Criminal Minds

(S02E06) So long Agent Greenaway. Elle is no longer employed with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. It was kind of slow though, wasn't it? I was hoping for a more, I don't know, intriguing or exciting close to Elle's story. Maybe she admits to killing in cold blood or does something to partially redeem herself? Nope. Instead, she blew off work, skipped a psych evaluation, and went to visit her father's grave. Lots of soul searching I guess. She was close to her father though. If you remember the season premiere, she spoke with him in her dream.

But at the end of the episode, it was clear her head was no longer in the game. I'm not sure that Hotch fired her but there was some sort of understanding between them. He didn't want her on the team anymore and she didn't want to be there. So she handed in her gun and badge. I wasn't a big fan of her attitude though. I didn't like that she felt as though the team wasn't behind her (not true) and the crack about Hotch never smiling (also not true) was just mean-spirited even though she delivered it sarcastically. I was initially against Lola Glaudini leaving the show and I'm not sure if the writers did it on purpose, but I feel good about it now. I'm looking forward to what Paget Brewster can bring to the table. Alrighty, on to the rest of the episode.

(S02E05) This is the kind of episode that Criminal Minds needs to have every couple of weeks. It's fine to have some installments that are all about a case and only a case. But every now and then, we need the case to impact the team members somehow. Think Six Feet Under and how the opening death scene often related to the rest of the episode. If this show wants some serious longevity, like 5 or 6 seasons instead of 2 or 3, we need stuff to happen to our beloved BAU team.

Now we've known for a few weeks that Elle is being written out of the show and up until now, we've had no indication as to how that would be done. Well we do now and hats off to the writers for not taking the easy route and just killing her off or having her transfer. They've given Elle a really good final story-line and I'm looking forward to it's conclusion next week. At least I assume that next week is the conclusion... I wonder who her replacement will be?

(S02E04) I think I figured out the one thing I want this show to have. Some kind of ongoing storyline. I know there's plenty of serialized stuff on TV right now but I really think something that ties this show together, episode by episode, would help a lot. The reason I say all this is that we got a little taste of it tonight... needs more though. For viewers of the show, it's no surprise that Hotch and his wife have been having problems. The guy works too much, he's never home, and he's missing his son grow up. Instead of getting some lengthy scenes with Hotch and his wife (there was a short one), we instead got a case that seems have Hotch evaluating what he does for a living. Job might finally be getting to him.

(S02E01) I really like this show and I think CBS was smart to give it a second season. It's nothing special, just remarkably consistent in the sense that at the end of the episode I always feel satisfied. Like I didn't waste my time by watching the whole hour. Unlike say any of the three Law and Order series. I've always found those shows to be a crap shoot. Sometimes they're good (really good), but more often than not... they're crap. With Criminal Minds, I dunno... it's like Won-Ton soup. You just can't go wrong.

Ahh, the Fall season. Cooler temperatures. The wonderful sights of foliage and smoke coming from chimney tops as winter approaches. But forget all that. Who needs to bother raking leaves when you can lock yourself in a room with no windows and watch all the great TV that's starting up? Pumpkins, scarecrows, Thanksgiving dinner? Big deal. Here's what I'm really looking forward to.

1.) The Wire - Only until recently did I get in to this show. I'm all caught up now and it's fantastic. Bob made a good point the other day when he asked why no one seems to talk about this show though. Why is that? It's great, the writing is tight, and everyone from the bottom to the top turns in a flawless performance. Even Dominic West, who until now, I only knew as the guy in that terrible Julianne Moore movie is outstanding as Jimmy McNulty. The Wire returns to HBO with it's fourth season on Sunday, September 10. Although I heard somewhere that you'll be able to screen the episode earlier than that on HBO On-Demand.

(S01E22) Not gonna lie. Kind of disappointing. I thought last week's episode (the one with the mole) was way better, and this had a cliffhanger! This does, however, wrap up the first season of Criminal Minds. Twenty-two episodes have come and gone, but the way they left it off... I'm not all that excited about what happens next. I mean I want know, but I'm not on the edge of my seat.

Everyone has been working hard at the BAU, so it's vacation time. The whole team takes two weeks off except JJ and Garcia. Morgan and Elle head south to Jamaica and Hotch is spending time with his family. Gideon retreats to his cabin in the woods while Reid visits his mother (she's schizophrenic... I don't think we knew that). So everyone is relaxing until The Fisher King shows up [insert sinister laughter here].

(S01E21) Best episode of the season. Absolutely spectacular. It's funny, too. Just a couple of days ago, a friend of mine and I were talking about how this show hadn't done a "mole" episode yet. Every FBI/CIA/spy show has one of those episodes when they have to root out a traitor in their own ranks, and this show hadn't done one yet. Well, we got it and it was great. Well written, logical twists. It made you think and I like it when shows do that.

Of course, being network television, you didn't have to think too hard. Even a casual TV viewer should have been able to pick the CIA Operations Director (Bruno?) right from the get-go. But the writers threw in a twist right at the end to throw you off and that was a nice touch because I feel like other shows wouldn't have taken the time to do that.

(S01E20) Another entertaining episode. I think I've said it before: this isn't the best show on TV, but it always holds my attention for the full hour. I was disappointed that the storyline from last week involving Hotch's personal life was dropped, but I'm still pretty sure that it will play a big role in the final episodes.

This episode was a little different though. The team was called in to find a serial killer on the run. The odd thing about it was that the local authorities knew who the guy was. Usually the BAU team is brought in when nothing is known other than people are being murdered. It was a nice change of pace and it allowed the teams to pair up and address different parts of the case.

(S01E19) This wasn't the most engaging episode, but I really liked what it set up for the remainder of the season. I may be reading into it too much but I think we have a lot in store for Hotch before the season finale.

Before I get to that, may as well talk about the case a little. The team had to go to Mexico to help hunt down a rapist/murderer that the local authorities were convinced didn't even exist. But it worked out just fine because everyone they ran into from the lowliest village peasant to the District Attorney General was bi-lingual. That always makes it easy when you're trying to find a man dressed like a woman in a foreign country.

For fans of the new CBS drama Criminal Minds, most will agree that Matthew Gray Gubler's character Dr. Spencer Reid is a crowd pleaser. He's hilarious as the know-it-all FBI agent. The other day I was doing a little web surfing and I came across his webpage. A treat indeed. I've never seen anything quite like it. There are no links ... just one ongoing page of craziness. Every entry is another uploaded picture of some notebook paper that Gubler has written a diary entry of sorts on. Each page is full of little doodles, and if you scroll down far enough there's a self-portrait as well as a drawing of his Criminal Minds co-star Thomas Gibson. On top of the imagery, the page is full of useful information. For instance, I had no idea he played Intern #1 in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and it's one of my favorite films. Or that Criminal Minds was originally titled Quantico? See? You really do learn something new everyday.