Creator
Jeff Davis
Cast
Mandy Patinkin Jason Gideon
Thomas Gibson Aaron ‘Hotch’ Hotchner
Shemar Moore Derek Morgan
Matthew Gray Gubler Dr. Spencer Reid
A.J. Cook Jennifer ‘JJ’ Jareau
Kirsten Vangsness Penelope Garcia
Lola Glaudini Elle Greenaway
DVD Release Date: October 2, 2007
Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 966 Minutes on 6 discs
The Show
Another crime drama, another series full of differences from the others that somehow makes it good and enjoyable to watch. James Gideon is back as the head of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He leads a team of experts in every field imaginable to the scenes of the crime and beyond in order to solve the cases that not only plague the victims, but also themselves.
Criminal Minds takes an interesting approach to the crime drama as they have a lot of the same qualities that others do. Each episode starts off with some sort of crime or particular case being presented to the team, and they then set out to solve it. That of course is what every series like this one does. But each one must have some sort of unique quality that separates them from the pack or else it’d be senseless to watch more then one. The niche that Criminal Minds brings to the table is that it focuses on serial killers.
In a show that deals constantly with murderers, the pace and level of each episode is raised from the start. You’re never witnessing some petty crime or simple robbery attempt with a criminal that got away and is on the run with a few hundred bucks. These are serious crimes with people dead. Families dead. And if the rare episode comes around where someone doesn’t die, then there is a disturbing situation such as a bank robber forcing his victims to strip before him and perform sex acts against their will. There is never a dull moment.
Another quality of the series that impressed me is the same type of continuity that Law & Order: Criminal Intent shows. Multiple episodes can go by and memories or criminals that got away will still haunt members of the BAU team. A serial killer named Frank has some really intense discussions with Gideon in the episode, “No Way Out.” Ten episodes later is the second part of this episode picking up exactly where it left off midseason. It’s just really impressive the way the directors and writers were able to keep a story going over such a long period and then make it seem as if the episodes were aired back-to-back.
Speaking of back-to-back episodes, James Van Der Beek guest stars in a two-parter (“The Big Game” and “Revelations”) giving unforgettable performances as the creepy religious advocate looking to punish sinners. It was just such a big change seeing “Dawson” no longer chasing after girls and reciting film quotes but torturing and killing people. Yet he pulled it off so well, but that’s something that can happen when put into a role that was written so well. That is merely one of the things Criminal Minds does right because there just isn’t a lot anyone can find wrong.
Episodes
Disc One:
The Fisher King, Part 2: Continuing from the end of last season, each member of the team received a clue from psychopathic killer seeing if they could save his next victim before he got to them. The team continues trying to figure out the clues while Reid flies his mother in from the sanitarium where she knew a mysterious character named the Fisher King. This was an excellent episode to open up the season with.
P911: An agent that deals with the cases of innocent children has seen the picture of a boy missing for several years end up online for a child auction site. She turns to the BAU for help in finding the person responsible.
The Perfect Storm: A sadistic pair of suspects have been torturing women and filming their actions. The team has only a few clues, but those clues include DVDs of their horrific work sent to the victims’ families.
Psychodrama: A crook hits bank after bank but he isn’t only after money. He forces his victims to undress in front of him and engage in sex acts before he leaves.
Disc Two:
The Aftermath: A serial rapist has been targeting women at a religious school and the BAU feel he is even more closely connected to them because the women have been trying to get pregnant. Elle takes a dangerous step for the team as she agrees to be used as bait.
The Boogeyman: Ell has gone AWOL after being shot and missing her psychiatric evaluations that Hotchner had ordered for her. Meanwhile, the team is in a small Texas town to find someone that is hunting down small children and killing them in the forest.
North Mammon: A mother’s love shows through when she asks the team to interfere in the FBI’s investigation of her daughter’s disappearance. What she doesn’t know is that her daughter is one of three women trapped in a basement in which they were told only two will make it out alive and they’ve got to decide who dies.
Empty Planet: A Seattle-based bomber is using a well known science-fiction book as inspiration for where he plants the next bomb. The BAU team must find him fast because he won’t stop until the hells of modern technology are gone.
Disc Three:
The Last Word: St. Louis is being terrorized by not one, but two serial killers that keep trying to one-up the other and make a better showing. The team sets a media trap based on only one killer hoping it will draw the other one out so they can capture them both. Meanwhile, Emily Prentiss is hoping to become a member of the team by showing that is worthy of being there based solely on her skills.
Lessons Learned: Reid, Gideon, and the newest team member Emily head to Guantanamo Bay to speak to a prisoner. They are hoping that Emily’s foreign influence can get the prisoner to reveal the next targets of a dangerous sleeper cell.
Sex, Birth, Death: A series of prostitute murders in Washington D.C. has called for the BAU team to make their way there and find the culprit. A teenage boy is soon found as the primary suspect, but a powerful Congresswoman is looking to keep the case quiet and not let anyone know about it.
Profiler, Profiled: Morgan has gone to Chicago simply to visit his family, but ends up being arrested as a serial killer by a local detective. And it’s all due to a file that the detective was sent by Gideon.
Disc Four:
No Way Out: One of the deadliest serial killers that Gideon has ever encountered sits in a diner in Nevada surrounded by local authorities. Gideon talks with the man known as Frank who vows that he will never be captured. Especially as long as he holds a woman hostage and refuses to reveal her location.
The Big Game: The team has found a series of murders to have connections to a religious fanatic that leaves laptops behind at the scenes of the crime. He does this so he can watch the investigation unravel before his eyes on the internet and see how the cases of the “sinners” are taken care of.
Revelations: Reid has been kidnapped by a serial killer the team was close to capturing, but happened to get away. As he is tortured by the kidnapper live on the internet; flashes of his troubled childhood come flooding back to him. An excellent second part to “The Big Game.”
Fear And Loathing: In a mostly white suburban white neighborhood in New York, four young African-American women have been found dead. The BAU team steps in before a race riot makes things worse, but these murders may not be racially motivated after all is said and done.
Disc Five:
Distress: A series of murders near construction sites in Houston have led the team down there to investigate. They soon find evidence pointing at a homeless man that is delusional a war veteran who may believe the sites are battle grounds.
Jones: Reid is struggling while trying to cope with some things after someone from his past comes back in the picture. Gideon meanwhile has made his way to New Orleans to seek out a serial killer believed to be copying Jack the Ripper, but any evidence has since been taken away by Hurricane Katrina. This is an excellent episode and really captures my home city well.
Ashes And Dust: A serial arsonist has been setting fire to the homes of the middle and upper class families in San Francisco. But he’s been doing it as they sleep at night and watching them burn so now the BAU has taken over the case since the arsonist has turned into a serial killer.
Honor Among Them: Emily Prentiss’ mother, a foreign ambassador, has come to the BAU with a woman whose husband has been kidnapped and seeks their help in finding him. The team may be in over their heads after figuring out the Russian mobsters are their chief suspects.
Disc Six:
Open Season: A national forest in Idaho is the latest crime scene for the team to check out and this one is quite different. Three people have been found dead in the woods with arrow wounds from a crossbow. It is soon discovered that there is a hunter on the loose and he’s targeted humans.
Legacy: A neighborhood in Kansas City has seen sixty-three homeless people go missing and local officials can’t figure out what is going on or why. BAU is called in to help and they believe someone has an agenda and it’s to clean up the streets in their own way.
No Way Out, Part II: The Evilution Of Frank: Gideon has gone missing after the serial killer known as Frank has returned and is murdering every victim Gideon ever saved. The team has no idea where either of them may be and must profile them both to locate them before it is too late. Great ending to the season.
The Video
The episodes are shown in Anamorphic Widescreen format and look great. All episodes are bright when they need to be and the darker scenes are never black and fully in shadow. The high definition that the episodes aired transfers almost perfectly to the DVDs.
The Audio
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and also are really good. A lot of the mood in this series is set by the music which is heard really well with the surround sound. Any gunshots, explosions, and dialogue are never overpowered and everything is heard clearly and loudly.
Special Features
Audio Commentaries – Four episodes have commentary: “” The Fisher King, Part 2″ with Edward Allen Bernero and Amanda Bernero; “The Perfect Storm” with Erica Messier, Debra J. Fisher, and Nicki Aycox; “Profiler, Profiled” with Edward Allen Bernero, Shemar Moore, and Glenn Kershaw; and “Revelations” with Chris Mundy and Matthew Gray Gubler. Having both members of the crew including producers and also members of the cast makes for some very interesting discussions. They all seem to be having a very good time talking about how much fun they had making the episodes. Some little hidden tidbits of information are also given from time to time so these are well worth the watch.
Profilers, Profiled – This is a thirteen minute look at the show as a whole. The producers, writers, and directors talk about what the point of the series is and what exactly they were going for. Some short looks at the characters in the series finish it up.
The Physical Evidence – Here is the “making of” featurette that has the cast and crew talking about what they were able to do and advance in now that they had a second season. This time they were hoping to top everything they did from season one and be darker, most intense, and just outright scare people. Overall, it is fifteen minutes of backstage scenes and a look at the special effects that were done much better this season then last.
Behavioral Science: Real-Life Criminal Minds – This is a really enjoyable feature as it takes a look into the investigative aspect of the series. It’s cool that they are actually researchers on their staff that specifically look up things like how to create a bomb or make anthrax. The producers and writers talk about how they come up with the ideas for the cases on different episodes and how real they wanted them all to feel. Clocking in at close to eighteen minutes; I actually wanted more when it was all said and done.
Meet Kirsten Vangsness – A deep look into the character of Penelope Garcia and how much fun the writers have creating lines for her. The best part of this feature is when they get away from the show and let Vangsness do her own thing at home and backstage on the set. She is hilarious and just an off the wall type person that made me crack up throughout the entire segment. If only it could have been longer then six and a half minutes for it was just fantastically entertaining.
Gag Reel – Only four and a half minutes of flubbed lines, cursing, people falling, funny faces, and your normal set gags. Some funny stuff here so yet another feature that should have been longer.
Deleted Scenes – Only two deleted scenes, but I really wish they would put the scenes right after or with the episode they belong to because sometimes I just can’t figure it out.
The Inside Pulse
I watch Criminal Intent on almost a daily basis and have reviewed a number of crime dramas so it’s not like these types of series are anything new to me. Actually, Criminal Minds is sort of a breath of fresh air because it deals with a topic that has interested me for a very long time, serial killers. No, I’m not some kind of freak but it’s a topic that usually makes for a good film (see Zodiac or Copycat) because you wonder how people can be that demented. It’s also great to see them captured or even sometimes outsmarting the cops. I root for the bad guy, what can I say? The special features aren’t much, but what’s there is good. Season two is full of good episodes making this a fantastic place to start even if you’ve never watched the first. It doesn’t’ take long to get to know everyone and the episodes are self-standing so no need to ever catch up on things. Now if only the BUA team would not use the word “unsub” every five minutes, then we’d have perfection.
