The Unpopular Opinion Some Criminal Minds Fans Have About This Character
For 15 seasons and more than 300 episodes of "Criminal Minds," fans got to know the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, and watch its members solve the country's most terrifying crimes. The long-running procedural told complex stories with characters that grew and changed, often in long, deliberate arcs, endearing themselves to their audience while keeping them entertained.
Over the years, the "Criminal Minds" cast has boasted some pretty well-known names. Jason Gideon, the former BAU chief and a central figure for the first few seasons, was played by Mandy Patinkin, and Jeanne Tripplehorn starred as Alex Blake, a linguistic expert in Seasons 8 and 9. While those talented actors and actresses all brought something unique to the show, it was the central characters who stuck with the show who were at the heart of "Criminal Minds." Dr. Reid (Matthew Gray Gruber), JJ Jareau (A.J. Cook), and Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) all evolved as viewers watched and were vital to the long journey that "Criminal Minds" enjoyed.
While those characters all meant a lot to fans of the show, it's also true that 15 seasons, most of which had over 20 episodes, is quite a lot of time to spend with any set of fictional characters. The more time viewers sink into a show, the more likely particular idiosyncrasies might start to irk them. And sure enough, here is an unpopular opinion that some Criminal Minds fans have about Dr. Reid.
Some fans felt that Dr. Reid had too much screen time
As characters such as Gideon and Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) slowly made their exits from the show, Dr. Reid became an increasingly central and visible part of "Criminal Minds." The character soon became a fan favorite. As such, the writers began building more and more episodes around him — to the point where he eventually became the only character in every episode of the show.
However, in a recent thread on Reddit, some fans made it clear that they felt the show eventually took it too far.
One user, Rikititixo, wrote: "Don't get me wrong, he's one of my favorite members of the team and a lot of the storylines he gets are really interesting. However, I got sick of the show making every other episode all about him and basically treating him like a demigod."
The decision to start leaning on Dr. Reid to build up viewer interest even caused some backlash around his most ardent fans, who felt that the writers were coming up with situations designed to cause him the maximum amount of pain to drive ratings. As another Reddit user, fluffywhitething, wrote, "By the time we get to Zugzwang is when the creators realized that torturing Reid gets viewers," referencing the Season 8 episode in which a stalker kidnaps Dr. Reid's girlfriend.
That said, while Dr. Reid may have his flaws as the too-often narrative focal point of "Criminal Minds," even his unpopular opinions page on Reddit contains some fairly measured opinions of his role on the show. So, while some feel that he may have been occasionally overutilized on the show, it seems that few fans can imagine it without him.