Criminal Minds

This little piece about AJ Cook was in Celebrity Baby Blog about a week ago. Here’s the post:

Criminal Minds actress A.J. Cook is four months along with her first child, and there’s no hiding it! The 29-year-old’s pregnancy is in the process of being written into the show, a prospect which is a bit scary and overwhelming for A.J.

It’s in full force — [my belly] just popped. I don’t want it to look like [my character] J.J.’s been hitting up the doughnut store. It’s going to be interesting. I’m kind of freaked out, because not everyone has to go through their pregnancy on national TV.A.J. is due in late September/early October.

That’s around the same time I’m due too! Good luck, AJ!

Lucky reader Mollie got an advanced copy for Killer Profile, the new Criminal Minds book. She says it was great, better than the first one. Speaking of which, I will announce the winner of the CM book contest on May 6. Thank you all for your entries.

On Wednesday, American Idol won the nine o’clock timeslot, but it was down in viewers. Still, 22 million is more than anything else rates, but CM had a respectable 12.9 million second place finish.

So, how did you like “In Heat” ? It was one of my favorite episodes of this season. I liked the story but also how we find out JJ has been seeing Detective LaMontagne for about a year. My favorite part was when the rest of the team was saying Finally, she’s admitting the relationship…she’d been trying to be so secretive. Even Reid picked up on it! So, now we now who the father is when she gets pregnant on the show. But overall, I thought the episode was great. I had been feeling the season was a little blah in spots, but it redeemed itself for me. Apparently, CBS is reairing “Jones” on Saturday, May 10. This is the episode in which the team travels to New Orleans to help with the investigation of a serial killer. This is when JJ and Detective LaMontagne originally. And also when Reid shows the most stress after being kidnapped and tortured.

Tonight, CBS is airing “In Heat,” in which a man who is conflicted by his sexuality becomes a serial killer targeting gay men. Here’s a Youtube of the trailer:

And JJ has a secret…can’t wait to watch!

And thanks for everyone who responded to the contest question. There are some great answers so far to the question who is your favorite character. It’s going to be hard to pick one winner…I want to give everyone something. The winner will be chosen on May 6 and the book sent out shortly after. Thank you again!

You could win a copy of Killer Profile, the new Criminal Minds book due out May 6. To win, all you have to do is email me who your favorite character is and why. You can also leave your answer in the comment section. Email/comment by May 6.

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:

I wanted to thank everyone who reads Watching Criminal Minds. I especially appreciate it when you take the time to comment. Thanks so much. To show my appreciation, I would like to offer a copy of the new Criminal Minds book by Max Allen to one lucky reader. The book comes out May 6. Here’s a description:

An elite team of FBI profilers is called in to help Chicago detectives investigate a series of bizarre murders. Though all are violent and disturbing, the crimes seem unrelated—until profiler David Rossi makes the connection. He recognizes each grisly tableau as one modeled on the crime scenes of three of the country’s most notorious serial killers: David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer.

Someone is taking the cult of true crime to terrifying extremes, and with so many killers left to emulate, Rossi wonders how he can possibly profile a killer who’s hiding within the killer profiles of others…

To win the book, tell me who your favorite character is and why. Pretty easy…the more detailed, the better. Since the book comes out May 6, you have until then to email me your answer. You can also leave it in the comment section, if that is easier for you.
Once again, thank you.

I’m mad! I wrote a whole post but it wouldn’t publish, so here is Try #2. Last night, “3rd Life” reaired, and I did like it better than I did before. I think that knowing that Lindsay and her father were protected witnesses made everything make more sense. The first time I watched it, I thought that her flat affect was just not so great acting. But knowing that she’s had live a lie makes it understandable. Like the way she interacted with the kidnapper/killer…not hysterical. She threatened them. Anyway, I liked it. And ratings have been improving - last week “Elephan’ts Memory” was in the Neilsen top ten. Hopefully, it does as well this week.

Some other cast info:

Matthew Gray Gubler had an interview in the Hardvard Independent in which he talked about movies, characters, and more. You can find that by clicking here.

Here’s a little piece of that interview:

B: Can you give us an inside scoop on what’s going to be happening on this season’s Criminal Minds?

M: I bet your bottom dollar. It’s the writer’s favorite thing to put Dr. Reid into like some sort of damsel in distress situation, but I think they’re making him a little bit stronger, too. Reid is kind of in a character revolution. In fact, the episode we’re shooting now is really interesting because it flashes between modern-day us and the versions of us four years ago. And I played Dr. Reid four years ago yesterday and it felt like a completely different show. … It didn’t hit me until that moment how much this character was really transformed and changed into something completely different.

Speaking of someone maybe being pregnant, I think that is going to come up in next week’s episode so make sure to watch!

Also, I was flipping through the channels last night and landed on Two and a Half Men, guest starring Paget Brewster. She played a more funny, weird role than CM’s Emily Prentiss. It’s always interesting to see her and the rest of the cast in different roles.

CBS is reairing “3rd Life,” which guest stars Gina Mantegna. Last week during “Elephant’s Memory,” Spenser talked about how a kid got shot in front of him, and this is the episode where that happens (right? In the end? That’s what I figured he meant). Two girls are kidnapped and one ends up dead. The team has to find the killer before the other girl is killed as well.

I’m looking forward to watching this one again because the first time I didn’t think it was spectacular. I’m hoping that either I will see the light or I will be in a better mood than I was last time. Who knows? If you’ve never seen it, it is definately worth watching. I don’t want you to get the idea that I thought it was bad…Criminal Minds is never bad. And if you’ve seen it, let me know if you liked it more/less/or the same as you did last time.

“3rd Life” airs tonight at nine on CBS. Here’s a clip from YouTube.

Yesterday, April 20, was Shemar Moore’s 38th birthday. Also, today is the birthday of the best person ever and the father of my children…happy birthday, I love you!

I thought I’d write a little about Kirsten Vangsness today - I realized a lot of what is written about her has to do with her clothes (which are usually awesome!). But I found an article in The Daily Trojan, which is the newspaper of the University of Southern California, all about Kirsten aka Garcia.

It’s full of interesting little things, like Kirsten’s motivation to become an actress:

When I was growing up, I wanted to be Wonder Woman. Then I wanted to be a doctor, then a fireman, then a ballerina. So I just decided that I wanted to act like all those things (instead).

And would you believe she was shy?

When I was in high school I was really, really shy. I wouldn’t talk … so my mom said you can either take shop or you can take drama, and I did not want to take shop so I took drama. And, all of a sudden, I was good at something.

Kirsten was told by a casting director that she could never be an actress.

You’re not going to be an actor … you’re not fat enough to be the really fat girl, and you’re not thin enough to be the pretty (girl).

Hmm, I wonder what that lady is doing right now. Anyway, Kirsten had a bunch of jobs as she tried to make it in acting - substitute teacher, personal assistant, and she also worked at a group home for abused children.

When an opportunity came to audition for Criminal Minds, Kirsten faced some tough competition. There were over 300 other women trying out for the part, which was originally only going to last one episode. But, who can resist Garcia’s charm? Not the producers of CM, who decided to give her a recurring role. Now, she’s one of the main characters.

There is more to Kirsten than her clothes (even though they’re awesome). She managed to turn a guest starring role into a career, while making fans fall in love with her. Plus, the FBI really does like her character. She’s been told that she has a lot of fans in Quantico.

You can check out more of the article at the link above. Also, for more tv news, check out 451 Press.

Reid in “Revelations” from Season Two.

Last night’s episode was ok. I wasn’t jumping out of my seat - I’m feeling a little like Simon Cowell lately. I think my problem with it is that I hyped it up a lot in my mind because I was excited to finally see something about Spenser. It didn’t really live up to what was in my mind, but I’m trying not to hold that against it! It was interesting that we saw Spenser at a meeting, talking about craving drugs. It was also interesting how he acted like an ass to everyone he met in that Texas town they visited - telling the police department that they could have prevented the deaths of two of their officers among others, is a great PR move.
So I think that’s the end of Reid’s drug addiction.

If I seperate it in my mind from all the Reid-based drama I was expecting, it was pretty good. I liked the character of Jordan and how she didn’t know what Owen had done. When she found out, she was able to leave, which must have been terrible for her. She has nothing left - her father was killed, her boyfriend is a killer.

What did you think? I definately thought it was good, but I don’t think it was one of the best at all.

Joe Mantegna has a daughter with Austism, so this subject is close to his heart. He is the spokesman for a bill that would lower the cost of caring for children with Autism. He says,

Autism is the number one medically-diagnosed disorder afflicting children, so you may be surprised to learn autism is not covered by health insurance in Illinois, unlike the states of Michigan, Indiana and New York, that all cover children diagnosed with autism.

Here is a YouTube clip with Joe Mantegna talking about the bill, which would go into effect in Illinois. This would be a tremendous help for families that struggle with this condition.

“Elephant’s Memory” appear tonight, the third new episode since the strike. The return of Criminal Minds and other scripted shows came at a good time for CBS. After being handily defeated by Fox week after week, and placing third and fourth in the ratings, CBS had five of the top six scripted shows of the week.

CSI was tops for the week, CM, NCIS, and Numb3rs were number one on their respective nights. While Criminal Minds faces tough competition from American Idol, it is doing great. Ratings increased 2% for the show from “Damaged” to “A Higher Power.” This brought 520,000 new viewers to CBS.

And I think tonight’s episode is going to do even better - make sure to watch at nine tonight on CBS.

Shemar Moore was on Ellen - I didn’t get to watch it because it happens to be on opposite Seseme Street for us. If you missed it as well, you can click here for a look.

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.