I started tuning into this show when Samantha (Ally Walker) was still the lead and pretty soon I was hooked. I think it was great. The stories were always interesting, because always there was some new psycho with a different reason and a different twist than the last one. Also there was the whole Jack-of-all-trades- background which gave Samantha and the whole series an immense driving force. After Samantha left the VCTF in came a new profiler, called Rachel (Jamie Luner), who is actually the reason why I'm writing this, for changing lead's often result in a lessening of the quality of a series. First I want to say that Rachel is kind of the same as Samantha because she has the sixth sense. But she brings a whole other character on the tube which I had to start to like and eventually I did, although she can never replace Ally Walker whom I still find much better on screen, plus I liked Walker's character much better. Soon after the replacement of Walker the creators or the writers must have felt what I felt while watching, that without Samantha and Jack-of-all-trades a huge driving force was gone and so they created a new one, ex detective Joel Marks, I don't know about other people, but I like the way they inserted him into the continuous part of the show.
As for the others, they are still great, they were great with Sam and now are on Rachel's side. You have the sarcastic forensic Grace (Roma Maffia) the friendly, in-control and always know what to do Bailey (Robert Davi) and George (Peter Frechette) and of course John (Julian McMahon). Those two last ones are actually the only persons who have really changed on the tube since Samantha lived. I always found that George and Samantha were very good together and I miss that and now she's gone we have a lot more of McMahon with Luner. Not that McMahon and Walker were bad together, but George has been pushed into the background a bit, I feel. Still a good show though, because it still is intelligent and original, because as a viewer you always tend to try a bit of profiling yourself.
With Ally Walker GREAT
Without her (still) good.
