(no subject)
I realize that this is only my second entry, but instead of worrying about sounding deep and thoughtful, I'm just going to do what I used to do in the old days; the old days being my serious livejournal years, when I updated several times a day about nothing in particular. I miss those days. That kind of writing was so therapeutic to me, I don't know why I stopped.
Anyways, I need to talk about something that has been keeping me up night after night: the "death"/departure of Emily Prentiss on Criminal Minds.
Talk about being blindsided. I don't follow online news for my fandoms, so I had no idea it was coming. But my god, not since the death of Buffy Summers in 2001 have I been so deeply upset by the death of a fictional character. And she's not even actually dead, for christ's sake!
When Paget Brewster joined the cast of Criminal Minds at the end of its second season, she had very little going for her. First of all, she was sent in as a mole for Stauss, so right off the bat we're supposed to dislike her. I was never one of those people, and when she pledged fealty to the Quantico team, my indifference grew to liking. My liking grew to love in episode 3.02, "In Name and Blood", when Prentiss attempted to resign from the BAU, only to be persuaded by Hotch to do "one more case". At the crime scene, Emily throws the rule book out the window (not for the last time) and enters the home of the unsub as a private citizen, checking her badge and jurisdiction at the door. Cue badass Prentiss and the beginning of my ladycrush. Less than four episodes later, crush solidified. Episode 3.05, "Seven Seconds": a little girl goes missing in a mall. The entire team helps break the case, but it's Emily's tough-as-nails interrogation of the little girl's aunt that blows the whole thing wide open. That was when I knew that Emily Prentiss would inevitably work her way into my heart. I just wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly.
Let me clarify: I've only been watching Criminal Minds for little over a year. I still haven't seen every single episode, but I'm constantly working on it, and it is definitely my favorite show on television, even though I don't keep up week by week. As far as the newest season goes, I watch when I can, and a few weeks ago my roommates and I happened to be watching together
when "Valhalla" aired. The first thing I noticed: my characters didn't sound right. At all. The words coming out of all their mouths sounded forced, unnatural, and cliched (and not in the good Criminal Minds cliche way). I pointed this out to my roommates, and they thought I was crazy. Bad writing aside, I was soon swept up in Emily's storyline, and we all agreed to tune in the following week to see how it all played out. None of us were expecting it to be Paget Brewster's last episode. When Doyle stuck Prentiss with that stake, time stopped. From where I was sitting I could see everyone in the room, their eyes and mouths as wide as my own. As the last minutes of the episode played out, I struggled to keep my composure. Seeing the tears in everyone elses eyes made it that much harder, but somehow I kept it together.
I didn't sleep that night, though, and I've since spent far too much time thinking on all of it. Here's where the real cliche kicks in: I didn't fully realize how much I liked Prentiss until she was gone. I've got nothing to say about paving paradise, or putting up a parking lot, but it's all very much connected.
I had to get these thoughts out. Maybe now I can move on.
And of course by move on I naturally mean absorb myself in Criminal Minds fanfiction. And when that fails, I'll write my own. Emily Prentiss will live on, and who knows? Maybe we'll see her again some day.
Anyways, I need to talk about something that has been keeping me up night after night: the "death"/departure of Emily Prentiss on Criminal Minds.
Talk about being blindsided. I don't follow online news for my fandoms, so I had no idea it was coming. But my god, not since the death of Buffy Summers in 2001 have I been so deeply upset by the death of a fictional character. And she's not even actually dead, for christ's sake!
When Paget Brewster joined the cast of Criminal Minds at the end of its second season, she had very little going for her. First of all, she was sent in as a mole for Stauss, so right off the bat we're supposed to dislike her. I was never one of those people, and when she pledged fealty to the Quantico team, my indifference grew to liking. My liking grew to love in episode 3.02, "In Name and Blood", when Prentiss attempted to resign from the BAU, only to be persuaded by Hotch to do "one more case". At the crime scene, Emily throws the rule book out the window (not for the last time) and enters the home of the unsub as a private citizen, checking her badge and jurisdiction at the door. Cue badass Prentiss and the beginning of my ladycrush. Less than four episodes later, crush solidified. Episode 3.05, "Seven Seconds": a little girl goes missing in a mall. The entire team helps break the case, but it's Emily's tough-as-nails interrogation of the little girl's aunt that blows the whole thing wide open. That was when I knew that Emily Prentiss would inevitably work her way into my heart. I just wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly.
Let me clarify: I've only been watching Criminal Minds for little over a year. I still haven't seen every single episode, but I'm constantly working on it, and it is definitely my favorite show on television, even though I don't keep up week by week. As far as the newest season goes, I watch when I can, and a few weeks ago my roommates and I happened to be watching together
when "Valhalla" aired. The first thing I noticed: my characters didn't sound right. At all. The words coming out of all their mouths sounded forced, unnatural, and cliched (and not in the good Criminal Minds cliche way). I pointed this out to my roommates, and they thought I was crazy. Bad writing aside, I was soon swept up in Emily's storyline, and we all agreed to tune in the following week to see how it all played out. None of us were expecting it to be Paget Brewster's last episode. When Doyle stuck Prentiss with that stake, time stopped. From where I was sitting I could see everyone in the room, their eyes and mouths as wide as my own. As the last minutes of the episode played out, I struggled to keep my composure. Seeing the tears in everyone elses eyes made it that much harder, but somehow I kept it together.
I didn't sleep that night, though, and I've since spent far too much time thinking on all of it. Here's where the real cliche kicks in: I didn't fully realize how much I liked Prentiss until she was gone. I've got nothing to say about paving paradise, or putting up a parking lot, but it's all very much connected.
I had to get these thoughts out. Maybe now I can move on.
And of course by move on I naturally mean absorb myself in Criminal Minds fanfiction. And when that fails, I'll write my own. Emily Prentiss will live on, and who knows? Maybe we'll see her again some day.