criminalxminds | EW Article

The Dec 16, 2005, issue of EW (Narnia on the cover) has a nice article on Criminal Minds inside. The article link at EW and the article is posted under the cut.

to on-line link ... use access code 'tvwatch' to read article. The access code is good until the next issue is out (one week).

Not Just Another Crime Show

''Criminal Minds'' breaks the crime drama mold -- The CBS breakout pairs chilling bad guys with an FBI spook who's crazy like a fox by Lynette Rice

''We can dunk her, right?''

Standing on the bank of a man-made river in suburban Los Angeles, Criminal Minds' executive producer Ed Bernero is trying to position a rubber dummy so it'll look like a real murder victim. This morning's scene calls for FBI profiler Jason Gideon (Chicago Hope's Mandy Patinkin) and his brainy colleague Dr. Spencer Reid (The Life Aquatic's Matthew Gray Gubler) to make the grisly discovery at the water's edge, but the lightweight dummy is not exactly entering on cue.

''Don't let her float away!'' shouts one assistant, though it doesn't really matter where she ends up. When shooting starts, the 53-year-old Patinkin approaches the water, and with just a slight frown he manages to convey a look of utter despair — without ever setting eyes on the muddy doll. ''That's just a Hollywood body,'' he explains later. ''The literalness is nowhere near as horrifying as the empty space where the body was, where the ground is stained with blood. That allows me to [imagine] every tortured victim throughout history in this empty arena. This piece is a metaphor for hate, insensitivity, torture. When this show operates at its highest plane, it's as a window into man's inhumanity to man. And the question is — why?''

More than 13 million viewers seem to be just as eager as Patinkin to learn the answer to that question. Criminal Minds is this season's second-most-watched new drama (behind ABC's Commander in Chief), despite facing two very big obstacles: airing opposite ABC's powerhouse Lost, and existing on a network that carries eight other crime dramas. Centering on a team of FBI profilers, Minds features the requisite sage mentor (Patinkin), the introspective heir apparent (Dharma & Greg's Thomas Gibson as Special Agent Aaron Hotchner), the socially awkward egghead (Gubler), the hotshot toughie in size zero pants (The Handler's Lola Glaudini as Elle Greenaway), and the self-assured stud who likes to kick down doors (The Young and the Restless' Shemar Moore as Agent Derek Morgan). Between Minds' shameless use of CSI-style snap-zoom shots and its limited attention to personal detail (what's the deal with Gideon's wedding ring? Will we ever see the inside of Greenaway's apartment?), it seems downright ridiculous that CBS execs would deny that Minds is just another procedural show. But they do.

''This was developed as a suspense thriller,'' insists the network's entertainment president, Nina Tassler. ''With Criminal Minds, it's more of an exploration of the psychological motivation of things. It's really the analysis of aberrant human behavior.''

True enough. Minds avoids being solely a procedural crime drama by focusing on the why of the grisly wrongdoings — not just the who, what, and where. The show also relies on real-life FBI profilers to help spin stories about a killer's MO: Why does an obsessive-compulsive arsonist like to attack her victims in threes? Why would a serial killer hold a family hostage and assume the father's role before taking their lives? ''It's about the emotional mind-set that goes on in this world,'' explains Moore. ''You end up feeling bad for the criminals as you get to understand them. They still deserve what they deserve, but you have a certain compassion for how they got here.''

The producers chalk up Mind's success to good counterprogramming (not everybody may like those maddening mysteries on Lost), and the constant presence of Patinkin, an intense Method actor who could make even the most self-assured person start popping Paxil with one piercing stare. The star is also not above improvising his way through scenes for maximum dramatic effect. ''He's a loose cannon,'' says Moore (who, by the way, may moonlight on Y&R this season to wrap up the whole he's-the-father-of-Drucilla's-baby story line). ''Mandy's not afraid to look like an ass. Sometimes his improvisation will be completely out of left field and no one will understand it but him. Other times it works. There's something bold in that.''

Patinkin — last seen as a sweater-wearing grim reaper on Showtime's Dead Like Me — likes to take it one step further by persuading the actors playing the bad guys to behave as though they were asking for his daughter's hand in marriage. ''I want to talk like we are friends, like it's a 100 percent normal conversation,'' Patinkin explains. ''That line between normal people and insane serial arsonist killers can be virtually imperceptible, and that's where the terror is. If I had to guess what it is about horror that is appealing to such a mass audience, it's how it's just a hair away from their own thinking.''

Exploring that creepy duality is enough to keep Patinkin's attention for now, but he — like just about every actor on a CBS crime show — hopes the network won't keep his character chained to crime scenes forever. ''CBS is very clear about their formula for success with these kinds of shows,'' admits the actor-singer, who plans to break up his routine by performing concerts on weekends this January. ''One doesn't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But it is important for this baby to have a certain kind of food to make me stay interested. It's fascinating to me how these profilers do their work. How does Jason Gideon survive this? I can't tell you that right now.''

Bernero hopes to give viewers insight into those questions as early as next season — though he won't say how. ''First we really need to understand who they are at work,'' says the former Chicago cop who co-created NBC's Third Watch. ''As the show evolves, we'll definitely do a lot more stuff.'' Until then, he's amping up the suspense: The series, which was criticized this fall for its violent kidnapped-woman-in-a-cage pilot, has an upcoming episode in January about a chemist who poisons his former employers for stealing his drug patent, and another planned for Dec. 14 that focuses on a cannibalistic killer who drinks blood to get closer to God. ''He cuts his victims and peels back the ribs to make them look like angels with wings,'' says a grossed-out Gubler. ''I don't know how we will show that.''

Nor does Patinkin — but he already knows what he'll do to prepare. ''I say a prayer for humanity, that this will never happen anywhere,'' he explains. ''I know these are only fabrications of events. But it has to be real to me. How do I live in this place 12 hours a day? It's with the basic prayer that if we save one life, we save the world. That's my way of surviving this.'' He starts to frown again. ''It's exhausting.''

(Posted:12/09/05)

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