Criminal Minds is a show focused on a group of criminal profilers who work for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) as members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). These people go around trying to solve crimes and use their intelligence to connect the dots and come up with a conclusion.
The team uses evidence, profiling, crime patterns to catch the criminal, which is why they are part of the BAU. The show became a hit for CBS featuring as one of the networks most watched cable show for its 15 years. The first episode was aired on September 2, 2005 and the final episode ran on February 19, 2020, just before the pandemic.
A lot has happened over the years that made the show interesting and intriguing, both on and off the set. In 2016, for instance, one of the prime characters, Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) was fired in 2016 because he got into a physical altercation with one of the writers, Virgil Williams. This caused his character in the show to “move away” and become a full-time father during Season 12 (tvline.com).
Criminal Minds took inspiration from many real life cases, including kidnappings, serial killers, unsolved crimes and more. A few of the more familiar-seeming episodes dealing with true cases included episodes about the Zodiac Killer and about Richard Ramirez, also known as The Nightstalker. (screenrant.com).
After 15 years, there are a few reasons why the show was being cancelled, and they are not unusual for even shows that had lasted so long: the rating have gone down, it was costing a ton of money to produce more episodes, and ideas were harder to come by. While all good things come to an end, it is possible that ends like this can also be a good beginning for actors who feel like it is time to move on?
If you are thinking about watching Criminal Minds, I would highly recommend it. The many different types of cases, the connections you see in the show, make it very emotional. If you are looking for something to binge watch over the summer, from first to last, you’ll benefit from choosing Criminal Minds.