I haven't been a long time watcher of Criminal Minds, but having caught the repeats on cable (before I cut the cord)I became a fan. It's an obvious selection for me given my personal interest in criminal profiling, which if I knew existed when I was in HS I would have chosen to pursue as a career. I also enjoyed the stories and the characters. As a newer viewer, I have seen most of the episodes in a relatively short amount of time as compared to long-time viewers. I think this gives me a sharper view of the changes the show has undergone. Unfortunately, I don't think the changes have been for the better.
The elements are there to be a great show - profiling, interesting crimes, decent actors, and characters with deep back story and original personalities and quirks. It seems, however, that other forces undermine the goodness. Chiefly among those seems to be a commitment to constant cost-cutting by the proverbial "powers that be."
First it was the mass firing of the two female actresses from the show. The exit stories were interesting, to say the least, but it left a big hole in the show. One that TPTB and/or the writers didn't seem to want to fill with the existing characters. So they brought them back. Their re-entry stories were handled with far less interestingly. In fact, they were pretty glossed over from a character perspective.
One character was brought back and actually made less more interesting than she had ever been despite the big change in her career. She recites knowledge of criminal psychology, but has no passion about it. There seems to be no emotion tied to her responses to the horrors she's now more involved with. She used to display those emotions as the spokesperson who had to interact with the media and families and not contribute directly to crime-solving. Her emotional connections to the team also seem to have decline in strength. And where's Will? He's an interesting character and her relationship with him is intriguing. I think the answer lies, once again, in finances.
The other actress chose to leave again, leaving another hole in the team because her character added intensity to the otherwise placid team.
The replacement actress has fortunately not been forced on us. She is casually integrating with the team and we are getting to know her personality bit by bit, which is a good thing. Less good, however, is that we hardly know anything about her. She's just as passive as the rest of the characters, except for Rossi who we hardly see. I think I actually like her, especially her interactions with Spencer. But it's not enough.
The other legacy characters are left to languish in....well, I don't know where.
Hotch, a favorite of mine is not given much to do - emotionally or action-wise. He is being wasted. Criminally.
Baby Girl, well, I've never been a particular fan because she seems like a not-quote Abby from NCIS, but I am curious to know what's going in with her since she broke up with Kevin. It was a big focus last season, and then suddenly nothing.
Morgan, while pretty has never been particularly interesting to me either, but part of that is that we don't know much of what goes on in his life either. Just a hint. It doesn't have to be an entire episode. Other procedural shows handle this balance well so we know it can be done.
Spencer. Well, he is why I'm motivated to write this post. They did not have to kill off his girlfriend. He finally gets some character development and BAM. Over. In a cruel way. Again, it seems to be a matter of finances and not wanting to pay the actress for more episodes. This was the best episode of the season and the best episode we've had in years. The next one, back again to lack of intensity and personal dynamics.
I wish CI would consider creativity more important than dollars. More dollars aren't even more necessary, unless they really are using computer programs to generate the scrips. Since I cut the cord I have to make a real effort to watch CBS shows since they don't show them on Hulu or included in Amazon Prime. I have to watch at cbs.com on my computer. I'm not sure CI is worth the effort anymore.
