"Criminal Minds" Normal (2008)

Director:

Steve Boyum

Writers:

Jeff Davis (creator)
Andrew Wilder (written by)

TV Series:

"Criminal Minds" (2005)

Original Air Date:

17 December 2008 (Season 4, Episode 11)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A serial killer known as the Road Warrior is gunning down blonde women on roads in Orange County, California and the BAU suspect that the victims are surrogates and that it's only a matter of time before he kills the real one.

Plot Keywords:

FBI Profiler | Serial Killer

Cast

Joe Mantegna	...	David Rossi
Paget Brewster	...	Emily Prentiss
Shemar Moore	...	Derek Morgan
Matthew Gray Gubler	...	Dr. Spencer Reid
A.J. Cook	...	Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau
Kirsten Vangsness	...	Penelope Garcia
Thomas Gibson	...	Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner
Mitch Pileggi	...	Norman Hill
Meta Golding	...	Jordan Todd
Gina Torres	...	Detective Thea Salinas
Danny Nucci	...	Burke Manning
Elaine Hendrix	...	Judy Hannity
Faith Ford	...	Vanessa Hill
Rudy Moreno	...	Victor Alvarez
Brie Gabrielle	...	Sasha Hill

Company:

CBS Paramount Network Television

Quotes:

Derek Morgan: [while holding JJ's baby] What's he doing? He's smiling at Derek Morgan.
Emily Prentiss, Penelope Garcia: [Together] Gas!

Movie Connections:

References Goldfinger (1964)

Mitch Pileggi Delivers A Great Performance In a Familiar Scenario

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is not a show I usually watch. I've been aware of it for some time, and I'd heard about the trade-off of the lead role between Mandy Patinkin and Joe Mantegna, both excellent actors. But because my plate is already full as far as police procedural dramas go, between the LAW AND ORDER and CSI franchises, I figured I didn't have it in me to commit to one more show from that genre.

But for some episodes, I will make exceptions. And when I saw that this one featured one of my all-time favorite actors, Mitch Pileggi, I knew I'd have to record this one at the very least.

I don't know that I'd pick up this series on a regular basis, based on this one episode. Only for those who know what I mean, I guess it's a spoiler to say that the story is very derivative of the work of Brad Anderson, a writer/director who has tackled similar dark themes in his film SESSION 9 and in an episode of the Showtime series MASTERS OF HORROR called "Sounds Like."

But derivative or not, Pileggi, who has played everything from laid-back drifters to homicidal psychopaths and is best-known as Mulder and Scully's boss from THE X-FILES series, straddles that fine line between sympathy and sadism well in this turn as a mild-mannered family man who has a complete psychological meltdown after a horrific tragedy. Faith Ford (MURPHY BROWN) is also very good as his wife. And the rest of the cast, though I'm not at all familiar with the characters, handle themselves pretty well.

I would have to know and see more to fully appreciate their work, but Mitch is the reason why I tuned in to begin with, and I'm happy to say that I wasn't the least bit disappointed.