On CBS' Latest Idiotic Moment
So I woke up this morning, and it was a fairly normal enough morning. Get a shower, get dressed for work, get glared at by the lady at Dunkin Donuts when I specify that I want “liquid sugar please so that it mixes better”; then I finally settle into the break room to eat my breakfast (I have a terrible tendency to get there half an hour early to eat breakfast) and I finally glance over my twitter stream on my phone. And I saw the lovely Ali's (That's mombailey1973 for all y'all not lucky enough to be on chat terms with her) tweet: “I'm in shock this morning for those of you CM lovers just rising from your comfy beds: http://bit.ly/9t20SL” so I cruise on over to the blog going “......hm. Maybe they posted a spoiler for next season...” What do I find? Well, it was a spoiler for next season but not one I wanted to see.
I saw red (and not in the “Duh you work at Target” way); working through that wasn't happy or fun. But I managed it. It was almost an hour before I calmed down enough to actually sit back and go “Okay, what exactly makes this so offensive.” Although really the reasons don't end.
If AJ Cook wasn't a good actress, I wouldn't mind really. Because that's the way the business works, if you aren't good you get dropped (unless you're Tom Cruise; but he sold his soul to satan). But AJ? AJ is awesome, she's able to be completely funny (“Xana-don't” anyone???!) and at the same time carry off an emotional scene that can move you (JJ confiding in Hotch about her sister was.....yeah. Having lost someone, not a sister, it was an awesome scene). AJ obviously has talent. To drop her now would be stupid.
Now if AJ wanted to leave, I could see it. I was sad to see Lola Glaudini go, but the impression we were giving was that she wanted to go. And honestly? That's something I respect, if you don't want to do something no one can force you. She made that choice (as far as we know) and in the end I respected it. AJ? Not 3 weeks ago Alli, Emz, and I sat around in a chat-interview and she mentioned several times how excited she was for next season, how she wanted to see more of JJ's “dark side”, and discussed how JJ's changed by becoming a mother. This isn't someone who wants to leave a show. She was bubbly and excited and awesome, and I think it's dead wrong of CBS to cut her when clearly she doesn't want to go anywhere.
Now having said all of this: They need to “save” money. I could understand this as well, if JJ wasn't essential to the show's dynamic. But she is vital, and core to the group. Really, they all are. But seriously, lets think about what they'll do if she's gone. Who's going to shift through the cases? Hotch? No he already does too much. Reid? Seriously not going to go there. Rossi? Oh please, love them man but no way he'd do it. Morgan? Eh. Garcia? Prentiss? They all already have jobs. And who would deal with the press? Reid? SERIOUSLY people. THIS WOULD CRIPPLE THE SHOW. JJ distills the cases, is the face of the unit, and provides the soft chewy center (along with Garcia and Reid) of the Bad Ass BAU. Without her the others would be lost. If they got rid of her now they'd be wasting FIVE seasons of back story. There's no reason to do that at all.
As for “toning down Prentiss' role”, on top of cutting AJ? That just smacks of Sexism. Really. It does. So I'm just going to let that statement speak for itself.
All I can say is sign the petition, comment on the forums, and if you really want to stir them up send them a letter. If there's one thing a TV channel can't ignore it's a flood of letters protesting something.