about Reid

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

does it bother anyone that he almost never gets to finish what he's trying to say because no one on the team want's to hear him ramble on about everything he knows on a subject? i mean, of course they are on a deadline in every show, but maybe something Reid had to say would have been useful. every time he does it he is stared down or told to stop.

do you find it rude, or would you also want to give him the eye?

do you want to hear what he has to say?

would you feel the need to shut him up on a daily basis?

i think he's adorable and i love to hear him talk. but i've never had to work with a genius and maybe i'd feel differently if i did. i wonder if the writers write a really long speech and tell the other actors to shut him up when they feel it is appropriate. that would add to the realism of the interaction. still, i would love to watch him just talk.

Comments

[shari-mg.livejournal.com]

I love hearing all his facts and statistics but sometimes it seems like he doessn't know when to stop himself.

[gargoule.livejournal.com]

like he gets excited in the statistics and just keeps going! it's kinda cute.

[shari-mg.livejournal.com]

I find that it's usually when he meets the cop of the week, he gets so excited to tell someone new all his facts. The team only care when they need a fact that's pertinent to the case.

[gargoule.livejournal.com]

aww, poor reid!
eventually all the cops get to know him and try to find the rookie to shove his way.

i can totally see it getting annoying, all rambling and numbers and facts that don't have a huge part to catching the bad guy. i'm one of those odd people who love hearing facts and stats like that. so i'd listen to him for hours.

[trex-in-boots.livejournal.com]

it is cute. he's so cute all over though.

[boosh-slut.livejournal.com]

I'm usually wishing that they didn't always shut him up... :(

[tailoredshirt.livejournal.com]

Heh, I love hearing him talk, but I think it would be unproductive to let him ramble forever. It might sometimes be useful, but often it's just stuff that he finds interesting. I don't think it's rude at all if they're in a hurry to catch a serial killer! *pets Reid*

Plus, I have been around people that ramble a lot, and sometimes it's not quite as adorable as when Reid does it. :p

[a_blackpanther]

They only stop him when he's got trough the important part and is going off on tangents. Or when he starts speeches at inappropriate moments (or goes into inappropriate territory), especially in front of others.

They aren't being mean and this way he's starting to learn how much he needs to say and when to say it. It's also a form of protecting him from glares and mean comments from other people.

[ikumi-mimura.livejournal.com]

Well, Reid is a character type, and it's part of his character type that he spits out the encyclopedic knowledge he possesses. As much as I love his character, there have been points where I've given him the eye, particularly the 'evil twin, eviler twin' comment in 'The Angel Maker.'

I don't really see the team as being rude or dismissive of him, canonically he's been with them for quite a while now (almost eight years? time line in CM is the bane of my existence) so I imagine they're use to it, and understand to an extent that Reid can't help it.

As Hotch so wonderfully put it: "Reid's intellect is a shield which protects him from his emotions." His reliance on facts and statistics is how he attempts to remain emotionally detached enough to do his job, I don't see how the rest of the team wouldn't have picked up on that by now. It's a unique way of handling it, but then, it's also how he coped with his mother, who herself was incredibly intelligent.

Telling Reid to stop isn't rude, it's getting him back on task. The team knows that whenever he's confronted with something horrific he whips out the odd trivia and facts-- look at 'No Way Out: Part One' when they find the collection of rib-bone wind chimes. He doesn't babble for just any reason, he babbles when he's seriously disturbed. Also, 'Damaged' is the perfect example of that. 'I do my best work under extreme terror.'

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

those are some good points. i wish we'd see more of him though. i'd love to see where he lives. it would give insight into how he lives when he's not helping solve horrific crimes and how he unwinds from the stress of his job.

[ikumi-mimura.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't we all? I actually don't mind so much that the writers are on lockdown about Reid's life outside of the job, mostly because the show is about the job and you can get a pretty good idea of what he does to wind down through peripheral conversations--he obviously reads anything he can get his hands on (traffic reports) practices sleight of hand (palming computer chips and hitting on cute bartenders.) Also, his relationships with Gideon is a good indicator, as I always got the impression that they spent a fair amount of time together outside of the job.

[call-me-ps.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite things about the characterization in the show. They have it down that the time to make Reid babble is when he's confronted with something truly terrible, like if he just talks enough he can make it all go away. They don't throw it in just any time. They use it to show him coping. It's really wonderful.

And I think the team telling him to shut up is basically the team saying to him "it's going to be okay, we're going to get through this" because the more he babbles, I think the more he gets himself worked up.

[kelachrome]

It's always been that way, hasn't it? Hes just less anxious about dealing with people than he was at the beginning of the show. Beautiful specimen of character development, there.

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

i never noticed it until you guys pointed it out that he does that when he's nervous or excited. meeting new people is exciting for him so he does it then. and then when he's threatened, like with that crazy guy that had him hooked on drugs, he kept quoting the Bible. that's very interesting and yes, great character development. i wonder how he handles being alone. or does he seem like the type to have a roomie? that would make sense because he's always gone. someone would need to take care of his place.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

They have it down that the time to make Reid babble is when he's confronted with something truly terrible, like if he just talks enough he can make it all go away.

That's definitely one reason he does it, but it doesn't seem to be the only time--he'll do it in post-ep general conversation on the jet, and there's the great exchange with Morgan in "True Night." I think it's a broader facet of his character, as is his awkwardness in general. He doesn't seem to have formed many stable personal ties before he joined the Bureau, so until relatively recently, knowing everything is pretty much the only thing he's been rewarded for, so I imagine it's pretty ingrained behavior all around.

And I think the team telling him to shut up is basically the team saying to him "it's going to be okay, we're going to get through this" because the more he babbles, I think the more he gets himself worked up.

Definitely!

[dragonladyk.livejournal.com]

Yes, this exactly.

Also, we have to deal with Reid's idiosyncrasies for one hour a week. The Team has to deal with it EVERY DAY and that, well, is a whole different ball-game as far as endearing vs. wearying. It's like being someone's poker-buddy versus being married to him/her. :/

DragonLady

[kelachrome]

As someone who has been known to natter on excitedly, it doesn't bother me at all when people cut him off. I know I often need a little help in that area :) I find most of the world quite fascinating, and if no one stops me after pertinent information I'll keep going with all things even tangentially related. Very excitedly, too. ["And peas! It's also found in peas!"]

Even when people are interested or willing to listen to an endless stream of interesting data, sometimes there's just no time for it/there's work to be done. My lab partners know when it's time to shut me up so we stay on task :) And honestly, I appreciate it, because I get lost in my thoughts and forget there's work to do. And then there's the times when people are just not interested, and I'd rather someone let me know then as well. I don't mean to bore people to death with statistics :) It's not boring to me! :)

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

Exactly; it's a dramatic convention; establish Reid as a compulsive infodumptruck and then allow him to deliver precisely the degree of information relevant to the plot.

(Barry Hughart, author of the Master Li and Number Ten Ox fantasy novels, is a past master of the use of rattletrap pedants as a delivery system for exposition--and one of the reasons he pulls it off is that he allows fellow characters to react realistically, interrupting or fleeing the offending windbag before the story derails.)

(KosagiNoLegion and I lost it over the "...Is your name Samuel?" exchange in "The Tribe" precisely because she's caught me out in similar faux pas.)

[ladymalchav.livejournal.com]

I'm the same way.

I am completely socially awkward, and grew up reading and learning, and have a knack for remembering random information. Because of my awkwardness, I connected more with adults as a kid, not with other kids, and they'd just let me ramble on with whatever I was talking about, whatever I was into at the time, whatever was on my mind. I had to learn the hard way that people in the real world won't do this. Now, when someone does let me go on rambling, I stop mid-sentence and go 'If I'm boring you, just tell me, okay?'

[kelachrome]

Oh hello there, another-female-Reid.

Cursory looking-over of your profile has made me go, "Aha! A Metanoia fan, in addition to other awesomeness! I should ask if she would like to be friends."

Would you like to be friends? :)

[ladymalchav.livejournal.com]

Hello, friend! :D

[banee-noel.livejournal.com]

I think in the right place and time the rambling wouldn't be so bad, but yeah, if there is a deadline I'd likely toss something at someone like that. I can't stand hearing the whole story, I want facts and fast when there is a need.

Otherwise it could be interesting to let him go on and on to see how long he can go.

[shari-mg.livejournal.com]

He could go for hours!

[kelachrome]

If his excited babbling is anything like mine, he could go on indefinitely. *g*

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

he'd be great at filibustering.

[banee-noel.livejournal.com]

lol - I suppose though, if you needed a cure for insomnia he might be good for that if he rambles on about something you have no interest in. :)

[kelachrome]

This exactly. :)

[batgurl88]

I think that was my (possibly only) favourite thing about Rossi's introduction arc - the way that the team all worked together to slowly expose Rossi to the epicness of Reid, rather than overwhelming him all at once lol. They let him ramble in small bits, and then cut him off whenever Rossi started going 0.0 To me, it really illustrated how well the team knew and cared about Reid - in the wake of Gideon's leaving, they saw how eager he was to latch onto a new source of knowledge, and they ensured that his new "idol" wasn't creeped out by how insanely brilliant he is. It gave Rossi a chance to get to know Reid in small doses and not just think of him as a kid, or an "encyclopedia on legs". I love it when the team looks out for each other.

[grapefruits.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with this!

I would love to hear what he has to say, but it isn't necessary for the plot, so.

[trex-in-boots.livejournal.com]

See this is why I loved Gideon so much because he used Reid and listened to him, But I think as we see the characters grow I think we see that they are understanding that they need to listen to him.

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

I think they over use that bit. I like it in some circomstances where Reid is cutely rambling off a total tangent. I hate it and find it offensive when he's actually still speaking somewhat relevantly

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

I like your notion about the writers creating longer speeches from Reid that the other actors are instructed to cut him off in the midst of. Mostly because it would almost certainly result in a gag reel bit in which nobody did. *g* (I can hear MGG squeaking, "You're supposed to stop me!")

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

where, oh where can i find gag reels? i'd love to see some.

[shari-mg.livejournal.com]

There are some on You Tube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TohMITmuMg0 Season 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TObe7tXpBXo Season 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piljy7B3kv0 Season 4

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

those were great. i nearly drowned on the water i was drinking when Reid pulled out that giant map. and the pen!

you know, Morgan is always kicking in someone's door. that last joke they played on him with the whole door falling in. that was hilarious.

[cloudzrshibby.livejournal.com]

I love the map too! I like how he was playing them, but all three kept a straight face the entire time. Even the waitress was like 'Mmk here you go!" all normal and stuff. xD

[cloudzrshibby.livejournal.com]

My favorite blooper ever is when they all turn around to leave dramatically and they go to the urinals instead haha. xD

[shari-mg.livejournal.com]

My fave is the one where they all play in the park with Gideon and Reid on the see-saw!

[cloudzrshibby.livejournal.com]

I love that one to! "ONE TEEDER-TODDER! ONE TEEDER TODDER!" lol!

[cloudzrshibby.livejournal.com]

Reid mostly rambles in intense situations. For example, in "3rd Life", he explains how he concluded that girl was being held captive at their school. He starts going into detail about it and that's when Hotch stops him and he tells them where she is. That was a situation where it wasn't rude; they just really needed to get to that girl before she died.

Like what was said earlier, Reid does it because its his emotional shield. Its his way of coping with everything they have to deal with within their cases and I think teh team understands that. They just have to cut him off in certain instances or else what they need to get done will take even longer to get done.

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

Although Reid's black belt in arrant pedantry proved invaluable when he found himself having to play Scheherazade in "Damaged".

[cloudzrshibby.livejournal.com]

That was one instance where they kept him talking so what needed to get done got done.

[lost-journey.livejournal.com]

I think everyone should sit down and shut up every time Reid speaks. And if they don't he should MAKE them. :D

It aggravates me how often he gets cut off because it happens to me all the time, too. I'll be explaining something to my mom which I find fascinating and she'll say "yeah, yeah, I've heard it before", even though I know she hasn't.

But seriously, I want see Reid kick some a$$.

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

what gets to me about it is how dejected he can look at times. i want him happy, dammit!

[emzbuckley.livejournal.com]

I think it is more to do with, getting the information that is relevant to what they are doing and telling them what they need to know. There are sometimes when you need a whole lot of history and knowledge around the facts, just to get an idea of what it means but there are times when you don't need it or it isn't relevant to what they need. Its teaching him condense his knowledge and using it effectively.

I can also see it from Reid's side as well. It's a defense mechanism. He has always been viewed as being too young and he looks young so people probably have talked to him like he was stupid, not the team but the people they go to help, so him coming at with all these facts is basically showing them that just because he looks young doesn't mean he is stupid. Also, he hasn't had friends or that many friends, so in some ways, him spouting facts was a way to get people to atlest talk to him, even if they were just using him. Its like a complusion, he thinks that if he doesn't say hundreds of facts, then he won't be useful therefore people won't want to keep him around and then he will be on his own, again. So it could be his insecurities.

I have to say, i have had the same looks and the same sort of comments as well and sometimes it does hurt you when they cut you short and there are sometimes you accept but there have been times where it pisses you off. And i have had to realaise that sometimes the things i know and find interesting aren't always helpful or are useful and people don't always like what i find interesting, so you learn when it is appropriate and when it isn't. It's tough though. So i do get it but there are members of the team who are worse than others at doing it and there are some who do it more harsher than others, which i don't like, i know it can be a bit exasperating but there is no need to be harsh about it.