Criminal Minds

I thought I’d just be shallow and take a look at looks today. Hair is a major part of anyone’s looks…which of our Criminal Minds ladies has the best locks?

AJ Cook:

Here’s AJ in her CM ‘do. Straight and classic.

A nice little updo.

Paget Brewster in CM mode:

Here’s Paget a little more relaxed…straight and a little messy.

And last, but not least, Kirsten Vangness.

Kirsten looks professional, fun, and awesome in this style.

A cute, fun look.

And her on the town look:

AJ Cook has been getting a lot more airtime for her character, JJ. And she’s been getting more media attention. With the departure of Mandy Patinkin and the arrival of Joe Mantegna, there is definately the chance to get buried under the big names, but AJ has managed to shine. The Ventura County Star has an article this morning if you want to read more about AJ Cook and her character. Click here.

An interesting tidbit from the article: AJ says that she’s been making good use of her time off because of the WGA strike.

The ongoing writers’ strike has left Cook with free time and the chance to do things her typically busy schedule prevents, including doing research on a script that she’s been wanting to write for a while.
“I’ve been a good little housewife — decorating the house, put up the tree, did a little Martha Stewart making crafts — just doing stuff I don’t normally get to do…I’ve been doing a lot of reading and writing. It’s funny; you just seem to be busier when you’re not working somehow — I don’t know how that works.”

Also, the Futon Critic has a rundown of how many episodes are left for your favorite series and their fates…some have been cancelled, some are on hiatus, waiting nervously for word on whether they’ll continue, and some are still running. CM has one new episode left - “Limelight.”

AJ Cook as Agent Jennifer Jareau

AJ Cook recently spoke about why Criminal Minds is so appealing to viewers. “We come out of the gate the same, pretty much, from birth. It’s interesting to see what kinds of things happen to a person to make them that way.” CM, she says has a psychological depth that draws viewers in. And even though many of the victims of the show are women, women are still supportive of the show because the question why are people like this is looked at.
Psychological depth and Shemar Moore. AJ says of her costar:

Shemar Moore is a dreamboat! I think one of the first things I said to him was ‘alright dude, I’m just going to get this out of the way, I grew up watching you on the soaps.’ He was so gracious with it all, and he was really, really cool about it.

(Click here for the original article.)

JJ has to be confident in her decisions - she decided which cases are investigated by the BAU. On her first day of shooting, though, AJ was a little more nervous than her on-screen persona.
In an interview with Canada’s CTV.ca, AJ says:

In my very first scene I had to bust into the room and take charge and dominate. I just had to rush through the room, speaking a hundred miles an hour, ordering everyone around. I was so nervous, and I don’t even know how I got through that day.

But she made it through that day and many more as her character grew. One of the things that AJ likes is the evolution of her character.

When I came on, she was just black and white on a page. There was no description, and nothing really to her. It’s been a fun process working with the writers and finding who she is.

Speaking of writers, AJ Cook is very supportive of the people who help bring her show to life, both the writers and the crew.

We are entering into the great unknown here and I really feel for our crew. Many of them live paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to have a five- or six-month strike. I support the writers and I understand; I just want it to be over quickly.

(Check out 451 Press to see how your favorite shows are faring with the strike.)

If you’re interested, there are some beautiful pictures of AJ Cook here.

AJ Cook spoke with LA’s Daily News about the strike and Mandy Patinkin’s departure from the show.

In the beginning, it was very stressful because nobody really knew what was going on, but it’s been such a great transition. If ever there could be a great transition, this was it. Joe’s fabulous, he really does feel like he’s been there from the very beginning. He fits in so perfectly.

AJ seems like the type of person who is as nice as she appears. Hopefully, the writers and networks will reach a decision soon so we can see more of JJ’s evolution.
Ratings for the new season are just as high as they were for the previous two seasons with Patinkin. Another thing that AJ likes is the way her character, JJ, is changing.

I like that J.J. has seriously evolved. She went from being a couple of lines per episode to really coming into her own. I love it whenever she gets to pull her gun out - that’s exciting for me. Or when I get to put the FBI vest on and storm a building with everyone else. It’s a lot of fun. She’s badass now, I like it.

She’s also an important part of the team - Hotch takes her advice very seriously. There are cases that he agrees to investigate based on JJ’s say-so.

On the WGA strike:

We are entering into the great unknown here and I really feel for our crew. Many of them live paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to have a five- or six-month strike. I support the writers and I understand; I just want it to be over quickly.

AJ Cook is another squeaky clean Criminal Minds cast member. Her full name is Andrea Joy Cook, and she grew up in Ontario, Canada. AJ is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The roles she chooses have to fit into her faith - she won’t pick roles that go against her beliefs. She says, “I will not do nudity. I will not do a sex scene. There are just certain things I will not do.”

“I am just your everyday, average girl. I live by the beach. I wear flip flops. I don’t wear make-up. I go to the gym.”

AJ’s job in Criminal Minds is anything but average. She plays JJ (Jennifer Jareau), who is the BAU’s liason to the press and local police departments. Part of her job is to choose which cases the team will work on. In the last episode of Season Two, Hotch is telling Section Chief Erin Strauss about the team. Of JJ, he says that she goes home every night tormented, wondering if she chose the right cases.
She makes a nice addition to the team. Although not an agent, she has an important job - in addition to her press and go-between duties, she comforts and informs the families of the victims.

Here’s a random AJ Cook fact - she didn’t begin acting until she was 17 years old. Her first role was in a commerical for McDonalds inn 1997.

It’s not all profiling and flying around the country in a private jet.
The cast of Criminal Minds finds time to bond….

and…

(more…)

I never realized before that AJ Cook had been in a bunch of things that I’d seen. I guess I thought she appeared out of nowhere to be on Criminal Minds.
A YouTube clip from Out Cold, which I think is a dumb movie but always makes me laugh:

And another classic: Final Destination 2.
See AJ as a brunette.

AJ also starred in The Virgin Suicides. Set in 1970’s Michigan, AJ plays one of the five Lisbon sisters. The Lisbon’s seemingly perfect life is ruined when their 13 year old sister commits suicide. Their parents then try to isolate their remaining daughters, which makes them forbidden fruit for neighborhood boys. I’m actually going to put that on Netflix right now. I saw it a few years ago, but reading about it makes me want to see it again.
So AJ didn’t come from nowhere. You can also see an interview she gives about her character, JJ at YouTube.

AJ Cook talks about how the show will introduce Joe Mantegna’s new character, while at the same time explaining Agent Gideon’s (Mandy Patinkin) departure.

The writers are locked in a room somewhere trying to find out who this new character is and how to bring him on. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes the dynamic on the set and on screen…Last season [Agent Gideon's] girlfriend was killed and he was on the run trying to find the killer, so luckily they had that, to set up his departure…They’ve left us all in the dark here. All I know is we’re looking for him … We’re trying to figure out where he is and hunt the man down. What’s so funny is, it’s kind of art imitating life. In our read-through, we had lines in there that seemed to be pulled out of our lives — ‘Has anyone seen Gideon — or Mandy?’

Cooks said she’d be “shocked” if they killed off Mandy Patinkin’s character.
Shemar Moore expressed anger at Patinkin for leaving the show without any word to his costars, feeling they were “slapped in the face.”

I don’t like that he did this the way he did this. I don’t think it’s right. He left us hanging… no warning, no nothing. We all showed up to work on Day 1, and he didn’t.

Thomas Gibson was also disappointed: “We look at this as a great opportunity to shake things up. This is certainly a disappointment to everyone, but I don’t think it’s a catastrophe.”
AJ recently said of Patinkin:

We have been kind of playing phone tag, but he has gone out of his way to make sure he reached all of us. I think that was the biggest part for us … We just didn’t know what was going on, and we were all worried. Once we got into contact with him and knew he was OK, then it was we just want him to be happy. (National Ledger)

As to Mandy Patinkin’s final appearance on Criminal Minds: He shot one day of scenes that will be stretched out into two episodes. TV Guide reports that he will be in the scene alone because none of the other stars wanted to work with him again after he left without telling them. “What’s more, Minds’ producers were forced to use a special crew to shoot the pariah’s scene because the show’s regular staff refused to be on set with him.”
Apparently, the scene will show Agent Gideon getting into a car and driving away, and which, according to TV Guide, will air on October 3.

(Look for more on AJ Cook tomorrow.)

In 1973, only 24 out of 8,767 FBI agents were women. In 2007 there are 30,646 agents, 13,692 of whom are women. The percentage is smaller in the BAU, but on Criminal Minds, women are well represented by Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), JJ (AJ Cook), and Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness). These agents each bring unique skills to the team, without which they wouldn’t be as successful.
I found this clip on YouTube of the ladies hanging out at a bar together. Before their night gets interupted by work, they have a little fun with a man who claims to be an FBI agent. The scene is actually based on a real event - an FBI agent that Paget Brewster got to know through the show had this happen to her.