Season 10 has had episodes that have varied wildly in quality. For every great or outstanding episode such as "Mr Scratch", "Nelson's Sparrow", "The Forever People" and "Rock Creek Park" there are also the bad or mediocre at best ones like "The Boys of Sudworth Place", "Hashtag", "If the Shoe Fits" and "Breath Play".
"Breath Play" does have its moments. It has a very creepy opening that is positively nightmarish, while Kate's pregnancy subplot is handled well in writing and how it is incorporated with the rest of the episode, though Kate herself does nothing for me, have often found her bland with a few exceptions like "Lockdown", and Jennifer Love Hewitt has often felt out of place, looking too young and vulnerable looking and not looking at ease.
There are bright spots in the script. The best lines come from Rossi, who is awesome here and closer to the Rossi of the earlier seasons, especially loved "nobody has sex for six straight hours, not even Sting", his opening quote and "and mosquitoes the size of an impala". Also loved JJ's advice to Kate about the music, and even more so Reid's cute line about including Mozart in the playlist, as well as the slamming of '50 Shades of Grey'. Again production values are very high, and most of the acting is fine, Joe Mantegna especially.
However, "Breath Play" does suffer from too much of the unsub and Meg and not enough of the team, the little character moments and the profiling. The unsub does have some creepy moments, at other times the creepiness writing-wise goes overboard to the point of unintentional weirdness and a better job could have been done with why he was like that. Generally 'Criminal Minds' has done a better job at unsubs that are more frightening and more consistently and subtly and much more interesting.
Much of the story is very generic and dull, and hurt by the Meg subplot that feels like padding, fits awkwardly, is pretty pointless and is far too clichéd, it didn't interest me at all and it is a subject that is very relatable when done right. Unfortunately it wasn't here, due to taking up too much of the running time. The profiling is barely there, and there is too much reliance on Garcia's computer, which makes the case solving too convenient. The night goggles didn't get enough explanation, didn't get the significance of them.
Aside from some lovely little character moments within the team, the script was pretty bland, while generally there is not enough of most of the team, only Rossi properly shines with Reid and JJ having one great moment which stops them from completely disappearing though both are underused. Hotch is especially wronged, being practically lost within everything else.
Overall, has its moments but mostly got barely anything out of "Breath Play". Rossi's awesomeness here is the bright spot. 3/10 Bethany Cox
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