Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Criminal Minds - Aftermath

It's done. JJ is leaving, and this will be Prentiss' last year.

The whole Prentiss issue made the new CBS commercial irritating in its irony. Why use Prentiss' image to represent Criminal Minds if you're plannig to reduce the number of episodes she'll appear in?

I don't know how things are done in Hollywood, but did it really take a petition to get producers to close out JJ's storyline? Were they really going to have the character disappear with little explanation? Were they really going to leave JJ's position (communication liaison, aka media wrangler) empty?

This clearly caught the actors off guard. They might've been told before the news got out, but the anger and frustration lead me to believe that at the very least, some common courtesy was violated. Actors (or writers or anyone else for that matter) shouldn't feel like they've been slapped in the face or stabbed in the back.

The effect on the rest of the cast cannot be underestimated. Part of the reason they appear to be a loving work-family on-screen is because they are a loving work-family off-screen. Yes, they're professionals. Yes, the show must go on. But it is often harder for those who remain than it is for those who leave.

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