Save the CM Ladies!!
Time for a serious post, I’m afraid.
Criminal Minds is one of my favourite shows on TV right now – it’s got great stories and an absolutely superb ensemble cast. Season 5 has just ended Stateside and now we are hearing from CBS that from next season they will be cutting one of the actresses (AJ Cook) and drastically reducing the screentime of another (Paget Brewster).
This has, understandably, caused outrage among the many fans of Criminal Minds. The thing with an ensemble cast is that actors can drop in and out and be replaced and generally keep the ensemble together. But they can’t do that with this ensemble! It’s a perfect thing, and how can you alter something that’s perfect and expect to keep it perfect?
Ratings will drop, I assure you, if only because of the number of CM fans who will boycott the show. I expect this sort of nonsense from NBC, who canned Las Vegas, Heroes, Law & Order and, perhaps most famously, the original series of Star Trek despite fan pressure to keep it going. You wouldn’t expect this kind of thing from CBS (or so I am told, not being from that side of the Atlantic and not really understanding the inner workings of American TV Networks…but then, does anyone understand the inner working of American TV Networks?).
But Star Trek was going to be cancelled after its second season and it was only brought back for a third because of the fans bombarding the network with pleas to keep the show alive. So, sometimes fan pressure can get networks to reverse their decisions (though the public outcry over the cancellation of Las Vegas was met with a stony silence from NBC). Perhaps CBS will listen, and so I urge any and all fans, or even just casual viewers, of Criminal Minds to sign the online petition to Save the CM Ladies.
http://www.petitiononline.com/cmwomen/petition.html
The petition has only been up a couple of days and it already has over 25,000 signatures. Please sign, even if you don’t like the show but do appreciate having strong female lead characters on TV. By anyone’s definition, the axing of these two characters is, in truth, Criminal.
Peace. 
PS – I’ve not being doing twitter for very long, so I don’t really understand all this stuff about tags and the like, but I’ve noticed a lot of people putting the following onto their tweets:
#SaveTheCMLadies
I don’t know what it means, but I’m sure it’s relevant.
PPS – I know I have a semi-regular readership of about 4 people, but four more signatures is better than none!
June 20, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Re: this and your last post. Barmy, but lovely.
Being Stateside as I am, I can inform you that nobody truly understands Network Television, not even (and this is important) those who work in it. There is simply no other explanation for “So You Think You Can Dance”.
We don’t watch Criminal Minds, I’m afraid (and cries of “But you MUST” will get you nowhere… we’re usually in bed by 9pm thanks to hyperactive children who think that 5am is the *perfect* wakeup time, and we don;t have Tivo, a DVR or a video that works very well), but I will sign the petition coz I want to, and we CMs must stick together (yes, it’s me again!)
Anyhoo… I’ll try and write a proper email when I have time, which seems in short supply of late, and I will send you some Dimmu Borgir MP3s like I promised I would since we now have boroadband, which seems to only slow things down even more, since my bloody computer has taken advantage of the extra bandwidth to spend every moment its online patching Windows Bloody XP.
Ah, for a Linux box… if only my stuff would work on that lovely system, and Kim would take the time to learn her way around it…
Luv ya lots!
June 21, 2010 at 9:16 am
For God’s Sake, man, turn off Windows Update before it installs the Horror that is Service Pack 3!!!
As for Criminal Minds, buy yourself season 1 on DVD – you can probably get a preowned one pretty cheap on Amazon by now. Fan-bleeding-tastic show. Seasons 1 and 2 had the wonderful Mandy Patinkin, though he left and was replaced by Joe Mantegna (who I quite like, though not as much as Mandy). Definitely not a show for the kids – the missus may or may not like it…mine loves it, but then it does have the sweet Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) and the dishy Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), giving the ladies some eye-candy as well!
But thanks for signing the petition. And for being the only person left who still reads my blog.
Peace out.
June 21, 2010 at 2:41 pm
>>For God’s Sake, man, turn off Windows Update before it installs the Horror that is Service Pack 3!!!
Err… too late. Crap.
Well, never mind. We’re going to junk this ancient, steam-driven piece o’ crud and replace it with a brand spankin’ new piece o crud (Windows 7. Yay.)
Really, really looking forward to the day I can actually upg2rade to Linux (Fedora4|KDE! Yay!)
Chat soon.
Snoogans