Criminal Minds (Season 1)

Often when we travel across Wyoming I find myself without an internet signal - so I end up watching DVD's to entertain myself - this past trek across that boring long state I decided to watch a series that I had purchased a while Criminal Minds!?!

After watching it I decided that I of course want the rest of the seasons but also that I'd share with you what it is about!?!

I know that the show is in Season 6 but the only information that I have provided below has to do with the Season 1 that I watched!?!


Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005 on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at Quantico, Virginia. Criminal Minds differs from many procedural dramas by focusing on the criminal rather than the crime itself. The show is produced by The Mark Gordon Company in association with CBS Television Studios and ABC Studios. The original title for Criminal Minds was Quantico, and the pilot was filmed in Vancouver. In the Quantico script, Jason Gideon was named Jason Donovan.

Background

Initially, the series centers on Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) and the rest of the BAU team. For the first season, that includes Elle Greenaway (Lola Glaudini), Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), Jennifer Jareau, or "JJ" (A. J. Cook), and Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness).


The frequently-used term "Unsub" stands for the "Unknown Subject" of an investigation.

Characters
Supervisory Special Agent/Unit Chief Jason Gideon

Played by Mandy Patinkin, Gideon is known as the BAU's best profiler. Prior to the series beginning, he was Unit Chief, but had a nervous breakdown after sending a team of six agents into a Boston warehouse, where they were killed by a bomb. At the series opening, he returns to his position after six months medical leave during which Hotchner filled in as chief. Gideon holds a security clearance and has provided classified behavior analyses for the CIA.

He is highly skilled at chess, the only member of the team consistently capable of beating Spencer Reid at it. He mentors Reid, and while it is an unwritten rule that the team not profile each other, he often provides moral support and encouragement to his team members when the stresses of the job get to them.

Supervisory Special Agent/Unit Chief Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner

Played by Thomas Gibson, Hotchner studied law and is a former prosecutor, originally assigned to the FBI Field Office in Seattle. He is one of the most experienced agents in the BAU, serving from its founding. He struggles, unsuccessfully, to balance the demands of his job with his family life.

Supervisory Special Agent/Acting Unit Chief Derek Morgan

Played by Shemar Moore, Morgan is a confident, assertive, and often hot-tempered character. A once troubled Chicago youth headed for juvenile delinquency, he was rescued and mentored by a minister who is later suspected as a child-molesting unsub. Morgan developed an interest in football and went to Northwestern University on a scholarship. He then went on to serve in a bomb squad unit and as a Chicago police officer. He holds a black belt in Judo, and teaches FBI self-defense classes.
Morgan has a special rapport with Technical Analyst Garcia, whom he loves like a little sister. He frequently addresses her as "baby girl".

Supervisory Special Agent Elle Greenaway

Played by Lola Glaudini, Greenaway was formerly assigned to the FBI Field Office in Seattle, Washington, and assigned to the BAU as an expert in sexual offense crimes. Her father was a New York City police officer who was killed in the line of duty. She is half Cuban and speaks Spanish.

Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid

Played by Matthew Gray Gubler, Doctor Reid, the youngest BAU member, is a genius who graduated from a Las Vegas public high school at age 12, and holds PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering, besides BAs in Psychology and Sociology; and is working on a BA in Philosophy. It has been revealed that he has an IQ of 187, higher than even Albert Einstein's, and has an eidetic memory. He is habitually introduced as Dr. Reid, in contrast to the other agents' introductions as Supervisory Special Agent. The purpose of this, as explained by agent Hotchner in the pilot episode, is to create a respectable first impression of Reid, deflecting judgments about his age.

Supervisory Special Agent/Media Liaison Jennifer "JJ" Jareau

Played by A.J. Cook, Jareau acts as the team's liaison with the media and local police agencies. She is dating William LaMontagne, a New Orleans Police Officer.


Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia

Played by Kirsten Vangsness, Garcia is the team's computer technician at BAU Headquarters in Quantico. She is not Latina as her surname implies; Garcia is her stepfather's name. She lost both her parents at a young age and then lived "off the grid" as a computer hacker. She joined the Bureau after bringing attention upon herself by illegally accessing some of their equipment; she was offered her job in lieu of a jail sentence. She usually supports the team from her computer lab at Quantico, but occasionally joins them on location when her skills can be used in the field. She enjoys a big-brother relationship with SSA Morgan, often engaging in a little comical banter, sometimes of a sexually suggestive nature, when he calls in for information. Being at the bottom of the BAU's seniority doesn't protect her from joining the ranks of agents victimized by unsubs.

*Warning: This show is VERY graphic!?!*