Criminal Minds

Matthew Gray Gubler joins the other side in the upcoming movie, How To Be a Serial Killer. Here’s a synopsis from Buddy TV:

How To Be A Serial Killer follows the story of Mike Wilson (Dameon Clarke), an educated and alluring young man who has found his life’s purpose in murdering people. Determined to share the joys of serial killing, he decides to recruit a lost soul named Bart (Matthew Gray Gubler) to be his apprentice. In due course, Mike guides Bart through the ethics of serial killing, teaching him various strategies for disposing corpses, balancing work and play, methods of killing, and other aspects of exterminating. However, their killing spree is interrupted when Mike’s girlfriend finds out what’s beneath her boyfriend’s amiable exterior. Now, Mike and Bart must kill their way out of being discovered by the cops.

We’ll also be able to see him in Porn Star and 500 Days of Summer. I’m not sure of release dates, but Serial Killer and Porn Star (two dubious careers to say the least) are in post-production and should be out soon. 500 Days of Summer will be a little later. So hopefully we’ll have some non-CM Matthew to gawk at soon.

What have our favorite tv profilers been doing during the WGA strike?
Shemar Moore is helping celebrate Black History Month at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He will make a guest appearance tonight at the Annual Black History Month Culture Show. Carleton University also hosted Angela Davis this month to discuss black history as someone who had participated in it. Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and is a political activist who used to be associated with the Black Panthers. She is infamous for her arrest and trial for the murder of Judge Harold Haley. Eventually she was acquitted. Her arrival on campus brought a lot of controversy. Shemar Moore is a less controversial subject, but his appearance will help bring focus to Black History Month. (Oh, and he was also one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men.)

Joe Mantegna will be a presenter for Sunday night’s Grammy awards. This one is a live show with performers and presenters, unlike the press conference style Golden Globes. Some acts include Beyonce and Tina Turner, Fergie with John Legend, Rihanna, Josh Groban with Andrea Bocelli, Feist, Foo Fighters with John Paul Jones, Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige.

Kirsten Vangsness appears in the movie, In My Sleep. Matthew Gray Gubler also hit the big screen with an updated Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Hopefully, we’ll see them all in new episodes soon!

Old School Alvin and the Chipmunks

My sisters and I used to come home from school and watch Alvin and the Chipmunks everyday after school. My favorite was Theodore, the short chubby one. Coincidentally, I was the short chubby one. This paragon of the eighties was actually conceived much earlier. In the 1950’s, Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. released records under the name of David Seville and the Chipmunks. This was enormously successful, so it spawned animated series. (Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were the names of executives for Bagdasarian’s record label.)
The voices were all done by Bagdasarian, and his high-pitched characters earned him two Grammy Awards for engineering. He recorded his voice and then sped up the playback. And speaking of the eighties, you could recreate this voice effect by using a tape recorder to record your voice and then fast-forwarding it. Fun times.
Anyway, check out Wikipedia for more info on Alvin and the Chipmunks - it’s actually pretty interesting.

So what does Alvin and the Chipmunks have to do with Criminal Minds? Sometimes I write about random stuff with absolutely no connection, but I do have a point this time. The character of Simon is given his voice by Matthew Gray Gubler, our cute Dr. Reid in a new version of the classic.
The trio is given an updated look - they lose the weird nightshirts or whatever they are and put on some sweatshirts. The animation is brighter and more 3D-ish.
In the movie, the three chipmunks are living in the forest. Their home gets cut down to take to the city to become a Christmas tree. They end up living with Dave (played by Jason Lee). He creates the trio, which becomes a huge success. But trouble comes when a record company exec tries to take over the act.

Matthew plays Simon, who is tall, thin, and intellectual. From the official Alvin and the Chipmunks site:

The moral and intellectual center of the group, Simon is the most balanced member of the Chipmunks, preferring to solve problems through logic and/or negotiation.

The chipmunks look different but don’t worry, they still have those squeaky voices. One of my friends went to see it with her son (Randi at Watching House). We are products of the eighties, so she didn’t know if she’d like it as well as the original. But she did. It’s supposed to have a more modern sense of humor, and the actors/voices are great. So I’ll have to check it out soon since there aren’t any new CM episodes.

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.

A few months ago, Matthew Gray Gubler spoke about his character - and himself - on Jacki Garfinkel’s Confessions of a TV Maven.
Of Spencer Reid, Gubler says:

I like the fact that in just two years, from the pilot to Ashes to Dust, it’s not the same guy…In the first episode I’m like Macaulay Culkin. I’m so young. Now I look really old and decrepit.

Being held hostage three times, killing two people, and getting pumped full of addictive drugs while being tortured is likely to do that to a person.
“It’s more real if you spend your life hunting bad guys. I’m sure you can’t remain wide eyed,” Gubler says. Gideon was the show’s proof that the profilers couldn’t escape unscathed by the violence they investigate.
Jacki Garfinkel says that the drugs “have greatly been a part of Reid’s storyline since.” I think that quite the opposite is true. It wasn’t given much attention other than a few outbursts by Spencer.
But, says Gubler:

It’s not the end of the drug addiction. I asked the writer who wrote the drug addiction script [Chris Mundy], and he said no…Now it’s just whether or not they pick it up again.

It’d definately make for an interesting third season if something were to develop along those lines. Not that I want Spencer to become a drug addict, but is it realistic to become addicted and then -poof- you’re cured? He is the innocent one on the show, but I’m guessing innocence doesn’t last long in that kind of work.

Matthew Gray Gubler, the brilliant Dr. Spencer Reid, was formally a model for Marc Jacobs, Burrberry, Louis Vuitton, and Tommy Hilfiger. He did a layout for Kate Spade that was in Vanity Fair and other fashion magazines. He was once #46 on an all-time-best-male-model list. Fashion is in his family, too. His sister is Laura Dahl, a designer.
Below is a dress designed by Laura - apparently you have to be thirteen feet tall and seventy pounds to wear it.
(Off the subject: on Laura Dahl’s website, there is a celebrity style blog. I think it’s my new favorite. Check it out if you like gossip, clothes, and celebrities.

Maybe some of this fashion sense will trickle down to Spencer. I love the show, love his character, but I HATE his clothes. He dresses like a seventy year-old English teacher.

Do me a favor: go here and look at the picture of Matthew Gray Gubler. Does he not bear a striking resemblance to Napoleon Dynamite - minus the huge glasses?
I just totally used that as an excuse to talk about Napoleon Dynamite. If you have not seen it, definately check it out. It’s such a random movie but SO FUNNY. And now my whole family talks like him, so that’s fun too!

Here’s a little YouTube to get you in the Napoleon Dynamite mood. It’s Napoleon on David Letterman doing the Top Ten (Signs You’re Not the Coolest Kid in High School).

And if you have some extra time on your hands, check out Napoleon’s famous dance scene.

Dr. Spenser Reid is the resident genius of Criminal Minds; he knows all kinds of obscure things, like what is on page 17 of a book he read when he was seven. He reads at an insane pace and can process things instantly. The only thing that he’s not so good at is being a twenty-five year old. He’s shy and awkward around women, which was why I was glad he started hooking up with the actress in season one. His character isn’t like anyone a lot of us know.
Some characters make us feel like they’re real people: You can see Hotch struggle with trying to balance his work and family lives; Elle is traumatized by her attack; Gideon carries pictures of victims whose cases he’s worked on in his wallet. Is Spenser as realistic or is he more of a stereotype of what people think a genius is?
It was interesting when they showed flashbacks of when he had to send his mother to an institution. It made him seem more human. His short-lived drug habit also did this.
He adds a lot to the show - he brings amazing intelligence to the team, but he also has a more innocent quality to him than the others.
Check out this clip from Youtube. Matthew Gray Gubler as himself:

Which look do you think suits Matthew Gray Gubler the most? What about the look that best fits his Criminal Minds character, Spencer Reid?

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Maybe in the next season, his character will start wearing something besides cardigans. That’s my only complaint with Spencer Reid: have JJ or Morgan take him shopping!

Las Vegas Now has a written transcript of an interview done with Matthew Gray Gubler back in May. It’s excellent, giving some details as to how he approaches his role. He also mentions the rough time that poor Dr. Reid has had as of late.

“I’ve been kidnapped three times, held hostage twice, I’ve watched my best friend kill a man, I’ve seen a kid commit suicide in front of me, I’ve been shot and even set on fire,” Gubler explained.

The transcript also mentions his summer hiatus project, in which he plays someone on the opposite side of the law in “How To Be A Serial Killer” - after playing someone who catches the killers, I bet it must be fun to try the killer role for a short time too!

The entire transcript is below the cut.

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