"Lo-Fi" was a brilliant finale to Season 3, the season's most tense and boldest, and one of the season's best episodes along with "Elephant's Memory", one of the whole show's most poignant.
Season 3 isn't perfect, with the early episodes having to cope with troubled circumstances, especially the abrupt departure of Gideon/Mandy Patinkin and having to find a replacement quickly, but while there was some initial shakiness (such as the somewhat awkward introduction of Rossi) it did surprisingly well considering. To me though, it was a long way from a mediocre or forgettable season, "Elephant's Memory" and "Lo-Fi" were brilliant and "Children of the Dark", "Seven Seconds" and "True Night" had many great things.
"Mayhem" had a lot to live up to and had a tough act to follow. Cliff-hangers continuing into the next season, meaning starting with the finale of the previous season and continuing with the succeeding season, have had mixed execution on 'Criminal Minds'. "The Fisher King Part 2" was on the same level of "The Fisher King Part 1" and two of the show's best episodes, while "The Longest Night" (one of the better episodes from personal opinion of the hit-and-miss Season 6) was an improvement over "Our Darkest Hour".
Even if being superior or equal to "Lo-Fi" was not expected, and would have been a big ask, there was the expectation that it would be almost as good. Unfortunately it was nowhere near as good, being a quite good but flawed episode which was a let-down compared to the brilliance of "Lo-Fi".
There are good things here. Production values are stylish, gritty, dark and audacious, while the music fits very well and has atmosphere and melancholy. "Mayhem" does start off incredibly, and does have a good deal of tension (such as the carnage of the bomb, which is superbly chaotic and has urgency, and Morgan's subway scene) and was also moving, actually did care for what happened for Kate which was great for a short-lived character.
Intelligent, taut and smart writing always helps, and "Mayhem" does have that, and the direction has urgency and spaciousness. The acting is very good all round, actually did think that care and genuine emotion for such a horrible situation was incredibly obvious.
At the same time, "Mayhem", while not devoid of tension and suspense, does lack the mounting-tension-up-to-terrifying-heights and bold risks of "Lo-Fi". Too much of it feels unresolved, some subplots don't feel as complete as they could have been, only showing what happened to only a few unsubs/terrorists and neglecting the others felt like a cop-out and the ending could have been better rounded off. "Lo-Fi" had no pacing issues at all, but "Mayhem" felt somewhat rushed and like a longer length might have helped.
On the whole, not a bad episode, just not to the same level as "Lo-Fi". 7/10 Bethany Cox
Season 3 isn't perfect, with the early episodes having to cope with troubled circumstances, especially the abrupt departure of Gideon/Mandy Patinkin and having to find a replacement quickly, but while there was some initial shakiness (such as the somewhat awkward introduction of Rossi) it did surprisingly well considering. To me though, it was a long way from a mediocre or forgettable season, "Elephant's Memory" and "Lo-Fi" were brilliant and "Children of the Dark", "Seven Seconds" and "True Night" had many great things.
"Mayhem" had a lot to live up to and had a tough act to follow. Cliff-hangers continuing into the next season, meaning starting with the finale of the previous season and continuing with the succeeding season, have had mixed execution on 'Criminal Minds'. "The Fisher King Part 2" was on the same level of "The Fisher King Part 1" and two of the show's best episodes, while "The Longest Night" (one of the better episodes from personal opinion of the hit-and-miss Season 6) was an improvement over "Our Darkest Hour".
Even if being superior or equal to "Lo-Fi" was not expected, and would have been a big ask, there was the expectation that it would be almost as good. Unfortunately it was nowhere near as good, being a quite good but flawed episode which was a let-down compared to the brilliance of "Lo-Fi".
There are good things here. Production values are stylish, gritty, dark and audacious, while the music fits very well and has atmosphere and melancholy. "Mayhem" does start off incredibly, and does have a good deal of tension (such as the carnage of the bomb, which is superbly chaotic and has urgency, and Morgan's subway scene) and was also moving, actually did care for what happened for Kate which was great for a short-lived character.
Intelligent, taut and smart writing always helps, and "Mayhem" does have that, and the direction has urgency and spaciousness. The acting is very good all round, actually did think that care and genuine emotion for such a horrible situation was incredibly obvious.
At the same time, "Mayhem", while not devoid of tension and suspense, does lack the mounting-tension-up-to-terrifying-heights and bold risks of "Lo-Fi". Too much of it feels unresolved, some subplots don't feel as complete as they could have been, only showing what happened to only a few unsubs/terrorists and neglecting the others felt like a cop-out and the ending could have been better rounded off. "Lo-Fi" had no pacing issues at all, but "Mayhem" felt somewhat rushed and like a longer length might have helped.
On the whole, not a bad episode, just not to the same level as "Lo-Fi". 7/10 Bethany Cox