Why I Like the TV Show Criminal Minds So Much

     As anyone who knows me well knows, my favorite television show is Criminal Minds.  I would like to tell you why I like this show, although I admit it has given me nightmares once or twice.
      First of all, I think it is really well written and planned out.  It is about an FBI profiling team who help the police solve crime investigations and find the unsub, unknown subject.
     All of the characters are very real, human and likable, the seven FBI agents.
I especially like the character of Derek Morgan, cocky, but compassionate and caring and at the same time almost a super hero.  Then there is Erin Hutchner, who never smiles and is always very stoic and loves his son Jack.
I like the young brainy one, Spencer Reed, who is absolutely adorable.  In the story his mother is schizophrenic and in an institution, but ever so often, she is part of the show.
     The older guys have varied between Agent Gideon and Agent David Rossi.  They are both very believable, incredibly sophisticated and totally well written characters.
     I like the fact that they have compassion even for the unsub, in certain situations depending on the circumstances.  There is always a quote at the end in one of their voices by someone such as Ghandi, Eckhart Tolle, Helen Keller, Guru Mai, Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein, etc., and it is always inspiring, the quote, to me anyway.
     The women who are part of the FBI team are also very strong, intelligent and sophisticated and as capable as the men, although realistically maybe not as physically strong. The character Penelope Garcia, is one of my favorites, the one who does the computer research and technology.  She has this huge heart and the things on the screen make her cry.  She is always colorful and wild in her style.  You can tell that she has this crush on Derek Morgan, and he has a soft spot for her.
     I realize it is off the charts in the violence it often suggests, but that is not shown of course, because this is television and I would not be able to stand that, but if you can see past that, it really is a good show all in all.
     I have really learned a lot as well from watching it, like what Stockholm Syndrome is based on a phenomenon that occurred in a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, where the hostage comes to identify with their captor, the reason for women often not leaving in domestic abuse situations, either mental or physical.
     It is kind of the concept of where when someone is finally released from captivity, they do not want to go, because they know nothing else, such as situations of long term kidnapping, Patti Hearst, hostage situations where the hostage will actually fall in love and marry their captor.  It is the reason why in abusive relationships, the dominant person in the relationship, keeps the abused separate from family and friends, making the abused see the abuser as the good guy.  It is a type of brainwashing or a result of mental abuse and browbeating in many cases.
      I shared recently that I feel that  Stockholm Syndrome is what kept me with a very abusive partner throughout most of my thirties, a time when I wish I had cultivated a better life for myself and my children and had a chance to be with someone better.  I will give myself a bit of credit for working through the whole time and going back to school as well, but I will not give myself more credit than deserved nor beat myself up about it.  I have already done enough of that.
     I suppose I have summed it up in a nutshell.  I realize that crime shows are not everyone's cup of tea, but I think Criminal Minds is an excellent show.