Criminal Minds

[rachelmanija]

Have gotten sucked in. Spent entire weekend watching first 4 discs of season 1. Am a little bit in love with entire male cast, except for Jason Gideon whom I enjoy watching but who sort of scares me with his resemblance to various men in mentoring positions I've known who got off a little too much on their own wisdom, compassion, and influence over

Comments

[starlady38]

Okay, I'm really glad I'm not the only one who read and can't forget that Malcolm Gladwell article about how profiling is bunk. And the one time I did catch part of an episode on A&E, it felt like I was watching a Shadow Unit AU, which was a weird headtrip of a feeling.

But you have definitely inspired me to give the show a shot, probably starting with S2 based on what the other commenters are saying.

[rachelmanija]

If you like Shadow Unit, you will probably like the AU.

I'd start with S1, actually. Well, I haven't gotten to S2 yet, but S1 sucked me in quite thoroughly. You should at least see certain S1 episodes - "LDSK" has great stuff with Reid and Hotch, and "Riding the Lightning" is excellent TV and says a lot about Gideon. "Derailed" has some problems but is a great episode for Reid. The one with the psychopathic hit man and the undercover cop has very important stuff with Hotch.

[wonderlandkat]

Garcia's stepdad is hispanic, but she isn't (from what I can remember).

I agree with everyone about the Romani episode (interesting idea, but badly done). I think there's probably some episode that will make you upset but it's hard to tell that ahead of time (an episode I wouldn't have thought would bother me but really does and I can't really figure out why since the rest doesn't freak me out).

As for the serial killers, I read once that there are about 50 active in the US at any given time. So theoretically if the FBI was up on their shit, one unit could stay busy for a while (they also start to move away from simply serial killers in the future which also helps mix it up).

[zeborahnz]

Not meaning to comment spam but your post made me start thinking overnight about the Gladwell article, which I'd read a while ago and reacted in a "Yes but" way too, and I've just been able to distill down why

[rachelmanija]

I don't actually know if the Gladwell article is correct (and obviously I enjoy the show.)

But I'd say that if Gladwell is correct that profiling is usually wrong (though occasionally right) my question would be whether using it increases or decreases the chances of catching the unsub. If it's usually wrong, even if it's sometimes right, using it would actually be counterproductive. ie, everyone's looking for a white man in his 30s with military experience when the crime is actually committed by an African-American man in his 40s and his teenage son, or vice versa.

That is, even if there's a real basis for it sometimes working, refining it still might never get good enough for it to actually be worth doing.

I don't have a strong opinion about profiling in RL - I don't know enough to have one - those are just the questions I'd wonder about. However, I will shortly be going on a series of ride-alongs with local cops, so I will ask them what they think!