Stephen Walker: Agent Syrup

[Danielg342]

The BAU's newest member, brought in to deal with the team's version of Moriarty, the indomitable and ominous Mr. Scratch.

He's portrayed by Damon Gupton, a Hollywood veteran and an accomplished musician, specializing in orchestral conducting and the trombone. Wonder if we'll see that on the show at some point.

(Hat tip to @normasm for the thread title)

[Hotchgirl18]

I don't think he's a good fit. His acting is like CARDBOARD. 

[Dylandog0425]

I can't understand half of what he says.

[roamyn]

He has no personality.

Some fen think Dr. Lewis is bland, but she at least is useful.  Walker is a nothing.

[Danielg342]

Maybe I'm in the minority but I like Gupton. His drawl gives him this cool swagger that I find endearing. I just think his talent is being wasted on non-existent characterization.

Oh, and, as I predicted, in S12E19 we did see Gupton's trombone work. Not yet his conducting though.

[Complexity]

I don't care for his character that much. He's kind of blah. Monotone. Just nothing there. Boring.

[JMO]

I kind of like him and his drawl, and the sense that he is relatively unflappable.  But I don't know what special skill he brings to the table.  I did find it interesting that he and his wife are looking at the BAU as a more family-friendly assignment than the BAP, considering the marital woes of Hotch and Rossi. 

[Kara101]

8 hours ago, JMO said:

I kind of like him and his drawl, and the sense that he is relatively unflappable.  But I don't know what special skill he brings to the table.  I did find it interesting that he and his wife are looking at the BAU as a more family-friendly assignment than the BAP, considering the marital woes of Hotch and Rossi. 

I absolutely love his accent. I thought I was the only one! I also like how he eludes "calm and steady." I think it's important to have somebody like that in the BAU. I also thought it was funny how according to him the BAU is family friendly. I guess it just shows how un-family friendly the BAP is. 

I do like him, but I'm not sure if he contributes enough to the show to justify the size of the team. I like Tara too but I feel like the team is just too big for two newbies. 

[Danielg342]

3 minutes ago, Haleysgalaxy said:

I do like him, but I'm not sure if he contributes enough to the show to justify the size of the team. I like Tara too but I feel like the team is just too big for two newbies. 

I think that's fair, especially because I still don't know too much about Tara. She's been on the show for two seasons now and the only development she got was in "Mirror Image".

[Willowy]

There's a man, Robin Dreeke (y'all should follow him on twitter), who heads up the real BAP. He says the BAU on CM deals with WAY WORSE criminals than the BAP, who deal with run of the mill killers (that's a thing?), not serial killers. He believes every one of them have no idea that they are evil. Everyone thinks they are a good person, even murderers. They do not think they are bad. He's interviewed so many, and he says the key to getting into their heads lies in really listening to them, and understanding where they are coming from. 

Robin is the nicest man, SUPER empathetic, and he will answer your questions and tell you exactly why you are amazing in one fell swoop. The show did consult with him when they brought on Walker. He's an accomplished author and travels the country doing book talks and guest speeches, and is kinda brilliant.

[roamyn]

I like Gupton's voice, I'll admit that.  It's soothing & mellow.

But wasn't he specifically brought on board for the Scratch investigation?  If that ends in early S13, I don't see any reason for him to hang around.  If they drag it out to an episode 299 or 300, like EM has talked abt, then he could be a more permanent member.

Tara is needed for her expertise when Reid (actually MGG) is off.

[R3volver]

I feel like with the proper writing, Walker could possible move into my favorites circle.  I'd like to get to see more of him now that the Reid prison arc is wrapped up.

[normasm]

I have nothing against him, and I even like the actor and his syrupy drawl, but I simply don't want his additional character. I saw the necessity for Alvez, and, if they can rein in the Garcia yuck, I can live with him, but yet another agent? He had plenty of attention his first season. He took down an unsub without firing a shot, somewhat Reid-style; he was spooked and then injured in a takedown, then he had that focus episode where his friend was killed. 

If he, like Lewis (whom i really like) can switch off being absent, maybe. 

[ReidFan]

he just replied to a tweet..... did he just lose his CM gig? anyone know if DG had other irons in the fire too, maybe that's what he's referring to?

[secnarf]

1 hour ago, ReidFan said:

he just replied to a tweet..... did he just lose his CM gig? anyone know if DG had other irons in the fire too, maybe that's what he's referring to?

IMDb says he is also on Bates Motel, but I don't watch so can't really comment on the status of his character.

I don't think I would miss his character on CM (though I like the guy well enough) but I always hate when people lose their jobs no matter what I think of the character.

[ReidFan]

Bates Motel is done. The final episode aired in April.

I think if that's the job he was referring to losing, it would've been a couple months ago already.

hmmmmm.

[Blackbird999999lol]

So sad :( i feel like they've added way too many characters than there really needed to be and he wasn't 'needed'

but I'd prefer him leave CM on his own terms rather than be forced out.

[Danielg342]

http://ew.com/tv/2017/06/11/criminal-minds-damon-gupton-leaving/

It's true. He's out.

:(

Edited June 12, 2017 by Danielg342
Fixing post.

[MMC]

I won't miss the Stephen Walker character. But I do feel sorry for Damon Gupton. Because it would seem per his Facebook post that this is someone who has a lot of class. But in all honesty CBS should never have added that unnecessary character in the first place. Just as they should never have so stupidly fired those 2 actresses back in season 6. You could almost swear at times that the higher ups were purposely trying to sabotage this show. Oh yeah I know that is not really the case. It just seems that way at times due to some of the questionable decisions TPTB have made concerning this show.

[senin]

Coincidences do exist. I just rewatched episode 2, season 6, the one in which JJ leaves the team,( I didn't choose to watch it, my son did). And I was thinking all the time: these people (meaning TPTB) just don't learn, do they?!!

[Danielg342]

@senin, especially considering that CBS could now tell A.J. Cook and Kirsten Vangsness, "look what your raise cost us!"

[Hotchgirl18]

18 minutes ago, Danielg342 said:

@senin, especially considering that CBS could now tell A.J. Cook and Kirsten Vangsness, "look what your raise cost us!"

Guilt tripping them?

[secnarf]

2 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

@senin, especially considering that CBS could now tell A.J. Cook and Kirsten Vangsness, "look what your raise cost us!"

I think that might be what TPTB were thinking - give the women a raise but fire someone else to do it and make the women feel bad about demanding equality.

Really, it's not at all up to AJC and KV - if they were making these demands, then they are obviously prepared to walk away if those demands aren't met. TPTB made the decision to fire DG to keep them around, *if* that is what actually happened.

I think whether or not the character is replaced will give a good indication as to the reasons behind the firing. If they don't hire someone else, then you can pretty easily argue economics and a bloated cast. If they do replace the character, then something more is going on and it's probably not economics.

Was Walker in the car at the end of the last episode? I wonder if they will kill him off.

[Danielg342]

10 minutes ago, secnarf said:

Was Walker in the car at the end of the last episode? I wonder if they will kill him off.

I think he was driving one of the cars. I believe S12 ended with his head smashed against the window. Could be just my memory, though.

I do know that every recap I've seen says that only Reid- away with his mother- and Garcia (back at the lab) are safe. So Walker could be killed off.

Which I think is cheap. We hardly got to know him so it would be hard for us to get behind the drama of his death. Furthermore, given the circumstances of Walker's departure, his death would sure feel disgusting. I know I feel disgusted about how Damon Gupton was treated.

[MMC]

4 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

@senin, especially considering that CBS could now tell A.J. Cook and Kirsten Vangsness, "look what your raise cost us!"

But then again that could have come up with the money by doing a way with these so called stunt casting of theirs. "Why looking here fans. Look who we got to guest star on the show. Isn't that exciting. I'll bet you can hardly wait"  And this has pretty much been the attitude since Messer took over the running of this show. Now it isn't as though there weren't any well known guest stars used when Ed Bernero had the show, because there were. It's just that they didn't use them in lieu of better writing that brought us the story lines that were so much more interesting and compelling back then. Now to be fair this is not always the case. I certainly do not consider Jane Lynch to have been stunt casting. The same for them casting Ed Asner as Hotches  Father in Law. I thought Asner was absolutely wonderful in that role. And I'd say it was probably one of the low points of losing Hotch. Because I would have loved to seen Ed Asner reprise his role as Aaron Hotchner's  FIL. Nor did I consider Frances Fisher to be one either because even though she did get quite a bit of screen time it wasn't at the expense of the main cast. Now I'd have to say that 2 of the worse example of this so called stunt casting of theirs was the casting of Mark Hamill as The Replicator and Danny Glover as Morgan's father. This is not disparaging them. I happen to feel they are both very talented. This is me saying CM wasted their talents. It seemed that all that matter to Messer and her writers was being able to secure these well known stars for an appearance. I get that Danny Glover was a fan of the show and he wanted to guest star. But was the role of Morgan's long ago deceased father the only one they could come up with for him . Which did not make a lick of sense to me considering what we knew of the father from Morgan's canon history.   

[Hotchgirl18]

Can we get Reba McEntire as an unsub? Say what you want, but that would be epic. I actually think she should've played Antonia Space instead of Fisher. But yeah. Other than that, ditto on the stunt casting.

[ReidFan]

Sherilynn Fenn. Tatum O'Neal.  the pair from BB. to name a few more 'stunt castings'

[normasm]

Stories, people. Stories shepherded by our canon characters, exploring people who are compelled to kill folks. I don't care if they have another "star" on the show, I want stories our team fleshes out, why people kill, really, not bizarro stuff.

[Hotchgirl18]

46 minutes ago, normasm said:

Stories, people. Stories shepherded by our canon characters, exploring people who are compelled to kill folks. I don't care if they have another "star" on the show, I want stories our team fleshes out, why people kill, really, not bizarro stuff.

And less torture porn. 

[Willowy]

The last time I remember seeing torture porn was season 7, Proof.

JJ being waterboarded was probably the worst of it since then, and they certainly didn't glorify it.

For a show about serial killers? Yeah, they're gonna show a few things. But I can't remember acid drips or massive volcanoes of blood or splattery decapitations or anything else that could be classified as torture porn in years. Even in that episode where they were removing limbs, they'd show the saw and you'd hear screams, but they didn't show them slicing off an arm. 

[Mislav]

On Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 5:03 AM, Willowy said:

The last time I remember seeing torture porn was season 7, Proof.

JJ being waterboarded was probably the worst of it since then, and they certainly didn't glorify it.

For a show about serial killers? Yeah, they're gonna show a few things. But I can't remember acid drips or massive volcanoes of blood or splattery decapitations or anything else that could be classified as torture porn in years. Even in that episode where they were removing limbs, they'd show the saw and you'd hear screams, but they didn't show them slicing off an arm. 

Really? What about "The Good Earth"? "The Lesson"? "Rabid"? "Blood Relations"? "What Happens in Mecklinburg"? "X"? "The Itch"? "Beyond Borders"? "Protection"? And, "Awake", "Future Perfect", "Drive", "The Bond", "Derek", "Inner Beauty"...

[roughing it]

On 6/12/2017 at 8:18 PM, Hotchgirl18 said:

And less torture porn.

That's why I stopped watching the show a few seasons ago.  That, and that the show stopped delving into the minds of the criminals (hence, "Criminal Minds") in order to find/catch them.  Also revealing to the audience the unsub right away with no development whatsoever.  Wash, rinse, repeat, every episode. 

Edited June 14, 2017 by roughing it
worded differently

[Willowy]

Yeah mislav, all of those had horrible UnSubs who committed atrocities. But like I said, to me TORTURE PORN requires over the top, horrific, detailed visuals of the torture. Not seeing something about to happen, then a cutaway, then coming back and showing a brief image of the aftermath. That's pretty much what they do now, and we get the message. They don't show the UnSub sawing off of the leg blood flying everywhere, or the gutting from throat to genitals. We hear about it far more than we actually see it, and there's a glimpse of a victim in a photo.  Maybe we get a slit throat now and again, but that's super tame by today's standards. 

In a show about grisly murders, there's very little grisly on-screen.

[ReidFan]

I think the definition of 'torture porn' depends on the individual. I'm with Mislav, I found/find that kind of detail--in all the ones you cited, Mislav, and even more-- very difficult to watch. It's one of the reasons I didn't even consider watching Criminal Minds when it first aired...it took years of cajoling by family members who liked to watch 'police' shows to get me to watch it, and usually through my fingers. Heck, I found the shot of the guy with his mouth sewn shut disturbing in Silencer. I find the visual of the clock splattered with blood after Dean Cain shoots himself under the chin disturbing. I'm squeamish as all get out and cannot deal with those kinds of things. Even now, I'm with Garcia LOL, I look away when they're dealing wit those crime scene photos. It doesn't even have to be portrayed graphically for me to 'lose it.' It's all torture porn to me.

and I put up with it to see the delicious porn O:-)

[Hotchgirl18]

Bottom line: I don't wanna see 40 minutes of Billy Bob doing bad things when the show is about the team. And we only get 5 minutes of them. I want to see the team in action, like in seasons one and two. 

[Danielg342]

...and I miss pensive old Stephen Walker, whose voice sounds like he could actually make sense of it all...

[roamyn]

If anyone can play James Earl Jones in a biopic, it's him.

[Willowy]

Damon's congratulating KV and AJ on twitter, aw, that's cool.

[Mislav]

On Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 2:51 AM, Hotchgirl18 said:

Can we get Reba McEntire as an unsub? Say what you want, but that would be epic. I actually think she should've played Antonia Space instead of Fisher. But yeah. Other than that, ditto on the stunt casting.

I'd like to see Kate Micucci portray an unsub... I don't know what's wrong with me LOL

[Aethera]

Folks, let's keep unsub wishlist discussion to the proper thread! This is the Walker thread :)