Willing Suspension of Disbelief
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.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:31 am
[...] The Sydney Morning Herald is sassy again this morning. David Dale writers about the Hollywood Writers Strike. Since a lot of us Americans are egocentric (not me, though), it’s interesting to see what other places think of the strike. It doesn’t seem Sydney will be affected too much in the short-term. According to Dale, Australia’s favorite US shows, Criminal Minds, House, The Simpson, Ghost Whisperer, CSI, and My Name is Earl, have plenty of new episodes to last through the end of Australia’s ratings season, which ends in three weeks. Shows more affected by the strike, Heroes, Bionic Woman, and Prison Break, are not getting big audiences anyway. Dale sees three big advantages to the US writers’ strike. First, better shows: In the case of Heroes, which has been slow this season, the creator, Tim Kring, phoned Entertainment Weekly magazine from the picket line promising to make good use of his time off: “The message is that we’ve heard the complaints and we’re doing something about it.” According to EW, “The cliffhangers are back. Narrative purpose has been discovered. Old favourites such as Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Horn Rimmed Glasses (Jack Coleman) take centre stage.” A good omen for other strike-affected programs which have been disappointing us lately. [...]