Criminal Minds

I’m very excited about this episode. I’ve been waiting for something to happen with Reid. They made such a big deal of his trauma and supposed drug addiction last season and then this season, he hasn’t been a big part of any of the shows. I’m glad that appears to be changing. I wonder if there is something wrong with him and where the action will lead…”Elephant’s Memory” will air on Wednesday at nine.

“3rd Life” helped propel CBS to a second place finish Wednesday night. CSI:NY also had a new episode. NBC was the top network, with new episodes of Deal or No Deal, which was more popular than CBS’s Power of Ten. The New York Times reports this morning that both CM and CSI:NY were tops in their timeslots. ABC was third, but had decent numbers for Wife Swap and Supernanny.

“3rd Life” was the first new episode we’ve seen in a few weeks and was much anticipated because of the guest appearance of Gina Mantegna. It was great to see a new episode, but it was disappointing in that that was one of the last new one for a while. I thought the episode was not one of the best CM has to offer. The whole plot twist with the witness protection thing was strange to me. I know it made sense because of the way they lived, how Lindsay was able to stay alive, and why her father faces no consequences for his actions. It just seemed kind of thrown in there. The character Gina Mantegna played also was odd to me. Again, this is because they were trying to show that she had a totally different view point than your average 15 year old, but it was still very strange seeing her. I know I have repeated the words Odd, Strange, and weird a lot, but that’s what this episode was for me. One bright spot was Spenser. I haven’t been loving his character much this season. Maybe that’s because they haven’t focused much on him personally, like they did last season. But two things stuck out in “3rd Life.” Just before the team finds out that Jack is in witness protection, they see that his buddy (aka a federal marshal) has a gun. Immediately, they all draw their guns. Spenser wasn’t hesitant at all. He looked like a real FBI agent. Not shaky or scared. Go, Spencer! The other was when Spenser happened to be the one to find Lindsay, Jack, and the kidnapper in the bathroom of the high school. He tries to talk Jack down from shooting the kid who took his daughter. Jack shoots him anyway. Spenser just looks shocked afterwards. During the whole scene he is very sure of himself, but after, he is just astonished. It made his character seem a little more grown up, like he could take care of himself and didn’t need the rest of the team to protect him.
Other than that, this was not one of my favorite episodes. Next week, “Limelight” will be on. The contents of a storage unit in Philadelphia are bought at an auction. Inside, there turns out to be evidence of a serial killer. The team must look at the items to profile the killer. A local agent becomes a focus of the investigation.

Trivia: The song that Katie is singing on her weblog and at the end of the episode is “Umbrella,” by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z. Here’s a Youtube of the song.

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.

Last night marked Joe Mantegna’s second episode with Criminal Minds. A funny part of the episode had Emily, Spencer, and Morgan looking through his office and profiling him. Of course he walks in. Emily and Spencer were properly embarrassed, but Morgan just looked annoyed. He is not accepting of David Rossi at all.
So the action of the episode revolved around a former militia member in Colorado, Francis Goehring. He was being pursued by the police when he blew himself up, taking a police officer with him. He’d kidnapped four women, the fourth only a half hour or so before he killed himself. Goehring’s ex-wife leads them to her parent’s land, where the women’s bodies were found. Rossi discovers that the last woman had been killed only a short time ago, and couldn’t have been killed by Goehring.

As they search for his partner, they find several clues as to his personality. He is a submissive partner, he tried to please Francis Goehring, and he was also in love with him. His identity was so wrapped up in Francis that when he killed himself, he took on Goehring’s personality - or tried to. The partner, Henry, kidnaps a woman from a gas station and is preparing to kill her. The team and sheriff find the location (Spencer had been working on a geographical profile all episode). A sniper is the only way that they’ll be able to save the woman. The best sniper they have is not even a cop. He’s the leader of the local militia, which Morgan objects to strongly (because they had a little run in at this guy’s bar). Anyway, the sniper kills Henry, and the woman is saved.
There’s a lot of back story that played into the events also. Brought up numerous times was Ruby Ridge and the surprise that Montana authorities actually asked for the FBI’s help. I thought it was interesting how the show brought up actual events, and especially events in which the FBI is shown in a poor light. It comes out that Rossi was at Ruby Ridge -and doesn’t want to talk about it.
At the tail end of the episode, Morgan and Rossi are talking and Morgan asks him why he came back, which he’d been suspicious of for a while. Rossi just said “Unfinished business,” and walked away.

This scene bothered me a bit, and I’ve been trying to find a word that fit it since last night. The best I can come up with is cheesy. Or maybe melodramatic. We get that Rossi has unfinished business and is tortured by some case that was unresolved. I think it doesn’t really need to be said anymore - we know. It’s much more dramatic and mysterious if very little is said about it, but it comes up very frequently. I don’t know if anything needed to be said at all - a former FBI agent has a lucrative career as a writer and lecturer and he gives it up to come back as a subordinate in the BAU. Last week, he kept touching the bracelet with the children’s names. We get it. We don’t need anymore hints that he has a troubling secret.

That was just one part that I thought could’ve been better, but otherwise, I liked the episode. It was dramatic, and I liked the local characters. When Henry is kidnapping the last woman in front of a gas station, the woman who was working there ran inside when she saw what was happening. I assumed that she went to call 911, but she came out with a shotgun. I also liked how they were able to get the militia to help them. Militia hate the FBI, the government. Rossi told them it wasn’t about them, it was about this woman from their community who was missing and in danger. This made the militia members seem human, which is not always done on tv or movies. They’re caring people, they just don’t care for the government.

Next week’s episode is going to be a good one - this one features Penelope. It’ll be good to have her get her own show!

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.

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.

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!

Hal Boedeker - the TV Guy- reports that CBS was #1 in ratings Wednesday night. Power of Ten, hosted by Drew Carey pulled in the most viewers for the eight o’clock hour at about 8.7 million people. Rerun Criminal Minds episode “Lessons Learned” was also the top ranked show for 9:00, averaging 8.3 million viewers. Pretty impressive when a rerun generates that many viewers.
“Lessons Learned” first aired on November 22, 2006, and has agents Gideon, Prentiss, and Reid traveling to Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, to try to stop a chemical terrorist attack on the U.S. In this episode, Prentiss shows why she’s in the unit. Her knowledge of the Arabic language and culture is key in trying to prevent the anthrax attack that jihadists have planned. (For an episode recap go to TV.com) This episode was written by real BAU agent Jim Clemente.
Here’s a clip of Clemente talking about his job as a profiler. He specializes in cases involving children, particularly internet crime.

If you missed this episode, make sure to watch this. This clip of Criminal Minds is set to the song, “Whisper,” by Evanescence. Even if you did see “Revelations,” it’s definately still worth watching. Very exciting!

If you have no idea what happened, check out some more clips at YouTube. There are a few that show longer sections of the episode if you want a better idea of what’s going on.
While you’re there, check out these other CM videos: One has scenes from “Revelations” set to “If Everyone Cared,” by Nickelback. (Awesome video - very exciting). The other is “Lithium,” also by Evanescense, and features scenes after Elle’s attack at the beginning of season one.

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.

(more…)

Heaven knows I love the show and Reid is a fantastic character, but one complaint I do have about the past season is the way they handled Reid’s post-”Revelations” drug addiction. Or rather, how they *didn’t* handle it.

When we saw Reid steal the drugs at the end of the episode, I was pretty excited. The drugs he was given are highly addictive and it wouldn’t have been realistic for him to have as much as he did without getting somewhat hooked. Add to that the mental stress of the ordeal he had been through and I was expecting a pretty serious look at how Reid’s addiction would battle with his logic, how he would seek help (or have help brought to him via the team), and how he would fight and win against his addiction.

So of course I as heavily disappointed that it was never really full-on addressed. We saw him in the following episode, staked out in a bathroom with his drugs before he was interrupted. After that there were moments where it was implied - both that he was still dealing with it and that the team knew what he was going through. But it was never fully addressed.

I know it’s a crime drama and not an after-school special, but I would have really liked to have seen a proper attempt to show how a character like Reid, someone who is highly intelligent, deals with logic, and wouldn’t normally be a drug user, would fight against a drug addiction.

(Photos source - buddytv.com)

For the longest time, fans - myself included! - have asked the big question: Yes, the chase to catch killers and rapists is awesome, but will JJ and Reid ever finally hook up?

There was once a mention of a date way back when, but then nothing ever came of it and everyone was left wondering if we’ll just have to deal with the cute tension between them without anything further. A.J. Cook, the wonderful actress who plays JJ is just as in the dark about it, as seen when she was asked about the relationship that never was:

I’d personally love to see it as long as it doesn’t override the main purpose of the show. And if it never happens, well we always have about eight thousand fanfics revolving around their relationship to make us feel better.