Connor Storrie’s first episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution just aired, and there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to ‘The Witching Hour’, a lot to break down when it comes to the character arcs, and what this means for the rest of the season. In fact, we do that here in our review. But I want to take this time to just focus on Connor Storrie’s performance, because… well, because I can!
Watching Connor Storrie through Heated Rivalry and later, discovering his filmography, including his shorts, has been a very rewarding experience for a whole number of reasons. First, he’s just a very good actor, and it’s always a thrill as someone who covers entertainment to find a performer who can disappear into every role. But Storrie also has that “it” that not all actors, even ones who do a consistently great job, have.
It’s a combination of charisma and a spark that cannot be defined. You can see it when he’s playing Ilya Rozanov, a character that’s brash and loud in public, but that somehow manages to transmit vulnerability and fear even while what’s being outwardly portrayed is anything but that.
You can see it when he’s playing Lance Kingston, a dude who is anything but a good guy (stalking your ex is a big no-no), but that, as much as he presents hostility and bravado, is really a damaged man who might not know how to channel his anger. Straight-up villains and heroes are easier, especially in procedurals, than characters who fall in the middle. Storrie, however, nails it.
So many of the best actors do their most important work in the time between dialogue. Storrie is one of those. And it’s not always about physicality. Yes, some roles require a performer to convince us with their moves or how they look. We certainly took note of the fact that Storrie looked like he could indeed be a hockey player.
But there’s more subtle work being done with microexpressions, with reactions to another actor’s decisions, and sometimes with things that might go unnoticed unless you take a beat to process them, like the way he modulates his voice, that make clear that Storrie is both the kind of actor who makes the right acting choices and the kind of actor who is extraordinarily talented.
It’s not as common a combo as you might think. A lot of actors build a body of work out of being dependable and being solid, if unspectacular. Others crash and burn because talent can only take you so far if preparation and effort don’t accompany it. Storrie is just starting out, but from what we’ve seen of him so far, he seems to have found the right balance of both, and almost as importantly, the desire to challenge himself with every role he takes.
We haven’t seen the last of Lance Kingston; that’s the interesting part. We saw him being sassy in an interrogation and then showing us a little vulnerability even as he pushed back. But now we get to see him as a victim. How does someone like Lance Kingston react to not being the top dog? And will it lead him to sympathize with the villain? These are all very interesting questions.
No matter what the answer is, we’re sure Connor Storrie is going to hit it out of the park. He already has in one episode of this show, and we barely even scratched the surface of what the character is and can be. In fact, Storrie was good enough in this performance that his guest arc got extended from one episode to four. Shocking? Not really. We’re pretty sure that if we’d watched this episode before Heated Rivalry, we also would have been looking up where we could see him again.
It just so happens that his big break came first. But this… this just reinforces what we already knew. Now, we’re all along for the ride to see what comes next.
