I mean, come on! Talk about taking the easy road. What ever happened to getting your hands dirty? Or at least some creative thinking? In that respect, this serial killer was a definite disappointment.

And yet last night’s episode of Criminal Minds was an interesting development in the story of Hotch and The Reaper. It was a bit subtle, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people missed it, but I thought it was a strong move by the show to have The Reaper insinuate himself into an investigation into the current serial killer, at least enough to lead Hotch and Prentiss to spend all of their time tracking down a potential lead that never was.

This episode reached back in time to three cases that live in the annals of Criminal Minds history. The first is clearly that of The Reaper, an ongoing investigation that for now has forced Hotch out of the drivers seat at the BAU. The second was a throwback to season one of the show, and the case of “The Fox,” also known as Karl Arnold, the killer that Hotch and Prentiss went to visit in prison. Arnold was pertinent to the investigation both as a result of his own crimes, as well as because it seemed that the current killer was sending him communications through the mail. Read the rest of this entry »

I know I’m not the intended demographic, but what’s with all the vampires, and blood drinking? I just watched Castle’s Halloween episode last night, and it’s a bit much.

Anyway, I wanted to drop in and check on how Morgan was doing as Unit Chief. All seems to be going okay, save for an awkward moment in LA when Hotch alerted the liaison police officer, someone they’d worked with in the past, that Morgan was now in charge. Oh, and Morgan’s new formality with Garcia (no more “Baby Girl” … thank goodness!).

But otherwise I was a bit disappointed at how indiscernible the shift seems to be. Maybe that’s a good thing, because it means the team continues to click on all cylinders. But is also means that there’s no longer any significance to this extreme move, and also that there’s no progression in either Hotch’s story, or development in Morgan’s. Read the rest of this entry »

While I’m loathe to step on any toes, and I enjoyed JJ’s guest clack on the subject, I wanted to take the opportunity to share my thoughts on the recent personnel developments on Criminal Minds. Plus I didn’t actually get around to last week’s episode until last night, so for me it’s kind of new….

Anyway, here’s my take: this was a brilliant move. Don’t get me wrong, I am and always will be a Hotch fan, and I prefer him at the forefront of things. At the same time, Morgan is one of the strongest characters on a show filled with them (I can’t forget Reid), and without the opportunity to fly high for a moment or two, we’d lose out on some great Shemar Moore acting. And that would be a crime. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s Guest-clacker is JJ, who lives in Austin, TX and is a Systems Engineer. He claims he watches waaaayyyy too much TV and he’s always looking for the next “better” show. To date, he’s never found anything better than Showtime’s Brotherhood.

First off I think I should preface by saying I’m a pretty big fan of Criminal Minds. I started watching it religiously, probably back mid-season two, and have watched Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) grow as a leader then turn around and fall as a failure. This episode is the first episode where Hotchner is no longer the team lead and in the “changing of the guards” Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) becomes the lead FBI agent.

This episode is pretty straight forward; it’s focused on the new leadership style of Morgan and didn’t have many — if any — twists in the episode, which is very unlike Criminal Minds. It had the typical start of the dark and depressing “killer beginning” attempting to set the mood of the episode, but honestly feels as if it fell short.

I did notice something that isn’t very typical for Criminal Minds which is we actually see a majority of the killer’s face in the first few scenes; the show usually attempts to hide the killer with overcasting shadows. This actually turned me off from the episode almost instantly because unlike the norm for the show, they concentrated on the character development instead of the crime.

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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 »

Aryeh S. is back guest clacking for us again this week ….

I’ve never watched a single episode of any incarnation of CSI. But clearly, the show works on numerous levels; its success as a franchise speaks volumes about the ability of its creators to apply a tried and true formula to multiple cities, with multiple casts.

But not all smash hits a franchise does make. Case in point: Criminal Minds. No, I haven’t heard rumors of a spin-off in the works. But the show has taken some casting hits, and the results have been a little rocky for a show that relies on its luminous cast to shine.

Aaron Hotchner, played brilliantly by Thomas Gibson (I still can’t believe he’s from Dharma & Greg), is exactly what you want in a Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief. He’s smart, decisive, and not afraid to storm ahead into an armed situation. But allow me the opportunity to indulge a question that has nagged at me for awhile now, one that my wife won’t let me ask her anymore: who’s the real head of the team these days?

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