It’s nice when we reconnect with old friends, right? It felt really great to sit back down with our Criminal Minds BAU once again last night. I mean, the psycho-of-the-week was no walk in the park, but you catch my drift.

I had apparently totally forgotten that Hotch (Thomas Gibson) was standing at gunpoint as the last season closed. Like, I wrote my review piece last week and only talked about Hotch and his family. Woosh. But last May, Hotch was being held in his apartment at the mercy of the Boston Reaper, George Foyet (C. Thomas Howell). Season-ending cliffhangers aren’t on as steep a mountain as the writers may think when it involves the stars of a show, of course, but mea culpa nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the season opened mere hours after our team returned from Canada, also at the end of last season. On little sleep, they’re called in to find an unsub who’s vowed to kill one person per day until a trauma surgeon puts his own son in harms way. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time since I wrote about Criminal Minds. I seem to have mentioned it in pieces about as varied topics as NCIS, Weeds, Dark Blue, Eleventh Hour, and Cold Case, but it’s been a long time since I’ve directly addressed our favorite Behavioral Analysis Unit. Well, that’s about to change.

Like a number of shows that I watch, Criminal Minds doesn’t go heavy on a continuing story line. Some might even turn their noses up at it. But, like I said about Law & Order: SVU before this, procedurals can only really get noticed for their cast of characters.

Um … have you met Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler)? Hotch (Thomas Gibson)? Morgan (Shemar Moore)? JJ (A.J. Cook)? And yes, I suppose even Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), and Prentiss (Paget Brewster), too, although I could go either way on them. And while Rossi (Joe Mantegna) doesn’t do the show any favors, do you recall hearing the name Supervisory Special Agent Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) ever? And yet, it’s an NBC affiliate (USA Network) that claims to have cornered the market on great characters? Please. Read the rest of this entry »

CBS

(Season 4, Episode 4)

If you’ve been playing along at home, you must have seen Jane’s interview with Wil Wheaton about his appearance on Criminal Minds. We finally got a look at his episode Wednesday night, and it seemed like a good one to toss out there for discussion. I’ll say going in that I consider myself a casual fan of the show. I always watch it, but it only makes it to the “watch live” list on occasion. I’m not actively internet stalking the cast, like I do with Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki from Supernatural. Just kidding … mostly. Anyway, my creepy internet habits aside, my look at the episode is after the jump.

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