#but blake is cute and supportive and hotch is wearing jeans

[maschotch]

Omg so I find that CM, like most other cop procedurals (and CW shows), suffers from Too Many Seasons Syndrome. Like, I kinda have to empathize with the writers, it can't be easy to come up with over 300 ideas for unique episodes. Personally I find that in most shows, it's usually Good™️ up to season 3, and then after season six it really starts to suffer, and by season 10, stuff just kinda happens and you have to accept it. There's this video on Youtube by Drew Gooden called "Jumping the shark" which talks about shows going on way past when they probably should have stopped, which I find reflects most of my thoughts on it.

I have only watched up to season 8 (I'm on episode three or four now, I'm kinda stalling because I'm dreading the whole Maeve thing), and it's not that CM is not good or interesting, it's just that it has more misses than the earlier seasons, and it's so very noticeable when the creators of the show tries to do something to not make it similar to last 200 episodes.

(that being said, I'm really happy that it does have so many seasons, because if not I would be done with it too quick and sometimes you just need something you can put on and watch for six months without having to repeat seasons or episodes)

yeah it definitely went on too long... i think a big part of that (other than the network wanting to keep reeling in money) is that its hard to end a show like this? i dont watch any other cop shows really.. they're either to bright/shiny, tooo explicit w their copaganda, or they're just not interesting (criminal minds walks that fine line for me - it's usually more ab the murders/crimes than the law enforcement side of it, and the characters are so fucking interesting where a lot of cop shows kind of fall flat into those tropes that can get so repetitive). so maybe im just an idiot akjshdlg and dont know how they're supposed to end but like... a procedural like this seems difficult to just wrap up neatly? its not plot based, and if there's no reason for the characters to all leave... why would they?

the show that i always compare it to is supernatural ajsdhlga just bc it lowkey is season-for-season a beat-for-beat match. almost eerily so. compared to spn and other shows of similar length, i think criminal minds tends to hold up a little longer than the others. like spn got absolutely insufferable by s6 as far as i can recall, and that really is usually when these kinda shows tend to peeter out. for me at least, cm holds up until ab s10. ik u havent gotten there yet and there are def some things in the seasons leading up to it that are just fucking miserable like maeve's plot but the episodes themselves stay pretty interesting fairly consistently up until s10.

i mean it definitely all sucks the first time you watch it bc you have nothing to compare it to other than the better versions of the episodes before, but once you watch the whole thing, i think it's easier to go back and appreciate s6-9. like.. ok this is how i see it: if i'm on a casual rewatch where i'm only watching episodes that i like, if i can watch 2/3rds of the season, it's still good. and i can watch most of the episodes up until s10. (there are def good episodes beyond s9... some very very good episodes actually lmao like boxed in, rock creek park, awake, hostage, etc) so i say just push through it and then when things start to get genuinely miserable around s12 asjdkhlaksd maybe do a rewatch and use the momentum of actually enjoying those middle seasons to push through to the end

#they definitely are doing The Most to make the episodes unique #but ik a lot of other shows do that too i just think cm is actually more successful at it? #they may not be great lol but its more of a preference than anything else yk? #like sometimes they're trying to hard but for the most part its really not that bad #even the episodes like s12-15 arent horrible its the the overall arcs that make it miserable to watch #maeve.... yeah the maeve thing is gonna be annoying ajskldh good luck w that #but blake is cute and supportive and hotch is wearing jeans #so there's some good that comes out of it ig :/ #asks #endgame spoilers