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Criminal Minds: The Second Season


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Criminal Minds: The Complete Second Season
Review date: 2008-04-13 Rating: 2 out of 10

Please note the advertised region for this DVD is 2. I was delivered region 1. Not handy if you live in region 2 and do not have a region 1 DVD player and have to send it back to the good ole US of A.

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Reviews


Only 5 stars? Not enough.
Review date: 2008-01-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

You could run out of superlatives when reviewing this awesome series. It's simply the best "cop" series around at the moment. I'll review it on the assumption that you've not seen the first season, but if you have, you know what to expect - except this season gives you even more.

Criminal Minds centres around the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) department of the FBI, and the small team who work there. These profilers analyse the evidence found at crimes - primarily murders, but sometimes kidnappings, arson, etc - and use it to construct a picture of the perpetrator. This show differs from all the other "cop shows" in that it approaches it all from a completely different angle. Where CSI, etc, look at the crime and follow that trail, the BAU's only interest in the crime itself is what it can tell them about the individual/s. And it is absolutely fascinating.

Mandy Patinkin (made famous playing Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride) plays Jason Gideon, who is, without a doubt, the best character one of these shows has ever produced. He's supremely intelligent, charismatic, perceptive and has more empathy than most characters we now see on tv, let alone on a show of this nature. He's honest, centred, sardonic, and has more integrity in his little finger than Gil Grissom and Columbo combined. In other words, lots. And lots.

Gideon is surrounded by a group of people who mesh incredibly well - the chemistry fairly crackles off the screen sometimes. There's Dr Spencer Reid, a shy, gentle, slightly socially inept genius. Trawl the interweb and you'll discover that most CM fans rate Reid as either their top or joint-top character, and it's an accolade that's well deserved - he's delightful, notwithstanding what he goes through in season 2... but we'll come to that. Derek Morgan in any other show would be the "muscle" of the group - only, CM has managed to create characters that are deeply nuanced and fleshed out, so while Morgan is the most likely to kick in a door or tackle someone to the floor, he's also kind, thoughtful and measured. JJ (played by AJ Cook) is the beautiful blonde who women ought to abjectly despise... but she's loyal, and tough and vulnerable and she's a lovely feminine counterpoint to what is, typically, a fairly masculine genre.

Without giving too much away, we are introduced to a new character called Emily Prentiss, played by Paget Brewster. You may recognise her from her brief stint on Friends as Kathy, the girl Chandler stole from Joey in season 4. She's a welcome addition - warm, honest, witty and loving. Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner (Thomas Gibson, of "Dharma and Greg") is the guy in charge of the BAU, and he's everything you would want a leader to be. He will always do the right thing, by the victims and by his team. He runs a tight ship, and he rarely smiles, but the team would be lost without him. Finally, we have Penelope Garcia, who brings so much sunshine to the show. She's the computer genius who is able to hack any computer and find any information necessary, and she's a big, blonde, geek-chic, idiosyncratic ball of polka-dot and wig-wearing loveliness. All of the characters are given the opportunity to flex their comedy muscles, but it's Garcia who brings the humour to the BAU most frequently.

Three of the main actors - Brewster, Gibson and Patinkin - all made their names in comedies, which will give you an idea of the comedy calibre of CM. It's nothing overt - but it has some beautiful one-liners and dialogue which will make you laugh out loud. This is a nice touch, necessary even, as the scenes which show the crimes taking place, and the aftermath, can be relatively graphic. But, more than that, the writers' ability to create dark, twisted criminal minds is astonishing sometimes. In season 2, you meet one man in particular, Frank, who will make your skin crawl and the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. He's the greatest anti-hero since Hannibal Lector and the cerebral stand-off between he and Gideon is beautiful television.

We are also introduced to a terrifying, almost unrecognizable James Van Der Beek who kidnaps and tortures one of the main characters - and yet even while you fear him, you'll pity him and want things to be ok for him. In that double-episode, as with every other, Criminal Minds will grab you in the first minute, and keep you on the edge of your seat until it ends. In fact, perhaps one of the greatest strengths of this series is that it really does go deeper in terms of examining why humans do what we do. The focus is on the people (both victim and criminal) psychologically and emotionally, rather than on the crime itself which, after all, is inanimate. It's disconcerting to discover you feel sympathy for a seemingly psychotic murderer, but in places, we see what made someone turn into what they became, and it's hard not to feel for them - that empathy is a testament to the quality of writers of this programme (who, sadly, as I write are on strike).

To encapsulate all of that into one brief paragraph, this show is unbelievably clever, witty and entertaining and I can't recommend it highly enough. I was about to say its lead characters are its greatest triumph, but then I'd be doing its villains and plot-lines a disservice; and if I were to specifically mention those three, that would imply its direction is somehow lacking, which it isn't. Criminal Minds is borderline flawless, whichever way you look at it. If I ever sprout Garcia-like skillz, I'll hack Amazon so I can give it more stars, because it thoroughly deserves them.

Another exceptional series though ...............
Review date: 2007-12-22 Rating: 10 out of 10

I fear the writing is on the wall for some of those in the BAU. Some viewers may criticise the fact that in this series several "friends" (ordinary members of the public) of BAU members were coming directly to them with problems before going to the Police first. But wouldn't any of us do this? I think so. Generally,each episode appears to have been extremely well thought out and when you have real World reknown ex-FBI Criminal Profilers praising the series and the Producers,Directors,Actors et al for the accuracy of the programme then somethings got to be going right somewhere. When Elle Greenway (Lola Glaudini) left the series I thought the hole was going to be very difficult to fill and then along comes Emily Prentiss played by Paget Brewster. All the characters have been allowed to "expand" in this series and they have become much more personal to us, we find ourselves fighting their corners much more defensively. When "Hotch" was being held to count at the end of series 2 by the Psychologist he brilliantly turned the tables on her by doing a profile on her there and then that struck a nerve. I hope if any of these actors are despatched it's due to other projects they have lined up and NOT for any shortcomings of the Production Team? My only criticism is that when I get the DVD I promise myself I will watch a few here and there to make them last but once I start it's a bit like a drug.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
A.J. Cook
Matthew Gray Gubler
Kirsten Vangsness
Thomas Gibson
Shemar Moore

Creators:
Thomas Gibson (Primary Contributor)
Shemar Moore (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: CBS DVD/Paramount
Manufacturer: CBS DVD/Paramount
EAN: 0097368509443
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 6
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, PAL,
Release date: 2007-10-02
Universal product code (UPC): 097368509443
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Region code: 2
Running time: 1007 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005-09-22
Language: English (Original Language)

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