Criminal Minds for Beginners
Jan. 1st, 2009 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
uberniftacularHere's the next installation in my "Fandoms for Beginners" series. So, Criminal Minds because I was just watching it with Kirsten earlier this week.
Again, done completely from memory, so apologies if any information is incorrect or incomplete.
The Premise: Serial killers suck, and it's the job of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (aka the BAU) to find them. They get into the criminals' heads to develop a profile of the UnSub (unknown subject, the baddie) to help the cops figure out who and where said UnSub is.
The Genre: Crime procedural drama. (Translation: Copshow!)
The Characters:
Aaron Hotchner.
Also known as Hotch, he's the SAC (Special Agent in Charge, the team leader) of the BAU team. He's a good guy, though sometimes he comes off as being humorless. He has a young son, Jack, and is recently divorced from his wife Haley. He's totally devoted to his team, and will fight to keep them together, even at the risk of his own job.
Jason Gideon.
Essentially the second-in-command throughout the first two seasons of the show. Gideon is pretty much the father figure of the team; he's been with the BAU for a really long time. At the beginning of the show, he's just recovering from the trauma of having lost six of his agents in a bomb. He leaves the show in the beginning of the third season after he loses a good friend to a killer.
David Rossi.
Gideon's replacement. He was a member of the BAU at its inception, and he comes out of retirement to join the team when Gideon leaves. It takes a while for the team to accept him, because he's difficult to work with at first, being used to working on his own instead of with the team. He comes back initially because he wants to address some unfinished business, though he doesn't leave the team after he deals with the unfinished business.
Elle Greenaway.
At the beginning of the show, Elle is the newest member of the team. Her area of expertise is sex crimes. She leaves the show in the second season after she gets a little too...emotionally involved in a case.
Derek Morgan.
Morgan is the specialist in obsessional crimes. He grew up in Chicago, where his father was a cop. He spent time in the ATF and teaching hand-to-hand combat at Quantico before joining the BAU. In the episode "Profiler, Profiled" in season two, more information about his past was revealed. Morgan likes to tackle people. A lot.
Emily Prentiss.
The daughter of an ambassador, she is assigned to the BAU after Elle's departure. She's the "new kid" on the team, but that doesn't mean she's ineffective. On several occasions, her ability to speak multiple languages (including French and Arabic) aids her. She has Mommy Issues. Her assignment to the team wasn't actually requested by either Hotch or Gideon; she was actually assigned by Section Chief Erin Strauss, who wanted to use Prentiss as essentially a spy in the BAU. Prentiss is attached to the team enough that she is willing to resign from the bureau instead of rat out the team.
Penelope Garcia.
The technical analyst for the BAU, she is often referred to as a "tech kitten" (the actress's words, not mine). She's pretty much a wizard with the computer, able to find basically anything the team needs. She has the Power of Snark! She and Morgan have a flirtatious type of relationship which is really entertaining to watch.
Jennifer Jareau.
Known as JJ. She is kinda like the secretary of the team, but don't you dare actually call her that. She takes care of all the public relations aspects of the team's work (press conferences and the like), as well as selecting which cases the team actually takes on. In season 2, she meets Detective Will "I'm from NAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWLINS" LaMontaigne, whom she begins dating soon afterwards. She finds out she's pregnant at the end of season 3, and has the baby in early season 4.
Spencer Reid.
Reid is the youngest member of the team. He has an eidetic memory (he remembers everything he reads), 3 Ph.D's (physics,chemistry, and engineering), an IQ of 187, and can read 20,000 words per minutes...yes, he's a genius. He graduated from high school at age 12. He's the team's resident expert on just about everything, and is totally socially awkward because of his tendency to talk like an encyclopedia. Of all the members of the team, Reid was the only one Gideon explained himself to when he left. Reid has serious Daddy Issues, cuz his dad left when he was 10, leaving Reid to take care of his schizophrenic mother all by himself.
Again, done completely from memory, so apologies if any information is incorrect or incomplete.
The Premise: Serial killers suck, and it's the job of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (aka the BAU) to find them. They get into the criminals' heads to develop a profile of the UnSub (unknown subject, the baddie) to help the cops figure out who and where said UnSub is.
The Genre: Crime procedural drama. (Translation: Copshow!)
The Characters:
Aaron Hotchner.
Also known as Hotch, he's the SAC (Special Agent in Charge, the team leader) of the BAU team. He's a good guy, though sometimes he comes off as being humorless. He has a young son, Jack, and is recently divorced from his wife Haley. He's totally devoted to his team, and will fight to keep them together, even at the risk of his own job.
Jason Gideon.
Essentially the second-in-command throughout the first two seasons of the show. Gideon is pretty much the father figure of the team; he's been with the BAU for a really long time. At the beginning of the show, he's just recovering from the trauma of having lost six of his agents in a bomb. He leaves the show in the beginning of the third season after he loses a good friend to a killer.
David Rossi.
Gideon's replacement. He was a member of the BAU at its inception, and he comes out of retirement to join the team when Gideon leaves. It takes a while for the team to accept him, because he's difficult to work with at first, being used to working on his own instead of with the team. He comes back initially because he wants to address some unfinished business, though he doesn't leave the team after he deals with the unfinished business.
Elle Greenaway.
At the beginning of the show, Elle is the newest member of the team. Her area of expertise is sex crimes. She leaves the show in the second season after she gets a little too...emotionally involved in a case.
Derek Morgan.
Morgan is the specialist in obsessional crimes. He grew up in Chicago, where his father was a cop. He spent time in the ATF and teaching hand-to-hand combat at Quantico before joining the BAU. In the episode "Profiler, Profiled" in season two, more information about his past was revealed. Morgan likes to tackle people. A lot.
Emily Prentiss.
The daughter of an ambassador, she is assigned to the BAU after Elle's departure. She's the "new kid" on the team, but that doesn't mean she's ineffective. On several occasions, her ability to speak multiple languages (including French and Arabic) aids her. She has Mommy Issues. Her assignment to the team wasn't actually requested by either Hotch or Gideon; she was actually assigned by Section Chief Erin Strauss, who wanted to use Prentiss as essentially a spy in the BAU. Prentiss is attached to the team enough that she is willing to resign from the bureau instead of rat out the team.
Penelope Garcia.
The technical analyst for the BAU, she is often referred to as a "tech kitten" (the actress's words, not mine). She's pretty much a wizard with the computer, able to find basically anything the team needs. She has the Power of Snark! She and Morgan have a flirtatious type of relationship which is really entertaining to watch.
Jennifer Jareau.
Known as JJ. She is kinda like the secretary of the team, but don't you dare actually call her that. She takes care of all the public relations aspects of the team's work (press conferences and the like), as well as selecting which cases the team actually takes on. In season 2, she meets Detective Will "I'm from NAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWLINS" LaMontaigne, whom she begins dating soon afterwards. She finds out she's pregnant at the end of season 3, and has the baby in early season 4.
Spencer Reid.
Reid is the youngest member of the team. He has an eidetic memory (he remembers everything he reads), 3 Ph.D's (physics,chemistry, and engineering), an IQ of 187, and can read 20,000 words per minutes...yes, he's a genius. He graduated from high school at age 12. He's the team's resident expert on just about everything, and is totally socially awkward because of his tendency to talk like an encyclopedia. Of all the members of the team, Reid was the only one Gideon explained himself to when he left. Reid has serious Daddy Issues, cuz his dad left when he was 10, leaving Reid to take care of his schizophrenic mother all by himself.