Too Much?
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.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I agree with your reader–CM is not a show I would want young children to watch. I think they are pouring on the shock value to get viewers–I think maybe they felt they had to be extra gruesome to keep their ratings up after Mandy Pitinkin left.
November 16th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
I just watched “Lucky” for the 2nd time before I came on to check my email and found your comments. I think this was the darkest episode of them all; even the other episode with the young man who thought he was making angels was not as dark because we saw him out of his mind and out of control. Seeing him that way mitigated some of the horror he perpetrated, because he was too crazy to know better.
The Lucky criminal had it enough together to actually interact with people, including the profilers, thus he is, in a way, more monstrous and we are not given a way out to excuse him to ourselves for being a frothing at the mouth monster.
I think the tone overall is darker this season and I attribute it to the loss of Gideon. Not because I was a fan of Mandy, and I am a fan, but because Gideon had and showed and communicated a higher order of humanity within the team. Rossi may be experienced and wise, Hotch dedicated and brilliant and so on, but Gideon was the one to take on our, we the viewers, horror and suffering from the darkest aspects of the criminals, upon himself. He suffered and so we were let off the hook a little bit, because he was the representative of and for our feelings of horror. So far, none of the other characters have taken on this persona in his place.
In a way, Gideon was selfless and the other team members are engaged in growing and changing before our eyes. So, our relationship with them is different and more personally invested.
I could have lived without the freezer full of women and not lost any of the horror, and the episode “Irresistible” on X Files about a possibly demonic serial cannibal was scarier than “Lucky”, as was “Silence of the Lambs”. I realize they wanted to highlight Morgan’s belief system and make him question evil as an entity, but I do not think that worked very well, either there was not enough personal creep factor for Morgan or he simply seemed too strong to be seriously affected.
Otherwise, the pacing and characterizations were excellent and the story well told, although being a Floridian myself, there are not that many people in the state that have hung on to their southern accent after all these years and the huge influx of Hispanics, retirees and tourists.
Lociloco
November 19th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Lociloco - I think you’re absolutely right. That’s the difference I was searching for in season three. Gideon was the humanity of the show; he took on the pain for everyone else. None of the other team members have that level of empathy. They’re not cold or unfeeling by any means, but they don’t seem to be as affected.