Chatting with Chaucer

•When did you start watching CRIMINAL MINDS and what has kept you a fan?
I first tried CM when it premiered, but didn't really find it appealing (sacrilege, I know). Perhaps the S1 cast wasn't quite my cup of tea, or the show (like many new series) took a while to find its feet.

Whatever the reason, I left and didn't start watching consistently again until S5. Ever since then, I've watched all of the episodes for all of the seasons so many times that I can't honestly remember anymore which one was my re-introduction to CM.

My favorite parts of the show involve watching the BAU: watching how they narrow down the possibilities in each case, using Garcia as a winsome personification to compress dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of patient cross-referencing; watching the team deliver the profile to local law enforcement, as a multi-personality version of Sherlock Holmes; watching the subtle interactions amongst each other as they chase their unsub.  

I watch for the team, not the unsubs. Granted, they need worthy opponents, but the members of the BAU are why I care enough to tune back in every week.

•Favorite episode(s)
Hit/Run, the S7 finale, was truly spectacular! It knit all of the team (and JJ's family) even closer together, only to (or: in order to!) yank mercilessly at everyone's feelings, theirs and ours. And the ending was so irresistibly bittersweet. I'll congratulate Rick Dunkle (hour 1: Hit) and Erica Messer (hour 2: Run) again, once I finish sniffling...again.

•Favorite character(s)
Until this year, it was a toss up between Prentiss and Hotch, with Emily edging out her boss by a Sergio-whisker. However, if  we restrict choices to S8 characters, then it'd be Aaron "Wheels Up" Hotchner, hands down.

•Favorite show writer(s)
Of the current writers, Breen Frazier is amazingly talented, with impressive insight into all of the BAU members. And his quick wit during the chats keeps me in stitches.

•Hopes or guesses for Season 8
Although knowing Paget Brewster left (of her own accord, the second time) is disappointing (but understandable), I'm at least optimistic that the casting of Jeanne Tripplehorn augurs well for the newest addition to the team, FBI linguistics expert Alex Blake. She has the skill and experience to credibly portray a senior FBI profiler who can hold her own within the BAU. Now it's up to the writers to give her a role to sink her teeth into, so that CM fans might come to embrace her her as wholeheartedly as they did Paget Brewster's Prentiss.

•Anything you might like to share about yourself
Not right now, but here's another question *I* have: depending on what the writers decide about Emily's next job (domestic/overseas?) I would like to know what happens to Sergio!

Come to think of it, is Prentiss the only BAU member (current or former) who has a pet?! It makes sense, given their lifestyles, but still...Sergio disapproves ;) Maybe it's time for Henry Jareau LaMontagne to get a puppy!