Criminal Minds

I am a huge fan of the shows. But this one almost turned me off from ever watching another episode. Why would they ever think it was ok to get that deep into what was happening to those boys..and the boy with the sister. I actually ran to the bathroom trying not to throw up. If you have ever had a family member that has gone through any sort of rape or if you yourself has you know that this was not brilliant but instead it was completely disgusting and should NEVER be shown on the air!! Ever. Or at least there should be a warning for something like this!!!!!

I like episodes that deal with the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We all like to believe that the bogey man is something you don't have to watch on T.V. and our favorite shows wouldn't dare be bold enough to put the bogey man on T.V. even when the show is called "Criminal" Minds and let him get away in the end. However that is exactly what happens in real life whether we like it or want to see it or not. One of the reasons I really liked this episode is because people do crazy things like take their kids on camping trips and then put them in tents by themselves, to fend for themselves -- yes it sounds crazy because it is crazy, yet people still do it. And then law enforcement (FBI) has to be called in to find the little tikes when they are stolen and victimized. I like the fact that CM gives it to you straight and sometimes on the rocks, that's why I love this show!!!

Season 1 to 4 was fantastic. Season 5 was decent. But now? It just seems to be losing their Midas touch. Bring back the good old profiling that made us hard core fans and take away the cheap Saw like violence. The show now seems to be like a Gypsy carnival in which they come up with supernatural prediction that always turn out correct. Season 5 got me sentimental with it, but honestly, we still prefer good old profiling. This episode seems bent on showing a rape victim (L&O:SVU style) and the bunch of pedophiles out there. Unfortunately, this story is not realistic at all, and now, Criminal Minds seem to be more of a Soap Opera. To be honest, if this were to go on, I would rather criminal minds be axed and stop showing, rather than showing below par episodes. The ideas are running dry and now is the best time to pull the plug. The entire show seemed to be a guessing game now and I see many logical fallacies (why keep an addition witness, etc)... Would be sticking to reruns now.

Things were very interesting in this phenomenal episode, iwith a case about a person abducting children (boys) from a opopular camping tral. The story was very suspenseful!



The first scene was well done! The writers made me think that the first family's son had been abducted, but things were not as they seemed!



Additionally, the acting of the brother and sister was great! They are really good, and added to the overall suspense of the episode.



I definitely think that this is the best episode of Season 6 so far! I am hoping this stanadrd continues, and I absolutely can not wait for another episode next week! Kep it up, guys!

I admit it. I'm sitting here with a pillow that has seen better days and an empty box of tissues. The past hour was not the break from work I had hoped it would be. To be honest, it is one of those things you want to think never happens. Its not entertainment. I I am still crying and have probably set a new record when it comes to the number-of-cuss-words-used-per-hour - so yeah, I hated the episode. But I can't deny the fact that there are pedophiles loose in this world this very moment. Also, the guest cast (esp. the kids) was brilliant.

The episode (Into the Woods) was repulsive! Since when does a clearly implied sexual assault on a child classify as "entertainment"? And then, why do the writers end the episode by having a pedophile who has raped and killed several young boys get away? Disgusting! Perhaps this has really happened out in the world but, that doesn't mean that I want it coming on my television screen and into my living room. What kind of tv writers are working for Criminal Minds these days - perverts who enjoy writing such story lines? That was our last episode of criminal minds!

Let's get the mundane horrors out of the way first, shall we?



One child's body turns up in a state park, wrapped in plastic, and the FBI is called into the case. And, not only the FBI, but the BAU in particular. Um, why? A written consult, I could imagine, might be worthwhile - a question to the experts on why a predator might hold a child for so long and then dispose of him in such a way. But for one dead body to result in the total focus of the BAU is not logical.



This almost makes sense if Garcia is now doing JJ's job. Since she has no training in picking cases, her soft heart might turn out the team based on one body. That's another problem - as much as I love Garcia's character, she's been turned into JJ. Horribly. Utter fantasy. Illogic abounds. At one point, Hotch was team leader and made decisions. I miss that team.



And it gets worse.



Upon looking at one photo and one coroner's report, Reid announces that the predator is working the Appalachian Trail. Right. That is, of course, the only explanation for this. And off we go, wild assumption taken as fact and our team of so-called intelligent profilers makes every other leap of logic along the same lines.



This isn't profiling - it's fantasy.



Later, we have another 'what the heck' moment when Reid announces that the predator is "hibernating" with his victims. Yeah. That makes perfect sense. Honestly, when the first scene came up with the full moon and the family in the woods and scary noises, my family laughingly stated that it would be the CM werewolf episode. As the ep went on, we were saying, "if only."



Now we come down to the real reason I gave this, Criminal Minds, once my very favorite show ever, such a horrible rating.



I have never before seen the terror and brutality of a child predator flashed so blatantly across my screen before. Yes, we all know what happens to children taken by these monsters, we know they are victims of horrible abuse, but, in the past, CM has beautifully side-stepped shoving these horrors in the faces of the viewers - they've concentrated on talking about predators around tables and carefully choosing their words around family members. They've kept dramatic silence or have chosen to film scenes in ways that allow the viewers to think about the degradation and humiliation of these children as much or a little as they can bear. They have never, ever focused so closely, so unbearably, on the monster and the child.



It is unforgiveable.



The scene in the cave as well as the scenes with the pedophile 'buddies' - these were gratuitous horrors that sickened me and only served to anger me towards the writers and producers. How can they possibly think that emphasis on what is happening to this poor boy could serve as "entertainment?" They should be ashamed of themselves.



Does anyone remember the last scene from the Season 2 episode, 'The Last Word' - the scene when the newspaper article comes out about The Hollow Man, totally disregarding the killer but reminding the community of the fallen women, instead? Every time the team enters a case they discourage media emphasis on focusing too much on the killer - they tear into people for giving the killers cutsey nicknames. While they must understand the predators' "criminal mind," they teach those around them that focusing too much on the unsubs is not the way to go. Victimology. Analysis - that's where the facts are. And yet, what is the show doing now? Now it is spending long minutes showing the viewer the criminal, expanding scenes between the unsub and his victims, emphasizing the wounds and hurts, the methods and sickness and even 'cleverness', the disgusting details of abuse and torture rather than showing us profilers doing their jobs in a realistic manner.



Wasn't the BAU about explaining the 'why' of a serial criminal in order to find the victim and keep him safe?



And then, they further incense us by showing a smiling boy back with his family at the end. As if Robert's wounds were magically erased, his abuse forgotten, all better due to the magical fairies of the BAU.



They've turned CM into a horror movie of the week.



Illogical, on the run profiling, throwing ridiculous theories out there as if they were obvious facts with absolutely no research to back them up - that's bad enough. But this episode gave us minutes between the predators and their victim that were horrific, focusing on the abuse of a young boy in order to garner ratings.



It's too much for this once ardent fan. The intelligence and research has been replaced with faux profiling. And, worse, much, much worse, the soul of this show has been sold. It's all about the darkness now.

There was a time when this show was about a group of educated, intelligent people putting their hearts and souls into finding the 'bad guys' and putting them away, one way or another. They did this to the detriment of their personal lives and even lost families because of their committment to doing their jobs. My question is, what has happened to that team now? It seems that they have been replaced by a group of fools running around like headless chickens with no clear direction, making judgements based on nothing more than assumption.



This is NOT profiling, this is NOT what the real BAU does and this is most definitely not the 'Criminal Minds' of seasons 1-4. I feel as though I am watching a circus and the ringmaster is making a laughing stock of a show that I would never miss. Thye thing is, I REALLY miss that show now because this is just a bad carbon copy and I feel deeply sorry for the fine actors who have to work through these appalling scripts. They deserve better.



For a start, exactly what kind of parents go camping in the middle of nowhere and leave two young children in a tent alone at night? Not good ones, that's for sure. The father said he heard them 'giggling', which is nice, but it seems that he missed a great deal more ...



The second thing I cannot wrap my head around is the BAU being called in on a case when only one victim had been found. Since when do they do that? It made it seem as though they have nothing else to do but wait around for a case that excites their interest and then just jump on the plane and off we go!



As to Garcia 'doing the J.J.' thing again. Enough is enough. She is NOT qualified to be doing what she is doing, neither presenting the cases to the team nor selecting them. (we are still not really clear about WHO is selecting them but Garcia is certainly doing the presenting and there is no way on earth that an untrained Technical Analyst would ever be given this responsibility. Yes, I realise that television is television and a lot of things should be taken with a grain of salt, but I THOUGHT that 'CM' went in for an air of realism. Not this season they haven't.



Profiling. Does anybody in the BAU actually remember how to do that anymore? To my recollection, they have only profiled once this entire season. In this episode, they simply got the lead on the case and ran off. No profiling, no team discussion, no anything. Hotch used to be a leader. Not sure what he is now but it seems that Reid is capable of jumping to amazing conclusions based on just one tiny file ... To say this bothers me is an understatement. I am sick of conclusions being reached with absolutely no evidence to back them up. And how convenient that the unsub chose to take another child just as his previous victim's remains were found. Of course, he was 'hibernating' with them for several months. Where on earth did Morgan (aka the writers) come up with that little gem? Again, there was no evidence to suggest anything of the kind.



The abduction of little Anna along with Robert made sense. He couldn't leave a witness. The fact that he kept her alive even for a few hours did not. An unsub who has a preference for boys and who repeatedly follows the same MO for over a decade would have killed Anna within minutes of reaching his lair. Having said that, she was a fine little actress and did an excellent job during all of her scenes.



I think I may be jaded due to my career, but I was not shocked by what I saw with regard to the abuse suffered by Robert. In my opinion, it was actually played down considerably. Having said that, there was absolutely NO need to be so graphic either with the unsub or his sleazebag friend. Viewers are smart enough to know exactly what happened to the boy and if they aren't, the look on his face said it all in spades. The amount of time spent with the victims and the unsub continued a pattern we have seen a great deal of this season. Lots of unsub and victim, very little team work and almost zero profiling. One wonders why the producers have decided that we need to see more of the unsubs and their victims and so much less of the BAU doing their job? The other system has worked brilliantly in the past so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.



When Anna was found in the bush and Emily handed her over to the 'nice ranger', why didn't the 'nice ranger' have a name? Traumatised children associate people with a name, not just 'nice ranger'. Not Paget's fault, of course, just the writers neglecting research again. Such a pity.



The scene where a smiling and happy Robert is surrounded by his loving family was ridiculous. Given what the boy had endured, why wasn't he already at the hospital? And for heaven's sake, where was the PTSD, the shock, the pain and the horror? Sorry writers, you can't just wipe all that from a child's memory within your 43 minute timespan. I would be surprised if he had been able to speak effectively, much less laugh and smile. Hysterical laughter, perhaps, but he wasn't hysterical. And was he wearing false eyelashes or do I have bad eyesight?



I understand what the episode was supposed to be about. The dangers of leaving children unsupervised and the horrors that befall those who are 'chosen' by these individuals, but they overdid it. Was it for shock value? For ratings? Actually, I thought the episode was really badly written in general. Some of the dialogue between the team was bordering on melodrama and, as I mentioned earlier, someone seems to have forgotten that Hotch is in charge.



The unsub getting away is not that unusual. Sadly, it happens, but I can see no reason for us to have to endure him again in a future episode and I hope that we don't. He's not Foyet and is not important to the storyline at all. What IS important is that somebody remind everyone involved with the production of this show what it is supposed to be about. The tagline from season 1 sums it up for me. "To catch a criminal, you have to think like one." Let's hope that they start doing that agin. Very soon.

I do watch Criminal Minds weekly and do still actually like it, if that is appropriate. There are certain things about it now though that are starting to annoy me. Does Hotch have any emotions other than to be dour and scowling all the time? I have not seen him break expression even to smile at his son ever, and that is just not right. I am also getting fed up with each cast member having a line to recite at information sessions. That is annoying and probably not realistic because I think there would be a single spokesperson. It is a relief that meddling self serving Strauss is not around much these days because always having someone trying to break up the team (no matter which series) does get incredibly tiresome. Thankfully the two that I do always enjoy (Spencer and Garcia) are still around and remain on my must stay list. This episode (Into the Woods and certainly not Sondheim) was extremely disturbing, creepy and not appropriate on just so may levels for prime time viewing. Child abduction interspersed with obvious abuse is not entertainment. Not that any episode could be specifically defined as entertainment but this one was most definitely at the far end of that dubious scale. I must say that the two young actors were very good though. Even though there was a happy end for some, the fact that the main perpetrator remains on the loose is not right (if maybe unfortunately plausible) and just serves to have yet another thorn in the team's side they need to remove immediately. I hope this is resolved soon.

i'm just gonna speak for myself and that is i don't watch Criminal Minds just for the sake of entertainment. It's much more than that, i have learned a lot of useful facts and i look at it as an educational show.

I personally don't watch other crime shows because i find them too light to be dealing with such horrific cases.



Given every great show would still have its flaws i still think they keep a very good balance between the crimes and solving them and i don't expect them to have too much fun doing that.



I think CM shows you exactly what you don't want to see or hear or believe in reality. It was such a dark moment when the boy came back to his sister....so sad.



Although i am missing a bit of profiling back in the days and i still miss JJ verrrrrry much.

i like the episode, but i didn't understand why the boy was smiling,relaxed and at the police station instead of the hospital. Olso i didn't like that the unsub got away but is was a bit realistic. unfortunatly they get away more time that they should. Not the best series so far but as a criminal minds geek i'm still loving it.

And they need to bring JJ back. Her character is really a lacking in the show.She was an amazing character and AJ is a great actress. And i hate that the producers are cutting Paget's episodes. She stands shoulder to shoulder with the male charasters. Don't do it.

The only question I have about this is, why didn't they try capturing the unsub? They knew where he lived and he left many things behind, so why didn't they try to follow him from there afterall he can't go far since he has a limp. Other than that it was a good episode and I can't wait for the next episode, this season has shown us more of the dark side to human nature. The rest of the season should be very interesting to watch. I'm glad we're seeing a different side to the unsubs and more into the dark side of human nature.

So a few nights ago me and my mom watched two old episodes of Criminal Minds, however we had never watched the show as a weekly thing... It's gonna be a weekly thing now. This was, by far, one of the most frightening episodes of television. I watch alot of criime dramas but I have never seen such an amazing episode. The little boy in this episode was amazing and I see a big future ahead of him acting-wise. I could probably watch this episode over and over and never get tired of it. That's alot to say for me. Spectacular episode from start to finish.

First of all I miss scenes with all team members sitting around the table and trying to build up a reasonable profile. I liked their discussions and different ideas. I have a feeling that in this episode everyone was just jumping to conclusions. There was absolutely no cooperation with local authorities. Really, was there no cop or ranger who could help Reed with his geographical profile?



And most importantly I didn't like how the case of the young boy was handled. As I mentioned above the abduction of children was hard for me to watch. I expected them - especially the boy - to be abused but the way it was showed was in a bad taste. Too blatant. It was also incomprehensible for me how at the end he could be smiling and relaxed. Shouldn't he be at a hospital then? I would love to see more profiling, psychology and hard scientific work in next episodes.