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The Making of Criminal Minds; Inside Quantico & the Criminal Mind; Meet Matthew Gray Gubler; Deleted scenes
Full Product DetailsIf you can imagine a fusion of Law & Order, CSI, and Silence of the Lambs, you've pretty much got this suspenseful crime drama pegged. But Criminal Minds, while undeniably derivative of other TV shows and movies, synthesizes the best elements of its ostensible inspirations with élan. This spirited self-assurance, coupled with fine performances from a talented cast of prime-time B-listers, makes for a consistently entertaining series. It revolves around the investigators of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, an elite team of profilers charged with penetrating the twisted minds of perpetrators to establish patterns of thought and activity that will, hopefully, prevent future crimes. The BAU is headed by brilliant but prickly James Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), whose squad includes Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), Elle Greenway (Lola Glaudini), and Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore). Their most gripping cases pit them against some truly deranged individuals, such as the paranoid schizophrenic who traps Elle, among others, on board a speeding passenger train in "Derailed." Occasionally, Gideon and his team try to ascertain innocence instead of guilt, as in "Riding the Lightning," in which Gideon believes that the distaff member of a couple on death row for murder may have not been implicated in the horrendous crime. Probably the best of the 22 Season 1 episodes is the finale, "The Fisher King," a real nail-biter that finds a psychopathic serial killer sending messages to vacationing BAU members, challenging them to prevent him from striking again. It's pretty strong stuff -- a description, by the way, that applies to most Criminal Minds installments. Ed Hulse, Barnes & Noble