Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Hey CBS, maybe if you didn't waste money on a crappy spinoff, we wouldn't be in this mess.

I don't usually get all serious on this blog but I have some things to get off my chest.

You all know the deal. CBS is cutting AJ Cook and reducing Paget Brewster to a lesser role on Criminal Minds. A lot of you might be thinking, big deal, it's television. And you're right. To a degree, this doesn't matter in the grand scheme of the world, and it has nothing to do with bigger issues at hand. However, television and media has a direct influence on the world we live in and we need to realize that what's being reflected matters. The images we see on television rub off on our daily lives in countless ways and cutting JJ Jareau and Emily Prentiss from Criminal Minds does two things.

1. It reduces the number of recurring female characters on that show to one, Kirsten Vangsness, whose portrayal of Garcia is amazing and fantastic and wonderful, but is not enough girl-power for me, personally.
2. It removes two strong, well-balanced and empowered female characters from a medium that sorely lacks good, decent, well-rounded portrayals of women.

I give the show a lot of shit sometimes. I do it because I love it, because I believe in it and because because I think that it's sometimes good to find the absurdity in a wonderful show about horrific things that happen in the world. This by no means indicates that I think any character is useless on the show. Even with all the flack I give Rossi, Joe Mantegna's portrayal is vital and integral to the show's dynamic. I feel like it would be one thing if AJ and Paget were leaving because they wanted to do other things, because other opportunities had been offered to them and they were ready for new horizons. It would be another thing if they were doing this for a creative reason. But the fact that they're not being offered their original contracts is just plain ridiculous, and an issue of money. CBS is taking funds from this show in order to produce a watered down, less-interesting version of it, with a cast that the original Criminal Minds fans have already expressed displeasure with. Their stories are not interesting. The one episode we got last year featuring this new spinoff cast was lackluster and not particularly enough to rope me in for a whole season.

The fans don't care about the spinoff. The fans aren't going to watch it. Maybe some will, but certainly not all, and certainly not now that money that could be spent to leave our original show the way it was is being reallocated to fund a project that isn't what we want.

I don't really know what I can do to assist the movement to support AJ and Paget and to keep Criminal Minds running the way it's supposed to. The team is a diverse dynamic and the women on this show are strong and vital to keeping the audience base just as diverse and dynamic. Here are some options that you can employ:

1. Add your name to the almost 3000 names already on the petition to save AJ and Paget's roles on the show.
2. Keep in contact with all the members of Criminal Minds on twitter, tell them you support them and ask them who we should write, email and call in order to keep our show running the way it should. Here are their twitter pages:

Thomas Gibson as "Aaron Hotchner"
Joe Mantegna "David Rossi"
AJ Cook "JJ Jareau"
Paget Brewster "Emily Prentiss"
Matthew Gray Gubler "Spencer Reid"
Kirsten Vangsness "Penelope Garcia"

In short, CBS is going to lose one of its top moneymakers if it continues down this path. I love this show, I know the people who read here love this show, and I'd hate to see Criminal Minds go south.

EDIT: Commenter Kelly just let me know:

Fans can also submit feedback directly to CBS via this form.

13 comments:

  1. Well said!

    Fans can also submit feedback directly to CBS via this form: http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php

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  2. I agree so much with your post. ♥

    Also, I tweeted about your blog post on twitter (the tweet is here: http://twitter.com/Cyristal_Artist/status/16269202566 ). Hope you don't mind. :)

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  3. Great post. Thanks for very clearly expressing the frustration many of us are feeling. I took a somewhat different approach at www.virgilsallnightdiner.com.

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  4. Thank you for tweeting and commenting, all. Keep spreading the word.

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  5. Thank you, this is spot on!

    Here is a great site with a conglomeration of links and how we are trying to help AJ and Paget:
    http://wesupportajandpaget.yolasite.com/

    and if you are on twitter, look for #wesupportajandpaget and #SaveTheCMLadies..

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  6. Hey. Just wanted to let you know that, despite not being a fan of the show, I'm boosting the signal anyway. This kind of thing is absolutely disgusting.

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  7. Wow! Thank you so much! I'm really impressed at how many people, fans and non-fans alike are disgusted with this decision. We NEED more strong women on television.

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  8. Don't forget about Charlie Sheen's 1.78 MILLION DOLLAR AN EPISODE paycheck to basically play himself on Two and a Half Men taking a bite out of CBS's budget...

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  9. Seconding what Kristen said about Charlie Sheen's pay raise. It's incredibly disturbing that an alleged wife-beater who was arrested for threatening to kill his wife, gets a pay increase; meanwhile two talented actresses who present two positive female role models on television are given the boot. How incredibly sexist CBS.

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  10. I am so infuriated with what what they are doing to my favorite show! Criminal Minds isn't just about the cases - it's about the dynamics that exist between the characters as well. With only one regular female cast member, they're going to upset the balance so much that it's just not going to work anymore. Firing writers and now the actors? It's as if they're trying to lose ratings. Way to go, CBS.

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  11. It's cool to see the fans mobilizing so quickly in support of AJ and Paget. I feel like CBS tried to sneak this past us by waiting until a few weeks into the summer holiday.

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  12. UN FREAKING BELIEVABLE.
    I am so mad about this. If they go through with this I'm not even sure if I'll keep watching. Signed the petition, it's over twenty thousand now.

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  13. gail - oh yes. that this news came out weeks after the finale, months before the premiere, and possibly only a week or two before filming begins? I rather doubt that was an accident.

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