Review of Criminal Minds: The First Series

Introduction

From roughly the mid-90`s, the format of the telly tec shows changed slightly. It may have started with the X-Files, it may have been sooner, but TV writers invariably decided that there was a cerebrally challenged audience out there. There`s always been an appetite for crime and murder, the sales of magazines such as True Crime attest to that, and the success of more forensically based series like the CSI franchise have seen to it that viewers see in more details how a crime was committed and how the forensic proof was collated.

The work of profilers first seemed to spring to mainstream attention with the 1991 smash hit film Silence of the Lambs with Jodie Foster as rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling who found herself pitching her wits against serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Chris Carter attempted to hook into the dark world of the serial killer with Millennium, but this seemed too dark for most audiences and only lasted three years.

Now after a plethora of shows that look into the minds of killers comes Criminal Minds, a show that takes us back into the FBI in Quantico (which incidentally was the original title of the Pilot) and examines the work of the Behavioural Analysis Unit, or BAU for short. The BAU are expert at analysing criminal minds and delivering profiles on who particular serial killers might be, how they operate and why they may strive to kill in the manner that they do.

The BAU is headed up by Special Agent Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), the straight man of the team, happily married (as opposed to the remainder of his team) and with the ambitions of a career man. His equal in intellectual terms and status is Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), an expert Profiler who has been brought back into the operational sphere of the BAU by Hotch after an extended time away due to the repercussions of a BAU case that led to the death of several FBI agents.

Dr Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) is the resident genius, graduated from High School at 12 and seems to know everything but is not as socially comfortable as his peers. Reid and Gideon have an almost parental relationship as Reid becomes more exposed to real life through his case work. Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) is the team muscle, but also an expert on obsessional crimes. Elle Greenway (Lola Glaudini) is the team rookie who transfers in to the team after working with the team during the Pilot and who brings experience in sexual offenses.

Backing up this team we have JJ (AJ Cook) who is the team`s communications specialist and handles all the media briefings. JJ is also really Hotch`s back-up and right-hand, an FBI careerist like Hotch. Finally we have Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) who is the group geek, normally left back at Quantico pouring over multiple monitors and hacking into multiple databases and compiling all the data that helps the team move the case forward that little bit further.

This first season gives us 22 episodes, the latter being the standard cliffhanger episode that will open season 2 with potentially one team member dead (which kind of reminds me of NCIS, even though it was season 2 for that show).

Video

Good sharp picture in widescreen with some decent sfx. There are two main ones, both of which are green screen transitions and really the identifiers for the unique look that each prime time TV series tries to capture as their own. The first is a simple transition from a held photograph to actual location and the second is where one of the team shifts from working environment into the environment of the Unsub as he/she is delivering a profile or part of a profile. This actually brings life into what is essentially a dry explanatory plot point and therefore gives the viewer visuals that reinforce what is being said.

Audio

5.1 soundtrack that is actually pretty good for a TV series with good but sparing use of the surrounds. This series also comes with good subtitling in both English and English HoH, which is oddly missing for the extras.

Features

Deleted scenes - not too many and they`re all fairly short and housed on the last disc. None are missed and none are that great.

Making Of - a good 25 minute featurette that effectively covers all aspects of the series.

Meet Matthew Gray Gubler - a nice 15 minute featurette with the man who plays genius geek Reid, nice humorous piece that`s pretty much light in tone and spends a lot of time focussing on his first screen kiss.

Commentaries - two available here, one on the pilot episode and the other on the superb Riding The Lightning.

Conclusion

There are very few TV shows that are truly original, most ideas have been covered before; some successfully, some not. Criminal Minds takes a fresh look at the work of FBI profilers that have already been on both big and small screen with the like of Jodie Foster`s Clarice Starling and Lance Henriksen`s Frank Black. This show gives us a team of Profilers to follow, an ensemble cast that is at the heart of most successful TV shows of the moment. And it works…well.

Criminal Minds takes us into the depraved heart of the human condition and the need to kill, albeit in a family show kind of way. I don`t mean that lightly, but in places both Silence of the Lambs and, in particular, Millennium were just too dark to appeal to a wider audience. This is pitched just right in a way to make it one of the highest rated series of its time. It`s still gruesome, but it`s also fairly light entertainment in the way that CSI, NCIS, Numb3rs and Law & Order are. There`s always an attempt to inject some humour into the plot, but always at the right time so the audience doesn`t feel that the plot is treat too lightly.

As with most crime shows these days, there`s a small element of personal character development going on. It can be quite hard to show a lot of the personal as it tends to get in the way of the main plot (which is the driver anyway) and so we see little snippets of the personal from time to time. We get hints on how the job these people do effects their personal lives; Hotch is the only married member of the team, the rest are young and single bar Gideon who is old and divorced as seems to the norm for someone married to this kind of job. Most of the characters are affected in some way throughout the series, and either Gideon or Hotch are on hand to dispense some wisdom on how to handle the pressure of working the kind of cases they do.

As with most series, Criminal Minds brings it`s own unique procedural terms to the table. Here we have Unsub and Stressor. Neither term is explained early on, but both are fairly self-explanatory to those who watch this kind of series. Unsub is short for unknown subject, which is how the initial serial killer is termed until he is identified. Stressor is the event that affected the Unsub so badly that he turned to killing to fulfil whatever need (mostly sexual) drives him. It`s a little odd hearing these terms for the first time, but they become second nature very quickly.

Towards the end of the series, Garcia gets a bit more exposure rather than just being the backroom participant and I`m led to believe she plays a slightly bigger role in the second season. I`m hoping it`s not too big a role as I think that would spoil the dynamics of the show. Garcia is essentially the comedy character, and fleshing out her role will either affect the tone or affect the character to the detriment of the show. Garcia should in my opinion remain on the back seat.

In terms of the episodes themselves, there are no bad ones but a couple of exceptional ones. The best of this series is without doubt Riding The Lightning which features a serial killing couple about to face execution by the electric chair. Gideon believes that the wife is innocent of killing any of the `true` victims or even her own son and it`s a race to prove this before she is put to death. This ends in a powerful way with a mother making the ultimate sacrifice, it literally brought tears to my eyes - the acting is so good.

Overall I really enjoyed this and it`s one of a number of high quality US TV shows on air right now. It has a look and feel that is its own, there is certainly action for those who need it, but there`s plenty to think about as well…