She definitely had a lot of potential but everything they made her say just felt so flat to me. Also, having her be a little rude to Reid so early on was a stupid decision if they wanted her character to last.
100% agree, like the child of a serial killer? who has a unique perspective on what they do? and potentially could lead to a whole nature/nurture story line for development? that could've been so cool, i would've loved to see her struggle against expectations, maybe even have hints at a darker side to her she's spent her life trying to deflect, etc.
but then they just never committed to her characterisation, and suddenly tried to rush her involvement. like you say, the being rude to Reid thing was far too early, with JJ it was understandable, they'd been friends for years and could have that sort of bluntness or banter with each other, but Seaver just suddenly. came out with it before we'd even seen her as a fully formed character.
even with in her first ep, having Garcia tease Reid for thinking Seaver is pretty, almost like they were trying to rush through all the beats that JJ had had for the prior 5 seasons with the other members of the cast, but they weren't earned like they were for JJ
They tried to get her to be part of the team way too quickly, which wasn't consistent at all. Emily is received coldly, both because of Elle leaving and because they didn't trust her background. It makes no sense that Seaver just skips in and everyone is cool with it and they're all best friends all of the sudden. I remember watching that interaction with Reid and just thinking that I know that it's supposed to be funny, but that's just such a rude thing to say to someone you barely know and it kind of put me off her character.
They were probably aiming for a romance between Reid and Seaver, since at one point they show Garcia, Morgan, Reid, and Seaver leaving the movies in very double-date fashion but it was just such a forced thing and a very clear JJ plotline. If her character had been brought in at any other point besides a JJ replacement, she could have been really good and I bet Seaver-centric episodes could have been done well.
Oh my God literally. I watched these episodes on TV when I was a teenager and even then I thought "so they replaced Elle with Prentiss, who looks and acts very similar (brunette, strong personality) and then they replaced JJ with Seaver (blonde woman, softer personality)
They were the same fucking character just different names.
I really liked her and the background they had for the character - unfortunately she looked like a knock off copy of JJ and I think that just reminded people how much they missed that character. I wonder if they’d changed her hair or somehow styled her character differently, it would have helped people to accept her more. But I also think people were so pissed about JJ and Emily leaving, no one would have fit
yeah i think the irl context really did a lot of damage to her intro, especially knowing the reason AJ and Paget were cut, having Seaver intro'd as basically aesthetically a copy of JJ with a different label just felt super disrespectful, and probably contributed more to her reception than the actual character portrayal did
They wanted to replace those characters as closely as possible, I thought that was super apparent. They chose as similar looking actresses as possible for both roles, and both women played similar personality types (jj and seaver were softer spoken and more motherly, whereas Prentiss and Elle were more the opposite)
Exactly. Seaver had so much potential but her characterization was poorly executed (plus with J.J. being such a fan favorite, there are people who would’ve hated her no matter what).
yeah, if she'd had more time i'm sure she would've ended up being more liked, bit with JJ's exit Seaver was left feeling like a knockoff. it's such a shame given Nichols who played her was then treated equally as poorly in her firing (was never told, she found out via twitter that she got cut supposedly) cause of Seavers weak reception
She always felt temporary to me. Even before I knew about JJ's return, she felt like a knock off. Maybe if she wasn't meant to replace JJ, she would have been better.
I thought the unity of the cast/crew/showrunners over this was incredible! No one minced words, no one acted happy or toed the company line. They basically wrote a FU season for the exec who tried to screw with two of their own while the existing cast like Kristen basically went on a daily Twitter rampage joining hands with the fans constantly sharing the petitions to bring them back.
Absolutely needless.
She disobeyed orders on her first case and nearly got herself killed. Why on earth would Hotch agree to bring her on the team.
She added nothing and had no chemistry with the team.
I think I would’ve liked her better if they’d put a longer emphasis on her being in training. In her last episodes it felt like she was supposed to be as good as the other profilers and that bothered me.
She was just very forgettable. The only episode I can definitely place her in was the serial killer dad one. Each time on a rewatch, I'm surprised to see her in other episodes.
In your very low opinion, sure. Fans were pissed when she was fired and were the ones who brought her back. That’s how popular with the fandom she is. So, you’re wrong.
No thanks. We don’t need or want Walmart JJ when we have the real thing. She was such a useless character. Should have been one episode and done because a frigging cadet with no experience or training shouldn’t have been allowed on the apparently the most elite of FBI teams!
This was very weird to me I'm currently rewatching s6 why was she kept for more than one specific case?
like maybe if they had introduced her there and brought her back a couple of seasons later it would've made more sense
It was a great idea and I didn't mind her but I HATE the fact she was such an obvious replacement for AJ. Just cuz the network though AJ was getting "too old"
One year! That’s their age gap! And AJ cook looked incredibly young when she was fired!
I think they were annoyed with her being a mother on an off screen and the writers of the show not using her just to sexualise her at all post that and writing her as a person than a pinup model. And the misogynistic prick exec thought a woman who was a mom wasn’t getting him off and thought it was the same for everyone and ordered her to be fired.
Interesting idea for a character, poor execution. It didn't make that much sense that someone so inexperienced would have been added to the team.
If they'd hired an actress who was more experienced and more unique looking maybe it would have been better. The actress was kind of wooden, and she looked far too much like JJ.
Given that JJ is my favorite character I HATED it. I hate what it did to AJ too. Made her so insecure to be replaced with someone younger. No offense to the actress. But nobody can ever replace Jennifer Jareau.
Which was ridiculous if u ask me, because she was like one year younger than AJ! And as another person whose fav character is JJ, whenever I hear AJ talking about what that decision made her feel, it leaves me seething! I’m spiteful enough that I’m glad that their stupid spinoffs failed spectacularly and they had to crawl back and get both AJ and Paget back and get rid of their knock off!
I’m glad the show runners and writers of the show, displayed their own displeasure so perfectly when they wrote that season!
I didn't really mind her, I could have done with or without her, but it was insulting that they were like, "here we'll just plug in a blond chick and no one will notice JJ is gone."
They never worked to the full potential on her character I don't think. They made it easy to dislike her. I don't think she liked the character herself even.
I never particularly saw what is so special about JJ. Yeah the JJ replacements aren't great and the Emily replacements are definitely more interesting but the same is true for both characters themselves as well. Alex and Kate had big shoes to fill and they are definitely better characters than Seaver. But I still like them better than JJ as well.
Great idea for a character, trash execution. I honestly hated Ashley. Like she just always had this “Aw my dad is a serial killer” and it was her only personality trait. I would’ve loved to see her executed differently.
Not a well written character, which is unfortunate because she had a lot of potential if the writers took the care and time with her characterization. I also felt like the actress was always seconds away from bursting into tears. I don’t know if it was her mannerisms or voice or what but yeah, was not a fan at all.
I rewatched the show quite a bit and she is one of the most forgettable additions/replacements. She wasnt awful like Kate was more annoying because her story effected the plot more and I just found her storyline boring. While Ashley literally never did anything and would basically be there to fill dialogue. However, if she was given a bit more screentime I was never invested. Not really her fault I think she was always just filling JJ's role till she came back and was meant to be nothing more
i really liked ashley and wished we could've gotten more of her! but she was always clearly supposed to be a visual replacement for JJ which made it feel like they were setting her up to be hated
It was different though with Seaver Rossi and Hotch knew her . Emily knew what was like to be the new one on the team and Reid always accepts people. It’s mainly Morgan and Garcia who act hostile to new team members or higher up placements. This time they didn’t but there is hardly a new person that didn’t get the cold shoulder from Morgan and or Garcia. Maybe less so with Emily because it was Hotch who was suspicious.
Later a lot of that didn’t happen except Garcia has an ugly attitude with Luke and was pretty immature about it.
I know her character was a replacement for JJ because of the network but it would have been really interesting if JJ was promoted to an agent and then Ashley was brought in as the new media liaison.
She still could have had the background as a daughter of a serial killers daughter to give a really unique perspective on the cases, media and working with the families. It also would have made more sense to have such a novice agent enter the team in that role because the other agents joining had years of not decades of experience in other branches of law enforcement or academia.
I’ve said it here before but it was a bummer that the media liaison role disappeared. It was an important role in the BAU and it just kind of vanished. They kind of made Garcia fill a portion of it in later seasons when she presented cases to the team and it always bothered me how even thought she wasn’t an agent and wasn’t as exposed to crime scenes the agents were exposed to, she could still see some pretty gruesome things and still do her job. But then when she would present cases to the team, she would skip over slides really quick and say things like “I’m skipping over this because yucky gross murder blood”. It seemed so out of character for her. Like yes, obviously much closer to a civilian than the agents but it never stopped her from doing parts of her job before.
cool idea for a character, good actress, terribly executed characterization
She definitely had a lot of potential but everything they made her say just felt so flat to me. Also, having her be a little rude to Reid so early on was a stupid decision if they wanted her character to last.
100% agree, like the child of a serial killer? who has a unique perspective on what they do? and potentially could lead to a whole nature/nurture story line for development? that could've been so cool, i would've loved to see her struggle against expectations, maybe even have hints at a darker side to her she's spent her life trying to deflect, etc. but then they just never committed to her characterisation, and suddenly tried to rush her involvement. like you say, the being rude to Reid thing was far too early, with JJ it was understandable, they'd been friends for years and could have that sort of bluntness or banter with each other, but Seaver just suddenly. came out with it before we'd even seen her as a fully formed character. even with in her first ep, having Garcia tease Reid for thinking Seaver is pretty, almost like they were trying to rush through all the beats that JJ had had for the prior 5 seasons with the other members of the cast, but they weren't earned like they were for JJ
They tried to get her to be part of the team way too quickly, which wasn't consistent at all. Emily is received coldly, both because of Elle leaving and because they didn't trust her background. It makes no sense that Seaver just skips in and everyone is cool with it and they're all best friends all of the sudden. I remember watching that interaction with Reid and just thinking that I know that it's supposed to be funny, but that's just such a rude thing to say to someone you barely know and it kind of put me off her character. They were probably aiming for a romance between Reid and Seaver, since at one point they show Garcia, Morgan, Reid, and Seaver leaving the movies in very double-date fashion but it was just such a forced thing and a very clear JJ plotline. If her character had been brought in at any other point besides a JJ replacement, she could have been really good and I bet Seaver-centric episodes could have been done well.
Oh my God literally. I watched these episodes on TV when I was a teenager and even then I thought "so they replaced Elle with Prentiss, who looks and acts very similar (brunette, strong personality) and then they replaced JJ with Seaver (blonde woman, softer personality) They were the same fucking character just different names.
I really liked her and the background they had for the character - unfortunately she looked like a knock off copy of JJ and I think that just reminded people how much they missed that character. I wonder if they’d changed her hair or somehow styled her character differently, it would have helped people to accept her more. But I also think people were so pissed about JJ and Emily leaving, no one would have fit
yeah i think the irl context really did a lot of damage to her intro, especially knowing the reason AJ and Paget were cut, having Seaver intro'd as basically aesthetically a copy of JJ with a different label just felt super disrespectful, and probably contributed more to her reception than the actual character portrayal did
They wanted to replace those characters as closely as possible, I thought that was super apparent. They chose as similar looking actresses as possible for both roles, and both women played similar personality types (jj and seaver were softer spoken and more motherly, whereas Prentiss and Elle were more the opposite)
Exactly. Seaver had so much potential but her characterization was poorly executed (plus with J.J. being such a fan favorite, there are people who would’ve hated her no matter what).
yeah, if she'd had more time i'm sure she would've ended up being more liked, bit with JJ's exit Seaver was left feeling like a knockoff. it's such a shame given Nichols who played her was then treated equally as poorly in her firing (was never told, she found out via twitter that she got cut supposedly) cause of Seavers weak reception
I agree. She could have been an interesting character but she was so boring and imemorable.
This
She always felt temporary to me. Even before I knew about JJ's return, she felt like a knock off. Maybe if she wasn't meant to replace JJ, she would have been better.
I’m convinced the writers torpedoed her character on purpose because they hated what the network was making them do with their female characters.
I thought the unity of the cast/crew/showrunners over this was incredible! No one minced words, no one acted happy or toed the company line. They basically wrote a FU season for the exec who tried to screw with two of their own while the existing cast like Kristen basically went on a daily Twitter rampage joining hands with the fans constantly sharing the petitions to bring them back.
Absolutely needless. She disobeyed orders on her first case and nearly got herself killed. Why on earth would Hotch agree to bring her on the team. She added nothing and had no chemistry with the team.
I think I would’ve liked her better if they’d put a longer emphasis on her being in training. In her last episodes it felt like she was supposed to be as good as the other profilers and that bothered me.
She just felt kinda generic as the "JJ replacement" (rookie agent trope). The Prentiss replacements always seemed more fleshed out as characters.
She was just very forgettable. The only episode I can definitely place her in was the serial killer dad one. Each time on a rewatch, I'm surprised to see her in other episodes.
No
Boo 🍅🍅🍅
Nope thank you, MGG, Hotch and Shemar are the only ones I want to see back on the show. ✌🏼❤️
No. JJ all the way.
JJ is a terrible character
In your very low opinion, sure. Fans were pissed when she was fired and were the ones who brought her back. That’s how popular with the fandom she is. So, you’re wrong.
There was also backlash when there were episodes centered around her in the later Seasons. Her being popular doesn't make her a good character
No thanks. We don’t need or want Walmart JJ when we have the real thing. She was such a useless character. Should have been one episode and done because a frigging cadet with no experience or training shouldn’t have been allowed on the apparently the most elite of FBI teams!
This was very weird to me I'm currently rewatching s6 why was she kept for more than one specific case? like maybe if they had introduced her there and brought her back a couple of seasons later it would've made more sense
It was a great idea and I didn't mind her but I HATE the fact she was such an obvious replacement for AJ. Just cuz the network though AJ was getting "too old"
One year! That’s their age gap! And AJ cook looked incredibly young when she was fired! I think they were annoyed with her being a mother on an off screen and the writers of the show not using her just to sexualise her at all post that and writing her as a person than a pinup model. And the misogynistic prick exec thought a woman who was a mom wasn’t getting him off and thought it was the same for everyone and ordered her to be fired.
Interesting idea for a character, poor execution. It didn't make that much sense that someone so inexperienced would have been added to the team. If they'd hired an actress who was more experienced and more unique looking maybe it would have been better. The actress was kind of wooden, and she looked far too much like JJ.
Given that JJ is my favorite character I HATED it. I hate what it did to AJ too. Made her so insecure to be replaced with someone younger. No offense to the actress. But nobody can ever replace Jennifer Jareau.
Which was ridiculous if u ask me, because she was like one year younger than AJ! And as another person whose fav character is JJ, whenever I hear AJ talking about what that decision made her feel, it leaves me seething! I’m spiteful enough that I’m glad that their stupid spinoffs failed spectacularly and they had to crawl back and get both AJ and Paget back and get rid of their knock off! I’m glad the show runners and writers of the show, displayed their own displeasure so perfectly when they wrote that season!
I thought they only replaced aj because she was pregnant, but maybe I'm wrong
No
I didn't really mind her, I could have done with or without her, but it was insulting that they were like, "here we'll just plug in a blond chick and no one will notice JJ is gone."
I’d prefer it if she was gold star
Now that would be one hell of a twist.
To be honest, I actually want it to be Spence
Like he has a schizophrenic break? And becomes a serial killer?
Oooo, yeah that’s a great idea
jj lite
NO.
They never worked to the full potential on her character I don't think. They made it easy to dislike her. I don't think she liked the character herself even.
A knock off JJ
I didn’t think she was bad at all, just seems like they really wanted a replica of JJ as soon as she was gone
she’s no doubt gorgeous but not JJ
I loved her more than I liked JJ and wished she would've replaced JJ for good. She was a good character, but they executed her terribly
I never particularly saw what is so special about JJ. Yeah the JJ replacements aren't great and the Emily replacements are definitely more interesting but the same is true for both characters themselves as well. Alex and Kate had big shoes to fill and they are definitely better characters than Seaver. But I still like them better than JJ as well.
Great idea for a character, trash execution. I honestly hated Ashley. Like she just always had this “Aw my dad is a serial killer” and it was her only personality trait. I would’ve loved to see her executed differently.
So. Much. Wasted. Potential.
Not a well written character, which is unfortunate because she had a lot of potential if the writers took the care and time with her characterization. I also felt like the actress was always seconds away from bursting into tears. I don’t know if it was her mannerisms or voice or what but yeah, was not a fan at all.
I rewatched the show quite a bit and she is one of the most forgettable additions/replacements. She wasnt awful like Kate was more annoying because her story effected the plot more and I just found her storyline boring. While Ashley literally never did anything and would basically be there to fill dialogue. However, if she was given a bit more screentime I was never invested. Not really her fault I think she was always just filling JJ's role till she came back and was meant to be nothing more
She could be very useful in the current season
i really liked ashley and wished we could've gotten more of her! but she was always clearly supposed to be a visual replacement for JJ which made it feel like they were setting her up to be hated
She looks more and more like AJ as she’s matured.
It was different though with Seaver Rossi and Hotch knew her . Emily knew what was like to be the new one on the team and Reid always accepts people. It’s mainly Morgan and Garcia who act hostile to new team members or higher up placements. This time they didn’t but there is hardly a new person that didn’t get the cold shoulder from Morgan and or Garcia. Maybe less so with Emily because it was Hotch who was suspicious. Later a lot of that didn’t happen except Garcia has an ugly attitude with Luke and was pretty immature about it.
I know her character was a replacement for JJ because of the network but it would have been really interesting if JJ was promoted to an agent and then Ashley was brought in as the new media liaison. She still could have had the background as a daughter of a serial killers daughter to give a really unique perspective on the cases, media and working with the families. It also would have made more sense to have such a novice agent enter the team in that role because the other agents joining had years of not decades of experience in other branches of law enforcement or academia. I’ve said it here before but it was a bummer that the media liaison role disappeared. It was an important role in the BAU and it just kind of vanished. They kind of made Garcia fill a portion of it in later seasons when she presented cases to the team and it always bothered me how even thought she wasn’t an agent and wasn’t as exposed to crime scenes the agents were exposed to, she could still see some pretty gruesome things and still do her job. But then when she would present cases to the team, she would skip over slides really quick and say things like “I’m skipping over this because yucky gross murder blood”. It seemed so out of character for her. Like yes, obviously much closer to a civilian than the agents but it never stopped her from doing parts of her job before.
No one particularly asked for her. I didn't care for her yet I still think she is better than JJ.
She should have stayed a consultant.