Criminal Minds

I found this YouTube of an interview with Kirsten Vangsness. She is Kirsten and yet Garcia-ish too! She seems like an awesome person, so check her out! She wasn’t as computer savvy as her fictional counterpart but she seems just as fun. She also talks about the “human ship of gorgeousness” - guess who that is…

Tune in to see Garcia, the human ship of gorgeousness, and the rest of the team tonight at nine on CBS. “Soul Mates” is a brand new episode set in a wealthy Atlanta suburb.

Edited: Today, I found a year in review type article on PopMatters and it mentioned Kirsten. Here’s what the author said:

Nerds have become more numerous on TV in recent years, but today’s nerd not only comes with a wealth of technological skills, he or she also has tattoos, piercings, multi-colored hair, and other manifestations of nonconformity. Two of the most appealing of this crowd are Kirsten Vangsness, Garcia on Criminal Minds, and Pauley Perrette, Abby on the surprisingly hot
NCIS. Both provide needed comic relief, but also bring to their respective shows a sense of innocence missing in some of the “hardened” detectives.

Tune in to see Garcia, the human ship of gorgeousness, and the rest of the team tonight at nine on CBS. “Soul Mates” is a brand new episode set in a wealthy Atlanta suburb.

Tonight, Agent Morgan is in the spotlight as CBS replays “Profiler, Profiled.” He returns to his hometown for a visit only to have a murdered child show up. He becomes the focus of the police investigation, and his BAU team members are working to clear this up. He refuses to talk about his past, which leads them to the conclusion that he’s hididng something. This episode from season two is a good one if you missed it the first time around, and good for giving some background and depth to Shemar Moore’s character. “Profiler, Profiled” on on at nine tonight.

“3rd Life,” guest starring Gina Mantegna, will air on January 9. This has been pushed back a few weeks from its original airdate. This episode is eagerly awaited for two reasons: one, star Joe Mantegna is the father of Gina, who plays the missing teenager. Also, it’s the last of the new Criminal Minds episodes for the foreseable future.

(The picture above is from People Magazine - which named Shemar Moore as one of the sexiest men alive. He came in at a very respectable #10.)

Criminal Minds repeat “Scared to Death” loss in the Wednesday night ratings war. A new episode of Private Practice won the nine o’clock time slot. Private Practice helped ABC win the 18-49 year old group. NBC led in total viewers. CBS rebounded with a rerun of CSI:NY at ten.
That’s to be expected. “Scared to Death” originally aired not very long ago, and Practice was new. CM does have a few more new episodes to offer, so I’m sure the ratings will be back up for those.

And speaking of new episodes, Joe Mantegna’s daughter, Gina, will be making a guest appearance on her dad’s show. Gina Mantegna plays a teenage girl, who is missing and whose best friend is brutally murdered in “3rd Life.”

Miss Mantegna is most well known for her role in the 2006 movie, Unaccompanied Minors.

Some info on upcoming episodes:
CBS will air an original episode of Criminal Minds next week. “Birthright” takes the BAU to Fredericksburg, VA to track down a killer who victimizes young women. He makes them pretend they’re at a party.

That would be too simple. The murders resemble ones that occured 25 years before. If you want to be surprised DON’T READ ANYMORE!! It turns out that 25 years ago, in similar circumstances, one of the kidnapped women escapes. But she has a child as a product of rape by her captor. The killer’s wife is also pregnant. She figures out what’s going on and kills him so he can’t hurt anymore people.
Anyway, now is the son taking after his father? That’s pretty twisted.

In “3rd Life,” the BAU visits the west coast. This is the episode Gina Mantegna plays in. The case involves two missing teenage girls. One of the girls is murdered, and the team has to race to save the other girl (the still-missing girl is Gina).

“Birthright” airs next week, December 12, and “3rd Life” is scheduled for December 19.

The Futon Critic reports today that Criminal Minds delivered its highest ratings since the post-Super Bowl show in February (”The Big Game”). CM was first among overall viewers, 18-49, and 25-54 age groups. The numbers were up from last week, and for the past three weeks, CM’s ratings have won their time slot.
The last three shows have been great - I especially liked “True Night,” with Frankie Muniz. Apparently a lot of other people did as well. He helped them attain their best ratings in almost a year.
This week, CBS will re-air “Scared to Death.” This was not one of my favorites, but maybe the second time around will be better. This is the one with the psycho psychiatrist who uses his patients’ biggest fears to kill them. Take a look on Wednesday night at nine on CBS.

Last night, I was watching Criminal Minds with my fiance, who can be at times the most insensitive person alive. But he surprises me on occasion. After the show, he said that something about the show is different. He said maybe it was just this episode but the mood was entirely different. So I tried to pump him for information, but that’s really all he said, other than that it was more action-based, where the others were more pensive. There is usually a race to save another victim, and this didn’t happen in “True Night.” There was also not a lot of profiling going on, which I didn’t really notice until he said something about it being different. This was an episode that focused on the killer instead of the BAU members. As the episode progressed, you could kind of profile him yourself. John’s (Frankie Muniz)flashbacks let the viewer understand what was happening. He kept calling his girlfriend’s phone and getting her message that she was out living her life. This was emphasized so much that of course she was dead. My fiance was right: the tone was very different. It almost made you feel crazy as John relived the attack on himself and his girlfriend but didn’t really seem to realize that it actually happened. And he had no idea that he was killing people (all gang members, who were responsible for the attack). He drew the crime scenes as pages of a graphic novel.

John’s agent talks to the FBI and tells them about the behavior he’s noticed in John - the erratic behavior, calling his girlfriend’s cell, the change in his work. When John’s led into the police station, he looks confused, and you can almost hope he didn’t do it.
When he’s being interrogated by Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss, they have to convince him that he’d been attacked. A huge scar lays across his abdomen. It’s like telling him his girlfriend is dead all over again, and he finally remembers.

At the end of the episode, he is in a hospital/institution, and he’s surrounded by drawings of his girlfriend. Still calling her cell phone to listen to her voice.
On the plane home, Prentiss wonders if anyone is capable of this. John went from a writer and artist to a murderer in six months. If he could do that, anyone could.
I was kind of surprised that cute little Malcolm in the Middle could be a convincing serial killer. He was really good. He looked the part, but still managed to have an innocence about him.

I really did like this episode. It was different and more unsub-focused. The profilers played a very small role in “True Night,” which I wouldn’t really enjoy watching week after week, but it was a good change.
The more I think about it, the more that this episode is one of the ones I like best. It’s not often that shows can make you feel a certain way, but you definately feel John’s emotions and feel sorry for him at the end. Even my aforementioned insensitive fiance felt bad for him.
What did you think of the episode? Good, bad, ugly?

If your favorite show has run out of new episodes, it’s a good time to check out what’s new on DVD at TV on DVD. - I am still waiting anxiously for the second half of the last season of The Sopranos to come from Netflix.

Tonight’s episode guest stars Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle) as a comic book artist who becomes involved in the search for a serial killer (and those serial killers always love to involve themselves in their own investigations…maybe it’s little Frankie himself).
Frankie Muniz’s role on Malcolm earned him nominations for Golden Globes and Emmy Awards. Currently, he’s involved in racing. He competed in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship in 2007 and placed 22nd overall.
“True Night” airs at 9:00 on CBS.

Criminal Minds was in top form for Wednesday night’s episode, “Lucky.”

The show opens with bubbly, happy, smiling Penelope Garcia. She meets a guy at a coffee shop, fixes his computer, and gives him her number. She tells Morgan, and says she’s not the type to get hit on from across the room, and that it usually takes men longer to realize how wonderful she is. Morgan tells her to go with her gut, which she does. She throws his number away. But then, as she is talking to Morgan, she gets mad when he implies (or seems to) that there must be something wrong with the guy if he asked her out. So of course she sets up a date.

The case the team is investigating is particularly gruesome. The victims have pentacles carved into their chests, their legs are missing, and one had partially digested fingers in her stomach. The crimes take place in a small Florida town, and it revolves around the church. After the team deduces that the unsub is a former mental patient, they find the hospital where he was likely a patient. They find out that he bit a chunk out of his nine-month old sister when he was seven. Luckily, they also found out his name. From there, it was easy to trace him - he didn’t use an alias or try to hide. The last victim is saved, but one woman is still missing.
Morgan interrogates the unsub, who wants to talk to the parish priest. The priest tells the unsub that he is not alone, God is a part of him. To which the unsub replies, “And Tracy is a part of us too.”

The gruesome part: he signed up to help with the search party. His job was to feed the other volunteers. There are flashbacks of him ladling out soup to people in the community. This was so disgusting to me - they’re eating the person they’re trying to find.

On the personal side, Morgan is struggling with his faith. He lost faith in God when he was a child and was being abused. God did nothing, Morgan says. At the end of the episode, he is praying in church.

And Garcia’s date…at the end, James says, “Garcia, I’ve been thinking of doing this all day.” Hmmm…first date kiss? No, he takes out a gun and shoots her in the chest.

This was a great episode - very dramatic and creepy. Not only was the case interesting, the characters were developed further. We got to see more of Penelope - her interaction with Morgan when she gets mad at him lets us see a different side of her. Her character shows a lot of personality, but we don’t know a lot about her personal life. This will change in the upcoming episode when the investigation into her shooting takes place.

The third season started off well with “Doubt.” I was less impressed with “Scared to Death,” but the subsequent episodes have been exciting and entertaining. Next week’s offering, “Penelope,” continues the story and leads the team to suspect that the attacker is someone close to the investigation.

If you want to read a bit more about the WGA strike, Buddy TV has a new article, with thoughts from AJ Cook, CM exec producer Edward Bernero, and CM writer Andrew Wilder.

Tonight on Criminal Minds, the team tracks down a serial killer, played by Jamie Kennedy. This cannabal causes Morgan to doubt his faith. Also, Garcia goes on a date, and the relationship is not off to a good start.
If you want to know what happens, click here. Otherwise, we’ll see on Wednesday!
With the writers strike unresolved, this is one of the last new episodes. Next week, Nicholas Brendan will guest star as a computer tech hired to crack Garcia’s unique system.
To find out what else Criminal Minds has in store, check out TV.com’s episode guide.

Sydney Morning Herald writer Gordon Farrer wrote a review of Criminal Minds in Sunday morning’s edition. His complaint with the show:
“Sometimes Criminal Minds asks too much of its audience.”

Mr. Farrer is not a disbeliever in criminal profiling, though.

Catching murderers through psychological profiling might look like modern criminological magic to the amateur but Sherlock Holmes was a master of that science more than a century ago.

His problem is the cast. He mentions two in particular that stretched audience’s imaginations to the breaking point. One, Thomas Gibson as Agent Aaron Hotchner. He can’t get past seeing Gibson as Greg on Dharma and Greg.

I see straitlaced Greg from the sitcom Dharma and Greg, and worry that his dippy hippie wife (Jenna Elfman) will burst in and bugger up a crime scene with her madcap Lucille Ball act.

Another character he takes exception with is now-gone Agent Gideon, played by Mandy Patinkin. His past characters also get in the way of the enjoyment of the show. He sees Inigo Montoya and Dr. Jeffrey Geiger instead of the BAU profiler.

Also mentioned is James Van Der Beek. How can sweet little Dawson have multiple personalities, kill innocent people, post the murder videos on the net, and torture a sweet little FBI agent? Farrer writes, “He [Van Der Beek] hasn’t been getting a lot of TV work since the series was canned, true, but surely that’s an overreaction.”

I thought this article was kind of funny - I liked that Gordon Farrer wrote what he thought and didn’t sugarcoat anything. Also, he brings up a point for which Criminal Minds is often criticized: the believability of the characters.
Spencer Reid, played by Matthew Gray Gubler, is one of those imagination-stretching characters. In an interview with Matt Romanada of Primetime Pulse, Matthew had this to say:

During the pilot…Chris [FBI agent and consultant] was there and I went to ask him something about what would my character do in real life. He looks at me and says, “There is nothing realistic about your character! You would never make it in the FBI. You would get made fun of. You would never exist. Heck, you couldn’t pass your gun test.”

He’s also way too young to have made it into the BAU. But, as Matthew said in that same interview, knowing his character wasn’t strictly realistic “gave me this freedom to do what I want.”

I think shows like Criminal Minds should be realistic enough to feel true and believeable and fantastic enough to be entertaining. Criminal Minds is a good blend.

Tonight’s episode, “Scared to Death,” has Hotch and his BAU profilers tracking down a serial killer. Not just your average ordinary killer - he may a psychiatrist. The team thinks that hte doctor finds out what his victims fear most and uses that fear to kill them. The victims have all recently moved to Portland and have not developed strong ties to the area. (Michael O’Keefe plays Dr. Stan Howard.)
“Scared to Death” will air on CBS at nine tonight and will be Criminal Minds’ first Gideon-free episode.

Frankie Muniz, of Malcolm in the Middle fame is set to appear on an episode of Criminal Minds to air on November 28, sweeps week. The episode will feature Muniz as a famous comic book artist who becomes involved in the team’s investigation of a serial killer. Zap 2 It writes in an October 4 article, “First Dawson now Malcolm? Oh “Criminal Minds,” why must you keep toying with our favorite child stars?”
James Van Der Beek (Dawson) appeared on two episodes of CM in season two. Those were my two favorite episodes! The former Dawson’s Creek star was in “The Big Game” and “Revelations,” in which he was a religious fanatic with multiple personalities who killed people and used a webcam so he could put videos of their deaths on the net and then kidnapped Reid and pumped him full of drugs after his other personality tortured him. (I know that’s not properly written but it’s as succinct as I can get.)

If you want some good Criminal Minds spoilers, check out Buddy TV. If you don’t want to know anything until you see it, don’t read any further.
Later in the season, Garcia is in a diner and helps someone unfreeze his laptop. They go on a date, which apparently doesn’t go well. He shoots her. Yes, that’s right, he shoots Garcia. He leaves her and that’s where the episode ends.
In the next episode, emergency teams try to save her, as we see flashbacks to different points in her life. (In two, she’s a child with her parents. In another, she is at a funeral with two caskets, which may be her parents.)
No, no more stars are leaving the show, so Penelope lives.
Nicholas Brendan -aka Zander from Buffy - will play Kevin, who the team hires to help crack Garcia’s system. They hope that something she was working on will give them a clue to her shooting. He finds something “shocking” and drama ensues. At the end, a possible love match between the two techies is hinted at. Nicholas Brendan will appear on the one episode definately and may appear more if his character is well-received by viewers.

Sounds exciting. This show keeps the surprises coming. Garcia goes on her date November 14, and Nicholas Brendan makes his CM debut on November 21.

No, not everything you see on television is real, but they try to make it as realistic as possible. To do this, shows hire consultants. This is especially important on military and/or police shows where the action needs to be dramatic AND believeable. Criminal Minds has numerous advisors - like Jim Clemente (former FBI agent). Jon Barton also lends his expertise. Jon has been involved in the entertainment industry (whoops, that kind of made it sound like porn) for ten years. He was a marine and served in Iraq.
Now, he does stunts, actor training, background training, and advising to make sure different shows are as authentic as possible. He’s worked as a consultant on Criminal Minds, JAG, and NCIS.

In addition to this, he also acts. He’s been in Bones, The Unit, Criminal Minds, JAG, and Days of Our Lives.
A group Jon helped form, Gunmetal, offers technical services to projects that require them. For instance, if you’re looking for someone to give you some advise on military funerals, color guards, boot camp, or weapons training for your next movie, give these guys a call.
(more…)

I’ve been writing about the famous guest stars that have appeared on Criminal Minds. Who do you think would be an interesting mix to the show? This guest star could be playing another agent, a police officer, a victim, or an unsub.

This is a guest stars who appears on Criminal Minds more often. Meredith Monroe plays Haley, the wife of Aaron Hotchner. She’s also been in numerous other televisions shows: Crossing Jordan, Bones, CSI, Strong Medicine, House, CSI: Miami, and Dawson’s Creek.
This is how cute she is: she played Laura Ingalls Wilder in Beyond the Prarie; she was on five covers of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys series, and she did a commercial for a hair crimper.
On Criminal Minds, we don’t really see much of Haley. Usually, they just show her character being disappointed when her husband, Agent Hotchner, gets called into work, ruining yet another family moment. She seems kind of sweet and innocent, though, which is a good contrast to the dark world Hotch works in. So at least he gets to go home to his cute wife and son.

This is a clip of Meredith in Beyond the Prarie, in which Laura is talking to her future hubby, Almonzo.