Criminal Minds (TV Series) Date Night (2020) User Reviews

Cat

[Jackbv123 · 10/10 · 21 March 2021]

This might be the best CM episode ever, or at least in the last 2, maybe 3 seasons. A lot of belly laughs, which for me is rare.

I submitted the above as my complete review and then looked at other reviews. There are a lot of flame jobs. So I realized my review above would be dismissed by most people as biased due to it's brevity. There are a lot of people who try to stuff the ballot box and somehow make any particular episode, movie, or series out to be something horrible. I've never tried to stuff the ballot box, but I am guilty of narrowly biased reviews. This is not one of those cases.

Yes I enjoyed this episode. I really do think this is one of the better ones.

For one thing, it stands out from most of the rest of the season. It draws on the episode Saturday which was another unusual story for this season and the series. After this one, we go back down into the darkness.

This episode not only has some very funny moments, but it also has the trademark cat(haha) and mouse interplay and for me it was done very well. Cat and Spencer have done this before and it was just as interesting now as then.

My point is that it's fine to hate this episode because you're tired of some of the elements in it or whatever. But look at the vote distribution - there are an awful lot of people who loved this episode. Far more than the haters. More than half voted 9 or 10. And we have reasons why.

The Nostalgia Lines Killed me.

[weignerab · 9/10 · 8 February 2020]

Where to begin. Personally I love Aubrey Plaza as Cat Adams. Don't think any other actress could've played her so well. I believe her concluding story line was necessary to closing out Reid's. Superb acting all around as usual. One of my favor scenes was between Prentiss and Reid that mirrored a similar situation in 52 Pickup. Imagine my surprise to find that it was Breen Frazier's first episode he'd written on the show. The cheesy lines at the most awkward times was pure gold. I like that Reid was not only honest with himself but with Max. I really hope all works out.

Why all of the bad reviews??

[shayla-campbell31 · 10/10 · 15 June 2021]

I absolutely LOVED this episode!! It had me going from beginning to end. Once again, Cat is beat at her own game, but not by Spencer Reid.

I was also thrilled that Spencer finally has a girlfriend.

Date Night

[PredRodrigo · 10/10 · 2 August 2022]

One of the best episodes I've seen in a long time. The story unfolds at an incredible pace, with action and surprises. I have to say that this episode was something really special, I don't know.

Boy, they really are wanting to milk Reid whole history, huh?

[Gustavo_Valadares · 7/10 · 16 August 2020]

Awful concept of bringing back Reid archnemesis for the THIRD time in the show, it's enfuriating to see a character so deep and complex as her being reused in the worst season because of lack of new and interesting unsubs.

The plot it's very interesting actually once you get passed the fact that she is repeating her attacks line per line since last time. It is a struggle to watch this episode, in one side you are very upset and annoyed with this lack of originality but at the same time the story itself it's pretty interesting and fortunatly Aubrey Plaza still rocks the acting skill like she owns the place.

Definely a huge step up since the last 2 terrible episodes but still... we want new, interesting and scary unsubs not the recycling of old ones...

Anyway, it's entertaining and engaging enough!

Love Cat, but this episode really ruined her

[organicoreo · 4/10 · 16 November 2020]

Cat Adams is one of the best characters to have been on this show. Her sarcasm, wit, and all around personality is exciting and fun to watch. However, that is precisely why this episode is so bland and disappointing. It's so sad to see someone as great as Cat be cut down and boxed into an almost a fanfiction-like episode.

Despite the lacking plot, Aubrey Plaza still shines as Cat Adams and every moment she is on screen, she truly captures our attention with her humor and sass. The end scene with Cat and Reid was moving and makes one feel sympathetic to her as a character, falling from grace. The complexity of her character seems to be far bigger than the show writers could handle since the conclusion of all three of her appearances always dumbs her down to another girl with "daddy issues" and obsessed with Reid.

Maxine is extremely unlikeable here and the ending of this episode is so frustrating to watch. It's very convenient that Max was informed and going along with the whole thing. Her acting is unconvincing and she's completely bland as a character, especially so as a "Mary Sue character." The plot is too outlandish and disappointing. Reid was also surprisingly underwhelming. He definitely didn't feel like himself. Everything about this, including Reid, felt like a badly done fanfiction.

The beginning scene of this episode was eerie and done well. If it had been a regular case that had nothing to do with attacking the BAU (or Reid specifically), it would have had amazing potential. After that, everything continued to go downhill. It felt as if they wanted to have a crazy "twist" that everything was planned out at the end but it just didn't work and felt far too convenient. On a very minimal side note, Maxine's sister was not great. In the scene right before Juliette fired blanks at her father, I could've sworn Eloise randomly had a British accent or something which is not a huge deal but definitely threw me off.

Overall, this episode was disappointing and not that great. I wish it was more tightly structured and not as conveniently wrapped up as it was. Max still isn't a convincing character and Cat Adams was done so wrong by the writers. This episode should be rated way lower than it is, if not for Cat Adams.

Wait, What?

[rlburoker-66498 · 1/10 · 8 February 2020]

When you need to spend the final 5 minutes of the episode explaining the rest of the episode, and the viewers are still confused, it was a bad episode.

Date Night

[bobcobb301 · 4/10 · 9 February 2020]

There were a few lines that made me laugh, but this was a pointless episode overall. The past Aubrey Plaza one somehow is IMDB's highest-rated episode, but this was a mess and beyond unrealistic.

Not a worthwhile date

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 9 February 2021]

"Date Night", the sixth episode of one of the weakest seasons of the show and the worst one since Season 11, was one of those 'Criminal Minds' episodes where expectations were mixed. Really loved the character of Cat Adams, her chemistry with Reid and her previous episodes (with Season 11's "Entropy" being easily one of the high points of the latter seasons). The plotline didn't sound very interesting or original though and had the potential traps of being dragged out and repetitive.

Unfortunately, "Date Night" fell into both those traps, as well as being pointless and too much of a filler episode. It had its moments, namely some of the character interactions and the odd nice line. At the same time, with it doing little with Cat and Reid and certainly doing nothing fresh and then being so uninspired in nearly all departments "Date Night" struck me as one of the worst episodes of an overall underwhelming season. Really wanted to like the episode a lot more than turned out.

Will start with the good things, which are there. The photography is particularly well done of the suitably creepy production values, especially in the quite unsettling way the case is introduced. The music also has an ominous presence without over-emphasising or being over-the-top. Matthew Gray Gubler does a great job here, as does Aubrey Plaza. Did like some of their chemistry, though it didn't have the same spark as before.

Reid and Prentiss' chemistry was nice.

However, all those good points are overshadowed by everything that is wrong about the episode. Which is pretty much the same flaws as most of the season's episodes, and some. The biggest problem is the story. The cat and mouse feel no longer has tension and feels tired. Once again it is like the show has run out of ideas and revisiting old ideas, because that is pretty much what "Date Night" did. Feeling like "Entropy" revisited, or should that be recycled. Everything was predictable with no surprises and because the plot was pretty thin it all felt dragged out and padded with repetitive banter that doesn't always lead very far.

The script was neither funny, taut or nostalgic, instead being a contender for the single cheesiest script of the season and in a while for the show. So many out of place and awkward lines. On top of being all of the things mentioned in the above paragraph much of the episode is insultingly unrealistic, complete with a bland unsub and a motive that lacks plausibility. This didn't feel like a necessary episode that advances any characters or plot-lines (neither apparent here) and it does so little fresh with Cat's return and was like one appearance too many. The rest of the team are underused and don't have much to do, which adds to the pointlessness, and again it takes them too long to solve the case.

Concluding, one of the season's worst. 3/10

Skip this episode

[komeenie · 1/10 · 16 July 2020]

Five minutes in and after seeing the same boring repeated storyline with Cat Adams, rolled my eyes and may have cursed a few choices words and pressed fast forward. The writers must be bored or trying to get fired. I don't know but I'm just gonna pretend this episode never existed.

Another poor episode in a previously great series

[ak2020 · 4/10 · 16 March 2020]

Poor story Poor acting this time Silly ending ..................... another US series coming to its end, but the writers have run out of ideas

Another example of the decline in writing

[joulesvern · 4/10 · 15 September 2021]

**SPOILERS**

After 14 plus seasons the last dozen or so episodes of the series are all lacking in the high degree of sophistication and depth and insight into the minds of criminals (deranged or just plain profiled).

This episode continues the chance romance of Reid and Max, contrasted by Cat (a bit over-played by Aubrey Plaza). In the earlier season 15 episode we are introduced to Maxine, an aunt that is watching her nephew for her sister Michelle. Now in this episode we find that Max has another sister Eloise, one has to question why even on a third "non-date" (as Reid and other BAU team members amply exclaim) with Max one would think that siblings would have come up, Reid being an only child but Max having two sisters

One of the first egregious facts is how the connection to Max's family and the unsub Cat is lost on the BAU team coincidently with Cat's demands for a date night with Reid. With the background and search capabilities of Garcia there should have been a debrief before Reid went in to interrogate Cat including information about Cat's miscarriage so he was fully prepared. Perhaps this was to keep him in the dark (as later is revealed) in an attempt to uncover Cat's hidden agenda.

Then there is the whole story thread with Juliette, and yet the team is caught off guard as to her motives even after finding out her connection to Cat.

I gave this episode a 4 because it is clear that the writing has reached a point (as with the cast the staff writers knew the end of the series was coming) where there is no longer any plausible attempt for tight sub-story or back fill on the developments of the case, just a meandering of the story toward a conclusion, with an unexpected twist that has at most a subliminal explanation.