Wednesday night's Criminal Minds season premierefeatured
a huge cast change: Jeanne Tripplehorn is out; Jennifer Love Hewitt is
in. Hewitt's character jumped right into the Behavioral Analysis Unit
(BAU), displaying both comfort and poise. Of course, not everyone felt she fit.
As an actress, the show is a perfect fit for Hewitt. She spent five seasons playing the spiritual medium on the Ghost Whisperer on CBS and, in an Entertainment Weekly interview, said she had "been waiting to find the perfect way to get back," to the network. She's known Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer since their time on Party of Five nearly 20 years ago.
Her character, Kate Callahan, has every reason to be comfortable as well. She is an eight-year veteran of the FBI, and when we meet her, she's working undercover chasing down pedophiles, so she knows a thing or two about dealing with the kind of monsters the BAU handles.
And then, as we discover in an early elevator conversation, Callahan and some of the team bonded during a night of karaoke during which, "Billy Joel might have died a little." So, while she hasn't put in the years that Prentiss or even Blake has, she's no outsider.
But don't tell the Internet that. It's a tale as old as time — a cast member leaves; a new one fills the void. Then, before a single scene airs, the haters come out to play.
It's nothing new. The second guy to play Othello probably got the same from the 1600s equivalent of Twitter; nobody likes change.
And then there are the people who think the writers make the hiring decisions.
She's accumulated a lot of fans over the years though, and for them, the addition is a treat.
The BAU may be occupied for a while with this kidnapping ring that sells people for… whatever sorts of things UnSubs (unknown subjects) do to people. So the show won't be wasting much time getting Callahan's backstory out of the way. About the young girl who looked like her daughter but who called her "Kate" instead of "Mom," showrunner Messer says that, "On 9/11, her sister and brother-in-law died, and since Kate was the guardian for their infant daughter, she's been raising her for the past 13 years."
Hewitt says that she enjoys Callahan's sarcastic, even inappropriate, sense of humor. And she enjoys the characters' relationships as well. She has "a really sweet connection" with Joe Mantegna's Rossi, and she says that Callahan is "the Barney Fife to Hotchner's [Thomas Gibson] Andy. She gets really excited to go where he tells her to and be at his side in that way." Then there's Callahan and Garcia's mutual love of baby animal videos.
What do you think? Ten seasons in, a show definitely needs to change things up. Do you like Hewitt? Think she's too pushy? Not pushy enough? Let us know below.
Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.
As an actress, the show is a perfect fit for Hewitt. She spent five seasons playing the spiritual medium on the Ghost Whisperer on CBS and, in an Entertainment Weekly interview, said she had "been waiting to find the perfect way to get back," to the network. She's known Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer since their time on Party of Five nearly 20 years ago.
Her character, Kate Callahan, has every reason to be comfortable as well. She is an eight-year veteran of the FBI, and when we meet her, she's working undercover chasing down pedophiles, so she knows a thing or two about dealing with the kind of monsters the BAU handles.
And then, as we discover in an early elevator conversation, Callahan and some of the team bonded during a night of karaoke during which, "Billy Joel might have died a little." So, while she hasn't put in the years that Prentiss or even Blake has, she's no outsider.
But don't tell the Internet that. It's a tale as old as time — a cast member leaves; a new one fills the void. Then, before a single scene airs, the haters come out to play.
It's nothing new. The second guy to play Othello probably got the same from the 1600s equivalent of Twitter; nobody likes change.
And then there are the people who think the writers make the hiring decisions.
She's accumulated a lot of fans over the years though, and for them, the addition is a treat.
The BAU may be occupied for a while with this kidnapping ring that sells people for… whatever sorts of things UnSubs (unknown subjects) do to people. So the show won't be wasting much time getting Callahan's backstory out of the way. About the young girl who looked like her daughter but who called her "Kate" instead of "Mom," showrunner Messer says that, "On 9/11, her sister and brother-in-law died, and since Kate was the guardian for their infant daughter, she's been raising her for the past 13 years."
Hewitt says that she enjoys Callahan's sarcastic, even inappropriate, sense of humor. And she enjoys the characters' relationships as well. She has "a really sweet connection" with Joe Mantegna's Rossi, and she says that Callahan is "the Barney Fife to Hotchner's [Thomas Gibson] Andy. She gets really excited to go where he tells her to and be at his side in that way." Then there's Callahan and Garcia's mutual love of baby animal videos.
What do you think? Ten seasons in, a show definitely needs to change things up. Do you like Hewitt? Think she's too pushy? Not pushy enough? Let us know below.
Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.
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