I give it a 3/10. Worst season since Season 4, which I like to pretend never happened. I'd kind of like to pretend this season never happened either.
Calleigh is my favorite character, so I missed her this season, but I decided it wasn't fair to take that into account with my grading. Even so, I still can't bring myself to give it anything above a mediocre score.
I found this season to more or less boring at best, and annoying at worst. I watched every single episode, and for most of them, can hardly remember a thing about it. I look at the episode titles and everything is a blur. I see episode titles from literally every other season, and for almost all of them, I at least have a vague memory of what the episode was about. Not the case with this season.
First of all, the writing: BAD. BAD. BAD. There was a distinct lack of creativity, and I found most episodes rather boring. The only ones that stood out to any degree were "Fallen" (good team interaction, really came together to mourn Jesse), "See No Evil" (creative idea), "Happy Birthday" (Calleigh was awesome), "Wheels Up" (roller derby as the setting for a crime- pretty interesting, and the investigation was too), "Blood Lust" (guest star Alicia Witt can take credit for making this one good), "Hunting Ground" (creative idea, great team interaction, and even distribution of screen time), and "About Face" (Eric really made that one for me). I felt that the best was "Hunting Ground", which was written by Adam, who has never written before. How is it that a newbie writer is able to make "professional" writers look like juvenile authors of disjointed fanfic? They suck at coming up with original ideas, as evidenced by the amount of boring episodes. They even suck at "ripped from the headlines/taking on pop culture". "Reality Kills", their take on "Jersey Shore", was a snoozefest. If they can't come up with original ideas, the least they can do is make the episodes with non-original ideas somewhat interesting, perhaps well-written.
The writers also failed miserably at dealing with Emily's pregnancy when it came to the Eric/Calleigh relationship. It made no sense for them to apparently break up and Calleigh to tell Eric she loves him "like family". All they had to do was maybe put one extra scene in one or two episodes in which either Calleigh or Eric made a tiny reference to their home life- something as simple as a "see you at home" would do. In fact, they don't even have to have an entire extra scene for that- they could've just tacked a line or two onto the end of an existing scene. Bam. Done. And last time I checked, Emily's lower body wasn't essential to a line like "see you at home", or any line, really. They could've kept her pregnant belly hidden for something like that.
Another thing? Making Natalia the resident Damsel In Distress (tm). Seriously, WHY? I don't even like Natalia all that much, but even so, I still don't see why she has to be the one in trouble all the time. Personally, I feel that Natalia is better as a background character, but I don't expect everyone to share that opinion. So it wasn't the fact that she took a more prominent role this season that especially bothered me- it was the fact that that role was always the same- "Horatio and the boys need to save me! I'm in trouble!" Drugged, kidnapped, locked in the trunk of a sinking car...ENOUGH ALREADY. Give the girl a chance to be an empowering individual, or the one who really cracks a case, for goodness' sake!
And finally, the continuing character assassination of Horatio Caine. You know, I used to like him. He wasn't perfect, but his head and his heart were in the right place. He didn't cross the line as often, and when he did, it was more justified. But sometime around Season 5 (I guess it really began with going to Brazil), H became less interested in justice and more in vengeance. Not only that, but they've turned him into an invincible character- he rarely confronts suspects with any backup- especially SWAT when they need it most. He's become a caricature of himself. It wasn't until the season finale that they actually had him get hurt for once. And of course, he patronizes female victims. They always need his help and he never allows them to be empowered on their own. It's always "you need me to rescue you!". Thanks, but no thanks. Victims of crime are not wounded puppies that need to be nursed back to health. It is possible to be supportive and caring without looking like a giant douche.
) so my rating probably isn't representative of the entire season.