Criminal Minds: Evolution has spent most of the Paramount+ reboot working to incorporate serialized narratives into the typically episodic series, but in doing so, the show has consistently repeated a frustrating narrative pattern. As criminal minds season 19 Continuing the BAU’s adventure following the criminal career of Elias Voit (Zach Gilford), the team has had to change their expectations and understanding of what his role in their lives has become. Since Voit influences everything they do, the BAU has had no choice but to incorporate him into their thought processes, which has created a significant shift on screen.
While Voit, who was captured and developed a sense of empathy after a head injury in prison, has become a pillar in criminal minds, Having to account for their behavior in each case has become a huge strain on the program’s momentum. The BAU constantly revisits Voit at times when it doesn’t feel entirely necessary, only for the imprisoned criminal to offer up a specific nugget of information that only he could have. Typically, Voit’s involvement helps the BAU unlock a crucial part of the case, and if it’s not coming from him directly, it’s coming from him.
although he identity of Criminal Minds: Evolution has revolved around the fact that Voit is a focal point of the revival, it’s often exhausting from a viewer’s perspective to have to consider him so consistently. The most frustrating new pattern in the program is to do Criminal Minds: Evolution It’s hard to keep watching.
Criminal Minds: Frustrating Evolution Pattern Makes Team Look Less Informed
As Criminal Minds: Evolution has brought Voit’s most serialized story up to its episodic standard, the case of the week is almost always investigated, first, as part of the larger story. While the cases are presented without the idea of whether the great evil, either Voit or the new UnSub, The Fanwas involved, the BAU almost exclusively seeks to link their cases to the overall villain. This may work in some cases. When Voit was on the run, there were often crimes that appeared to have been committed by him on the desks of the BAU, regardless of whether he was guilty or not.
By continuing his weekly cases through the lens that the seasonal villain could be a part of them, and then discovering that the episodic crimes have more often than not been committed by a completely different SuSub, Criminal Minds: Evolution has the BAU looking less informed than ever. While it’s up to the team to follow all paths, it’s often clear that the case of the week has no connection to the overall villain, making the pacing of the BAU discovering this pointless. Viewers are left to assume that the BAU knows more than they do, so the choice to know less is confusing.
Weekly BAU cases should not always be related to your seasonal arc
After seasons of seeing how Voit has become a huge piece of the BAU’s identity, linking each case to it or the SuSubs that relate to it is neither fun nor new. Instead, watching case after case land on BAU desks only for them to try to fit a square peg into a round hole before having to start their investigation all over again feels stale. While there are definitely some instances that should be reminiscent of the seasonal arc, having this happen in almost every episode makes the move expected, rather than keeping the audience on their toes each week.
Instead of the BAU immediately considering the SuSub they’re working on between cases each week, having cases that feel intrinsically different from the seasonal arc would help keep the show fresh. Instead of working within the same framework as your big seasonal unsub, BAU case of the week should illuminate something for the team that doesn’t seem obvious in its broader case. By linking details of cases that may not seem to fit into the larger puzzle, criminal minds could make unexpected connections to their cases, keeping viewers from guessing their next move.
- Release date
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September 22, 2005
- showrunner
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Erica Messer
- Directors
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Félix Enríquez Alcalá, Rob Bailey, Matthew Gray Gubler, Joe Mantegna, John Gallagher, Douglas Aarniokoski, Guy Norman Bee, Larry Teng, Nelson McCormick, Alec Smight, Charles S. Carroll, Rob Spera, Charles Haid, Diana Valentine, Rob Hardy, Tawnia McKiernan, Bethany Rooney, Karen Gaviola, Sharat Raju, Thomas Gibson, Aisha TylerAnna Foerster, Gloria Muzio, John Terlesky
- Writers
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Bruce Zimmerman, Virgil Williams, Edward Allen Bernero, Janine Sherman Barrois, Chris Mundy, Simon Mirren, Debra J. Fisher, Kimberly A. Harrison, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin, Karen Maser, Oanh Ly, Stephanie Sengupta, Aaron Zelman, Kirsten Vangsness, Erica Meredith, Andi Bushell, Holly Harold, Alicia Kirk, Jeff Davis, Randy Huggins, Edward Napier, Jayne A. Archer, Chikodili Agwuna
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Kirsten Vangsness
Penelope Garcia
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Matthew Gray Gubler
Dr Spencer Reid
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