Criminal Minds

Mandy Patinkin returned to CBS in the form of a Criminal Minds rerun. CBS reaired season two episode, “Distress.” CM won the night in total viewers, but a rerun of Law and Order: SVU won the 18-49 age group.
The only original programming CBS aired Wednesday night was the Kennedy Center Honors, whose ratings dropped by 37% from last year.

Happy Day After Christmas!!
Tonight, CBS will reair an episode from season two. If you missed Mandy, this is a good time to tune in. “Distress” takes the BAU to Houston to investigate a series of murders surrounding construction sites, believed to have been done by a homeless person. This is the one where the homeless man turns out to be a former soldier. This was a sad episode, but good. There is a little more info at Criminal Minds Wiki.
Also, this is shortly after Reid was kidnapped and tortured so there are some differences in his character. This, by the way, is bugging me about season three. They have made very little reference to his supposed drug problem - so is it a problem? There’s not a lot going on with his character in season three. Anyway, hopefully, we can get some new episodes soon that look into him a little more.

This episode is at 8:00. At 9:00, the Kennedy Center Honors are on.

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.

Advertising Age had a review of Criminal Minds on their website Wednesday. This article was interesting because it was from the advertising perspective (surprisingly enough, coming from Ad Age, right?). Anyway, Ad Age TV Editor Brian Steinberg reviewed new and returning shows to give marketers an idea of the best times and places to show their ads.
Mr. Steinberg had never seen an episode for CM before. After all the when Mandy Patinkin left and Joe Mantegna showed up, he decided it would be a good time to tune in.
Wednesday nights are also very competetive. CM is on, Bionic Woman, Private Practice, Gossip Girl , and Kitchen Nightmares- all at the same time. Advertisers need to know where to put their money, and Criminal Minds is a good bet because it has managed to keep its audience. Each episode is self-contained, so they sell the show as a new must-see thriller each week. Anyone can tune in - not just regulars. This is a good selling point. Steinberg’s verdict on the show is that it’d be a good place to put your ad (if you’re Verizon, Sprint, Singular, AT&T wireless, Home Depot, or a sleep aid manufacturer - those are the big sponsers of CM last year). Criminal Minds does better with older audiences, so if you’re trying to sell a product aimed at teens, you might want to go elsewhere.
This article was also interesting because Steinberg gives his opinion of the show. He says:

“Criminal Minds” is less about the people in the show and more about the crimes they solve…And the profilers are as determined as the crimes are heinous.

He talks about Mandy Patinkin leaving and Joe Mantegna joining the cast.

The show is exactly the same as it was before, only with a new sheriff in town, so to speak. But since the show isn’t really about sheriffs, or people, just crimes and arrests, “Criminal Minds” should proceed apace with few bumps in the road.

This definately lives up to CM’s reputation of being a solid, consistent show for CBS. I do agree that the crimes and criminals make the show different and entertaining. But I also like the characters - I think that they’re becoming more developed as the show progresses. We’re about to learn some more about Penelope. Criminal Minds strikes a good balance - it appeals to people who tune in occasionally because each episode can be understood on its own. It also appeals to people who regulary watch because you do find out more info on your favorite agents week after week.

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.

Last night, “Scared to Death” aired on CBS. This was Criminal Minds first Mandy-free episode, though his character was mentioned several times. When the show opens, Spencer is sitting at his desk rereading his letter. They quickly move on to other matters - a serial killer in Portland, Oregon. The team travels there to investigate and eventually figure out that the deaths had to do with phobias. From there, they need to figure out who is responsible. Through a lucky spotting of a flier in a laundromat, they are led to Dr. Howard (aka Dr. Goodman), in time to save his latest victim from being buried alive.

I really like Criminal Minds, I write a blog about it. But did anyone else think “Scared to Death” was kind of…boring?
The doctor was torturing these people, recording their responses, while having flashbacks to his mom making him sleep in the dark. Michael O’Keefe as Dr. Howard was kind of creepy, but it seemed like they crammed all of his motives into 45 minutes, and it didn’t quite work. It did cover all the bases; his abusive childhood, his naggy wife, his change in behavior, his treatment of his daughter. But it seemed like they hurried to put this all in so it’d make sense at the end.
Criminal Minds can be very creepy - like in “Revelations” or “North Mammon,” from season two. This one didn’t have the same feeling to it. It also felt like the characters were kind of wooden; they didn’t seem as dynamic as they usually are - with the exception of Spencer and Morgan getting stuck in the elevator…that was pretty funny.

What was interesting, though, was their response to Gideon leaving. Spencer is clearly upset. He talks to Emily at one point and says that Gideon confronted the most violent, dangerous criminals in the world. If he had enough courage to do that, why did he just leave a letter? Emily tells him to read it again and figure out why the letter was written to him. Out of all the people he left behind, why did he only bother to explain to Spencer?
Morgan also brings him up. On the flight home, he says that the team is doing just fine without Gideon.
Besides Gideon leaving, the only personal note was when Hotch tells Morgan that Haley has left, and he didn’t know if she was coming back.

“Scared to Death” was all right. It wasn’t one of their best episodes, but it was still entertaining. I’m looking forward to Joe Mantegna’s debut (on October 31 - Halloween) to bring some tension to the team and move some action along.

Hotch is gone, Prentiss is gone, Gideon is gone. The team goes to Milwaukee. Hotch comes back. Prentiss comes back. They arrest the serial killer using his son as bait. Gideon’s still gone. And Haley’s gone. Just a quick recap for “In Name and Blood.” This episode wrapped up some loose ends from last week and also gave us some new loose ends. Hotch and Prentiss are back with the team. Section Chief Erin Strauss travels with the team to Milwaukee to work the case. While there, she actually sees what the BAU does. She can’t do it. She insults the local detective, takes control when she shouldn’t, and then finally, breaks down at a crime scene when she steps on a victim’s hair. Having seen the reality of their job, she relents. Hotch is back but cannot move up in the chain of command. This is a big deal as he wanted to become FBI director.
Spencer worries about Gideon and finally goes to check on him at his cabin hide-away. Inside, he finds empty shelves and a gun, badge, and letter on Gideon’s desk. He tries to explain to Spencer why he’s leaving - not committing suicide as was implied last week. At the end, we see him traveling alone, trying to find hope again.
The new loose end - when Hotch gets back from Milwaukee, Haley is gone. Earlier in the episode, the phone rings. When Hotch picks up, the caller hangs up. Seconds later, Haley’s cell rings. She ignores it. When she leaves the room, she grabs her purse. Hmmmmm.

I thought this was a good episode - the big huge deal that was Mandy Patinkin’s leaving the show was quietly dealt with. The case the team was working on was interesting, and you can feel the itchy, tense feeling when they’re racing to find the unsub before his victim dies. Also interesting was that Hotch mentioned - fleetingly - that one of his team members has a possibly serious drug addiction. Hmmmmm again. Spencer seems to be functioning pretty well for someone addicted to heroin, but I guess I wouldn’t really know. Maybe this comes up in future episodes.

According to SyFyPortal, the premiere of Bionic Woman beat out Criminal Minds in the ratings Wednesday night. First was Dancing with the Stars, then Private Practice. Criminal Minds came in a surprising (to me) fourth place. Overall, CBS finished second for the night, behind ABC and ahead of NBC.
Michael Hinman of SyFyPortal writes:

In terms of audience demographics… “Bionic Woman” was a big winner, according to Variety. In the key demographic of adults 18 to 49, “Bionic” was a big winner with a whopping 5.5/14, the best rating in that timeslot since the premiere of “The West Wing” in 1999.
“Bionic Woman” clearly won the night in the key demo categories, even beating out “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Private Practice,” and was able to build on a poor lead-in from “Deal or No Deal,” which has seen better days.

Criminal Minds faced tough competition Wednesday.
Dancing With the Stars has been insanely popular with viewers worldwide. There are a bunch of different versions based on the English Strictly Come Dancing, and the format was the most popular type of programming in the world in 2006. It is shown in countries such as the US, Australia, Austria, Chile, South Africa, Sweden, Poland, India, Israel, Japan….and many more. I had no idea it was this popular - I have never seen an episode and I’ve never heard of any of the celebrities they have on this year. Kind of takes the fun out of Dancing with the Stars when you don’t know the stars.

Private Practice is also a highly anticipated show as it’s a spinoff of popular Grey’s Anatomy.

Criminal Minds is one of those shows that just quietly does its business. I think it has a loyal following and will attract new viewers with the Mandy Patinkin-leaving drama and the addition of Joe Mantegna. Hopefully, as the newness factor fades for Bionic Woman and Private Practice, more people will tune into CM. This season is off to a good start, and it looks like it’ll be as exciting and dramatic as usual. E!Online reports that the 2007 premiere of Criminal Minds was down three million viewers from the season two premiere. And CSI:NY, while the most watched show of the ten o’clock hour, was down 3.5 million viewers. Maybe they’re stronger in reruns? But these shows do have an advantage - you don’t really need to see the premiere to watch the show. Both are pretty self-contained, and viewers who missed the premieres can definately catch up next week.

So that’s how they’re going to write Gideon off the show. Criminal Minds third season started off with Gideon alone in a cabin writing a letter to the one he knew would go looking for him - he is talking about the death of his friend Sarah and the case they worked on immediately after. That case, of course, is the killings of several women at a small college (which was held over from last season). As the flashback unfolds, Gideon sees his murdered friend in the crowd, watching him. The episode was entitled “Doubt,” and that is exactly what Gideon feels. He isn’t sure of himself anymore, in both his personal and professional life. As he writes the letter, he discusses this, as well as the horrors that he can no longer live with. At the end, he is holding a gun.
Meanwhile, the section chief, Erin Strauss, is out to get Hotch, and is extorting Prentiss to help her. The campus situtation is resolved when the killer is killed by a suicidal copycat, who then plunges a knife into her stomach. Strauss takes issue with Hotch’s handling of the case and suspends him.
So that’s where it’s left - the next episode, “In Birth and Death,” has Gideon missing, Hotch requesting a transfer, and Prentiss resigning. The remaining team members struggle to catch a serial killer in Milwaukee who abducts women from very public places.
I thought that the season premiere was excellent. It was exciting, and I liked how they wove Gideon’s eventual departure into the pre-existing show.
There is something wrong with the layout of this page - sorry. I couldn’t get into it last night to work on it. Of course, on the night of the premiere. I’m surprised my power didn’t go out or something. Anyway, I apologize and will see what I can do to get it fixed.

Tonight’s episode is a rerun of “Legacy,” in which the BAU is called to Kansas City to investigate the disappearances of homeless people. Detective McGee from Kansas City approaches JJ for help because his own superiors do not believe the missing person cases are connected. McGee believes there may be as many as 63 victims. Hotch and JJ go to “unofficially” look into the case, while a prostitute named Maggie is fighting for her life.
Early in the show, Hotch walks into Gideon’s office to find him watching Charlie Chaplin movies - a little comic relief from the horrors of their job.

I saw the new ad for Criminal Minds season three on CBS last night. I’d seen the YouTube video before that. Here’s where I need help: on the YouTube one, I could have sworn that Elle (Lola Glaudini) spit in JJ’s face. Then when I saw the commercial on tv, I saw it more clearly but wasn’t paying total attention. I thought it was Elle again. Can anyone deny or confirm that I am crazy? I swear it was her.
Nothing much is going on in Criminal Minds world. Ed Bernero commented on the character David Rossi, to be played by Joe Mantegna.

In looking over the world of television shows, the show I think that replaced characters the best of all time was M*A*S*H,” Bernero said. “M*A*S*H always replaced a character with an exact opposite. When McLean Stevenson left, who played a total anti-authority guy, they replaced him with Sherman T. Potter, who was a regular Army stick-in-the-mud. They filled the same role, but with someone who was the opposite. That’s what we wanted to do.

Rossi is the antithesis of Jason Gideon. Where Gideon is very sensitive to the unsubs, Rossi doesn’t display as much emotion - he’s much more cool and doesn’t display emotion as freely as Gideon did. I think it’s a good idea to make the character completely different. That way, Joe Mantegna doesn’t have to try to “fill” Mandy Patinkin’s shoes. He can create a whole new direction for the show. He also was unconcerned that the violent content would affect him, saying that he could detatch himself from his work pretty easily.
Before, I’d written about rumors that the cast didn’t want to work with Mandy Patinkin and they used a different crew to film his final scenes. Then, it was reported that that was a rumor. Now, Glenn Kershaw (a CM producer and director) says in a New York Times article:

We then put together an entirely different company, and I spent a day directing Mandy up at the Disney Ranch. He only had to face me, since we’re starting with a flashback about why Mandy is writing this letter, and that cuts into the case from last year. Ironically, the day I was shooting Mandy’s scenes, I got a call up that Joe had been signed.

So, whatever the reason, Mandy Patinkin did shoot his final scenes without his former costars.

The Monaco Revue has an interesting article about Mandy Patinkin’s departure from Criminal Minds. Mandy was in Monaco in June to promote CM at the Monte Carlo Television Festival. Speaking with journalists there, he said:

I loathe those violent images and I want no part of that type of violence. I work with the writers and producers constantly to try and tamper that violence down.

Excessive violence has been a criticism of the show since it began, but as FBI BAU agent Jim Clemente says the violence is actually very much toned down in the show.

I want to see more humour coming to television…. I want to live long enough to see the appetite for comedy become greater than the appetite for violence.

Earlier this summer, Shemar Moore also spoke of his costar’s sensitvity:
The content is tough, but at the end of the day, I’m an actor who learns lines and I say my lines and then I distance myself from it and go back to my life. (Patinkin) took it a little more personally.

Moore also said Patinkin was an “emotional guy” and someone you felt “you had to take care of.”

Patinkin told journalists in Monaco:

It is a great burden; many people who are great writers, and actors and musicians take their lives because they can’t bear what’s happening in the human condition. Certainly that’s not an answer, but you understand that it’s because of an oversensitivity to human nature.

In this Mandy Patinkin seems to be very much like his character, Jason Gideon. He was by far the most emotional and affected by the violence that the team dealt with. How can you be mad at someone for leaving for this reason?

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…)

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.)

(Cast of Chicago Hope - Mandy Patinkin is on the left and co-star Thomas Gibson is third from right)

I promise that this is the last time I will write about Mandy Patinkin!
It’s not really a surprise that Mandy Patinkin left Criminal Minds or even that he left so abruptly. He did the same thing on Chicago Hope. He played Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, winning an Emmy for Best Actor in 1995. He left that show suddenly, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
His personality also seems to be a part of the problem. In a book called Actors at Work, Patinkin speaks about the directors of episodic television:

They’re guests. They’re not there as really part of the process. They’re there to be in charge of the camera. And I have to ask them not to give me any direction whatsoever except geographical direction . . . It’s a very sensitive issue how you talk to an actor. Directors can really derail me. My job is to stay open and sensitive. If you say something stupid, you might derail me for the rest of the day. Or a couple of days. My recovery rate is variable.
I’m raw and oversensitive and I’ve chosen the right path for that nature. And I’m not easy to work with because of it.

At least he knows this about himself. “Creative differences” make sense when you take this quote into account. He doesn’t want direction; he wants to do the show how he thinks it should be done, which worked out well for Criminal Minds.
If he’s going to go, I think they should at least make it exciting for viewers. Something big should happen to explain why his character, Jason Gideon, is leaving, and Joe Mantegna’s as yet unnamed character is arriving.

Check out Mandy Patinkin’s all-time best quote:

And here’s Mandy sword fighting with Carey Elwes in The Princess Bride: