CRIMINAL MINDS is entertaining despite some of it's storytelling faults. It is at it's strongest when it focuses on it's main characters. Joe Mantegna make s a welcome addition as legendary profiler David Rossi. I also like whenb they change the way the story unfolds and holds back on who the unsub (the killer) is or why the unsub is doing it.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
Deleted scenes for IN NAME AND BLOOD, SCARED TO DEATH, PENELOPE/ BIRTHRIGHT/ DAMAGED/ A HIGHER POWER

Featurettes-
DISC 2
PROFILE: ROSSI/MANTEGNA- cast and crew talk about Rossi and the actor who plays him (Joe Mantegna)
SHEMAR MOORE: CRIMINAL MINDS' WILDE RIDE- Shemar Moor and the Criminal Minds crew bicycle ride to raise money for MS (which affects Shemar's mom)

DISC 3
FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN: TRUE NIGHT- a behind-the-scenes look at the making of TRUE NIGHT including the comic book editing, the various post-product VFX, and James Lew (the stunt man who played the True Knight).

DISC 5
KILLER ROLES- cast and crew talk about the guest actors who play the unsubs (serial killers) with focus on episodes BIRTHRIGHT, 3RD LIFE (which Joe Mantegna's daughter Gina had a part in), SEVEN SECONDS, PENELOPE, and LUCKY.
THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT: THE MAKING OF CRIMINAL MINDS, SEASON 3- The featurette talks about the series without Mandy Patinkin and how it allowed for the other characters to move to the front, further character development as they go deeper into the personal lives of the BAU team, set design, the car crash stunt, VFX such as explosions, shooting Penelope, and building a New York subway set for the season finale.

The gag reel is lame.

FINAL ANALYSIS: CRIMINAL MINDS season 3 is at it's strongest when it focuses on it's characters and experiments with it's storytelling format. Too bad they didn't have any audio commentaries for this set.

this DVD review is (c)9-25-2008 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com  

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