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Deviant Herc Loves CBS
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
It's a kind of “Red Dragon: The Series” centering on a genius FBI profiler back from medical leave following a “major depressive episode.” It was created by Jeff Davis, a screenwriter who – though this is his first project produced – is apparently garnering a lot of heat in the feature sector.
It stars Mandy Patinkin (“Dead Like Me”), Lola Glaudini (“The Sopranos,” “The Handler”), Thomas Gibson (“Dharma & Greg”), Matthew Gubler (“The Life Aquatic”) and Shemar Moore (“Birds of Prey”).
This may be the best scripted series CBS has fielded since Patinkin and David E. Kelley originally left “Chicago Hope” a decade ago. The pilot, at least, is enormously well-done, riddled as it is with compelling twists and character moments. It’s got a great opening. One likes and feels for the victim. Mandy Patinkin is stellar as the lead brainiac suffering from post-traumatic stress. Eminently watchable also are Gubler as a doctor who looks like he might be in high school, and Lola Glaudini as the Clarice Starling surrogate.
While the San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman (and his new Make-A-Wish pals) hail “Criminal Minds” as one of the best new shows of the season, the show is otherwise not getting a lot of love from the print media. Where movie critics of 15 years ago could handle a predator who skinned his victims, put bug larvae in their mouths and made “women-suits” out of them, TV critics seem mostly squeamish about a villain who puts his victim in a cage and gags her with duct tape.
CBS will air it Wednesdays at 9 p.m., a terrible, terrible timeslot that puts it up against my two favorite rookies from last fall, ABC’s “Lost” and UPN’s “Veronica Mars” (as well as NBC’s “E-Ring,” Fox’s “Head Cases” and the WB’s “Related”). The good news is CBS is launching it tonight at 10 p.m., right after “Survivor” and “CSI,” so the pilot at least should get a decent sampling.
But what matters Herc’s opinion? Variety says:
… has a few points going for it: Mandy Patinkin's onscreen magnetism; some truly eerie episodes; and a smartness that it wears on its sleeve. On the downside, it draws on too many other recent hits - "CSI," "Crossing Jordan," "Medium," "House," "Law & Order: SVU" - for visual style, character tics, mind games and an ability to find the truth in confounding evidence. … The ease and quickness with which Gideon nails down every aspect of the killer suggests that this will become the show's m.o. While auds are willing to suspend belief during a "Law & Order" probe and trial, "Criminal Minds" is stretching the ability of one man too far; nobody has been this dead-on correct since Perry Mason. … All the characters are well read and versed in pop culture as they reference and quote Samuel Beckett, Mao Tse Tung, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Yoda. It gives the show a fun little edge to go along with the special effects that give "Minds" a bit an extra zing. Richard Shepard's poised direction sharply frames Jeff Davis' cut-and-dry script. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
You might say that "Criminal Minds" takes procedurals about people who profile criminals to a new level. You might also wonder whether that level is maybe too much of a stretch. … Mandy Patinkin lends his considerable acting chops … striking, in the premiere and the second episode, is the speed with which Gideon can provide a detailed description of the perp, right down to his age, sexual capacity and the make and model of his vehicle. Just about everything, in fact, except his username on eBay. What's more, Gideon is exactly right. … The show has fewer obvious special effects than many procedurals, but that's not a bad thing. Now and then, there are instances in which the profilers, and Gideon in particular, literally walk out of one scene and into another. It's a nice touch and a visually creative change of pace, but it's not enough - not even with frequent shots of Patinkin's expressive face - to distinguish this series in a particularly crowded genre. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… Patinkin, an actor who goes over the top just sitting quietly in the chair, leads a more restrained ensemble cast that includes Thomas Gibson, late of "Dharma & Greg," Shemar Moore ("The Young and the Restless"), Lola Glaudini ("The Handler"), Matthew Gray Gubler and post-pilot addition AJ Cook. They are all geniuses and full of facts and statistics: Their dialogue often has the flavor of a Mensa mixer. "Charon — that's the Greek mythological ferryman of the dead." "It's also the name of Pluto's only moon." From the first couple of episodes, I learned, among other things, that Moloch was the demon sun god of the Canaanites, that one in 7.4 drivers in Seattle drives an SUV, and that when you're flustered it's more difficult to control the articulatory musculature of the face. It makes you wonder what they're doing working for the FBI when they could be on "Jeopardy!" setting up their retirement funds.
Newsday says:
Let's torture women. Let's kidnap them and chain them in cages and terrify and abuse them. Now that's entertainment. …
… Watch - or don't, please - as CBS unleashes "Criminal Minds," whose pilot episode is a repulsively fetishized close-up of yet more woman-victimization. … just kinky terrorizing, presented in a peeping manner that turns its vileness into titillation. Oh, how awful. That's terrible. Wicked. Fascinating. Cool. Making it worse here, as in "Killer Instinct," is the overwhelming maleness of the team sent in to save the quiveringly helpless female fantasy objects - er, victims. … Along with all the unsavory suffering to which we're treated, the pilot piles on explanatory dialogue that's tortured in its own way, strained "color" (quotes from Frederic Nietzsche and Samuel Beckett), and tiresome tech tricks (crime scenes appear behind Patinkin). The whole project feels salaciously sleazy, unless you're enjoying the proceedings, in which case it's juicily depraved. Accumulation has an impact. And all these shows' sensationalizing - getting ever more jacked up and misogynist - is suffocating a genre that seemed fresh and promising only five years ago when "CSI" premiered. Now, the only promise seems to be that women will be punished for simply existing. Lock your doors, ladies, and never leave the house without a man. Where are we, Taliban-land?
USA Today gives it one star (out of four) and says:
… You can choose for yourself what's most revolting about Criminal Minds … Perhaps it's the signature scene: a caged woman, duct tape on her eyes, crying, screaming, struggling, as the killer clips her already bloody nails to stop her from scratching at her blindfold. Or perhaps it's the plot itself, which plays like a how-to guide for sexual predators. … It might at least be some small comfort if a show this bad were as bad as the season gets, but I'm afraid it's not. There's an equally ugly and even more inept show coming your way Friday, Fox's Killer Instinct. But really, once you plummet below a certain level, trash is trash, and gradations become virtually meaningless. The only fix is a quick cancellation followed by an apology from all concerned. …
TV Guide says:
… The only thing more off-putting than this grisly show’s mannered, clichéd heroes is the disgustingly graphic portrayal of the crimes. (The endlessly unpleasant pilot involved women being caged, mutilated, raped and murdered.) …
10 p.m. Thursday. CBS.
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I thought The Inside was coming back.
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Wow, Herc, can you really not tell the difference between the *off-screen* serial killings of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and the sensationalistic graphic torture that is being employed simply as a means of sensationalizing this show in order to attract viewers? I thought you were better than that, dude.
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A criminal profiler who's had a traumatic experience in the past, on a yet another procedural that likes to graphically depict violent crimes. Seems like the last time Herc loved this kind of show, it was that dopey and inept "The Inside". Think I'll pass.
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Sep 22, 2005 11:24:33 AM CDT
Whoa, after half an hour of work, I just realized that this is N
by man of stool
Or it will all have been for nothing...
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Sep 22, 2005 12:35:24 PM CDT
On Chicago Hope, Mandy came and he gave without taking
by samuellappdance
Sorry. Really couldn't help myself.
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where's the spoiler?.. can we all just assume everything Herc puts up is a spoiler even though it's not? Can someone give me the definition of a spoiler?
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Sep 22, 2005 3:33:29 PM CDT
My name is Inigo Montoya.....sorry, couldn't help myself.
by freakemovie
Why do they keep trying to put procedural crime dramas on? I think between the three Law and Orders, the three CSIs, Without a Trace, and Cold Case, it's a little crowded. Everybody already has a favorite. How 'bout you guys go think up some new ideas? I know it sounds scary...
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Sep 22, 2005 5:19:19 PM CDT
Against Lost this show is D.O.A. and where's the Breaking Bo
by neo zeed
This C.S.I. clone is going to the depths of the Museum of TV and Radio in 2 weeks. Yo did anyone see Danny Bonaduce wield those nunchucks and sais, dirrrty dancing behind his wife's back and taking steriods?! And boldfaced admitting it to his stunned therapist on national T.V.!!! Best new show of the year!!
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We'll see how next week goes. But any show that digs up DJ Qualls and Lucas Haas in the first two episodes, is only a Corey away from a trifecta.
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Reminds me of Wire in the Blood.
A show on BBC America.
Great show check it out if you can.
http://www.bbcamerica.com/genre/drama_mysteries/wire_in_the_blood/wire_in_the_blood.jsp -
best new show of the fall. Tell me you guys aren't watching
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just don't have time
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... they'd better not ever watch a Dario Argento film or they'd be at great risk of dying from a brain embolism ...
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Sep 24, 2005 9:44:52 AM CDT
First episode was good, but it won't stand a chance against
by mr. dogfart
The Lost juggernaught moves on, and swallows everything in it's path. Head Cases is already cancelled after only 2 weeks (Fox keeps up it's absurd record of early cancellations), when Lost sucked up all the ratings .
What's the point of cancelling a show when it's up against a huge hit like Lost? There is no magic new show that's going to make people stop watching Lost, and they have to put something on, so why not let them be for awhile.
Not that I watched Head Cases, but what's the point of not giving them some chance before the early axe?
They should have put Criminal Minds on Monday night and teamed it up with CSI Miami, that could work, but agains Lost?? Good thinking CBS!
Missing Mandy on Dead Like Me!
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