head is in the corner with an elaborate paint job on his face, and the detective is quick to dismiss him as just another overdoser.
In walks Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi: “No lieutenant, this man was murdered.” First “Woooo!” of the night.
Quick discussion of who will or won’t catch the killer, the shot of the elevator doors at Quantico opening and out steps the man, Hotch. He strides in with Garcia, past Reid whose desk is covered in books and he’s doing his ‘reiding’ thing that we looove (more Wooos) and they discuss. I’m thrilled to see our heroes again. Even more thrilled to see them go old school and have Morgan as “I’m the Unsub” again. Oh Breen, you remembered. Love it!
The case is awful (in the best of ways). Murdery ugliness and injecty horribleness and the forensic doc likens the kill method to pumping cement into the victim’s veins and I can’t even. Turns out someone badly disfigured the UnSub (his jaw’s all snaggly wounded from a gunshot) and he’s trying to figure out who it was by methodically questioning – did I say questioning because I meant killing – people he thinks may have been involved.
Oh, and there are assassins for hire, too. The assassins are hella big plot points and I think they’ll figure prominently throughout the season. Stay tuned.
Morgan is grouchy, he’s taking this a bit (way) too personally. And at the end he goes in and pretty much threatens the UnSub who then rips the stitches out of his own mouth to sneer at Morgan, taunting him with proclamations of more to come. Dirty Dozen? We’ll see.
All I know is, this was an exceedingly good premiere, and that was the consensus across the boards. Here’s hoping it sets the tone for the rest of the season, and thanks Breen, for not infantalizing Reid this time!
P.S. – Morgan and Garcia were adorable here, natural and just the right amount of flirtation throughout mixed with seeing to the job at hand. Lets hurry up and get those two crazy kids together, okay?
Written by Breen Frazier
Directed by Glenn Kershaw