Criminal Minds

Criminal Minds is an American crime drama that premiered September 22, 2005 on CBS. It is produced by The Mark Gordon Company in association with ABC Studios (formerly Touchstone Television) and CBS Paramount Network Television (formerly Paramount Network Television).The show follows the adventures of a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at Quantico, Virginia. Criminal Minds differs from many criminal system procedural dramas by focusing on the criminal rather than the crime itself.

Criminal Minds
File:Criminal Minds Title.png
Created by	Jeff Davis
Starring	Season 3 Cast: Joe Mantegna Paget Brewster Matthew Gray Gubler Shemar Moore A. J. Cook Kirsten Vangsness and Thomas Gibson
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	60 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 45 minutes
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 22 2005 – present

Criminal Minds initially starred former Chicago Hope actors Mandy Patinkin as Jason Gideon and Thomas Gibson as Aaron Hotchner. On July 17, 2007, it was announced that Patinkin had been granted a request to be released from his role on the show. Patinkin was replaced by Joe Mantegna, who joined the cast several episodes later after Patinkin left the show.

The series' third season, which premiered on September 26, 2007, was interrupted in late 2007 by the industry-wide writer's strike . It aired its last pre-strike episode on January 23, 2008. Following the resolution of the strike, the show returned to air on April 2 2008 and is slated to broadcast seven episodes for the remainder of the season.

Themes and plot devices

Each episode has a voice-over in one of the early sequences, and again in the concluding one, discussing a quote by a well-known author or poet. The quote ties in to the case in the episode and by revisiting it at the end of the episode a sense of conclusion is achieved. The voice-over was most often given by Gideon, however since his departure it has become common practice for Hotchner, Reid, Morgan, Prentiss, JJ, Garcia and Rossi to alternate the voice overs each episode. These quotes can be found here.

Characters

Main article: List of characters in Criminal Minds

Current characters

FBI BAU Supervisory Special Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner

Played by Thomas Gibson, Hotch was formerly assigned to the FBI Field Office in Seattle, Washington. Currently, he is the head of the BAU team. He and his wife are parents of a baby son named Jack. Hotch's attempts to balance his family life and his job successfully is an ongoing theme on the show. After a two-week suspension for releasing a serial killer, Hotch requested a transfer by Erin Strauss, who was pressuring him for such a request. This pleased his wife, until Agent Morgan begged with Hotch to come help on a case in Milwaukee and while he was packing up his desk, Garcia handed him the case file and lied to him telling him that his transfer was held up and that JJ wanted him to have the file. Hotch decided to stay with the BAU against his wife's wishes—when he returned to Virginia, his wife and son had left. In episode 3x11 "Birthright", he was served with divorce papers as he was leaving the office.

File:Criminal cast main.jpg

The cast of Criminal Minds

FBI BAU Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi

Played by Joe Mantegna, David was in early retirement until his voluntary return to the BAU. He had retired in order to go on lecture and book tours, but returned to settle yet to be specified unfinished business. In episode 3x11 "Birthright", Rossi revealed his reasons for returning to Sheriff Caulfield. He held out a charm bracelet with the names of 3 children from one of his first cases. The children had watched their parents get beaten to death and he promised them he would find out who did it. Each year on Christmas Eve, Rossi calls the children to let them know he hasn't forgotten them and he will find out. The year before when he left a message, none of them called him back. Rossi finally told Caulfield that the case has gone unsolved for 21 years.

FBI BAU Special Agent Derek Morgan

Played by Shemar Moore, Morgan is a confident and assertive everyman character, the son of an African-American father and Caucasian mother. He has a black belt in Judo, runs FBI self-defense classes, and previously served in a bomb squad unit. He and his two sisters (Sarah and Desirée) grew up in a tough urban Chicago neighborhood. After the death of his father when he was 10, Morgan struggled somewhat; youthful fighting earned him a juvenile criminal record. He was taken under the wing of a local youth center coordinator, Carl Buford. Buford acted as a surrogate father to Morgan and helped Morgan obtain to a college football scholarship, but also sexually abused him—one episode focused on this.

FBI BAU Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid

Played by Matthew Gray Gubler, Doctor Reid is a genius who graduated from high school at age 12. In his youth, his father left him and his mother, no longer able to deal with the paranoid schizophrenia of Reid's mom. Reid grew up learning nearly everything he knows from books, with his mother often reading to him. Still, Reid knew the way his mother was living wasn't healthy. When he was eighteen, he had his mother placed in a mental institution. She is still there, and Reid has stated that he sends letters every day, because of the guilt he feels for not visiting her. Reid is also worried about the fact that his mother's illness can be passed on genetically; he once told Morgan that "I know what it's like to be afraid of your own mind". After being kidnapped by a serial killer with multiple personalities and tortured and drugged for days, Reid developed an addiction problem. This problem was discovered by Hotch and Gideon over time, as well as an old friend of Reid's in New Orleans. He seems to have recovered though the situation remains unconfirmed.

FBI BAU Special Agent Emily Prentiss

Played by Paget Brewster, Prentiss is the daughter of an ambassador. In her first appearance, she recognizes Hotch from one of his first commands: security clearance for her father. Her arrival surprises both Hotch and Gideon, as neither of them had signed off on the transfer. Prentiss insists her parents have not pulled strings for her. Ultimately, she joins the team at the end of episode 2x09 ("The Last Word") on a probationary basis. She replaces Agent Elle Greenaway. She is a graduate of Yale and has been working for the FBI for little under ten years, primarily in the Midwest. She is fluent in Arabic from her childhood spent travelling and residing in the Middle East. After being pressured by Section Chief Erin Strauss to assist in the end of Hotch's career, she resigned from the FBI. However, Garcia managed to keep her departure on hold in the computer system just long enough for the rest of the team to convince her to stay with the BAU. Upon her return, Section Chief Strauss remarked that neither Prentiss, Hotch, nor the rest of the team would be able to climb the ladder to the top because of all this, thus shattering Prentiss's dreams.

FBI BAU Special Agent Jennifer "JJ" Jareau

Played by A.J. Cook, JJ acts as the team's liaison with the media and local police agencies. She is not actually a profiler, having once declined Hotchner's suggestion to "take the classes" to qualify as one. She once went on a date to a Washington Redskins game with Reid, but little has come of it romantically. JJ graduated from East Allegheny High School near Pittsburgh, PA, where she was the captain of the varsity soccer team her senior year and earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. When she and Reid split up the night of Reid's abduction, JJ walked into a dark barn and was attacked by several ferocious dogs, which she shot and killed. This had a great effect on her emotionally but has not come up since then, also she recently shot and killed a man in a hostage situation at the BAU which as of now seems to have had minor effects on her.

FBI Audio/Visual Technician Penelope Garcia

Played by Kirsten Vangsness, Garcia is the team's Audio/Visual Technician at BAU Headquarters in Quantico, VA. When she speaks with Morgan they use pet names such as "hot stuff" or "sweet cheeks". Although they haven't pursued a romantic relationship, Garcia did show mild jealousy at the sight of Morgan dancing with two other women. Her parents died in an auto accident due to a drunk driver when she was 18, and she now helps counsel families of victims in auto accidents in her free time. In episode 3x09 ("Penelope"), Garcia admitted after her parents died, she dropped out of Caltech and went "underground", but continued to teach herself computer coding. She had been on one of the FBI hacker's lists and they recruited her; hence her job with the BAU. She is into online games, specifically MMORPGs. She has broken down crying several times due to the fact that one area of her job is to listen to and watch terrifying things in her office to analyze them for the team. However, according to Agent Hotchner, she "fills her office with figurines and color to remind herself to smile as the horror fills her screens." Garcia was shot in episode 3x08 ("Lucky") by a man with whom she had just gone on a date, but she survived the gunshot when the bullet, which was aimed at her heart, ricocheted into her stomach.

Recurring characters

Haley Hotchner

Played by Meredith Monroe, she is the wife of series regular Agent Hotchner. She and Hotch have a newborn son, Jack. Jack's name was revealed in episode 2x04 ("Psychodrama"). They are currently having marital issues and it appears that Haley has left Hotch at the end of episode 3x02 ("In Name and Blood"). Hotch mentions that he is not sure if she is coming back to Morgan at the end of episode 3x04 ("Children of the Dark") At the end of episode 3x11 ("Birthright"), Haley has Hotch served with divorce papers as he is leaving the office for the day.

FBI Section Chief Director Erin Strauss

Played by Jayne Atkinson. The BAU's superior, her job lies in administration, and she has no actual field experience. She is under the impression that Hotchner's team is unorganized and pose a threat to the BAU, prompting her to enlist Emily Prentiss to spy on the team (a request that was denied) and to attempt Hotch's removal from the BAU with a pending investigation on his methods. She resigns her attention from the team eventually, but not before making sure that none of them will ever be able to move up in any higher positions within the FBI.

Former characters

FBI BAU Special Agent Elle Greenaway

Played by Lola Glaudini, Elle was formerly assigned to FBI Field Office in Seattle, Washington; recently assigned to the BAU, expert in sexual offense crimes. Her father was a police officer but was killed in the line of duty. She is half Cuban and speaks Spanish. After she was shot, she returned to the BAU rather quickly, against the advice of the rest of the team. Not long after, she staked out and shot a serial rapist in cold-blood because of his crimes against women. Her ability as a profiler was questioned by Hotchner and Gideon because of this, even though the local police force deemed it self-defense. She turned her badge and her gun over to Hotch, declaring that it wasn't "an admission of guilt."

FBI BAU Supervisory Special Agent Jason Gideon

Played by Mandy Patinkin, Gideon was the BAU's best profiler. He helped Morgan and Reid through their nightmares. Prior to the series, he is said to have had a "nervous breakdown" after he sent six men into a warehouse with a bomb in it. All six agents were killed, and he was heavily criticized about the event. Gideon is also skilled at chess, having continually beaten Dr. Reid. After a series of emotional cases, Gideon began to feel burnt out. The last straw was Hotch's two week suspension, for which Gideon felt responsible. He retreated to his cabin during the suspension and left a letter for Dr. Reid, whom he knew would be the one to come looking for him. When Reid arrived at the cabin, it was empty except for the letter and Gideon's badge and weapon. Gideon was last seen remarking to a Nevada diner waitress that he didn't know where he was going or how he'd know when he got there, leaving the diner and subsequently driving off in his car.

Episodes

Main article: List of Criminal Minds episodes

DVD releases

Paramount Home Entertainment released season 1 of Criminal Minds on DVD in Region 1 on November 28, 2006. Season 2 was released on October 2, 2007. Meanwhile, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (formerly Buena Vista Home Entertainment) released an R2 set on February 12, 2007 in Europe. At the time of the region two DVD release, the season had not had a complete run on national television. The DVD set was released with the season finale set to be aired 3 days after the release, on February 15, 2007.

DVD Name	Region 1 release date	Region 2 release date	Region 4 release date	Region 2 release date
The Complete First Season	November 28 2006	February 12 2007	April 18 2007	June 7 2007
The Complete Second Season	October 2 2007	May 5 2008 [1]	TBA	TBA
The Complete Third Season	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

Ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Criminal Minds on CBS:

Season	Timeslot (EDT)	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
1	Wednesday 9:00 P.M.	September 22, 2005	May 10, 2006	2005-2006	#27	12.8
2	Wednesday 9:00 P.M.	September 20, 2006	May 16, 2007	2006-2007	#22	14.0
3	Wednesday 9:00 P.M.	September 26, 2007	May 21, 2008	2007-2008	#?	?

External links

• Official website
• "Criminal Minds" at Yahoo! TV
• Criminal Minds at IMDb
• Profiling Criminal Minds
• Full episodes of Criminal Minds

Preceded by Grey's Anatomy 2006

Super Bowl lead-out program 2007

Succeeded by House 2008