'Criminal Minds' has always been one of my most-watched shows and was a personal favourite for a while. Seasons 1-5 was its best period, Season 4 was especially great. It did get hit and miss from Season 6 onwards, with a mix of good and more episodes and disappointing and less episodes. Season 11 was, apart from about 5 episodes, pretty weak. Season 12 was inconsistent but generally an improvement, its weakest episodes nowhere near as bad as the low-points of Seasons 6, 9 and especially 11.
Season 13 so far has not been too bad. It is already so much better than Season 11, which started off well actually but quickly went downhill, and has generally settled quicker than Season 12. "Wheels Up" was a very promising and emotionally powerful start and towards the top half of the episodes from Season 9 onwards. The quality dipped somewhat with "To a Better Place", which could have been better but was still above average, lifted by the team interaction and little character moments but undone by a too over-familiar case and down-playing too much the dealing of the events of the previous episode.
"Blue Angel" is a step up. Not one of the best episodes and it has its problems but there is a lot to recommend. There are elements of the story that could have been explored and developed more, like the unsub's story. Could have done without the unsub's towards-the-end speech, that was horribly contrived and over-explanatory plus not really needed, it was all things that the team could have figured out and revealed when they had solved the case. There is even an invincible moment that just looked silly and misplaced, not something one excepts from 'Criminal Minds'.
The title of the episode is somewhat of an odd one. The significance of it is never explained and it has absolutely nothing to do with the story of the episode, "Blue Siren" would have been a much better title.
However, the case here in "Blue Angel" is much better than "To a Better Place". There are far less familiar elements, there are more surprises and twists and less of the predictability factor. It is also genuinely creepy and very disturbing, right from the unsettling beginning. The type of unsub is not novel, being the creepy but also conflicted one (a familiar trope) rather than irredeemably evil, but he is intriguing, and even more so Janel and Kimberly.
Part of why 'Criminal Minds' in its prime was so great was down to the team interaction, the procedural and crime solving elements and the little character moments. They are all delivered here, even though there could have been more of the procedural element which was still intriguing and not reliant on over-convenience. The team interaction is a delight and there are some lovely character moments, love Reid here and how the unsub is caught has genuine intensity (although the lack of back-up was a head-scratcher). Simmons has settled well, so much better than most new team members in the past anyhow, and his personal life subplot threatened to take over too much but brought some welcome levity and didn't dominate too much.
All the performances are strong, the regulars can't be faulted and personally thought that the unsub's menace and conflicted edge were brought out very well.
Visually, "Blue Angel" is very atmospheric and stylish. The music is neither too intrusive or low-key, with some haunting moments. The writing is taut and there isn't the awkwardness that was there in some of "To a Better Place", with the sole exception of the unsub's speech. The direction is controlled and the pace is always involving.
Overall, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox
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