"Criminal Minds" Takes on "Natural Born Killers"

"American Idol" is back. What does that have to do with CBS'S "Criminal Minds"? We found out on the final Wednesday of the month. After a low key, spiritualistic killer in it's only other new show this month, "Criminal Minds (CM)" came out with guns blazing in it's last episode. Titled "The Thirteenth Step," CM gave us it's modern day version of "Bonnie and Clyde," and "Natural Born Killers."

Preceded by a viewer discretion warning, the show opens with a young man opening up at a group meeting. He is talking about being sexually abused as a boy, by his father. In the meantime, his girlfriend is shown waiting in the car outside, drinking, and being hit on by a guy. As the scene progresses, the meeting counselor asks the the guy talking if he is ready to take the next step, which is admitting his short comings. The young man is angered, pulls his gun out, and begins shooting everyone at the meeting. He is joined shortly by his girlfriend, (played by Adrianne Policki, "Lone Star"), and the two keep shooting victims, some in the back as they fled.

As graphic as this show can be, I found this to be a bit over the top. While we know that serial killers are not nice people, do we really need to see all of the victims being slaughtered? As the BAU team is called in to help, we are shown the couple drinking, having sex, drinking some more, laughing, and killing some more people in a gas station. Okay CM, we get it. These two are nuts.

The BAU team works it's usual magic, finding more about the "Unsubs" through the group meeting. They end up tracing the two to their parents homes, where their abuse begins. But, for most of the show, the attention is on the two killers. As we get to know them, I wondered if we were supposed to start liking them, or feel sorry for them. In a way, they were being portrayed as the victims. Maybe they should have showed us less of the innocent victims being killed.

Both of the "Unsubs" ended up being shot to death in the end. Surprise! Other than the fact that the show was going for ratings, I think the producers lost a lot of show integrity with this one. Serial killers are pretty warped. We know that. The fun of this show is seeing the great amount of profiling the BAU goes through to figure out the killer's next move. We really don't need all of the blood and sex. If we wanted that, we'll flip over to a cable show.

Here is one fan that hopes that things go back to normal in February. Not that there is anything "Normal" about serial killers. But let's see more of the team, and less of the sensationalism. Will the show cave to ratings pressure? Stay tuned.