Life, Profiling Class, Castle and Criminal Minds
So work is still occurring (I have a contract, as a paid member of staff, till december at present, so you know, it'll still be occurring for a little while ;)) - getting used to what I'm doing now (I changed areas, and overseers). But it's nice, getting up and going somewhere every day, even if I get a little o.O from all the human contact.
Profiling class - week one was interesting. I'm kinda amused by the fact that the two main references, are two of the books I got out the library (Holmes and Holmes for american - David Canter for British). It's getting it in my head, because reading the books I was like 'am I understanding this right?' and I've not done so bad. Other people in the class aren't bad (two who may get on my nerves a little - one of whom, considering her reasons for doing it, makes me want to head desk a bit).
Stuff learned:
Profiling = semi educated guessing.
Top down - profiling as done by the FBI in real life - where they base it off what they've learned from real life caught criminals - we had a mini discussion of the pros and cons of it. (Personal bias is a big part of it - it's meant to be objective, but because the interviewer goes in with an opinion, and uses their opinion with what they learned from the interview, it's actually more subjective).
Bottom up - profiling as done by David Canter aka the british way. This is where you work from everyone up to your suspect - working through stuff i.e. who would have a tow rope in their car? - taking anything that's at the scene and working out what type of person would have or do those things.
We did more on the US top down, next week we'll be doing the uk version ;) - we spent most of the time coming up with our victim (murder - unsurprisingly - and teacher was gleeful because we came up with points that make sense, unlike the random stuff he's had before). We're profiling our killer as we go. (You need a LOT of information to get a profile working. Not DNA and such, but other things that seem small, but aren't. Our bullet points of the crime actually raised more 'questions we need to know the answer to' then it produced 'things we know from this'. It's interesting to me, after writing case fic, and still working on coming up with more, because it's pretty much what I've been doing. I don't go in with the unsub in my head, I go in with the victim and crime in my head. I'm discovering the unsub along with the CM team - yeah, it's a weird ass way to write ;))
It;s made me want to watch Cracker even more as well (British show, from the 1990s about a profiler) - but it's getting hold of it. I may end up buying it....
-
Shows this week - still need to watch Lost Girl and Haven - have watched Castle and Criminal Minds, and half of Terra Nova.
Castle is still working better for me than Criminal Minds (it's interesting, cos they both started from a similar stand point, from the situations of the last season, but I think Castle is working it more fluidly, it still feels like Castle. Criminal Minds, I'm kinda, well, this is the cue for an lj cut ;))
So, the character moments were interesting (I'm kinda MEH, more because the central story suffered because of the characters story - and because it kinda came out of nowhere. Last week didn't give any hints of anything with Reid and JJ, but did give hints of Morgan and Hotch, which got left dangled and didn't seem to be there at all in this.
To me Morgan is the one with trust issues - Reid is the one with abandonment issues (Reid has never really shown huge trust issues as such before - insecurities of his place yes, trust? Not so much) - so it;s weird to see Reid with his issues over JJ (and ummmmm, yeah crying for 10 weeks doesn't compare to grief assessment - BUT - opportunity to say something? Espec given what Reid said in the assessment...... I guess it just doesn't make sense to me. That and his diluadd comment, because from experience? They are all going to think about that, all the time, especially given what they do. There are so many things that could push him back that way. It’s never going to be far from their minds.
Him saying that to JJ though, that was the most true bit of it to me - because he's hurting and he wanted her to hurt, and he hit the sensitive spot. It's what Reid does when he hurts (ala his attack on Emily).
So yeah, I'm kinda O.O about the character bits - that end scene? If it had appeared a few more episodes in? Would have worked, but it felt too soon. This episode had no real team interaction, just pairs/threes and again, profiling got overshadowed/took the backseat to the character drama - and JJ's old job seems to no longer exist (no mention of how they were dealing with something that was clearly in the media). It was all little pairs, with little mixing.
It felt off and weird.
Then again, my opinion is going to be heavily coloured by the fact that I HATED the focus on the unsub (and the semi torture porn bits :/). The unsub who had absolutely no good qualities, nothing to really make you see him as anything but evil. If they are going to focus on the unsub, make us FEEL something for them. This one even had so much chance. They could have shown MORE of the way people treated him. They hinted it, and had little bits, but at no point did anyone call it. No one said 'this guy has been treated badly, for something beyond his control, and that SUCKS'. It just made him look evil.
His other victims, while they had names, there was nothing of them in it. They had no agency, and that's what i used to LOVE about Criminal Minds. It was the crime show that made it about the victims, about their agency and their part of the crime. (Like CSI is about the science of solving it, the evidence, rather than anything else. The victim and the criminal were just side parts).
It comes down to a conversation I had with Da the other weekend, about the Fred West thing that was on. He said he didn't watch those things because they tended to glorify the killers, and that made him uncomfortable. And that's what Criminal Minds is doing now.
All it would have taken for me to like the case section of the episode, would have been a shift of focus to the victims. If we didn't completely see the unsub. They could have followed the girl as she got off the bus, shown her horror, done a camera angle that showed what she was seeing. It's as much a direction thing as a writing thing. (It's more a writing thing in this case, because of the scenes of his flashbacks, and his filming of himself).
It really is strange, watching the old episodes, which I love, where you never see the unsub until near the end is really strange after watching more recent eps. It's like the older ones, were they kept giving you a suspect then doing a 'oh no, not the unsub' (Perfect Storm is a good example of that - you meet the unsub, but you don't think 'that's an evil person' when you meet them).
It's that change in direction that kinda throws me out of it now (and I can tell who wrote an ep as well, the new lot do like their unsub focus, with the more crazy/stereotypically evil in the media the better the glee they take in the unsub bits :/).
Also, Rossi your house is kinda small for mansion - and that kitchen is TINY, no room for cooking lessons there - but yeah, little things ;) (I totally blame the lord and lady I knew, who are/were AWESOME people, and lovely to talk to, who lived in their gatehouse, rather than the 'big house' because they didn't see the need for the all the room. Her ladyship was my marker for a cookery badge, and her kitchen was all kinds of amazing (and the gatehouse was still bigger than any house I'd lived in *heh*))
Your mileage may vary, and I have no issues with people disagreeing or loving it. In fact, it's a damn good thing, or the world would be very boring ;)
and in a *squee* - the Hotch/Rossi interaction (him knowing about the onions not being allowed to burn - and the smiles - even if TG looks INSANELY gaunt in that whole episode :/ - he's looking better now though...)
IN other news - I shall be away from LJ for three days - as it is Vampire Ball 2 weekend. No Eliza, sadly though :/ - still it should be fun and it'll be nice to see the lovely badfalcon in person again after a good while ;)
Hope you all have a good weekend :)
Profiling class - week one was interesting. I'm kinda amused by the fact that the two main references, are two of the books I got out the library (Holmes and Holmes for american - David Canter for British). It's getting it in my head, because reading the books I was like 'am I understanding this right?' and I've not done so bad. Other people in the class aren't bad (two who may get on my nerves a little - one of whom, considering her reasons for doing it, makes me want to head desk a bit).
Stuff learned:
Profiling = semi educated guessing.
Top down - profiling as done by the FBI in real life - where they base it off what they've learned from real life caught criminals - we had a mini discussion of the pros and cons of it. (Personal bias is a big part of it - it's meant to be objective, but because the interviewer goes in with an opinion, and uses their opinion with what they learned from the interview, it's actually more subjective).
Bottom up - profiling as done by David Canter aka the british way. This is where you work from everyone up to your suspect - working through stuff i.e. who would have a tow rope in their car? - taking anything that's at the scene and working out what type of person would have or do those things.
We did more on the US top down, next week we'll be doing the uk version ;) - we spent most of the time coming up with our victim (murder - unsurprisingly - and teacher was gleeful because we came up with points that make sense, unlike the random stuff he's had before). We're profiling our killer as we go. (You need a LOT of information to get a profile working. Not DNA and such, but other things that seem small, but aren't. Our bullet points of the crime actually raised more 'questions we need to know the answer to' then it produced 'things we know from this'. It's interesting to me, after writing case fic, and still working on coming up with more, because it's pretty much what I've been doing. I don't go in with the unsub in my head, I go in with the victim and crime in my head. I'm discovering the unsub along with the CM team - yeah, it's a weird ass way to write ;))
It;s made me want to watch Cracker even more as well (British show, from the 1990s about a profiler) - but it's getting hold of it. I may end up buying it....
-
Shows this week - still need to watch Lost Girl and Haven - have watched Castle and Criminal Minds, and half of Terra Nova.
Castle is still working better for me than Criminal Minds (it's interesting, cos they both started from a similar stand point, from the situations of the last season, but I think Castle is working it more fluidly, it still feels like Castle. Criminal Minds, I'm kinda, well, this is the cue for an lj cut ;))
So, the character moments were interesting (I'm kinda MEH, more because the central story suffered because of the characters story - and because it kinda came out of nowhere. Last week didn't give any hints of anything with Reid and JJ, but did give hints of Morgan and Hotch, which got left dangled and didn't seem to be there at all in this.
To me Morgan is the one with trust issues - Reid is the one with abandonment issues (Reid has never really shown huge trust issues as such before - insecurities of his place yes, trust? Not so much) - so it;s weird to see Reid with his issues over JJ (and ummmmm, yeah crying for 10 weeks doesn't compare to grief assessment - BUT - opportunity to say something? Espec given what Reid said in the assessment...... I guess it just doesn't make sense to me. That and his diluadd comment, because from experience? They are all going to think about that, all the time, especially given what they do. There are so many things that could push him back that way. It’s never going to be far from their minds.
Him saying that to JJ though, that was the most true bit of it to me - because he's hurting and he wanted her to hurt, and he hit the sensitive spot. It's what Reid does when he hurts (ala his attack on Emily).
So yeah, I'm kinda O.O about the character bits - that end scene? If it had appeared a few more episodes in? Would have worked, but it felt too soon. This episode had no real team interaction, just pairs/threes and again, profiling got overshadowed/took the backseat to the character drama - and JJ's old job seems to no longer exist (no mention of how they were dealing with something that was clearly in the media). It was all little pairs, with little mixing.
It felt off and weird.
Then again, my opinion is going to be heavily coloured by the fact that I HATED the focus on the unsub (and the semi torture porn bits :/). The unsub who had absolutely no good qualities, nothing to really make you see him as anything but evil. If they are going to focus on the unsub, make us FEEL something for them. This one even had so much chance. They could have shown MORE of the way people treated him. They hinted it, and had little bits, but at no point did anyone call it. No one said 'this guy has been treated badly, for something beyond his control, and that SUCKS'. It just made him look evil.
His other victims, while they had names, there was nothing of them in it. They had no agency, and that's what i used to LOVE about Criminal Minds. It was the crime show that made it about the victims, about their agency and their part of the crime. (Like CSI is about the science of solving it, the evidence, rather than anything else. The victim and the criminal were just side parts).
It comes down to a conversation I had with Da the other weekend, about the Fred West thing that was on. He said he didn't watch those things because they tended to glorify the killers, and that made him uncomfortable. And that's what Criminal Minds is doing now.
All it would have taken for me to like the case section of the episode, would have been a shift of focus to the victims. If we didn't completely see the unsub. They could have followed the girl as she got off the bus, shown her horror, done a camera angle that showed what she was seeing. It's as much a direction thing as a writing thing. (It's more a writing thing in this case, because of the scenes of his flashbacks, and his filming of himself).
It really is strange, watching the old episodes, which I love, where you never see the unsub until near the end is really strange after watching more recent eps. It's like the older ones, were they kept giving you a suspect then doing a 'oh no, not the unsub' (Perfect Storm is a good example of that - you meet the unsub, but you don't think 'that's an evil person' when you meet them).
It's that change in direction that kinda throws me out of it now (and I can tell who wrote an ep as well, the new lot do like their unsub focus, with the more crazy/stereotypically evil in the media the better the glee they take in the unsub bits :/).
Also, Rossi your house is kinda small for mansion - and that kitchen is TINY, no room for cooking lessons there - but yeah, little things ;) (I totally blame the lord and lady I knew, who are/were AWESOME people, and lovely to talk to, who lived in their gatehouse, rather than the 'big house' because they didn't see the need for the all the room. Her ladyship was my marker for a cookery badge, and her kitchen was all kinds of amazing (and the gatehouse was still bigger than any house I'd lived in *heh*))
Your mileage may vary, and I have no issues with people disagreeing or loving it. In fact, it's a damn good thing, or the world would be very boring ;)
and in a *squee* - the Hotch/Rossi interaction (him knowing about the onions not being allowed to burn - and the smiles - even if TG looks INSANELY gaunt in that whole episode :/ - he's looking better now though...)
IN other news - I shall be away from LJ for three days - as it is Vampire Ball 2 weekend. No Eliza, sadly though :/ - still it should be fun and it'll be nice to see the lovely badfalcon in person again after a good while ;)
Hope you all have a good weekend :)