![]() ![]() But the rest of the episode is spent trying to track down Garcia’s attacker and as the team investigates, more and more of her backstory as an “underground” hacker comes to light. #SERIAL KILLERS ON CRIMINAL MINDS INTRO SERIES#Despite a scene where team lead Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) says “It doesn’t look good” as they all wait for her to emerge from surgery, Vangness’s presence as a series regular for the next 12 seasons clues you in to the fact that the wound isn’t fatal. The second episode, “Penelope,” sees Garcia being transported to the hospital. Garcia goes on a date with the man whose computer she fixed, but just as she turns around for what she thinks is a goodnight kiss, something unexpected happens. The doctor responds in a bit of clunky foreshadowing: “It’s not your hands that I’m worried about.” A hospital chairman says that the hospital’s “hands are tied,” because the patient has to be released once he turns 18. The first episode opens in Florida in 1988-one of the many lessons I’ve learned from this show are never to go to Florida or anywhere near a swamp-where a mysterious 17-year-old is being released from a mental hospital against his doctor’s recommendation. Most procedurals have to balance revealing enough backstory of the main characters to keep audiences emotionally invested while simultaneously making sure the villain of the week doesn’t get short shrift, and “Lucky” and “Penelope” are masterclasses in that balance. As you can probably guess from the second episode’s title, Garcia is the primary focus of this plotline, and that’s where the sweet spot comes in. Spencer Reid, an awkward wunderkind played by Matthew Gray Gubler, and Penelope Garcia, a brilliant technical analyst with a flamboyant wardrobe played by Kristen Vangsness. The prime example of this, and the place where I would recommend any Criminal Minds neophyte start, is a two-episode arc in the third season: “Lucky” and “Penelope.” (Tragically these episodes came before Thirst Aid Kit-verified hottie Adam Rodriguez became a series regular, and for that I apologize.) The beating hearts of the entire series are Dr. But episodic case-of-the-week plots-or better yet, the one-two punch of a two-episode arc-hit the perfect sweet spot. ![]() When the show attempted season-long arcs or social commentary was when I was most likely to tune out. A less compelling (though probably more honest) reason is that Criminal Minds at its very best is just my kind of formulaic fun, despite the morbidity baked into its premise. #SERIAL KILLERS ON CRIMINAL MINDS INTRO SERIAL#Why do I like this objectively not-great show? The most compelling reason is that, by virtue of focusing on serial killers-one of the whitest subsets of criminals, at least in the public imagination- Criminal Minds made it pretty easy to ignore the racial dynamics that make early episodes of Law & Order so cringey. And yet even as I grew more familiar with the brokenness of our criminal justice system and the abhorrent history of the FBI, I still found myself turning to Criminal Minds in quiet moments when I didn’t have the mental bandwidth for anything else. I started watching Criminal Minds in junior high, before I fully understood the ramifications of cop procedural shows and their tendency to function as propaganda that glosses over the discrimination and brutality that’s baked into law enforcement. Despite it now being part of a rather crowded field, the show has been one of my consistent guilty pleasures over the past 10 years-one whose appeal I have long struggled to explain to others. Buzzier shows like Mindhunter and True Detective and docuseries like Conversations with a Killer or The Keepers have since provided fresher serial killer content, but when Criminal Minds aired in 2005, its concept-a slight remix on the tried-and-true villain of week formula-was relatively unique. For the past decade and a half, the show has followed a revolving cast of FBI agents as they track down serial killers for the fictional Behavioral Analysis Unit. That’s the basic premise of CBS’s procedural drama Criminal Minds, which will air its final episode on Wednesday after 15 seasons. The good guys catch the bad guys, and sometimes Shemar Moore is shirtless. The Tragedy of Macbeth Solves the Problem That Curses Most Shakespeare Adaptations. ![]() Yellowjackets’ Creators on the Season Finale’s Shocking Twists.Imagining a “Second Civil War” Is a Lost Cause Why “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” Is the Biggest Disney Hit Since “Let It Go” ![]()
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