I don't feel I can really give it a grade, given I didn't write up a comment on each ep thru the season, and so have no idea what an accurate average for me would be (at least as woulda been determined by how I felt about each ep at the time). Press me for one and I guess I'd go with the likes of a B- type realm for the bulk, with some eps higher, some eps lower.
As an impression after the fact, I liked this season. It was by no means perfect or without some old bad habits present and relied upon at times, but overall I enjoyed it. I was hoping NY would find a way out of the rut that IMO it occupied for the past few years, that there would be change and some new energy found in S7, and there was. There was no guarantee NY would be successful in dealing with the changes, and S7 became a pleasant surprise for me.
Eps in the past few seasons made me exasperated more often than not and sometimes downright dour :lol:; I was nearly done with the show at points
. S7 was pretty much a make or break season for me, and it did alright.
There were more eps I liked than I was exasperated by, there were some great guests, less stunt casting, some brilliant visuals, some solid cases, and some solid pacing. It had more heart and humanity than I was expecting, had humor, had some serious material, had some ridiculous (but what would NY be without
some ridiculous), had some Shiny (but can I rly expect NY would get rid of teh Shiny? :lol
, had some action, had some decent team balance and interaction.
I thought the season started off exuberantly, reigned itself in but kept its new energy, then stumbled hard for a handful of eps around mid-season, and then finished on an upswing again. Say one third great eps, one quarter exasperating old-bad-habits eps, and the remainder occupying a shrug-type average (which is still a step above the lowered par of seasons five and six, at the very least).
I've come to love Jo as a team member, and really enjoy what SW has brought to the show. Jo's inclusion has made the whole team all the more fun to watch again. Very glad that NY got a S8, and get to play with this team further. Here's hoping they can keep up the strengths they found in S7, especially if each potential future season will now likely be regarded as it's possible last.
If S7 hadn't been as good as it was, I'd not have cared whether or not it got a S8. It turned itself around, and I'll be tuning in again.
