CRIMINAL MINDS “25 To Life” Season 6 Episode 11 – Morgan is front and center of this episode of Criminal Minds as he tries to get a man out of jail a quarter of a century after he murdered his wife and daughter. Morgan is convinced the man is rehabilitated but when he murders someone else his reputation and career are put on the line as the FBI team try to clear the man’s good name and Morgan’s reputation.
I really like Criminal Minds. It is an easy show to watch, like Law and Order SVU: the characters are likable, the storylines are entertaining. You could watch an episode in season three, then skip ahead to a season six episode, and get what is going on. It’s forty minutes of pure entertainment. This episode was not forty minutes of entertainment. It was forty minutes of sheer blandness and increduality, capped off with a confrontation scene so ridiculous I almost had to turn off the television.
Morgan has never shown any pity for inmates, least of all those who are convicted of murdering their wife and young daughter. Why he would fight for this man’s release defied anything we’ve come to learn about his character over the past six seasons. It was utterly contrived. Morgan only learned of the man’s convenient innocence after he got him released from prison.
I have to say I did quite like the homage to the Shawshank Redemption in the montage of the man being released from prison and enterting the halfway house.
Beyond that, there wasn’t much to love. Agent Seaver, after starring front and center in last week’s episode, was reduced to a few bland lines this week. The revelation of the unsub seemed completely tacked on. I didn’t care one iota about the wronged imprisoned man and the emotional climax at the end of the episode fell flat because the show had not earned the dramatic moment.
It’s been a pretty solid season of Criminal Minds. It’s a pity the midseason ended on one of its weakest episodes.
What did you think of this episode, and of this series as a whole? Sound off in the comments below!
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