Criminal Minds

Shemar Moore is clearly close with his mother, Marilyn, so I thought I’d find out a little more about their relationship. She sounds like a great mother, and her son obviously adores her.

Marilyn was a teacher. After she and Shemar’s father were divorced, they moved to Holland. Shemar’s mother only spoke Dutch to him so he didn’t learn English until he was five or six.

About his race, Shemar says:

The world sees me as a black man, but my mother didn’t raise me as a black man. She didn’t raise me as a white guy. She raised me as Shemar Franklin Moore. She said; don’t worry about being black or being white. Just be you, and go tell your story.

Shemar also biked 100 miles to raise awareness and funds for the National MS Society. His mother, Marilyn, has the disease. He got his Criminal Minds buddies to help him out and plans to do the bike tour again.

Shemar’s mother also made sure her son took his education seriously. While in high school, Shemar was a star pitcher.

I could run, but I was throwing 93 mph coming out of high school. So I got drafted by Baltimore and Boston, so I thought I had a chance to play at Fenway Park. But I got drafted out of high school, and my mother wasn’t having it. She was like, you’re not about to think that you can just play ball, because if you get hurt, you’re going to be out of luck. So you’re going to go to school, and you’re going to get that piece of paper, and then you’re going to do whatever you want to do.

There are critics who say that Criminal Minds is just a rehash of other crime procedurals. CBS alone has eight other crime shows that air on primetime. Cold Case, CSI, CSI:NY, CSI:Miami, Numb3rs, Without a Trace, and NCIS. We’ll also throw in Moonlight because it’s about a private investigator vampire. It’s interesting that some of these shows are enormously popular while others go by seemingly unnoticed. It’s also interesting to me that I like some of these shows and not others. For instance, I love CSI, but will not watch CSI:NY or Miami. My sister loves Miami. I like Cold Case and Numb3rs but don’t care for NCIS. And I’ve only seen Without a Trace once or twice.
I wanted to see if these shows are really as similar as critics seem to think they are. And if they are, how can you prefer one over another?

I started with CSI. This is kind of the mother of all forensic procedurals. It’s on its eighth season and has retained its top stars throughout the show (but is soon to be minus Jorja Fox). This gives it an edge over the competition because it’s established. It doesn’t have to measure up to anyone else’s standards - it has set the standard. They have interesting tools to solve crimes and they delve a little into the characters’ lives, which is interesting. The season premiere was great - the last episode of last season left millions of CSI lovers wondering about the fate of one of the investigators. The premiere resolved that and moved the action of the show ahead.

I watched the series premiere of Moonlight Friday night. My fiance commented that he didnt’ think the show would last that long. I replied that it was the type of show that is on (or should be) at two in the morning. You can’t sleep so you turn on the tv; it’s a choice between an infomercial and a show about a vampire P.I. That’s exactly what it seemed like to me. It’s just the typical good guy vampire struggling to live without killing innocent people, while solving crimes. It didn’t seem to have anything special about it - at least Buffy was funny.

CSI:NY had its season premiere Wednesday, September 26. In the episode, the Statue of Liberty is the scene of the crime. This episode was OK. Not bad. I still think that this show isn’t as interesting because of the characters, but this could definately be because I don’t watch the show regularly. I don’t find them that interesting. On the CBS webpage’s description of the show, they hint to the dark pasts and secrets of the characters, but I’ve never seen the episodes that show this. I guess I haven’t given this show a chance, but I have really no urge to watch it again.

To me, Criminal Minds is very different from these shows. Instead of focusing on forensic evidence like the CSI’s, the profilers look at the crimes scene to gather behavioral evidence. Obviously, none of them are vampires. While the cases on CM might be similar to those on other shows, at least they have the whole human experience to draw from. Moonlight has vampires - and there are only so many plotlines for that, many of which have been done and redone.
Next, I’m going to check out CSI:Miami, Cold Case, and NCIS.

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.

One more day. Season three starts off with “Doubt,” the lost episode from season two. “Doubt” was pulled out of the lineup last year because of the shootings at Virginia Tech.

(Officers at Virginia Tech tend to the wounded)
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two people and wounded four more. He then killed himself. Cho was diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder in middle school and received treatment until his junior year of high school. While at Virginia Tech, he was accused of stalking two female students and was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice. At least one professor suggested he seek counseling. The Virginia tech shooting surpassed Columbine and the University of Texas shooting as the most deadly school shooting in the U.S. Wikipedia has an extensive entry for the shooting if you want to know more about it.
So the producers pulled the episode because it was to air so close to the time the shooting occured.
It’s definately a timely topic. On Friday, September 21, two students were shot at Delaware State University. The campus was closed immediately - classes were cancelled and students were told to stay in their dorms. The reaction was swift because Virginia Tech had been widely criticized for not taking action sooner to prevent more deaths.
Police have identified two “persons of interest,” one of whom is in custody. The victims were one female, who is said to have possibly life-threatening injuries, and one male, who is in stable condition. Thankfully, there were no more injuries and no fatalities.
In the Criminal Minds episode, a college campus is shut down after shootings, and the BAU works on a profile of the unsub. After they have a suspect in custody, the shootings continue.

Fans of both Criminal Minds and the Red Sox got a treat last night when Shemar Moore threw the opening pitch at Fenway Park. Shemar was a high school pitcher - clocking 93 mph fastballs - and was drafted by the Sox and the Orioles. He says his mom vetoed the pro baseball career in favor of a baseball scholarship to Santa Clara University.
A dedicated Sox fan, Shemar says:

I was at the playoff game in 2004, freezing my tail off and jumping up and down on the Green Monster, calling all my friends, ‘Look at me under the Coca Cola sign.’ It was pretty easy since that was the game the Yankees won 19-8 and they were scoring home runs every four pitches! I think I even made ESPN’s highlights that night.

Maybe the Sox will trade in Daisuke Matsuzaka for Shemar. (Reminder: email me your entries for a CM episode idea…the winner will get a book by real-life profiler, John Douglas.)

Boston Red Sox, Shemar Moore, Criminal Minds

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…)

Some of you may be aware that there was one episode missing from the 2006-2007 season for Criminal Minds. It was titled “Doubt” and it was pulled from its original air date because it was too close in similarity to the real life tragic shooting at Virginia Tech in April 2007.

TV.com has the following synopsis of the episode:

The team investigates a serial killer who is targeting women at a small midwestern college. The BAU shuts down the campus, creates a detailed profile of the unsub, and arrests a suspect. However, the team members begin to have doubts about themselves when the killings on campus continue.

In order to be sensitive to those affected by the V-Tech murders (and who wasn’t, really?), it was pulled with the intent of showing it later in the season but now it seems it will be held over until next season.

(Photo source - imdb.com)

I have to say, even though reruns are never as much fun as brand new episodes, at least they can help tide us over throughout the dreaded hiatus season.

Next week on May 30th, they will re-air “Ashes and Dust”, an episode where a suspect breaks into middle class homes and sets fires with the intent to kill while families are sleeping. The first time I watched the episode, it really set my adrenaline through the roof. I’m eager to see whether it will still get my pulse racing the second time around - I think it will.

The following week, June 6th, they will re-air “The Big Game” which was one of the most anticipated two-parters ever - the one where a religious fanatic is trying to rid the area of those deemed unworthy. It’s also, of course the infamous episode where Reid goes missing, leading in to the second part (”Revelations”) which was possibly the best episode of the show, ever.

Also, if you’re like me and you’re a) Canadian and b) someone who watched the American Idol finale and the Lost finale last night, you missed the rerun of “Distress” but the Canadian network CTV runs episodes on Sundays, whew!

(Photo source)