I often like creepy shows and movies, but I can’t tolerate Criminal Minds. Everytime I watch it, I almost feel like I have to have a shower - it just seems to be exploitative, almost like it is trying to make the crimes titillating or something. I don’t mind similar shows, like CSI. Am I the only one who finds this particular show distasteful?
I feel like that about the CSIs. Though they throw a token-bone to concepts of “justice”, the shows seem to revel in the detailings of the deaths, wallowing in viscera and visual gymnastics to make everything, no matter how horrible, look cool. Plus between the color pallettes and the lighting, everything feels so dirty and gritty and gross that it’s just oppressive (or at least fatiguing in its monotony)
Criminal Minds is worse than that. Sometimes it’s almost torture porn. Almost. They sometimes go to great lengths to show you the pure terror of the victims in their last moments.
Which makes my love for the show unaccountable, since I despise torture porn movies.
Ah well, it’s still a very good show, most of the time. I had my doubts after Mandy Patinkin flaked out of it, but hey, Joe Mantegna is good too.
I think part of the reason they show they “torture porn” elements is to show the depths of depravity that the teams deals with as part of thier job. A big part of the overall arc of the show is not them using thier skills to solve the crime/catch the unsub, but to show the emotional impact that the job has on the team members and how it affects the rest of thier lives.