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:

Paget Brewster seems so FBI-ish on Criminal Minds that it’s surprising to me that she is also known for her comedic roles. She lent her voice to American Dad, she was on Friends and The Trouble with Normal.
On Criminal Minds, Paget plays the straight-laced Emily Prentiss. In reality, she differs a little from her character.

In an interview with UnderGround Online, she responds to a question about Hugh Heffner asking her to pose for Playboy.

UGO: I caught you on the Conan O’Brien show a few weeks back. Are you going to take Hugh Heffner up on his offer [to pose in Playboy]?

PAGET: At first, I was like, “I’m not going to do it.” Then I talked about it on Conan and I was like, “God, I do kind of want to do it,” but I can’t do it. You know what I mean? I kind of wanted to, but I don’t know. It doesn’t seem fair. I think the re-touching would be great, and there is something kind of thrilling, dangerous and sexy, and cheesy about being naked in a magazine, but I do actually admire Playboy more than I do Maxim or FHM. When girls do that, all the power to them, have a great time, get all oiled up and put on some lingerie and get your picture taken. But I think if you’re going to do it, really do it. Go to the all-American institution and really damn well do it. But the manager, the agents, the lawyers, they were all, “You can’t do it,” and my mom and dad would have been upset. Even though I talked to them about it and they said, “You know what, if you really want to do it, that’s okay,” but I knew that it would upset them and make them uncomfortable. My parents are so great and I owe them my existence, so I couldn’t do it, but I was really tempted by it. It really is flattering. I’m 37. It’s pretty good. I feel like I’m looking pretty good. I kind of felt like, “I should take pictures of it now. It’s not going to look good in five years.”

Like co-star Shemar Moore, I wouldn’t expect any disrobing from Prentiss.

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.

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.

I didn’t realize Paget Brewster was on Friends. She played Joey’s girlfriend, Kathy. Kathy and Chandler kiss, Joey finds out, Chandler ends up in a box. Here’s a clip from YouTube that shows Chandler running through the streets of NYC just to say hi to her - and no one caught on that he liked her?

Paget has also done a million other television shows, Law&Order: SVU and Andy Richter Controls the World among the more well-known.
Paget’s character, Emily Prentiss, replaced Lola Glaudini’s Elle Greenaway. She talks about the reaction her character received when first on the show:

The show didn’t need another person. It just didn’t. It was an ensemble. They didn’t need to bring on another person. What they [viewers] were saying was fair, which is ‘Who is this strange person? I want to know more about Garcia. And that’s absolutely valid. Watching the show, if I hadn’t gotten the part, I would have felt the same thing.
I had to get rid of my Google alerts because so many people hated Prentiss… You do take it personally. You want people to be happy. You make a living entertaining people. You don’t want them to hate you. That’s the worse thing that could happen.

She says the BAU team has a “grudging” acceptance of her character, Prentiss. I like her on Criminal Minds because she kind of seems like the outsider for awhile and then just works her way in. Maybe the same will be true of Mandy Patinkin’s replacement, Joe Mantegna.

What’s Paget doing during the summer break from filming CM? Taking pictures of naked chics? According to MediaVillage’s Jacki Garfinkel, she will be traveling to England and Amsterdam taking photographs for the site SuicideGirls.com. “My agent keeps sending me film scripts,” Paget said. “Why would I want to work during my two months off? I want to shoot naked girls with tattoos!”
Really?