DVD Reviews

Criminal Minds: The Sixth Season – DVD Review

By Patrick Luce Sep 19, 2011, 15:29 GMT

$CRIMINAL MINDS revolves around an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country\'s most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. The Behavioral Analysis Unit\'s most prominent agent is David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), a founding member of the BAU, who returns to help the team solve new cases, while pursuing some unfinished business of his own. Each member brings his or her own area of$

CRIMINAL MINDS revolves around an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country\'s most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. The Behavioral Analysis Unit\'s most prominent agent is David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), a founding member of the BAU, who returns to help the team solve new cases, while pursuing some unfinished business of his own. Each member brings his or her own area of ...more

The sixth season of Criminal Minds sees the show following its established formula while injecting the series with some new faces and a better look into the past of some of the show’s main characters. The season doesn’t break much new ground, but keeps you enjoying the series thanks to its ensemble cast.

Criminal Minds follows a FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit as they crisscross the country helping various law enforcement agencies stop the country's most twisted criminals (sometimes you wonder how they got these episodes on the air).

The series writers do excellent work keeping each character involved in every episode and the series grounded in the world of the profilers – who work in a very stressful environment where life and death hang in the balance almost every episode.

The team is made up of a variety of specialist – including street smart cop Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore); computer tech wizard Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness); FBI agent Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster); genius Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler); public liaison officer Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau (A.J. Cook); by the book FBI team leader Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner (Thomas Gibson); and profiler extraordinaire David Rossi (Joe Mantegna).

This season continues to focus on the team dynamic with each of the characters getting some kind of spotlight in every episode and slowly revealing more of how the effects of the cases take toil on their lives.

Some of my favorite scenes from the series are the quieter moments with Hotch and his son; Reid dealing with headaches which could be the result of the death he sees on a daily basis, and how Derek gets personally involved in the care of a girl who is left without a family after a serial killer kidnaps her.

This season, the writers throw the team a few curveballs as JJ is forced to leave the team for another assignment in Washington; Penelope has to step out of the comfort of her computer lair; and Prentiss’ past comes back to haunt her in a big way. The team also gets a new addition in the FBI student Ashley Seaver (Rachel Nichols).

Nichols’ character is a great addition to the series and her backstory is very rich. At times, she has a Silence of the Lambs feel with her character and reminded me a lot of Jodie Foster’s performance as Clarice Starling. This isn’t a negative and instead kept me very interested in her character and where the series was heading with her.

The DVD set comes loaded with special features that will keep fans of the series happy. They include Making “Criminal Minds” Season 6; Crime Scenes; From Script to Screen: Agent Down; CMS6 Yearbook; Gag Reel; and Deleted Scenes.

While the sixth season of Criminal Minds doesn’t break much new ground, the show continues to entertain thanks to its cast and the cases they are forced to handle each episodes.

At times they stretch believability (Penelope’s computer magic provides the killer’s address a few times too many), but it never stops the show from being watchable or kills the interest of wanting to see what happens next.