Criminal Minds

Once again, it is a prestige thing. At least CM isn't alone in the struggle, though, there are a lot of other good crime dramas that get very little recognition. I don't think it bothers the cast, because they knew coming in that acting in a crime drama just doesn't get you a lot of recognition, at least in the media, any more.

my favorite has got to be the show on which garcia was shot.There was more emotion on that show that on any other,shes one of their own.The characters always come off as totally believable,but when its a fellow member it always hits you harder than a total stranger.The whole cast is awesome and I hope they stay together for a long time.Shemar moore really played his role perfectly on that particular episode,how much he loves Garcia really came through.

hate award shows ...all of them but i can't pick a fave CM I love all of them. could they have their last debate on any other night but Wednesday.? I felt out of kilter last night !Ha!

Profiler, ProfiledThe Fisher KingPenelopeAnd any others that delve heavily into the personal lives and/or history of the team members. I love learning more about them. Though the little things we pick up in every episode ("You wanna know why I have 3 properties?" for example) are great, they don't compare to devoting an entire episode to learning about the team members.

I personally like the episodes with the more complex Unsubs, I really enjoy the team profiling and psychology behind it all. Although I do enjoy learning more about the characters.

Which unsubs would you consider complex?

My minds going blank, I may have to look at some recaps and get back to you on that (sorry, long week, not a lot of examples off the top of my head). I thought that the Unsubs in Minimal Loss and Angel Maker were both very complex. My point is that it is ok to have an episode that focuses a lot on one character, but it would still be nice to have an interesting Unsub/case (and they have managed to do that before). Some of the better episodes, like Revelations, focused on one character and still did a solid job developing the Unsub. My point is that you don't want to forget to develop the Unsub because you are focusing on one character too much (not saying that CM has really done this, I'm just saying that that could happen relatively easily, if you get too caught up in one character). I just don't like episodes with Unsubs that are boring, like Frank (I don't know why he was on two episodes, their was nothing special about him at all). I don't want the Unsub to be dull, and I would like to come away feeling that I know a tiny bit more about profiling/psychology than I did before (and if I can learn more about the characters at the same time, then even better).

Okay, I got the point of your post. I was just interested in whether any unsubs stood out to you as complex. But, okay, the ones in Minimal Loss and The Angel Maker. Thanks.

I didn't mean to imply I would prefer those super-personal eps on a regular basis. Those are just the ones that stick with me, that I want to see again and again. For me, those eps are like random little gifts, two or three per season, just often enough to add breadth and depth to our understanding of the characters without drawing away from the fact that the show is mainly about their jobs, not their personal lives.

Bessie, there are probably others, those are just the most recent that I found interesting. I get what you mean, myrabeth. Those are good episodes, and they do shake things up when you only have two or three during a season. Adds a little spice to the show.

Falcon I really believe that the two episodes with Frank were kind of lame. Boring is the kind of word. About the other how are you going to know about the character if there isn't any information about him/her?

I love pretty much any episode that puts JJ and Emily in the same room together and saying more than "hi" to each other. That being said, "Revelations" and "Penelope" are right at the top for me. I'm also new to the show (just started watching in the last year) so I can't remember all the names of the episodes, but I loved the one with the plane scene between JJ & Emily and the talk about kids. The looks they exchanged were just...*dreamy sigh* Yeah, anyway!Jem, you mentioned GA. I liked the first season, but I could only take the MerDer angst for so long. I know a lot of people love them, but it wore on my nerves. I picked up watching it near the end of this last season for the Callica storyline only. Hopefully, it won't get messed up.

I agree hotchfan, Frank was a snore fest. I'm not saying that they can't provide info on the characters, I just want them to keep focusing on the point of the show, which is the job of the characters, not their personal lives. You can talk about their personal lives some, just don't become a soap opera like some of the other shows tend to do (where the job is forgotten and there is too much attention on the personal lives).Welcome to the boards, callies_muse! It is always nice to have new fans! Don't worry about knowing the episode names, I didn't pay attention to them until I started using the boards. The JJ/Emily and JJ/Hotch conversations are always very good.

callies_muse wrote: I love pretty much any episode that puts JJ and Emily in the same room together and saying more than "hi" to each other. That being said, "Revelations" and "Penelope" are right at the top for me. I'm also new to the show (just started watching in the last year) so I can't remember all the names of the episodes, but I loved the one with the plane scene between JJ & Emily and the talk about kids. The looks they exchanged were just...*dreamy sigh* Yeah, anyway!Jem, you mentioned GA. I liked the first season, but I could only take the MerDer angst for so long. I know a lot of people love them, but it wore on my nerves. I picked up watching it near the end of this last season for the Callica storyline only. Hopefully, it won't get messed up.

Well, to me, the show has never done anything to make me worry that they'll forget that the show is about crime (which I find a simplistic definition and not the full extent of what the show is about) because of the focus on the characters. Any time you see them at home, it's either after a case has been finished and we've watched them investigate it or we see them at home (or out somewhere) because a case is about to interrupt their time. But, every episode there's always been a crime and an unsub. Everything we learned about their personal lives ties in some way to the job. Anyway, the episodes mentioned as being about the characters (Penelope, The Fisher King, Profiler, Profiled) were about the jobs. Yes, we saw Garcia's apartment and she got a boyfriend. She also got shot in the first place because of what she does for a living and they profiled a guy with a hero homicide complex. The Fisher King (I assume both parts) had scenes of the team at home/vacation but it's only because their vacation was cut short by a case. We found out that Elle's dad was killed when she was a kid and Reid's mom has Schizophrenia, but this info came out through the working of a case. And, yeah, Profiler, Profiled is focusing completely on Morgan. But, only because Morgan was accused of a crime. And, this time, they concentrate their profiling on the character we know is innocent, but victimology is also a part of their jobs. And, from my view, this show doesn't come close to being a soap opera. (And, I've actually heard people say that, although I haven't said anyone on this thread has) To me, soap opera isn't a show that focuses on characters. When everyone on the team is sleeping with everyone else, and they're all switching partners and cheating on each other, and there's a lot of melodrama and betrayal and backstabbing (and not from the unsubs) - only then does a show deserve to be labeled soap opera.