Cultural observation and practice

Cultural Observation

The television program Criminal Minds is a modern police procedural which deals with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) criminal profiling unit, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). Throughout the episodes of the program, the situation is set up so it is "us vs. them" with the FBI representing law and order and their opposition representing criminality. There are two sets of characterizations, those in law enforcement and the perpetrators of crime. From an aesthetic perspective, the characters are designed to look like they belong to one of these two factions. Either they are part of the professional world of the FBI, or they are part of the outside world where they might dress similar to the investigators but exhibit their differences from the law-abiding via their personalities. This is not only limited to the good guy vs. bad guy dynamic, but also found within the collection of FBI agents themselves, wherein those who are considered more traditional and level-headed are costumed differently from the characters with eccentric personality types.

Not unique in long-running television procedurals, the program has a cast of characters that often changes with new characters coming in and old ones leaving. The longer a series runs, the fewer original characters appear on it and more new additions are made to the cast. The very nature of the program also has a new villain entering the cast every week, or every few weeks if there is a longer story arc being explored. Consequently, the characters have to be defined quickly when they are first introduced in order to hasten the audience's understanding of a new addition and to lessen the amount of screen time which is removed from the action of the episode.

Throughout the eight seasons of the show that have already aired, and likely will continue through the coming ninth season; there have been two types of characters within the FBI side of the investigation. There are two types of agents, the no-nonsense characters who are looking to track down the bad guy and the more eccentric characters who usually work behind the scenes of the investigation. Those agents who are more directly involved in the action and who are more business-minded are dressed in traditional professional outfits, mostly suits. Thomas Gibson's character Aaron Hotchner for example is almost always shown in a suit, complete with a jacket and a tie even in the middle of a bloody and violent investigation. He is the stoic leader and his attitude and wardrobe are reflected in most of the other agents within the department. Some of them might be slightly more casually dressed, like Shemar Moore's character, but it is clear that they are represented a mostly serious personality type.

This is directly countered in the more eccentric characters on the program, particularly as shown in the costume of FBI Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia. She is the least typically dressed character on the show. Instead of dark suits, she is usually in brightly colored dresses, complete with floral accessories. Her function on the show is to both provide information and comic relief on a show which is highly serious in nature. However, the character can also be emotional and sad, but her primary role is to alleviate the tension created by the storyline which she does by being highly eccentric and different.