‘Criminal Minds’ season 11, episode 2 review: Tara makes herself at home with the team

The season 11 premiere of “Criminal Minds” certainly gave us a lot to think about last week. AJ Cook’s JJ is off enjoying motherhood for a little while, but a small cameo from JJ and her baby reminded us that she’s not gone for good. We also met Aisha Tyler’s Tara who had one heck of a crazy job interview and has now joined the team for a while. And last but not least we saw a bit of a cliff hanger between the unsub and Morgan as the unsub injured himself in the hospitals care and tried put Morgan on the hook for it.

If you were hoping to get some more movement on our main cast after getting a little insight into them during the premiere then this was not the episode for you. We saw that Tara has made herself at home with the team and we feel that she is adding a lot to the team and the show. As much as we liked Jennifer Love Hewitt, there’s a lot more chemistry with Aisha and the rest of the cast – at least that’s the way that it’s coming across to us. Outside of that, we didn’t learn much more about our main cast.

As far as the case of the week, we had a man that killed his wife’s lover in a fit of rage, but when a witness sees what he’s done, he starts blackmailing him and making him into a patsy. Pretty great crime of the week since it was a nice twist on an old classic of betrayal, jealousy and revenge. Having the blackmailer step in and push him into doing things he doesn’t want to do in order to save himself was something we hadn’t really seen before.

This show isn’t big on giving a lot of personal stories with our main cast, which is one of the reasons we love this show. They usually give us just enough so that we care about our team, but not so much that it over takes the whole show. It also makes it so that casual viewers can jump in at any point without worrying that they will get lost. Episode grade: B+

What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Criminal Minds” and do you like Aisha Tyler being part of the team? Leave us a comment below and share your thoughts. If you want more news on the show then head on over to the link here where you can read more reviews and get some scoop on upcoming episodes. Also, if you want more great TV news sent your way then be sure to sign up for out weekly CarterMatt newsletter. (Photo: CBS)