While I’m loathe to step on any toes, and I enjoyed JJ’s guest clack on the subject, I wanted to take the opportunity to share my thoughts on the recent personnel developments on Criminal Minds. Plus I didn’t actually get around to last week’s episode until last night, so for me it’s kind of new….
Anyway, here’s my take: this was a brilliant move. Don’t get me wrong, I am and always will be a Hotch fan, and I prefer him at the forefront of things. At the same time, Morgan is one of the strongest characters on a show filled with them (I can’t forget Reid), and without the opportunity to fly high for a moment or two, we’d lose out on some great Shemar Moore acting. And that would be a crime.
First to Hotch. It pains me to say this, but I actually have been feeling for a long time that Thomas Gibson hasn’t been getting his due on the show. Not that he was ever given a back seat, so to speak, but at times Hotch was less significant to the actual plots, while we spent time on things like Garcia’s (Kirsten Vangsness) love life, and Rossi’s (Joe Mantegna) old cases. Plus, Rossi could never match Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) opposite Hotch, which was resulting in weaker opportunities for Gibson.
But now, with his family in hiding from the Reaper and Hotch taken out of the BAU’s drivers seat, we’re getting a lot of drama and story from a place that had grown a tad stale. This is a golden opportunity for Gibson to really explore his character, and his role on the show. Of course it runs the risk of his leaving, especially if someone is in his place leading the team and there exists the possibility that he’ll be driven by a quest whose road he must follow. For now, though, more Hotch is always welcome.
And the same is true with Morgan. While always vital to the team, there was only so much focus that any one agent could get (note to the writers: Reid needs more plot!). But with him in charge, amidst a highly tense plot for Hotch, we’re going to see a lot of the good, and bad, that lies behind Derek Morgan’s inscrutable gaze.
And I think he displayed just the correct amount of leadership this first time out, a level that would serve him well going forward. The fact is that the team only requires minimal direction, and with two agents (Hotch and Rossi) being both senior and experienced, too much oversight would only hinder them. Plus, it has to be true to Morgan. I just hope that if he eventually steps back, it isn’t a transition purposefully pitted with landmines.
And actually another thought occurred to me in all of this. There was strength in the unofficial duality of leadership between Hotch and Gideon. While Rossi’s failed to get there, there’s nothing to say that the relationship can’t develop again, this time with Morgan in Hotch’s old role and Hotch in Gideon’s. If the hierarchy were to remain as is, Hotch could be the senior agent who’s no longer fit for leadership, but is the best that the BAU has, and Morgan could be the driving force behind the team, who continues to learn from the master.
Now that’s a road that I’d love to see traveled!
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 11, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I completely disagree with everything. Get off your high horse on Gideon. Rossi is much better and he respects Hotch, Gideon never did.
*POST AUTHOR*
While I can appreciate that there are two sides to the argument, my point wasn’t so much that Gideon was better than Rossi, but rather that I think the Morgan/Hotch working relationship would benefit from a Hotch/Gideon type set-up.
But I definitely can’t agree that Gideon never showed Hotch any respect – the difference in the relationships is that Rossi was never set up to be a “superior” employee to Hotch, while Gideon was brought in in exactly that capacity, outside the traditional hierarchy. The only reason Gideon was not Unit Chief was because of whatever history he had. I think it went unspoken that he was there to teach, and train, and mentor Hotch, which could have been interpreted as a subordinate not paying his boss respect in another light.
But I’m also a Mandy Patinkin fan…. :)
Completely agree that the promotion of Morgan was a brilliant move – really bold and a great idea – but this is because I don’t like Hotch at all. Sorry! I think there’s been far too much focus on this rather dull character in this season. But Morgan is terrific and Shemar Moore is more than the handsome action guy he appears to be week in, week out, so it’ll be interesting to see how this switch works out. Even from the Hotch point of view it’s a good move. The change around might help to make him warmer or more animated than Gibson usually plays him.
I agree with Dayne too and much prefer Rossi to Gideon. He’s the more dynamic character (less internalising) and he’s better for the team than Gideon was, plus the actor’s got oodles of talent. Look at ‘Searching for Bobby Fischer’, Mamet’s ‘House of Games’ or ‘Homicide’ and ‘Things Change’, or even that funny Woody Allen film, ‘Alice’.
Rossi’s too subtle to be the outright leader, IMO, or to be prominent in the way that Gideon was. He’s more of a politician, if that’s not swearing. His profiling skills and his connections from the old days probably make him more in charge of events and the current of power than any of the actual leaders at the BAU. He steers, goads and pushes people with a lot of (well-intended?) skill. Who would you back to deal with Strauss – Gideon, Hotchner, Morgan, or Rossi?
*POST AUTHOR*
It’s funny, I see Joe Mantegna as being somewhat bland. Not that there’s anything bad about him, but I didn’t see it when he first came on the show and the media was hyping the big “get.” I saw him replacing Gideon as far as “another senior profiler with lots of experience,” but not in any other capacity. It doesn’t really matter, though – Rossi is who we have now.
I still believe, however, that he wasn’t brought in to be the man behind the man like Gideon, but rather for his experience, and to fill a hole on the team.
I’d back Hotch, although I think Morgan would be better given time. I take it you don’t agree? ;)
Granted JM’s been in some crap (Baby’s Day Out) but I take it you wouldn’t see his work with Mamet as ‘bland’!! Homicide is perhaps Mamet’s strongest film and Mantegna’s Gold is an brilliant depiction of a man driven to make changes at the level of core value and need. Oh it’s just a great film. In my top ten films of all time.
I like Rossi. He stands out in that group as his own man and I like that he’s a mix of hard ass and soft heart. You never know quite which one you’re going to get, which keeps things interesting. There’s more going on under the surface with Rossi than with Gideon, IMO, where there was a hell of a lot of emotion bubbling out all of the time.
You mean you’d back Hotch to run rings round Strauss? I don’t see that myself. Hotchner seems almost a spent force to me. If he’s not helped or given a proper holiday, he’ll burn out. Morgan has more sap but he’s not strategic enough yet. Gideon? Would Gideon have even noticed Strauss? Ha ha. His blindspots the best and most amusing part of that character to me. Rossi is the intuitive one who is also practical enough to make things happen in that world.
*POST AUTHOR*
My only history with Mantegna is the Simpsons, and I suppose I’ve caught him here or there without much memory of it. That’s why his casting didn’t mean anything to me. But I’m just going off of my experience with him on this show, not his background, and I’ve never felt him all that comfortable in Rossi’s skin. Just me, I guess. I will see if Homicide is on TV though – thanks for the great endorsement!
I think Hotch has been an even-keeled force of nature since the show started. Remember a season or two ago when they were discussing splitting his team up? He brought the same quiet authority to those meetings with (I think) Strauss as I see him employing now. If anything, I see him not being spent enough following the incident with the Reaper. How is he still functioning as a member of the team? But that’s him.
True about Gideon, but I’ve never seen Rossi exert any sort of authority, or leadership whatsoever. He’s assumed some at times, but I’ve never seen anything but fellow team member from him. I don’t think he’d be bad with Strauss, just completely at a loss. Again, nothing negative about him, I just never saw him being who they said he was being brought in to be (i.e. a replacement for Gideon). For me he replaced Patinkin, but not Gideon.
While I had no problem with Gideon / Mandy Patikin, I still watch the reruns on A&E just about every evening, even though I’ve seen them all, I really like the Rossi character. I liked when they introduced him to the series, as he was one of the orginal profilers & everything had changed so much that he was really out of the loop for a while. Joe M. is very believeable in the role.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yes, that’s been interesting, and I appreciated that there wasn’t a lot of “in my day” stuff, but rather just a fish out of water. Actually a little more of that might have given us a nice picture of the early days of the BAU, which could have been cool.