On a day filled with announcements from the major networks, another show is getting the callback as CBS renews Criminal Minds for season nine. This decision was widely expected and only delayed due to the negotiations with the cast to secrue them for a new contract. Having sealed them, the network can now move on and announce the renewal for Criminal Minds for its ninth season. Continue reading
Seems like it is a never ending task to keep up with all the cancelled shows of 2012 and renewed shows of 2012, and this week it got very busy in the renewal front, all coming from CBS that renewed way more than a handful of shows to come back next season in a single announcement. I am reviewing one by one, fourteen of those that hadn´t been already announced as renewed previously.CBS renews Criminal Minds for an eighth season. This one has been looking solid for seven seasons; never being Continue reading
Last night Criminal Minds aired an all new episode called To Hell and Back. As usual, this good show is all about the mistery, and last night was no exception. If you want to be spoiled, stay here… but under your own responsibility.
Remember Criminal Minds was renewed for a new season. Besides this Season Finale of Criminal Minds was great.
Detroit, Michigan — An intense-looking man approaches the Canadian border in a dark sedan. “What’s the nature of your visit?” a border guard asks. Growls the man: “Pleasure.” He then SLAMS on the accelerator, WHEELS the car around and RAMS the border-guard cabin! “Call the FBI,” he screams. “I’ve killed 10 people in the last month!” Inside the wrecked car are photos of the victims. He wanted to be caught. But why?
Jennifer explains that all the apparent victims were “transients” from Detroit that were apparently taken across the border and dumped. The man, meanwhile, is a former war hero named William Hightower. “It could be a case of post-traumatic stress disorder,” Rossi suggests. Not wasting any time, Hotch assigns roles: Emily and Derek will go the slums of Detroit, where all the victims are from; the others will go to Canada.
Rossi arrives at the border and shakes the hand of Officer Jeff Bedwell, a former protégé of the author/ investigator. Emily and Derek, in the meantime, are busy casing the streets. Derek interviews a junkie who recognizes a photo of Hightower. “I need to know everything this brother does,” Derek tells the junkie. “How he talks. How he moves. Every bit of his behavior.”
Armed with Derek’s info, Hotch heads to the holding cell to interview Hightower. “Give me a dumpsite,” Hotch demands. No dice. Hotch then explains that they know Hightower was often among the transients, photographing and cataloging them — much like a sergeant at bed check. “Your behavior was more like a protector,” Hotch notes. “You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to confess to a crime you didn’t commit.”
Hightower breaks down. Turns out that he went to the Detroit cops three times asking for help when the transients began to disappear. He collected the photos of the missing victims, rammed the border guard booth and confessed just so the authorities would be forced to investigate. “When I got home from Iraq, the first thing my mother told me was that my baby sister Lee was on the streets,” says a crying Hightower.
The woman has since disappeared and Hightower needed the FBIs help. Hightower then explains that he received a cell-phone call from his sister the night she disappeared. Triangulating the signal revealed where the scared woman crossed the border. Unfortunately, that spot is one of the busiest of all border crossings. Did someone kidnap the young woman and take her into Canada? The team believes so.
We cut to a disgusting pig farm, where a giant, disgusting man drags a transient (not Hightower’s sister, thank goodness) onto a disgusting table. Disgusting swine squeal and grunt. The disgusting man injects the transient with a viscous fluid in the back of the neck. Disgusting.
Back at police headquarters, Rossi and Hotch convince Bedwell to release Hightower. The veteran agrees to assist the team. Garcia, meanwhile, calls with crime reports from Detroit. “On five of the abduction nights, Detroit PD reports a break in or robbery at some type at a medical facility,” she explains. The unsub stole IV tubing, sutures and other supplies. Odd? Spencer doesn’t think so. “We believe the unsub gets gratification from keeping his victims alive to endure more torture,” he explains. This “sexual sadist” probably has some sort of medical training.
The team then interviews Maxine Hightower, mother to William and Lee. She explains that Lee briefly came home between stints on the street. But the young woman disappeared soon after she cashed a welfare check. Spencer’s eyes light up. All the victims disappeared near the first or middle of the month. “You think he has a way to get them alone based on the way they cash their checks?” Rossi asks. Indeed.
Derek and Detective Benning of the Detroit PD do a little checking and discover that street folk have been illegally cashing their welfare checks at a nearby flea-bag motel. They quickly arrive at the scene. “Have you been giving them cash in exchange for their welfare checks?” Derek demands. The owner admits to the scam — and then says a dark-colored sedan frequently stops to pick up street walkers. In fact, the sedan just drove off with a young woman who had recently traded her check. Bingo.
But watching the regular border crossings produces nothing. Hightower suggests checking the Civil War-era underground railroad running from Detroit to Canada. Garcia identifies a single Victorian home that still stands along the route. Emily, Hotch and Hightower speed to the property and discover stashed cars in the trees. Garcia does a quick search on the car and gets a name: Mason Turner, a former medical student. And where does Mr. Turner live? “Looks like a farm,” Garcia says.
Seconds later, the team storms the farm with guns drawn. Stinking pig pens are filled with blood. Stacks of medical equipment line the walls. But it gets weirder. The team finds a quadriplegic man hooked up to a breathing machine. “Get the hell out of my house!” the sick man gasps. This bed-bound man is Mason Turner? Then who is the unsub? More importantly, WHERE is the unsub? Bedwell is furious. He demands to take Hightower back into custody.
But before everyone can start arguing, Derek discovers a bin behind the farmhouse filled with bloody shoes. “We said we were looking for 10 missings?” Derek asks. “There’s got to be over 100 shoes in that thing.” Bedwell wonders where the bodies might be. Spencer directs the team’s attention toward the pigs. “They’re carnivores,” boy wonder explains. “They’ll eat anything.” And he means ANYTHING.
We cut to the killer’s secret underground lair. The obese man grunts and shakes in the corner. Nearby, the prostitute, Kelly, pleads for her life and notices child-like drawings hung on the walls. The big lug clutches a cell phone. “Is someone supposed to call you?” Kelly gently asks. Cries the man-child: “He always calls!” Hmm.
Back at the farm, Rossi accuses Mason of being an accessory to the crimes. He notices mirrors all over the room — carefully placed so that the bed-bound man can see what is happening in adjacent rooms. “Some very bad things have happened here,” Rossi says. “How many victims were there? 100? More? Do you even know for sure?” Rossi demands to know the location of the “other guy.” To emphasize his point, he ominously places his hand on Mason’s breathing tube. “It was my brother, Lucas,” Mason explains. “He’s crazy. He did all of it.”
Rossi grabs a photo of Big Lucas and shows it to the team. The man is huge and, according to Mason, “inhumanely strong.” Mason urges the team to shoot first and ask questions later (or never). Rossi and Hotch, naturally, are suspicious. The next morning, Garcia arrives on the scene in order to search Mason’s laptop. The quadriplegic is not happy about the legal invasion of privacy. Derek, in the meantime, approaches Hightower. The sculpted BAU agent hands Hightower dog tags found in the bin of shoes — the same dog tags that Hightower gave to his beloved sister. Tears roll down the veteran’s face. Lee is dead.
Later, Spencer investigates the hay loft, where Lucas sleeps. “I doubt he’s psychotic,” Spencer tells Hotch. “There’s a collection of drawings up here that suggest autism or moderate mental retardation … It’s more likely he doesn’t fully understand the acts that he’s committed.” Garcia, in the meantime, discovers something very disturbing on Mason’s laptop. “They were doing experiments,” she tells Rossi. “He tried to fix himself.” Mason chuckles, saying no jury would convict him. After all, the quadriplegic hasn’t technically touched any of the victims — even he did direct attempts to study their spines. Hightower, meanwhile, seems to be growing quite angry at the sound of Mason’s taunting words.
Back in the cave, Kelly attempts to talk to her captor. “Mason says never know names!” Lucas cries. She talks sweetly and begs the man to let her use the restroom. Lucas agrees, bringing the woman out of the hole and into the woods. “I’m not leaving,” she says. “But I need some privacy.” As soon as Lucas is out of sight, Kelly takes the big lugs cell phone out of her pocket! She presses autodial and Mason’s phone suddenly starts ringing back at the farm house. Garcia answers. “I’m somewhere in the woods!” Kelly whispers. Suddenly, the phone goes dead! Rossi, Hotch and Spencer trace the call and race toward the signal. Lucas, in the meantime, discovers Kelly on the phone and drags her back to the cave. She attempts to calm Lucas as Hotch enters the underground lair. “This is the FBI!” he screams. Lucas rocks and weeps while Kelly is led to safety. Just then, Lucas begins to stand and the SWAT team opens fire. “No!” Derek screams — but it’s too late. The big lug is dead.
Back at the farmhouse, Mason has been left unsupervised and Hightower is only too happy to take advantage. He picks up a shotgun … and pumps the bad doctor full of lead. Mason grins as he dies.
As the season draws to a close, Hotch provides a voiceover. “Sometimes you do everything exactly right and you still feel like you failed,” he says. “And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won’t be able to recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?” All good questions, but the answers will have to wait.
Hotch returns home to his lonely apartment and pours himself a stiff drink. Suddenly, a masked figure steps out of the darkness holding a huge gun. “You should have made a deal,” the intruder rasps. Then, BANG! The screen goes black.
To be continued …
Last night Criminal Minds aired an all new episode called Amplification. As usual, this good show is all about the mistery, and last night was no exception. If you want to be spoiled, stay here… but under your own responsibility.
Remember Criminal Minds was renewed for a new season
Annapolis, Maryland — A man walks through a public park where parents and children play. He checks the wind and then uncorks a vial of white powder. The powder blows through the air. Later, a woman puts her child to bed. Both are coughing wildly. “We must have caught something today,” she says. She coughs up blood. Cut to the hospital where EVERYBODY is coughing up blood. Uh oh.
Jennifer introduces the team to Dr. Linda Kimua, an expert in pathogens. Twenty five people were hospitalized with the same violent symptoms. Twelve are now dead. Spencer notes that anthrax doesn’t kill this fast. “This strain does,” Kimura says. Hotch demands a media blackout. “Our best chance of protecting the public is by building a profile as quickly as we can,” he explains. Rossi notes they should be looking for a scientist.
While Jennifer worries about her infant son, the team heads out to meet the military. Rossi explains to Emily that bad blood exists with General Lee Whitworth. That much is evident as soon as Whitworth enters the room and nods curtly at the team. Hotch requests a list of all military scientists working with anthrax. “I’m outranked by someone who believes in your profiles,” Whitworth snaps. “I’ll get your list.”
Derek and Emily visit the park, which has been closed (the cover is “methane buildup”). “This park doesn’t scream ‘target’ to me,” Emily says. “Maybe it’s symbolic for the unsub.” But symbolic of what? No time for that now. At the hospital, the 17th patient has died. “Whoever created this had to, at some point, go through the trouble of testing it,” Spencer notes. Kimura insists that they would’ve known about any previous cases of anthrax in humans. “Not if it presented itself as something else,” Spencer responds. But what something else?
Back at military headquarters, Jennifer wants to warn her husband and, in turn, son. Hotch gives her a clear, but gentle “no.” Spencer calls. He explains that three different people died of meningitis in the past few days, but it could have also been from an extremely high dosage of the nasty anthrax strain. Garcia does some checking, discovering that the victims all visited the same book store the day they became ill. Seconds later, the military is at the book store. Tests for anthrax are positive. “He’s got to have a history with the place,” Emily says.
Profile time. The team gathers will the military men to explain that they’re all looking for a “homegrown terrorist.” “We believe it is someone from the science or defense community,” Derek explains. Also: It’s likely personal with this guy/gal. A man approaches. “There’s something I think you should see,” he tells Hotch. And what is that? A video from 2002 showing a Dr. Nichols, who was forced out of his job, raving about the dangers of anthrax and the government’s poor response to 2001 attacks. Nichols fits the profile to a “T.” Derek and Spencer quick head over to the doctor’s house. Spencer stumbles into a home lab — and discovers Nichols dead in the corner. Worse: broken vials of anthrax litter the floor. Spencer slams the glass door, locking himself inside and telling Derek to “get back!” Says Reid: “I’m sorry.” Not as sorry as we are, boy wonder.
The team plus Whitworth arrive at the house. Luckily, Reid took a preventative pill earlier in the day, but there’s no guarantee it will work against this aggressive strain. Derek, in the meantime, explains that Nichols appears to have died from “blunt force trauma to the head.” Reid estimates that the scientist has been dead for three or four days. Meaning: Nichols could not have staged the bookstore or the park attacks. Derek urges Spencer to come out and be taken to a hospital, but Spencer refuses. “My best chance is to stay here, see if there’s a cure and try to figure out who killed Dr. Nichols,” he says. Hotch reluctantly agrees. And it’s a good thing too. Spencer notices two sets of handwriting among the detailed notes and files. Nichols had a partner! But whom?
Back at military headquarters, Jennifer just can’t take it anymore. She calls home to warn her hubby, but no one picks up. A close call. Just then, Garcia gets a cell-phone call from Spencer. “I know I can’t call my mom without alerting everyone at her hospital,” he says. “I need you to record a message for her in case anything happens to me.” The message is heartfelt and full of love. “I spend everyday of my life proud to be your son,” Spencer says. He tears up. Garcia tears up. We tear up. Spencer begins to cough. He then gets back to work, frantically searching the lab for clues. Spencer discovers that Nichols used to be a professor. “He may have opened his lab for educational purposes,” the sweating, coughing Spencer theorizes. He also finds a thesis with Nichols’ notes written in the margins in red ink. Nichols was helping a student with his/ her thesis! But who? Time for “baby girl” to go to work. Garcia looks up doctoral students — and finds one that used to work at the book store. A match!
The man’s name is Chad Brown, who has been arrested twice at protest rallies. “You did good kid, now get the hell out of there,” Derek tells Spencer. Just then, Kimura enters the lab wearing a protective suit. “You said the cure would be hidden somewhere we didn’t expect,” she says. “What about Dr. Nichols’ inhaler?” It’s worth a shot.
Emily and Rossi head to Brown’s home, but find it empty. Well, almost empty. Emily finds the business end of a light bulb in the trash. “He’s using light bulbs to carry spores,” she says. “He throws them on the ground — anthrax bomb.” Rossi, in the meantime, holds up a stack of subway maps. Uh oh. Back at military headquarters, Garcia informs the team that Spencer has taken a turn for the worse. Hotch tries to focus everyone on the task at hand when Jennifer enters with news: Chad Brown proposed to a girl at the nearby park and was rejected. He also worked at the bookstore and was bitter about not being promoted. “So both locations represent rejection to him,” Hotch says. Where does the subway fit in? Whitworth has the answer: Brown wrote a classified study that simulated a mock anthrax disaster in the D.C. subway system. Hotch believes, based on the profile, that the unsub will attack government employees traveling to and from a lab that rejected Brown twice. That stop runs along the green line. Whitworth strenuously disagrees. “I could really use your help,” Hotch snaps at Whitworth.
Hotch and Derek hustle to the subway stop in question and begin clearing trains. Seconds later, Hotch spots Brown — and pulls his gun. “Put the bag down!” Hotch demands. Just then, Whitworth steps in between the two. “Order from the president: the U.S. Army is taking this man into custody!” he yells. “He’s the only one who can show us how it is made.” Is Whitworth crazy? Crazy like a fox! He tells Brown that the government “needs him” to come work at the lab that had rejected him twice before. Brown is overjoyed. He begins to stammer, insisting that the government name the anthrax strain after him. Whitworth smiles and nods. As soon as Brown hands over his bag of light bulbs, Derek cuffs the man. Brown screams in anger at being rejected once again. “So how did I do?” Whitworth asks Hotch. Says the BAU man: “Effective.” Damn skippy.
On the next episode of “Criminal Mi”– wait! What about Spencer? Turns out our boy wonder is recovering nicely. The cure was indeed hidden in Nichols’ inhaler. As the episode ends, we watch a man in a protective suit slide the new strain of anthrax into a sterile containment center. The camera pulls back to reveal dozens and dozens of containment units. Just what does the government have that they’re not telling us about? Perhaps it’s best we don’t know.
We are reviewing all the cancelled shows and renewed shows of the season.
Although CBS hasn´t already renewed Criminal Minds for a fifth season. Now, reports say that CBS is going to renew Criminal Minds for a new season. So, everything´s good!
Criminal Minds is an American crime drama series that premiered September 22, 2005 on CBS. The show is produced by The Mark Gordon Company in association with ABC Studios and CBS Paramount Network Television. It follows the adventures of a team of profilers from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at Quantico, Virginia. Criminal Minds differs from many criminal system procedural dramas by focusing on the criminal rather than the crime itself.
The series’ third season, which premiered on September 26, 2007, was interrupted in late 2007 by the industry-wide WGA strike. It aired its last pre-strike episode on January 23, 2008. Following the resolution of the strike, the show returned to air on April 2, 2008. On May 14, 2008, Criminal Minds was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on September 24, 2008.
Originally, the series centered on Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), one of the BAU’s best profilers. On July 17, 2007, Patinkin was released from his role on the show upon his request. He was replaced by Joe Mantegna who plays David Rossi, who joined the cast several episodes after Patinkin left.[1] Stories now center on David Rossi (Mantegna), BAU’s Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), and the BAU unit staff. Hotchner struggles to balance his family life and his job. The BAU consists of Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), Jennifer Jareau (|A.J. Cook), Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), and Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster). The team works out of the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, but travels around the United States pursuing the most dangerous criminals. Many episodes begin and end with a quote relevant to the episode. Gideon recited most quotes until he left the series; since then each BAU member has said the quotes.
Are you happy that Criminal Minds gets renewed for a fifth season by CBS?