Criminal Minds

I’ve read again and again that Criminal Minds is the darkest crime show on tv, that it’s extreme with its creepy villains and crimes. Honestly, I never really saw that it was so much more terrible than other shows, CSI for example. One particular episode of CSI that was especially memorable to me was when an older lady died and her cats became hungry. Not a pretty picture (and yes, they showed the picture).
I don’t know if I’m a product of over-exposure to crime shows and violent images, but the show didn’t really seem outrageously over the top.

Last night, I had a different perspective. Jamie Kennedy played Floyd Feylinn Ferell, a former mental patient who took a large bite of his baby sister when he was seven. He seemed pleased with himself when he’s being interrogated by Morgan with Fr. Marks. When he reveals that he’d fed one of his victims to search volunteers, he looks like he made a joke and is happy with the reaction.

With all the violent shows, movies, and videogames, I don’t know why this was especially vivid to me. It disgusted me, and I could begin to see why Criminal Minds was said to be more dark than other shows. On other crime procedurals, there is almost a light tone as the officers and detectives go about their business. Sometimes they are affected by their cases, but the tone is very different. Criminal Minds is always dark. Even when they’re joking around, there is an underlying tension and pervasive unease. Garcia provides a break from all this with all her color and charm, but even she is affected by what she sees.

The reason why I’m writing about this is that a reader commented that she won’t be watching the show anymore. A little aside: I really value the comments that people make. I appreciate the time they take, and I take respect everyone’s opinion. I just wanted to say that so the person who wrote the comment doesn’t feel singled out. Anyway, she said that the show had taken a morbid turn. There were images that she didn’t want her children to see. This is a person who has watched CM from the first episode.
It’s ironic that I’d just been thinking of the disgusting image of the volunteers eating the victim, and this reader made the comment.

Has Criminal Minds taken a turn for the worse as it gets more and more graphic? Is the tone of season three more foreboding than the previous two? I really don’t know. I do feel like something is different this season - besides the obvious cast change.
Is there another change in the characters? Are the shows gruesome, but at the same time predictable? What do you think of the cases and profiles that are being shown?

This was an interesting and welcome comment, so I thank the reader who wrote it. When I watched “Scared to Death,” I felt like it was a step backwards for the show. It seemed rushed and not fully developed. With “Seven Seconds,” I feel like the show was back in top form. There was a lot of family dynamics and relationships to investigate, and there was the suspense of finding the girl - and even whether she was still alive. I did enjoy “Lucky,” though I found it to be repulsive. But I think that being repulsive is what seperates CM from other shows. These aren’t average, ordinary killers (if there is such a thing). They are depraved. I have to admit that is why I watched the show in the first place. The crimes are different, the atmosphere is different. Some episodes are like mini horror movies.
The humanity is supposed to come from the profilers - their reactions and interactions. I don’t know why other people watch Criminal Minds and other crime procedurals, but I’m willing to guess that a lot of people are drawn to the sick and depraved cases. It’s fascinating to us.

I certainly understand, though, why this reader will not be watching the show anymore. Maybe there comes a point when you can’t absorb so much sickness and ugliness. What do you think?

To read some reviews of CM from back when it premiered, check out Metacritic.

Criminal Minds was in top form for Wednesday night’s episode, “Lucky.”

The show opens with bubbly, happy, smiling Penelope Garcia. She meets a guy at a coffee shop, fixes his computer, and gives him her number. She tells Morgan, and says she’s not the type to get hit on from across the room, and that it usually takes men longer to realize how wonderful she is. Morgan tells her to go with her gut, which she does. She throws his number away. But then, as she is talking to Morgan, she gets mad when he implies (or seems to) that there must be something wrong with the guy if he asked her out. So of course she sets up a date.

The case the team is investigating is particularly gruesome. The victims have pentacles carved into their chests, their legs are missing, and one had partially digested fingers in her stomach. The crimes take place in a small Florida town, and it revolves around the church. After the team deduces that the unsub is a former mental patient, they find the hospital where he was likely a patient. They find out that he bit a chunk out of his nine-month old sister when he was seven. Luckily, they also found out his name. From there, it was easy to trace him - he didn’t use an alias or try to hide. The last victim is saved, but one woman is still missing.
Morgan interrogates the unsub, who wants to talk to the parish priest. The priest tells the unsub that he is not alone, God is a part of him. To which the unsub replies, “And Tracy is a part of us too.”

The gruesome part: he signed up to help with the search party. His job was to feed the other volunteers. There are flashbacks of him ladling out soup to people in the community. This was so disgusting to me - they’re eating the person they’re trying to find.

On the personal side, Morgan is struggling with his faith. He lost faith in God when he was a child and was being abused. God did nothing, Morgan says. At the end of the episode, he is praying in church.

And Garcia’s date…at the end, James says, “Garcia, I’ve been thinking of doing this all day.” Hmmm…first date kiss? No, he takes out a gun and shoots her in the chest.

This was a great episode - very dramatic and creepy. Not only was the case interesting, the characters were developed further. We got to see more of Penelope - her interaction with Morgan when she gets mad at him lets us see a different side of her. Her character shows a lot of personality, but we don’t know a lot about her personal life. This will change in the upcoming episode when the investigation into her shooting takes place.

The third season started off well with “Doubt.” I was less impressed with “Scared to Death,” but the subsequent episodes have been exciting and entertaining. Next week’s offering, “Penelope,” continues the story and leads the team to suspect that the attacker is someone close to the investigation.

If you want to read a bit more about the WGA strike, Buddy TV has a new article, with thoughts from AJ Cook, CM exec producer Edward Bernero, and CM writer Andrew Wilder.

Tonight on Criminal Minds, the team tracks down a serial killer, played by Jamie Kennedy. This cannabal causes Morgan to doubt his faith. Also, Garcia goes on a date, and the relationship is not off to a good start.
If you want to know what happens, click here. Otherwise, we’ll see on Wednesday!
With the writers strike unresolved, this is one of the last new episodes. Next week, Nicholas Brendan will guest star as a computer tech hired to crack Garcia’s unique system.
To find out what else Criminal Minds has in store, check out TV.com’s episode guide.

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.

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!

Tonight’s episode, “Identity,” has the team racing to find one half of a killing duo. The other half killed himself when apprehended by authorities. They travel to Montana to investigate the kidnappings and murders of four women, and another woman is kidnapped.

Criminal Minds has aired six episodes this season, and they have scripts for six more. CBS fares pretty well (not ideal, but ok) in the strike. They have a lot of crime shows in their lineup, which do well in reruns. This summer, Criminal Minds did very well in the ratings with reruns. CBS also has popular reality shows, Amazing Race, Survivor, and Big Brother, which may return early.

The Power of Ten and Password are also ready to go should they be needed, and they can also be produced very quickly. New episodes of Jericho and The New Adventures of Old Christine are also available.

Fox also fares well because American Idol, which can begin as early as January, will fill up a lot of Fox’s airtime. They also have Kitchen Nightmares and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, whose writers are not governed by the WGA.

Shows that are in danger are Pushing Daisies and Heroes. They could disappear from the lineup altogether as they run out of new episodes.

If we run out of new Criminal Minds episodes, we can start checking out the books based on the series.

Note: I feel like I’ve talked about the strike a lot, so today I’ll just give you links to two good articles that talk about the impact on your favorite shows.
This one from the San Jose Mercury News talks about new and returning shows and what potential schedules could look like. This one from Seat 42F will tell you how many scripts are prepared for your favorite shows.

If you missed last week’s episode, which heralded Joe Mantegna’s arrival, here’s a clip. In it, he is talking to Erin Strauss (the big boss) - she can’t understand why he came back. He helped start the BAU, and now he’s coming back to work under Hotch. This, as it turns out, appears to be hard for him. He takes over and leaks important information on a case to the media without consulting the rest of the team.

Youtube is a very dangerous place - I was looking for one video, and I got sucked into watching a bunch. Couldn’t resist this one. What better combo than Weird Al and Spencer Reid.

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.

Yesterday I wrote about Wednesday night ratings. Today, Contact Music.com is saying that Criminal Minds was the top rated show of Wednesday night, beating out Private Practice. Hmmmm….guess it depends on the ratings area? In Australia, Private Practice won out over CM by 9%.
Media Week.com also reports CM as having won the night. So congratulations, Criminal Minds. It’s a solid show, consistently in the top twenty for the week.

On the potential writers strike: The New York Times reported this morning that union leaders will inform members whether or not they are striking by Friday afternoon. As an entertainment lawyer said yesterday, the Writers Guild has two weapons. A strike and the threat of a strike, so this could very well continue to be unsettled for days. We’ll see by this afternoon what they decide to do.

A lot of people must have been celebrating Halloween last night. TV ratings for everyone fell. Private Practice was the evening’s top show among the 18-49 crowd, but it had its lowest ratings ever. Criminal Minds tied its lowest ratings of the season last night.
CSI:NY had a better night, winning the ten o’clock timeslot. CBS had the highest ratings of the networks.

And speaking of last night’s Criminal Minds, Film.com has a review of “About Face” and Joe Mantegna’s long-anticipated arrival. This excerpt is taken from Film.com:

Last night’s case — which was about a man who leaves “Have You Seen Me?” flyers and then kidnaps the woman shown on them — wasn’t especially involving. The main purpose of the episode was setting up Rossi’s relationship to the rest of the crew. While technically serving underneath Thomas Gibson’s Hotchner, Rossi primarily followed his own hunches and seemed uncomfortable with the collegial nature of the BAU. Right now it seems like an ill fit, especially the disconnect between Mantegna’s new role as the show’s titular star and his subordinate role on the team.

What do you think - Is David Rossi - or Joe Mantegna - an ill fit for Criminal Minds?
For this week anyway, the ratings aren’t really an indication. They were low for everyone, so we’ll see what next week brings.
Scroll down for a poll on David Rossi and cast your vote. So far it looks like we miss Gideon.

David Rossi made his first appearance in the BAU last night - and it was pretty quiet. He didn’t come in and take over, he didn’t act like he was superior because he’d created the BAU. At first. Later in the episode he leaks some information to the press without Hotch’s consent - now he pulls out his experience and tries to tell Hotch he knows what he’s doing. If you missed “About Face,” TV.com has a detailed recap (TV.com is the place to go if you miss an episode of anything - their summaries are really exhaustive).
There’s a back story with Rossi - he carries a bracelet with three children’s names on it, and throughout the episode, he had flashbacks. Section Chief Strauss thinks he has an ulterior motive for rejoining the BAU, and she’s right. The story will continue to unfold throughout more episodes, but Rossi obviously has some unfinished business.

How did you like Joe Mantegna as David Rossi? I liked him -especially how his character contrasts to Gideon. He’s very cool and collected.

P.S. If you’re a Tom Green fan, stop over at Sarah Lee’s Watching Tom Green for a cool contest. Great prizes and EASY to win. Hurry over.

I’m very excited - this is the first time I get to take my daughter trick-or-treating. I thought she was too young last year, so we handed out candy. She loved seeing all the costumes, which made me feel like the worst mother for not dressing her up. So this year, I asked her what she wanted to be, and she said a “friendly dragon.” Very cute.

Anyway, I’m also excited because tonight is Joe Mantegna’s first episode of Criminal Minds. In “About Face,” Agent David Rossi makes his first appearance. The story is about an unsub who taunts his victims by making missing posters of them before abducting and killing them.
Rossi is a veteren FBI agent who helped establish the BAU. He went on to lecture and write.
Joe Mantegna says of his character:

This is a guy who’s financially solid, so some of the mystery is the underlying reason he’s coming back. He explains it initially as just wanting to help, which is fine, but we may find out there are other motivations as well.

He’s also happy with the show’s writing.

They are spending a little more time getting into the personalities and stories of the individual members of the team. I’ve really liked the stuff they’ve done with Shemar Moore’s character, in terms of his having gone through abuse as a child, and Thomas Gibson’s character has had domestic problems. The writing staff is really dedicated, and for me, that’s where it starts.

One suggestion Joe had was to make his character Italinian-American. Known for his roles in Mafia-related movies (The Last Don, The Godfather III), he says, “I have no qualms about playing [mobsters], but given the opportunity to show it’s just as common for an Italian-American to be the cop as to be the robber, I’ll make that choice.”

The Chicago Tribune has an interesting article about Joe Mantegna and Criminal Minds today. Check it out.
Also, Erinn at Parenting Children has some tips for a good trick-or-treating experience tonight.

The Writers Guild of America has voted to strike as nearly as Thursday, November 1, if an agreement with networks is not reached - which seems unlikely at this late date. CNN reports that networks have enough scripts in stock to last through New Year, and possibly into February. After that, it’s reality shows, game shows, or reruns. The writers strike could also affect next season’s shows.
The AP reports that “[p]ilots for next fall are being written now and the development process, which includes rewrites and casting, extends through the spring.” If the writers aren’t working, the process is stalled.
The impending strike would affect networks, and advertisers as well. If not as many people are watching tv, because they’re sick of reruns and reality, much less money is being generated. The writers and their families, though, are the ones who have to deal with the uncertainty of their futures: their jobs are in jeopardy, and they’re not getting paid their usual salaries.

For more info on the Writers Guild strike, click on the CNN link above, or visit an earlier post I did that is in a little more detail.

The whole way through last night’s episode of Criminal Minds, I was on edge about what happened to the missing little girl, Katie Jacobs. The show was suspenseful - thanks in large part to atmospheric music and the presence of so many police officers and FBI agents in such a normal, everyday setting.
The show begins with a call to 911 from Katie’s aunt. Her parents are desperately trying to find her. Another little girl had been taken - and killed - from a mall the previous week.
As the story unfolds, we get more details about the family. Morgan and Prentiss went to Katie’s house to look around. They find that she’d wet the bed a lot and that she’d mutilated her barbie doll - Morgan thinks she was being molested. Through this, the focus narrows to the family. The little girl’s father, uncle, and cousin are questioned. The little boy, Jeremy, was the last to see Katie before she disappeared. He saw something but will not tell the BAU.
A big clue is the necklace belonging to Katie. It is found in a garbage can, it’d been ripped off of her. Hotch feels that her abduction was personal, full of rage. Not a stranger kidnapping, and not related to the other little girl’s case.
Katie had lied to her parents about where she got the necklace, leading the BAU to believe that her abductor had given it it her. They’re led to her uncle but don’t think that he took her. Prentiss remembers a few things that Katie’s aunt had said. One was that she’d worked in retail for years and years (she doesn’t mention that she’d work in this particular mall). The other was that at the time of Katie’s disappearance, she was getting a lighter engraved for her husband. Who had quit smoking.
Prentiss questions the aunt - she’d take Katie. She was jealous of the attention her husband was giving to Katie. When the little girl slept over at their house, she knew her husband was abusing her, yet did nothing. She’d taken Katie to get rid of her competition.
She doesn’t tell Prentiss where Katie is but the team and police find her in a closet with duct tape on her mouth. She is asthmatic - which could easily be fatal with a blocked airway. They can’t find a pulse. The paramedics are working on her as her parents look on. You keep seeing and hearing the heart monitor as she flatlines. Then suddenly, you hear the beeps and she has a pulse.
I was actually unsure about whether she’d live. In most shows, it’s almost a given that she’d be ok, but this was so tense. I really didn’t expect the heart monitor to pick up a heartbeat.
Katie’s aunt and uncle are arrested and led away, leaving their son by himself. They appeared unconcerned with him as he stands with Reid and Morgan.
At the end, Hotch goes to where Haley is staying (with a sister or friend, I’m assuming). He asks to see his son for just five minutes. She lets him in and he goes and looks at his sleeping child. This was very sad - I can understand why he wanted to see his son so much, and the fact that he had to go ask made it more painful.

“Seven Seconds” was Criminal Minds in top form.

Next week’s episode deals with a predator who taunts his victims by making missing fliers of them before they go missing. Joe Mantegna also makes his first appearance, and it looks like he and Hotch butt heads right away - there’s no I in TEAM, Joe.

In Wednesday’s competetive nine o’clock timeslot, Criminal Minds held its own against Private Practice. While ABC’s new show won the hour, it lost viewers during the second half. Criminal Minds seems to be running strong. CBS was second overall - behind ABC. Kid Nation picked up some viewers and CSI:NY won the ten o’clock slot.

Pictured below are Agent Morgan (Shemar Moore) and Agent Prentiss (Paget Brewster) in “Children of the Dark.” (image courtesy of Stacy at criminalmindsonline.net)