#Best criminal minds episodes season 8 serial#
#Best criminal minds episodes season 8 series#

When Reid is approached by a teenager asking a few too many questions about murder, the team learns of a new serial killer in Washington, D.C., who is killing sex workers. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), who is the youngest and most conflicted member of the team. This plagues the agents over time, especially Dr. Working for the BAU comes with the caveat that your mind has to work a certain way. “Sex, Birth, Death” (season two, episode 11) While the husband is a prime example of the most volatile of what the BAU handles, the wife provides the series’ first look into the softer side of what their work can uncover (and how things are rarely black and white). What starts as a run-of-the-mill attempt to get interview-based profiles for the VICAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) quickly turns into a race against the clock when Jason Gideon (Patinkin) realizes the wife may be innocent. In “Riding the Lightning,” the team travels to a Florida penitentiary to interview a husband-and-wife serial-killer duo just days before their execution. “Riding the Lightning” (season one, episode 14)Īlthough the BAU is usually called in to help identify unknown subjects, they occasionally lend their hand in dealing with particularly tricky known criminals. From the creepiest of unsubs to the most devastating main-character arcs, we’ve compiled 18 essential episodes in honor of the return of Criminal Minds. streaming platforms tracked by Nielsen, so it was no surprise when Paramount+ announced a revival with most of the cast slated to return.Ĭriminal Minds: Evolution hits Paramount+ on Thanksgiving Day and boasts a slow burn of a thriller with the entire season tracking an unsub (Zach Gilford) and the new network of serial killers he created during the pandemic. A Nielsen ratings report revealed it was the most viewed television show of 2021 (per total minutes viewed) among the U.S.

#Best criminal minds episodes season 8 series#

The show’s success spanned 15 years, with a final season airing in early 2020, and the series continued to dominate the streaming charts. Character-driven episodes began to take precedence, and the series put a focus on long-term, multi-season unsubs who served as personal foes to the team members. Throughout the seasons, the agents of the BAU went from being colleagues to dear friends to de facto family members, carving out a closeness in the day-to-day tragedies they endured. He lamented how “destructive” Criminal Minds had been for his soul and how concerned he was about the effect it had on audiences.īut the show, defined not by its terrifying look into the criminal psyche but instead by the found-family aspect of the series, managed to endure and gain a devoted following. Mandy Patinkin, who led the team in the first two seasons and abruptly left over “creative differences” at the beginning of the third season, shared his concerns about the darkness of the show in a New York Magazine profile published five years after his departure. The grim nature of the show did not go unnoticed, including by cast members, and the series was characterized by several major actor shake-ups.

Each week introduced a fresh serial killer and an alarmingly creative new way for humans to hurt each other.

This was the very nature of the show, which followed the members of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit as they tracked down the country’s most disturbing unknown subjects (“unsubs”). The CBS series was the most psychologically gruesome of its early-to-mid-aughts procedural counterparts, at times even surpassing SVU in the kinds of disturbing crimes it featured. That’s not a criticism - it was the initial appeal. One thing was clear when Criminal Minds premiered in 2005: The show was horrific.