A Case For Criminal Minds

There are lots of shows on television that have a large fan following like, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Heroes, 24, Desperate Housewives, all the CSI shows and all the Law & Order shows. Some also have a small but very loyal following like Numbers, Ghost Wisperer, Crossing Jordan, Boston Legal and House. Some of the aforementioned are very good shows and some I even watch on a regular basis. Then there is hands down the best television show on the air...possibly one of the best shows to ever be on the air: Criminal Minds. Never watched it? Your loss and I will tell you why.
Criminal Minds follows a team of FBI agents from the BAU, Behavioral Analysis Unit, in Quantico. They go around the country to try and solve cases that have local authorities stumped. Most are seriel killers, kidnappers and other crazies that if you knew were out there...you wouldn't go out there. They don't collect evidence, clean up crime scenes, work in the crime lab or even go to the morgue. They review the evidence and reports from the crime scenes and put together a profile of who they should be looking for. It takes a certain kind of mind to be trained to do this kind of work. Something that a person already has a talent for. This is what makes the team members different and the characters' flawed and human.
The team is lead by the stoic Agent Hotchner, played brilliantly by Thomas Gibson and advised by Jason Gideon, played by the ever talented Mandy Patinkin. Patinkin was the reason I started watching the show. A fixture on Broadway and the creator of many coveted roles (ex. Che in Evita), it was a pleasure to see him turn to TV. He had a small role in a Law & Order episode a few years ago and was unforgettable. TV needed a show for him.
Gibson on the other hand is known to some TV viewers from the sitcom Dharma & Greg in which he played a very square lawyer married to a very free spirited daughter of hippies. I never watched that show until I saw him in Criminal Minds and wondered how he could pull of a sitcom. Well, he is a natural straight man.
The rest of the team is made up of virtual TV unknowns and they flesh out the parts with a real human element. Not human like on Law & Order SVU, with characters roughing up suspects and marriages falling apart. And not obligatory affairs like on the CSI shows. There is that kind of character drama and then there is the character drama of just working through the story and not knowing if they are going to solve it or not. Sometimes they seem impossible. Sometimes the characters think they are impossible.
There is the brilliant but young Dr. Spencer Reed, the press conference face, of the pretty - AJ Cook and the computer geek that gets all the info anyone can ever need from any data base on Earth - Garcia. These characters bring with them all their baggage but are forced to leave it at the door. Not always easy and they are quickly forgiven for bringing any with them. There is no shouting about "keeping personal feelings out of it," "being to close to a case," etc. The personal feelings are what makes them able to do their jobs.
The writing and directing are also a credit to the show that doesn't rely on many formula plots or sensationalism.
On the last episode of the season, Hotchner's boss was trying to tell him that there needed to be a change in leadership at the BAU - basically him leaving. He proceeded to look around her office and profile her. She was livid. He asked her if she knew, why he knew, that she favored her middle son over the others. She said she didn't. And before walking out the door he said, "Because I am good at what I do."
Yes, indeed. See you next season on CBS.
The second best show on Television will be starting on June 18th on TNT and that would be The Closer.