Uncharacteristic absence aside, it was legitimately weird — but exciting — to see the BAU gang work cases without Dr. Reid in the inaugural season of "Criminal Minds: Evolution," given that the original series had so often leveraged Reid's piercing intellectual insights to help crack a case.
One could easily make the argument that "Criminal Minds" was using Reid's case-breaking observations as a bit of a narrative crutch by the time it ambled to the end of its network run. So much so, really, that it became a bit of an inside joke among some "Criminal Minds" fans that Reid would invariably turn the tide of any investigation by way of a well-placed "Eureka!" style information dump. And while nobody can argue that a key appeal of the earlier "Criminal Minds" seasons was watching Matthew Gray Gubler undertake the verbal acrobatics that accompanied such monologues, this trope — which eventually devolved into wildly condescending rants — got very, very tired by the end.
So yeah, it was refreshing to make it through an entire season of grisly "Evolution" action without being subjected to Reid's overtly theatrical ramblings. And if we're being completely honest, we'd be happy if such rants were relegated to reruns, moving forward.
As it was, not being able to lean on the narrative crutch of Dr. Spencer Reid's infamous information dumps had another major impact on the "Criminal Minds: Evolution" landscape. Primarily, it allowed series creatives to front the formidable talents of his old teammates. That crew had obviously utilized their crime-solving skills to aid in the capture of one unsub or another over the years, but in "Evolution" — in absence of the boy wonder — their skills were more necessary than ever.
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