Crime Drama TV

THE BAU TEAM RECEIVES A VIDEOTAPE FROM A SERIAL KILLER TRYING TO STOP HIS OWN CRIME SPREE, ON “CRIMINAL MINDS,” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29 — Alex O’Laughlin (”Moonlight”) Guest Stars as the Unsub

“The Big Wheel” - When the team is sent a videotape from a serial killer detailing one of his crimes, they discover a hidden message asking them to help him stop his murderous ways, on CRIMINAL MINDS, Wednesday, April 29 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

SERIES REGULARS:
David Rossi………………………….. Joe Mantegna
Aaron Hotchner………………….. Thomas Gibson
Emily Prentiss……………………… Paget Brewster
Derek Morgan…………………….. Shemar Moore
Dr. Spencer Reid……….. Matthew Gray Gubler
Jennifer Jareau…………………………… A.J. Cook
Penelope Garcia……………… Kirsten Vangsness

GUEST CAST:
Vincent…………………………….. Alex O’Laughlin
Det. Lynne Henderson………… Erika Alexander
Kate……………………….. Martha Anne Madison
Stanley Wolcott………………………. Jake Cherry
Michelle…………………………………….. Jill Klopp
Alice…………………………………….. Giselle Jones
Carl…………………………. Quentin Prescott Price
Jay……………………………….. Terrence Edwards
Fairground Worker………………. Rick A. Young
Young Vincent……………………….. Neil Ironfield
Sid…………………………………… David J. Wright
Kim………………………………….. Rebecca Avery
Eric……………………………………… Kyle Templin

WRITTEN BY: Simon Mirren, one of the series’ co-executive producers
DIRECTED BY: Rob Hardy

Source: CBS via SpoilerTV

THE BAU TEAM PROFILES A SERIES OF CHILD ABDUCTIONS AND TRIES TO HOLD A FAMILY TOGETHER WHILE INVESTIGATING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THEIR SON, ON “CRIMINAL MINDS,” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22

“A Shade of Gray” - When profiling a series of child abductions and murders, the team discovers that one of the cases may not be the handiwork of the serial killer they apprehended, on CRIMINAL MINDS, Wednesday, April 22 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

SERIES REGULARS:
David Rossi………………………….. Joe Mantegna
Aaron Hotchner………………….. Thomas Gibson
Emily Prentiss……………………… Paget Brewster
Derek Morgan…………………….. Shemar Moore
Dr. Spencer Reid……….. Matthew Gray Gubler
Jennifer Jareau…………………………… A.J. Cook
Penelope Garcia……………… Kirsten Vangsness

GUEST CAST:
Dan Murphy…………………… John Allen Nelson
Sarah Murphy……………………… Gretchen Egolf
Danny Murphy…………… Kendall Ryan Sanders
Reporter #1……………………. Samantha Zweben
Reporter #2……………………………. Joy Sudduth
Capt. Lancaster………………….. Spencer Garrett
Hugh Rollins……………………….. John Billingsley
Uniform…………………………. Anthony Nacarato
Mr. Seager……………………………. Mark Arnold
Mrs. Seager……………………… Caroline Bielskis
Kyle Murphy………………………. Robbie Tucker

WRITTEN BY: Debra J. Fisher and Erica Messer
DIRECTED BY: Karen Gaviola

Source: CBS via SpoilerTV

Prentiss, played by Paget Brewster, is one of the well-loved characters on the crime series, Criminal Minds. The actress recently talks to TV Guide about her character’s story development and also about upcoming guest, Alex O’ Loughlin in this interview.

(more…)

AGENT HOTCHNER REVISITS A CASE FROM HIS PAST WHEN THE BAU TRAVELS TO BOSTON TO APPREHEND ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS SERIAL KILLERS IN NEW ENGLAND’S HISTORY, ON “CRIMINAL MINDS,” WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18

“Omnivore” - Agent Hotchner revisits the first case he worked at the BAU when details come forth that one of the deadliest serial killers in New England’s history has struck again after a 10-year hiatus, on CRIMINAL MINDS, Wednesday, March 18 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. C. Thomas Howell (”The Outsiders”) guest stars.

SERIES REGULARS:
David Rossi………………………….. Joe Mantegna
Aaron Hotchner………………….. Thomas Gibson
Emily Prentiss……………………… Paget Brewster
Derek Morgan…………………….. Shemar Moore
Dr. Spencer Reid……….. Matthew Gray Gubler
Jennifer Jareau…………………………… A.J. Cook
Penelope Garcia……………… Kirsten Vangsness

GUEST CAST:
George Foyet…………………. C. Thomas Howell
Ray Colson……………………………… Justin Louis
Sgt. Michael O’Mara……………… James Hanlon
Tom Shaunessy……………………… James Handy
Nurse………………………………. Joyce Green leaf
Evan Harvey…………………….. Adam Chambers
Nina Hale……………………………….. Cara Chute
Arthur Lanessa………………………. Frank Novak
Diane Lanessa………………………… Lynn Milano
Bus Driver………………………….. Terrence Flack
Coroner…………………………………. Jeff Branion
EMT…………………………………. Adrian Flowers

WRITTEN BY: Andrew Wilder
DIRECTED BY: Nelson McCormick

(more…)

Alex O’Loughlin, star of the canceled series Moonlight, is coming back to CBS through Criminal Minds. According to news sources, the actor will play a serial killer on the series, which should be airing in late April and the episode will be told from the point of view of the criminal.

Fans of Moonlight has been missing the actor on television and are hoping for this return to CBS.

THE BAU TEAM TRACKS A FEMALE SERIAL KILLER WHO TARGETS POWERFUL BUSINESS EXECUTIVES, ON “CRIMINAL MINDS,” WEDNESDAY, FEB. 25

“Pleasure Is My Business” -  The team searches for a female suspect who uses her professional skills as a high class call girl to lure and kill high-powered executives, on CRIMINAL MINDS, Wednesday, Feb. 25 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

SERIES REGULARS:
David Rossi………………………….. Joe Mantegna
Aaron Hotchner………………….. Thomas Gibson
Emily Prentiss……………………… Paget Brewster
Derek Morgan…………………….. Shemar Moore
Dr. Spencer Reid……….. Matthew Gray Gubler
Jennifer Jareau…………………………… A.J. Cook
Penelope Garcia……………… Kirsten Vangsness

GUEST CAST:
Megan Kane……………………….. Brianna Brown
Ellen Daniels……………………….. Catherine Dent
Andrew Kane…………………………….. John Getz
A.G. Patrick Jackson……………… Chet Grissom
Mrs. Yvonne Ashford………. Kristin Richardson
Lauren ……………………………………. Nora Dunn
Hoyt Ashford……………………………. Rick Dano
Customer…………………………… Patrick W. Day
Joseph Fielding……………………… James Rekart
Security Guard……………… Robert John Brewer
Larry Bartlett…………………… Richard V. Licata
Lawyer………………….. Felice Heather Monteith
Lawyer #2…………………. Gregg Edward Perrie
Trent……………………………………. Dirk Blocker
Allison Barnes……………………….. Abigail Eiland
Katherine…………………………….. Melissa Keller
Jack Hotchner……………………….. Cade Owens

WRITTEN BY: Breen Frazier
DIRECTED BY: Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Via CBS

Wow. What a fantastic episode. I’m still kind of recovering from it AND I have a wicked head cold, so excuse me if I’m not completely coherent.

Gideon is out buying flowers for a date when Hotch calls. It seems the BAU is under review a little bit earlier than usual this year, and the only file not requested for review is Hotch’s. They mention Elle’s departure, Morgan’s arrest, and Reid’s issues and are both a little worried about how this is going to turn out. Wow. Hard to believe all that stuff happened in just one season. Gideon stops when he sees Jane wandering around across the street. When she disappears behind a car, he convinces himself he’s seeing things. Until Frank gives him a call on his date’s cell phone from Gideon’s place.

Gideon rushes to his ladyfriend’s apartment and finds her in pieces. He takes off. The team arrives and decides they need to find both Frank and Gideon despite not being invited into the investigation of the ladyfriend’s murder (I’m sorry, I’m not going to call her his girlfriend. It sounds weird.). Hotch convinces Gideon over the phone to work with Garcia on finding out who Frank really is.

Turns out Frank is really, really evil. He has a list of victims that Gideon’s saved and if Jane is not returned to him, he’s going to kill them all. The team tracks down Jane after she’s arrested and we find out that she left after Frank almost killed her during an argument. She also provides Frank’s last name, which they use to find out that his father was absent and his mother (who Jane reminds him of) was a hooker - the basic recipe for a serial killer. Meanwhile, Frank shows up at Rebecca-From-”The Fisher King”’s place and slices her up.

He arranges a meeting with the team to exchange Jane for the next victim on the list, Little-Sister-Fanning-From-”Boogeyman”, who moved to the New York area after almost being beaten to death by a psychotic kid. Gideon shows up to confront Frank with all the information he has on him. Somehow Frank manages to talk Jane into coming with him again and they jump in front of a train, disappearing behind it as it puls into the station. Reid and J.J. go to Frank’s apartment and find not only Little Sister Fanning, but the decayed corpse of Frank’s mother.

Hotch meets with his boss, Karen Hayes from 24, and she tells him that she believes he is no longer effective in his position as head of the team. Hotch and the rest of the audience thinks this is bullshit, and he profiles her to show her how good he is at his job. He also semi-profiles the team for her. He is able to keep his job for the moment. Karen talks to another member of the team that we can’t see and tells them to help her end Hotch’s career if they want to stay at the BAU. The person she’s talking to? Prentiss.

I have to admit that I’m a little worried about this storyline. A lot of crime shows have tried to do the villian arc with some type of authority figure trying to break up the team or whatever and they usually fail miserably. But if any show can pull it off, it’s Criminal Minds.

The last episode of the season airs in a mere five hours! I can’t be the only one impatiently doing a fidgety dance in their chairs, so here’s a preview of “The Evolution of Frank” to tide us over.

I went looking on the premiere Criminal Minds blog, Criminal Minds Fanatic (who admittedly have WAY more connections than little ol’ me) and found that “Doubt” will not air until next season.

That means we only have TWO episodes left of the season. “Legacy” and “The Evolution of Frank”, or as someone called it, “No Way Out Part II”.

Okay. Apprently the Criminal Minds schedule was changed YET AGAIN and last night’s episode was “Open Season” instead of “Doubt”. TV Guide.com, in the brief span of time where it was actually cooperating with my computer, says next week is “Legacy”. Will “Doubt” ever air? I’ll check some sources and get back to you on that.

On to the episode. This episode has the BAU tracking two brothers who kidnap people, set them loose in the woods, and hunt them. Anyone else having flashbacks to the Supernatural episode “The Benders”? Just me, then? Okay. Moving on. Anyway, we get some backstory from Prentiss - she aparently spent a lot of time in the woods with her grandfather who had a whole J.D. Salinger thing going on for a couple years - and an adorable shot of Hotch sleeping on the plane.

Half of the episode has us following Bobbi, one of the brothers’ victims. She stumbles onto a camp and tries to survive with the remaining two campers after the brothers open fire. After the one guy is taken down, Bobbi defies the rules of horror movies/shows by thinking ahead and taking the guy’s knife, which she later uses to stab the younger brother when he shoots the second camper.

The BAU team arrive after some detective work and a lot of blind luck (I think that’s why this episode had a “meh” effect on me) and the older brother is shot. He dies, but not before Bobbi can get in his face and call him the harshest thing she can get away with on network television.

I really think that the focus on Bobbi this episode contributed to the fact that I didn’t like it much. I want my BAU team, dammit! Especially my adorable genius (anyone who hasn’t read this blog before; I am totally shameless when it comes to fangirling the illustrious Dr. Spencer Reid).

My favorite part of the epsiode? The cold open with Prentiss, JJ, and Garcia showing up a guy hitting on Prentiss who claims to be an FBI agent. SO funny. I laughed for about five minutes straight, which is something only House has been able to achieve. Seriously. Rolling. On. The. Floor. Laughing.

Until I get back to you guys with some seblance of an explanation to the scheduling craziness, have a preview of tonight’s CSI. This generalization is the best I can find, but pay attention to the stuff about aliens and lizard creatures for an idea of what tonight’s episode is about.

Tonight’s Criminal Minds is actually going to be a repeat of “Jones”. But next week is going to be “Doubt”, which was originally going to be replaced tonight by “Open Season”. Guess who’s ba~ack….

Due to the Virginia Tech massacre, next week’s Criminal Minds episode will be “Open Season” instead of “Doubt”. The change is due to the material of “Doubt”, which is about women being murdered on a midwestern college campus.

I’ll keep you updated with any other changes as they occur.

Bones is new tonight. Take a look!

Criminal Minds fans get a repeat of “Sex, Birth, Death” tonight which, if you haven’t seen it, definitely tune in because it’s probably the best episode ever. Seriously. I’m not kidding. Watch it. If not for my spectacular reccommendation, then to blow Lost out of the water. You KNOW you’re sick of JJ Abrams not knowing what the hell he’s doing.

Today is the first day of the new quarter for me. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m on the fence about declaring Criminology as my major. I’m taking Criminal Justice this quarter (lucky Veronica, getting to take the actual criminology class as a frshman. I want to go to Hearst.) and feeling it out, since it’s on the opposite end of the spectrum from my current Creative Writing/Film major.

Anyway, I was peeking at the Criminal Minds official site in a fit of boredom and came across the Profiler Quiz. Sweet! I love personality quizzes and I love profiling; they are two great tastes that taste great together. 26 out of 30. Guess I should give some serious consideration to the major change.

Take the quiz and see if you’ve got what it takes to hang with the BAU.

Tonight’s repeat of Criminal Minds follows two serial killers operating in the same city, one - the Mill Creek Killer - hunting middle-class brunettes and the other - the Hollow Man - shooting prostitutes. They’re locked in a rivalry leaving the city paralyzed in fear. But before the BAU team takes off, a new member named Emily Prentiss arrives. There’s some confusion due to the fact that Hotch has not approved a transfer to the team but she has the proper paperwork. She’s left behind for now.

After the Hollow Man alerts the media to the location of one of the Mill Creek Killer’s victims, Reid figures out that the two killers are communicating through the newspaper’s classifieds. They use names from Catcher in the Rye, the preferred novel of the sociopath. Apparently I am not a sociopath, because I HATED that book. Wah, wah, wah. Shut up Holden. The team is able to play the Mill Creek Killer and the Hollow Man off of each other and apprehend both.

When Hotch returns to his office, Prentiss is there. In the dark. Waiting for him. Hotch is slightly creeped out, but is impressed with her evaluation of the case file that was delivered for him. He makes no promises - the credits already made them for him - but directs her to someone who can assign her a desk and she practically skips away.

This is one of my favorite episodes; I found it really cool how they played the killers off of one another. They also used handwriting analysis to help profile the Hollow Man, something which I would personally like to see more of on the show. Another thing I thought was particularly interesting was how we saw the Mill Creek Killer’s face in the opening. It was a great stylistic choice, especially since we didn’t see the Hollow Man until the last few minutes, mirroring the media coverage each killer got.

I just want to pop back in to say that Criminal Minds won its time slot, beating a first-run episode of Lost ! How awesome is THAT?! Congratulations to everyone involved in the show; having a repeat beat out one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV has to feel pretty good. You guys deserve it.