Criminal Minds Analysis: Profile The Show

[mstaken]

As if my original list weren't long enough...

I love the moments of lightness, warmth and humor that were subtly woven in but well-earned those first four or so seasons. The show is so understandably dark overall that those moments were all the more special. 

I love how the show casts its one-episode characters: victims, Unsubs, family members, suspects, etc. There have been a few missteps, of course, but overall I've been wildly impressed. 

I love the wonderfully complex, wholly believable relationship between Reid and Diana and how Reid's own fears about becoming mentally ill "just like his mother" were depicted. 

I love that this is a crime show which celebrates intelligence, deductive reasoning, insight, persistence and quiet courage over sheer brawn. 

I love how much I've learned from this show: the statistics and facts about a wide variety of subjects and the more general insights into psychology and human nature. 

And, as mentioned above, the thought-provoking quotes at the beginning and end of each episode. I, um, may or may not actually write many of them down ;)

...And pretty much all things Reid :) 

Edited April 16, 2014 by mstaken

[Wilowy]

 

I do think MGG is an under-recognized master of the subtle look, or movement, or shift of the eyes.  He speaks volumes when he is silent, and I love that about the character.  I even like it better than his overtly emotional scenes.  For me, he's made Pinocchio into a real boy.

A million times this. Tumblr is great for showcasing this talent of his, as the gifsets are usually slowed down. I even sometimes enjoy when they load slowly, because I see a subtle shift in Matthew's facial expression that I would not have noticed at normal speed. He's incredibly intuitive and remarkably expressive with just the slightest movement. 

Matthew's a fan of BIG facial movements and expressions, but with Reid he takes it down to almost imperceptible levels, and I really love that.

[mstaken]

A million times this. Tumblr is great for showcasing this talent of his, as the gifsets are usually slowed down. I even sometimes enjoy when they load slowly, because I see a subtle shift in Matthew's facial expression that I would not have noticed at normal speed.

Ha---then maybe I should add that this show almost makes me want to finally sign up for Tumblr! 

[Old Dog]

I agree with Willowy. I'm on Tumblr mainly for the great MGG photos and gifs. But there are some very aggressive JJ fangirlies on there!

[IndependentMind]

NCIS was a favorite of mine for two seasons when Sasha Alexander was there.

I liked her character Kate Todd a lot. She was more believable and the show had more profiling.

But Ziva came and it turned into spy stories crap. I never liked Tony.

I need to go back and watch Helen Mirren's show "Prime Suspect".

I find British cop/detective shows better since they do more talking, investigating and profiling.

[zannej]

I initially started watching the show because my mother was watching and it had Thomas Gibson and Mandy Patinkin. I recognized both of them and decided to see how this new show with them was. Then I saw Reid and I remember thinking he was odd. He was super-skinny and I thought maybe he was unhealthy (the first episode I saw was Fisher King II). I asked my mother "What's wrong with this guy" and she said something about his mother having schizophrenia. I liked the visual effects and how they showed Reid figuring out the clues as well as the team working together to profile the unsub, do victimology, etc. I didn't have CBS so I started watching the reruns on A&E. I watched the first couple of seasons and I got the DVDs to make sure I didn't miss anything. I really enjoyed the first four seasons. I was sort of sad that Mandy left, but I warmed to Joe when I saw him in interviews. I initially wasn't fond of Elle, but in retrospect I like her more. I liked Prentiss right away.

I liked that this show was cerebral and that they didn't show as much of the violence and it was about the team finding out about the victims, the circumstances, and such and figuring out what sort of person would commit the crime and how to catch them. I think there were even a few episodes where they didn't actually figure out who it was before they caught them because they figured out first who the next victim was or they figured out that the unsub would return to a specific place and they just had to catch him in the act. Garcia had to mostly follow the rules, even if she sometimes had access to info that really would not be accessible to the FBI.

I also liked how professional the team members were. One thing that ruined other tv shows for me (with the exception of the X-Files) was when they had too much of the personal lives and did things that made me dislike some of the characters. Or they had the team members trying to hook up with one another. Or they just behaved unprofessionally.

I liked that Morgan was an intellectual, strong, professional man who did not fit a stereotype. It wasn't an in-your-face this is a black FBI agent-- it was this is an FBI agent who happens to be black.

I loved JJ because she was snarky with reporters and she interacted well with the team. I thought she showed some warmth when she was teamed with Garcia. I like how she handled the press and the police. IMO, she profiled the public and the press and figured out just the right things to say to help the case.

As I watched, I became more attached to Reid. I felt I could relate to him in some ways and I loved that they had this very intelligent and intellectual person who showed empathy and a vulnerability that made him appealing. He was somewhat awkward and shy, but he had knowledge and there was a maturity beyond his years despite some of his social inexperience.

I can honestly say that Reid is the main reason I've continued to watch, although it is difficult because all of the personalities have changed somewhat over the years. I still see glimpses of some of the original recipe though.

As for Tumblr, I've never encountered aggressive JJ fangirls there. But then, I don't follow any particular search terms-- I just follow specific blogs and I don't actually visit Tumblr as often because its so image heavy that it eats my bandwidth up. I've heard there are ways to filter the searches or whatever shows up so you won't see certain tags. I'm not sure how to do it though.

Maybe we should make a thread about the social media sites that are good for CM.

Edited April 16, 2014 by zannej

[Wilowy]

Not thinking that an entire thread promoting other sites is altogether square, though publishing links to them is fine if there's something relevant going on. 

[Wilowy]

 

As I watched, I became more attached to Reid. I felt I could relate to him in some ways and I loved that they had this very intelligent and intellectual person who showed empathy and a vulnerability that made him appealing. He was somewhat awkward and shy, but he had knowledge and there was a maturity beyond his years despite some of his social inexperience.

Nicely said.

[zannej]

I remembered Mark Harmon from Reasonable Doubts (I think that was the title). I liked him on that and I remember reading that Mark actually saved some people from a burning van. He just came off as a genuinely nice guy. Unfortunately, they tried to make him a badass as Gibbs and it just did not work for me. I especially hate that they have Gibbs slap people upside the head. I don't know why the writers ever thought that was cool or even ok. The military wouldn't care how badass the guy is supposed to be. I admit that I had to laugh at how much authority the NCIS had. I guess one of the things they had to fudge for the show's premise was to pretend that they can actually arrest people, pick them up, and/or interrogate them off base. Maybe they can do that if the person is in the military, but they are not allowed to do jack to non-military people who are off base. Most of the time they aren't even allowed to operate off base at all. I liked Michael Weatherly on Dark Angel, but Tony is so unprofessional that it is annoying. I think the only ones I actually like are Ducky and McGee.

I think the contrast is that most of the characters on NCIS are just so unprofessional and breaking the rules is a regular thing. I think Hotch in any season is much better than Gibbs. Thomas is actually believable as someone that people would be afraid to disappoint. They never tried to hype that in the earlier seasons though. He as just Hotch. He was just their boss, but he was also human. I also think in the earlier seasons that the humor was better balanced. It didn't detract from the show-- although it has gone over the line in recent seasons with some of the stuff with Reid, Morgan, and Garcia.

[Wilowy]

 

I find British cop/detective shows better since they do more talking, investigating and profiling.

I really think you would love The Equalizer, a show from a LONG time ago, 1985-89. He was the very definition of Bad. Ass. 

[IndependentMind]

Sasha Alexander said she always thought or saw NCIS as like the comics or comicsl.

And she is right. Even more so after she left because both Tony and Abby were more like caracatures.

[IndependentMind]

Oh yeah. I remember "The Equalizer".

[zannej]

I can't believe I left of Murder She Wrote! I still try to catch that show when its on. Its often silly and some of the acting is bad, but its fun to watch. I loved when they had Jerry Orbach on. One thing that was always entertaining was to see how the local police would respond to Jessica Fletcher. Some of them dismissed her as some wannabe detective who just wrote books and others respected her and liked her writing and were willing to listen to her. Most of the time it was the former. I think the team only got that reaction a few times on CM. Most of the time the police just accept them.

In the line of the British productions, I like Poirot. He almost always had the support of the police.

Something that both of those programs had, that I actually liked, was that most of the time we would see the killer (or thief, depending on the crime) as one of the witnesses or family members or something. They would be right there in the mix with everyone else but would not be a suspect until the end when the lead character would reveal "whodunnit". I liked that it was a way to show us the "unsub" without revealing that it was the unsub. I admit I actually like that sort of story. On CM, I liked that in the episode "Lucky" that the team was around the unsub who served the victim to them in soup while they were searching for the victim. It was sick, but it also showed how he was right under their noses mocking them. And we didn't see him torturing the victims or butchering them. It still worked.

I would love for them to get Angela Lansbury on the show sometime.

[Wilowy]

Matthew would love that too! 

[mstaken]

Wait, MGG is an Angela Lansbury fan?! Just when I think I couldn't adore him more... :)

zannej, I love Murder She Wrote as well! I'm hopelessly addicted to whodunnits both in books and on screen. And while Jessica Flecther was a little too over-the-top perfect for my taste (she's got 17 million "extremely close" friends! Her first half-hearted attempt at writing results in her instantly becoming a wildly successful, world famous author! She's always a zillion times smarter than the detectives who actually solve crimes for a living and never makes any mistakes whatsoever en route to discovering the killer!), I loved that the show gave us a strong, happy female main character with such a rich and full life despite the fact that she was (*gasp*!) over the age of 35 and single!  

I actually roll my eyes a bit, though, at how every law enforcement official around the world  (not to mention every chatty suspect and confession-providing criminal!)  so readily gives Jessica Fletcher full access to all facets of every murder investigation! Weirdly enough, I actually like when police departments are initially resistant to our CM team's assistance and skeptical about the effectiveness of profiling in general. And it's obviously a less "cozy", more gritty crime show than Murder She Wrote in general. But if CM wants to start throwing more traditional whodunits our way, nothing would make this viewer happier. As you noted, adding more mystery to their mysteries doesn't even mean a big change in the usual structure of their episodes---it's just that someone we see along the way turns out to be involved in ways we didn't suspect, like, for instance, my beloved Shade of Grey. We still get that some of those types of twists and surprises, of course, but I'm greedy and want more :) 

[zannej]

Oh yeah, the stories were over the top and the police were often daft and/or inept. That was the case on "The Profiler" where they dumbed down all of the other characters-- at the main actress' behest-- to make the main profiler seem smarter. Rather than trying to raise the bar and make the stories more intelligent they just dumbed things down-- something that has happened on CM in years of late. I guess I got spoiled by the writing of Timothy Zahn and his General Thrawn character in the Star Wars series. One of the tropes he hated was when they have dumb adversaries that make it hard to believe that they would pose a problem for the protagonists. So he created a world in which the antagonist was a very interesting and intelligent character that really gave the Alliance a run for their money. At the same time, he showed the individual members of the Empire as more realistic people who were not straight up villains.

In defense of Jessica becoming an overnight success- I give you The Harry Potter series (although that was excellent work) and Twilight (not so excellent). :P

Also, as for the IQ, some police forces actually refuse to hire smarter people. http://www.realfarmacy.com/man-denied-job-as-police-officer-due-to-above-average-iq/

So there is precedence. LOL. Also, I would say that Jessica Fletcher is far smarter than any of the cops around where I live. We have one of the most ineffective police forces-- which is probably why I have an unsub living down the street from me instead of being locked up.

But yeah, the cops were always shown as disproportionately bad at their jobs in comparison to Jessica.

Man, when I watched the "Shades of Gray" episode I could not stop noticing that the one guy (who covered up the crime) played Jack Crusher on ST:TNG.

Edited April 18, 2014 by zannej

[mstaken]

...So here's a fun weekend challenge: Rank each of the nine season premieres from your favorite to least favorite: Extreme Aggressor, Fisher King Part II, Doubt, Mayhem, Nameless Faceless, The Longest Night, It Takes a Village, The Silencer, and The Inspiration. 

[Wilowy]

1. Extreme Aggressor

Mayhem

Fisher King Part II

Nameless, Faceless

Doubt

The Longest Night

It Takes a Village

The Silencer

The Inspiration

[mstaken]

Doubt

Are you not wild about Doubt, or do you just prefer the other S1-S5 premieres more?! 

[Wilowy]

I prefer the others, though I think Doubt is fine. Just watched it a couple of hours ago, actually. :) I'm thinking you can guess my favorite part. 

While Nameless, Faceless is a pretty straightforward story and nothing too earth-shattering, Reid's stunning gorgeousness despite his injury (and the continuity error where his hair tie keeps switching wrists) is enough to put it above Doubt for me. I mean...

... just look at him. ;)

[mstaken]

Weirdly enough, I think Fisher King Part II is my favorite of the premieres. The part where Reid confronts TFK is a little anticlimactic for me, and the way they identify the Unsub feels like a tiny bit of a stretch, but I'm a sucker for the Elle/Daddy scenes, and it won't exactly shock you guys to know how deeply I adore all things Diana :) 

Edited April 19, 2014 by mstaken

[Wilowy]

I love the Elle/Daddy scenes! And how perfectly did they match eyes? I've seen that actor in many things, but he'll always be Elle's daddy to me. I also really liked that she got that closure. 

[ForeverAlone]

Hmmm...

1. Extreme Aggressor

2. Fisher King, Part Two

3. Mayhem

4. Doubt

5. It Takes a Village

6. The Silencer

7. Nameless, Faceless

8. The Longest Hour

9. The Inspiration

 

Though truthfully, once I got past Doubt, they all pretty much clumped together. Except for The Inspiration. Sure it is better than The Inspired (a horrible episode), but it wasn't that great, and easily the worst season premiere I've seen from Criminal MInds. 

[SSAHotchner]

My season openers from most to least favorite:

1. Extreme Aggressor

2. The Fisher King Part 2

3. Faceless, Nameless

4. Mayhem

5. Doubt

6. It Takes A Village (it was worth it just to get the team back together again)

7. The Longest Night

8. The Silencer

9. The Inspiration (praying mantis? really?)

I really hated the last 3.

Willowy, I like Nameless, Faceless for the Hotch scenes. Reid is adorable, too, but Hotch even made getting stabbed sexy. Love that man.

[SSAHotchner]

For the early seasons, it would be easier for me to list the episodes I DON'T like. I loved season 1, especially. I think my order of seasons would be:

1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 7, 6, 9, 8. I'm not among those that hate season 7 because there were a handful of episodes where there was some actual profiling. 8 for me was just awful. It was good that Reid got some focus, but what they ended up doing with that was not good. Why couldn't he have a relationship that you only hear about every once in awhile? Let us see him grow in confidence socially because there is someone in his life even though we don't see them together, or at least not much. But season 8 seemed as if there were  a "who can come up with the creepiest unsub and the most bizarre way to torture and kill victims?" contest going on between the writers. Instead of doing research and coming up with something believable, they gave us the most gory kills and delighted in showing as much of that gore as possible.

Now for favorites:

Season 1:

Extreme Aggressor, (so much to love in this episode)

LDSK, (I'm partial to this one because it was supposed to take place in my hometown, of course it looked nothing like Des Plaines, IL. But I loved the dynamic between Hotch & Reid.

Broken Mirror (love that scene with Reid, Morgan, Elle and Hotch in the kitchen where Reid says,

Dr. Spencer Reid: I'm just saying it's possible. I don't know everything. I mean, despite the fact that you think that I do.

Special Agent Derek Morgan: I never said that. When have I ever said that?

Dr. Spencer Reid: Every day since I met you!

Elle Greenway: This morning at breakfast...

Agent Aaron Hotch: Yesterday when he beat you at cards. Um... we've got one minute.

Special Agent Derek Morgan: Anybody ever heard of sarcasm?

Dr. Spencer Reid, Elle Greenway: Mm-hmm.

Natural Born Killer (I love Hotch in this. I'm still waiting for his comments to Vincent Perrotta to be explained, delved into. I want more insight into Hotch's early life.

The Fisher King - The plot is a bit far fetched but loved the back story we got on many of the team. Loved Hotch's concern for Elle and for Haley and Jack. Loved seeing Reid's mom and Reid figuring out the puzzle and knowing how to communicate with the unsub. Loved the whole ending (okay I know that's season 2) especially the song The Riddle and that wonderful moment of Hotch taking the time to wash the blood off Elle's wall so she didn't have to come home to that reminder of being shot.

Least favorites from season 1 for me are:

Poison (this case was boring and disjointed to me. Believe me, it's a masterpiece compared to episodes from season 6 on, but for season one it is among my least favorites.)

Blood Hungry (I guess what I liked least about this was the possibility of a child being hurt, and then when the unsub turned out to be psychotic, his mother didn't provide the help and support he needed out of selfish pride for her reputation.

Riding the Lightning. (this one is moving, but there's quite a bit of over acting, especially from Mandy.

[SSAHotchner]

Season 2 faves:

The Fisher King Part 2

P911 (I really liked Katie Cole. She'd make a good addition to the team. I did not like John Rubenstein being a pedophile. After all, he was Pippin. Don't like seeing him as a pervert.)

I liked Lessons Learned. I felt that Prentiss showed her value to the team I that initial episode. She was humble. She didn't flaunt her skills and she was completely respectful toward everyone on the team.

Also enjoyed The Big Game, and Revelations. Reid was wonderful in those episodes and the genuine caring and concern each member of the team felt for him was believable.

Although I don't care for arson, I found Ashes and Dust a good episode for the compassion that Hotch showed for the burn victim. He also had insight into the their first suspect and we got some personal back story on Hotch through those scenes.

My least faves:

Honor Among Thieves (No, I don't know anyone who likes this episode)

North Mammon (I hate that they put those kids through that .)

Distress (for me this smacked of lots of TV during the late 60s and early 70s with all of the veterans going through PTSD or flashbacks. I can feel sorry for him, but the plot doesn't hold my interest.)

While I'm not a big fan of Profiler Profiled or Open Season, they each have a wonderful opening scene. For Profiler, Profiled it's Physics Magic with Dr. Reid. In Open Season, it's JJ, Emily and Penelope in the bar with "Brad, the REAL FBI Agent." Fun, fun, fun. And some much needed humor prior to watching the unsubs hunt humans with bows and arrows.

 

[SSAHotchner]

Season 3 Favorites:

In Name and Blood - Hotch, Hotch, Hotch!!!

Lucky (best unsub ever for me. "God is in all of us, my son." "So is Tracy Lambert." Creepy without showing you the cut up bodies or anyone actually eating them)

Penelope (first ep I ever saw. Loved the team dynamic in this one. I didn't mind JJ being the one to kill the unsub here because she wasn't handling every other aspect of the case as well. Loved the scenes with Kevin and Garcia on their computers.

I also like Damaged for the scenes in prison with Reid & Hotch interviewing Chester Hardwicke, and then later Hotch confiding in Reid about his divorce.

Least favorites:

Identity (except for the part where the guy tells Reid he looks like a pipe cleaner with legs. )

Scared to Death (I don't like the idea of the "doctor" killing the people using their greatest fears. That unnerves me)

3rd Life (didn't much care for Joe's daughter in this one. )

 

[SSAHotchner]

Season 4 favorites:

The Angel Maker (Hotch. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm)

Pleasure is My Business (Love Hotch's empathy for the unsub and his gentleness with her, and that she recognized he was decent and loyal, "how could your wife have left you?" YEAH!)

The Instincts

Memoriam

Minimal Loss

Masterpiece (Love, love, love when Rossi tells unsub he's going to be there when he is executed and as they get ready to push the plunger he's going to lean in and tell him to say hello to his scumbag brother." Priceless!

52 Pickup

Zoe's Reprise (Zoe is my favorite victim.)

I could go on and add Amplification and Conflicted as well.

But I will switch to the episodes I don't like:

Normal

Demonology

Bloodline

House on Fire

[SSAHotchner]

Season 5 favorites: (now it's getting tougher to like eps)

Faceless, Nameless (HOTCH HOTCH HOTCH HOTCH!!!)

100

Uncanny Valley

The Internet is Forever

Least favorites:

Hopeless

Outfoxed

The Performer

Solitary Man

The Eyes Have It

 

[SSAHotchner]

Season 6 Favorites:

Devil's Night (ONLY FOR THE SCENES WITH JACK & HOTCH AT THE BEGINNING AND END)

Lauren (hated the stupid spy arc but having JJ back working to find Prentiss was good, especially since we were stuck with the stupid cadet who "hadn't read all the books." I was so hoping she'd be shot in that scene on the roof.)

Hanley Waters (I really like Kelli Williams and felt sympathy toward her situation. I liked that the grief assessments were peppered throughout the episode and that Hotch confronting Shelly at the end showed how his situation with Haley paralleled her situation. He was speaking to Shelly but he could have been speaking to himself. It was very moving. I love good, strong and yet compassionate Hotch.

I pretty much disliked most of the rest of the season. The real bad standouts for me were The 13th Step, Sense Memory, With Friends Like These, The Stranger. Anything they put Seaver in after Emily was gone was downright painful to watch. She looked so stupid trying to run in her skintight jeans waving her gun around like a moron. Her acting was abysmal and there was nothing to counter it without another female agent. This is when Garcia began getting more and more obnoxious as they tried to expand her role, too. And 25 to Life for me will always be dubbed "The Hotchless Episode." No point in watching that.

[mstaken]

SSA Hotchner, I really loved reading your most and least favorites! 

I think my order of seasons would be:

1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 7, 6, 9, 8. I'm not among those that hate season 7 because there were a handful of episodes where there was some actual profiling.

S7 has definitely improved with a second rewatch for me---and when I force myself to stop comparing it to earlier seasons :) 

It's interesting how many of us (me included) ranked S1 and S4---though not necessarily in that order---as our top two seasons. 

Broken Mirror (love that scene with Reid, Morgan, Elle and Hotch in the kitchen

I love this as well---I love the whole episode, in fact! S1 was so great at smoothly integrating those moments of humor and contrasting those flashes of brightness with the darkness they were forced to confront. 

I found Ashes and Dust a good episode for the compassion that Hotch showed for the burn victim.

Absolutely. This and Pleasure is My Business are, for me, two of the best Hotch episodes of the entire series, though S1 is my favorite season for his character overall. He seemed so much more layered and complex then. 

In Name and Blood - Hotch, Hotch, Hotch!!!

I'm always happily surprised all over again by how much I like this one as well. The scene between Hotch and Prentiss is a favorite of mine, as is the realization by the end that they wouldn't want to be anywhere other than the BAU :) 

Scared to Death (I don't like the idea of the "doctor" killing the people using their greatest fears. That unnerves me)

Heh---I think that's what they were going for ;) 

Masterpiece (Love, love, love when Rossi tells unsub he's going to be there when he is executed and as they get ready to push the plunger he's going to lean in and tell him to say hello to his scumbag brother." Priceless!

Heh---if you've read my posts, then you know that moment is one of my most endlessly rewatchable favorites as well! Throw in Reid's existentialism joke and the hilariously over-the-top acting of Kentucky Fried Unsub, and this episode is absolute gold for me. 

Conflicted as well.

Yeah, S4 has so many fantastic episodes that I sometimes forget just how much I like this one. 

I'll await your S7-S9 favorites and least favorites! 

[SSAHotchner]

Aw, thanks, MsTaken. Isn't it funny that I hadn't even thought of including seasons 7-9? I don't know if I can even remember a title from season 8 without looking at the episode list on IMDB. I did NOT buy the DVDs. I bought 7 because I wanted the complete set, but when it came to 8 I just couldn't bring myself to buy a season that I hated. Anyway, I'll give it a try.

Season 7:

Unknown Subject

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Profiling 101

Foundation

True Genius

I also like It Takes a Village because we get Prentiss back and Snake Eyes just where Reid plays poker.

Worst episodes in 7 for me were:

Proof

The Bittersweet Science

Hit & Run

I Love You, Tommy Brown

A Family Affair

Season 8:

There is not a single episode in season 8 that I liked, except for the Reid bits in Zugzwang. One of my friends on another forum is from Germany and she told all of us the correct pronunciation of that word. Wouldn't you think this would be something the writers would check out? Chess players, do you use this word? How do you pronounce it?

Season 9 favorites:

Gabby

Final Shot

Season 9 worst:

200 ( a total piece of crap. Shame on you, Jim Clemente, for defending this BS.)

The Inspiration & The Inspired (what a hot mess!)

Route 66 (there was so much potential here to learn more about Hotch and deal with his loss of Haley, the stress of the job, etc., and all we got was a Beth love fest)

The Black Queen (as I type this Supply and Demand is on A&E. I'm looking at Garcia in a pink outfit with flowers in her hair, matching pumps, etc. There's no way I believe what they did with her character in The Black Queen. Who are they trying to kid here?)

[Wilowy]

I thought a lot of Route 66 was visually beautiful, although I agree Haley was far too glib and it took me out of the moment. Thomas played Hotch with the gravitas that such an event (reuniting with Haley) would engender, and I was disappointed in Haley's chirpy demeanor.

I asked Doug Aarniokoski why Haley was written/directed like that and he answered that he thought it was a clever choice of Virgil's to show that she truly was at peace. Which explains why she was like that, but I disagreed. They didn't have to make her maudlin or melodramatic, but it would have been nice to have her show that being able to see Aaron again meant something to her. Instead we get her munching popcorn and giggling as Foyet stabbed her in the stomach.

There was one part, and Meredith said twice "He's so big!", meaning Jack, where her eyes completely teared up, and she had to wipe them away. When I mentioned that Doug said it was an extremely emotional day for all involved. So that made me feel a little better.  

 

Hanley Waters (I really like Kelli Williams and felt sympathy toward her situation. I liked that the grief assessments were peppered throughout the episode and that Hotch confronting Shelly at the end showed how his situation with Haley paralleled her situation. He was speaking to Shelly but he could have been speaking to himself. It was very moving. I love good, strong and yet compassionate Hotch.

This. I don't think this episode gets enough credit. I also am a Kelli Williams fan and thought she killed it with this role.

[ForeverAlone]

I try and say "zugzwang" the correct German way, though I struggle getting the proper guttural sound. The fact that the writers mispronounced "zugzwang" is no surprise, nor the first time they did that, particularly with a word Reid had to pronounce. In season six "Devil's Night" Reid pronounced "Samhain" wrong, and you would think the writers would verify the pronounciation of words, particularly when they are spoken by the genius character who would definitely know better.

[AlecNewbary]

Sorry, I know I am kind of late to the game, but regarding season premieres my order would be:

-Fisher King Part 2

-Mayhem

-Extreme Aggressor

-Doubt

-Nameless, Faceless

-The Longest Night

-It Takes a Village

-The Silencer

-The Inspiration

 

Also regarding favourite seasons I would have to say season 4 (very close tie with s2 but s4 has "Omnivore"), season 2, season 1, season 3, season 5, season 9, season 7, season 6 and season 8. Season 6 is so far down the list because I had the biggest dislike for Seaver. I still can never get over her lines on "Coda" when she asked if Sammy, the 10 year old autistic child, was the unsub...? And on "Corazon" when she asked if it was blood on the bottom of the suspects shoe. Again...WHAT?!?!?! Also she was about as stiff as a board in almost every scene she ever did.

A stand out moment for me on Criminal Minds is George Foyet, more specifically, "Omnivore" which was so well written to me. It still remains as my favourite episode with "Revelations" as a very close second. "100" was such a memorable episode for me because, while I wanted The Reaper to pay for what he did to all those people, I found myself not wanting him gone just yet so that we could see more great written stories involving him and Hotch. Of course I loved how Hotch handled it. Especially The Reaper saying "I surrender" and Hotch not caring about anything that he had to say and ending it once and for all. I get chills thinking about The Reaper story line!

[mstaken]

Yet another reason: This show can occasionally make me sound smarter than I actually am ;) Yesterday, I piped up with the stat that CPR is effective a mere 7% of the time when performed outside of a hospital setting. "Oh, cool, where did you read that?" someone asked.

Me: "Um...it's mentioned in the pilot of Criminal Minds, which I've seen about 30 or so times." 

[mstaken]

Welcome, AlecNewbury! 

Also regarding favourite seasons I would have to say season 4 (very close tie with s2 but s4 has "Omnivore"),

Heh---it's actually a credit to how stellar I think S4 is that I'm not even sure Omnivore is in my top eight or nine of that season. I really love it, but S4 just happens to have so many that I might love even more. In any other season---even my beloved S1---Omnivore would almost definitely make my top five. 

So now that I've made us rank the premieres, you know I have to ask about ranking the finales, right? Right. ;) Our eight choices: The Fisher King, Part I, No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank, Lo-Fi, And Back, Our Darkest Hour, Supply and Demand, Run, and The Replicator. Why do I sense that the earlier seasons will once again fare better than the later ones? ;) 

[ForeverAlone]

Season finales:

1. The Fisher King, part one

2. To Hell... And Back

3. No Way Out II

4. Lo Fi

5. Our Darkest Hour

6. Hit...Run

7. The Replicator

8. Supply and Demand

And what do all of the season finales, from season five onward have in common? If your guess is that they were ALL written by Erica Messer, treat yourself to wine and cookies. I sense a pattern in the increased mediocrity of the season finale. Here is hoping they redeem themselves with season nine.

[zannej]

I agree with AlecNewbury's first 5 in the list of the season premieres. I don't really know how to rank the rest of them since I didn't like them and cant' figure out which ones I dislike more.

 

I will say that after the last few seasons I have newfound appreciation for Honor Among Thieves. I used to despise that episode but now I miss the profiling and psychological exploration. I love how Morgan profiled the woman who turned out to be in on her father's kidnapping. I did like seeing Prentiss' mother. I recognized the actress from Scarecrow & Mrs. King. The bad parts were Gideon talking to the Russian mobster and the guy actually giving him any info at all. I just don't think that a mobster would actually act like that.

 

The episodes with Tim Curry could have been ok except they kept showing flashbacks that made me think of laundry commercials. The horrible actress playing Ellie killed the episodes though. She had that permanent smirk and her wig was so incredibly fake-looking that it distracted me from the episode. They had too many guest stars and I felt that Robert Davi's character was not given enough to do. I would love to see them bring him back for another episode though. I know they brought back the detective from "Somebody's Watching".

 

I initially disliked Machismo and The Tribe but now really enjoy them when I re-watch. I still didn't give a flip about Sean Hotchner, but John Blackwolf was awesome and I'd love to see him again.

 

One of my alltime least favorite episodes has to be The 13th Step. It was just not Criminal Minds and I didn't buy that these unsubs could have made it as far as they did without getting pulled over. It also seemed that Janine was going for squick factor with the incest garbage. I also detested the fake way the girl held the guns to fire (she would have injured her wrists). Showing the unsubs going around killing people and laughing about it while filming themselves just seemed like so much gratuitous garbage. The part just before the male unsub dies -- with the hallucination of the girl in the wedding dress-- was one of THE cheesiest moments on the entire show. It was just awful. There ware so many plot holes in that one. The only good parts were when Hotch looked to Reid to explain something about 12 step programs.

 

Another least favorite is I Love You Tommy Brown. I hate when they have narration at the beginning and that one had some really awful narration. Again it seemed to be going or shock value.

 

I also hated "Proof". Again we had the laughing unsub who filmed himself while torturing people. The JJ/Reid scenes were just out of character IMO.

 

Despite the plot holes, I loved the Fisher King episodes. Reid was on fire! :P Diana Reid was great. We got to learn a little about each team member and it was part of the case.

 

As far as season finales go, I would say that I haven't seen a good one since season 4. 

 

I would say most of seasons 1-4 would be on my list of episodes i really loved and would watch again. After that it goes downhill. I would probably watch Corazon again because I really liked the actor who played the suspect who was cold-reading Reid. It's a shame they never said what happened to that bracelet he gave him. I sort of hope we will see that guy again-- alive and well.

 

My dog is barking at the possum again... ugh...

[zannej]

Yeah. I was actually thinking about that 7% statistic when I was giving my father CPR. I knew it was pointless but I had to try.

It didn't help that the paramedics took an hour to arrive when the hospital was only 15-20 min away.

 

This show was a good distraction for me when I was dealing with the grief.

 

Some episodes I think back on that are memorable are ones where the victims actually put up a fight. I remember one with a woman who was brought into the woods to be hunted and she killed one of the unsubs and then the woman who survived in "Legacy".

 

I really miss when the team used to spend more time looking around the rooms and workplaces of the victims to try to figure out what they were like and what sort of person would target them and why. They don't do that as much now-- they basically have Garcia do internet searches to find out stuff that really wouldn't be in public record.

 

One moment I will never forget is in The Fox when the schizophrenic brother of a victim realized that his sister was saying "help me" instead of "go away". That moment where it just clicked -- you could see it in his eyes and then he totally freaked out. It was very powerful acting. And the scenes with Tony Todd were great. I bet Matthew was excited to get to work with him.

[SSAHotchner]

Finales:

 

1. The Fisher King Part 1

2. Lo-Fi (I watched this on DVD and I couldn't even begin to imagine how the other viewers got through the whole summer wondering who'd been the victim of that explosion.)

3. To Hell...And Back (Didn't love these episodes but wondering what happened to my poor Hotch makes this cliffhanger more significant to me.)

4. No Way Out II

5. Supply and Demand (just because we found out JJ was coming back...unfortunately I no longer feel good about that decision.)

6. Our Darkest Hour

7. The Replicator/ Hit/Run I hated all of these and kind of lump them together.

[SSAHotchner]

My first interest on CM was also Reid, but like Willowy I fell in love with Hotch one day and that was it for me. I can watch those early seasons over and over and never tire of them, but I watch the current episodes and just shake my head at how they have killed the show in just a few years. But I'm still hanging in there.

 

I love the green screen effects of the early seasons, and fortunately they have brought some of that back this season. I miss the early seasons because you could really see the profilers, even Morgan, putting themselves into the mindset of the perpetrators and working out the profiles. The current writers don't know how to write those scenes and the actors have become so robotic at giving the profile. I do blame both the writers and the actors for the way these scenes have deteriorated, but perhaps if they didn't write them so that each person has one line and then it bounces to the next person, the actors would have more to work with. I guess one could argue that it's become formulaic and stale, but I still think the writing is 99% to blame. Those scenes giving the profile in the early season seemed much more natural.

 

Zannej, the episode in the woods was Open Season in Season 2. I find that one hard to watch. I know it's just a different way to kill victims and those two killers are not necessarily any worse that any other unsub on the show, but this is one of the ones that I just have a harder time enjoying, if you will. On the other hand, the beginning of the episode has one of my very favorite CM moments when JJ, Garcia and Emily are at the bar. "This is Brad, a REAL FBI AGENT!" Love, love LOVE that scene.

[Wilowy]

Quick reminder that this is the LOVE thread! Feel free to continue to express gripes/concerns/complaints in other areas. Saying that you love something with a paragraph on how crappy it is currently? Not love. 

[zannej]

Oh, I forgot about No Way Out.. I didn't like that one very much. The whole Frank story was odd and there was too much Gideon. But I still liked it better than most of the episodes of season 5 and onward.

 

Brad the Real FBI agent was one of my favorite scenes. LOL. I would love to see Hotch react to someone pretending to be law enforcement. 

[mstaken]

I love how even as the show illuminates the most unfathomably dark facets of human nature, it somehow still offers splashes of hope and joy. 

 

I've said it before and will probably say it again, but as a lifelong quote collector, I absolutely adore the quotes that frame every episode.  

 

Despite my complaints about some of the characters' lack of definition, I love how most of our former and current team members feel so REAL to me. In some (admittedly lame!) way, popping in a beloved episode is like visiting with old "friends," you know? (I know, I know...I need a life!) 

 

I love how my obsession with this show has led to my forming a few amazing cyber-friendships with fellow fans and snarkers! 

[Wilowy]

 

I love how even as the show illuminates the most unfathomably dark facets of human nature, it somehow still offers splashes of hope and joy.

I'm in love with this sentence.

[IndependentMind]

If Jeanne is to leave, I do hope they hire someone who is either Asian or Hispanic. And the character has a medical background. Meaning someone who might have been an a pathologist or an ME. That way she can have a different perspective or contribute in a different way rather that a profiler.

[mstaken]

Meaning someone who might have been an a pathologist or an ME. That way she can have a different perspective or contribute in a different way rather that a profiler.

 

That WOULD be really interesting! One of my primary complaints about the series post S2 or so (yes, I'm reluctantly including even my beloved S4 here!) is that the team members feel increasingly interchangeable, with all of them always just sort of equally awesome at whatever the show needs them to do that week rather than having different niches, skills, strengths, weaknesses etc., as would be both more realistic and far more interesting to me. 

 

If there is a new character, my wish is that the writers take a few minutes to give her one or two personality traits before throwing her on screen. 

[mstaken]

I've realized while rewatching, playing these games and snarking alongside you guys that I have a really odd CM opinion---I like S7 more than S5. I'll show myself the door ;) S7 just happens to have more cases and individual episodes that I enjoy. I never liked or related to JJ, so I'm not as bothered by S7's alleged mangling of her character as most; for me, she was always my my least favorite anyway.   And, as a member of the tiny minority who hates Reid's hair when it's long and unruly, I find him more pleasant to look at in S7 than S5. Naturally, I saved the deepest and most important reason why I prefer S7 for last ;) 

 

S7 doesn't rank up there with S4, S1, S2 or S3 (listed in order of preference!) for me, but I've been surprised to discover that I'd definitely place it above S5 and especially S6, S8 and S9. 

[Old Dog]

I agree there are some good cases in S7 and I really enjoy some episodes but the whole season was damned for me by the awful Beth romance which really gets under my skin and capped off by the worst finale in Hit/Run. And I can watch Reid with any hair but I do like it long!