“Into The Woods” is an episode from Season 6, released on DVD in the UK at the end of last year. In this story a child’s body is found, first by a bear and then by a family camping along the Appalachian trail. The victim’s father is re-interviewed when the FBI team arrives.
Naturally for this show it isn’t long before a new kidnap occurs whilst the father is interviewed and the race against time takes many twists and turns before the end. Sadly the episode suffered from having one character switch roles and another leave the series nearer to the start of the season than expected.
Some viewers did question the glossing over of the reality of the abuse endured by kidnapped children with the upbeat resolution to “Mosley Lane” last season. “Into The Woods” addresses this concern by giving the audience the lowest proportion of sugar coating to date, you are left in no doubt as to the fate of the victims. The guest actors are again cast to a high standard, especially the kids once again although the aftermath at the end of the episode is again minimised, almost recycled from the last season but with fewer children and only two sets of parents. As such it only equals “Mosley Lane” with the addition of some thriller elements to increase the pace and a tweak to the ending.
It was a sharp social observation of the writers to note that the father of the first victim in this season was barred from being a liaison to the parents of the new victims even after being cleared as a suspect. This was the opposite reaction to the mother in season 5,. Hotchner’s interaction with the cold case Dad clearly reminds the audience of last season’s 10-episode buildup to episode 100 and his relationship with his own son. Whilst this isn’t scripted, that was another subtle gift to fans.
Since the storyline is allowed to fade without a complete resolution, so we will have to see if this kidnapper returns in a future episode. It’s well done and the episode divided fans as to the content at the time, but then Penn State and other real-life male child abuse cases helped to wake people up about boys being victims last year. If it took a fictional show to take sleepwalkers out of their comfort zone over the issue then the shock approach worked. Criminal Minds hardly gives you an excess of giftwrapped happy endings. In fact those are the endings that stick out as fake when compared to the many FBI Files real-life reconstruction shows and as remarked by a character, the positive outcomes are rare.
So “Into The Woods” joins “Mosley Lane” and “P911″ as a quality episode with a child abuse theme, despite its faster pacing, and more than makes up for the lesser episodes of series 6.
- CBG
Other information from TV.com
Posted
April 3rd, 2012 in Reviews
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comicbookguy|
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Last Thursday the independent island of Jersey (among the Channel Islands next to, but not part of, the UK) announced that historical victims of abuse in its children’s care homes or other state-run institutions would be able to apply for compensation of up to UKP 60,000 (USD 96,100 approx)
The BBC’s original story is here and the video reaction from one anonymous survivor and other details of compensation terms follow in the related stories boxes as always.
- CBG
Posted
April 2nd, 2012 in In the News
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comicbookguy|
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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March 25th, 2012 in In the News
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MikeM|
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This Criminal Minds episode is best known for having a guest appearance from a former Star Trek veteran and film director Jonathan Frakes. Whilst the scale of the big name guest doesn’t quite tip you off about the whole plot, it does lessen the impact of the episode’s ending.
However, this episode stands out in series 5 purely for the fact that the victim from the teaser receives much more of a focus throughout the story due to the nature of the crime, instead of the show’s normal routine having one already dead for the FBI team to pick up a trail. The episode is from the middle of the season and after the ten-episode arc that rolled on from the end of series 4. It’s refreshing to have the child abuse angle to a Criminal Minds episode properly acknowledged although it peaks as part of the ending.
“Uncanny Valley” has a distant similarity in the crime to the movie Kiss The Girls, a common problem with crime fiction in general from books, movies and television. Even so, whilst it doesn’t beat “Mosley Lane” as the best non-story-arc episode of the season and must take some general fictionalised liberties with the way the victims attempt to help themselves, the writing is as taut and smart as always and has a valid comment to make on the effects of child abuse, even if it doesn’t have Mosley Lane’s gritty realism.
- CBG
Posted
March 18th, 2012 in Reviews
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comicbookguy|
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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March 18th, 2012 in In the News
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MikeM|
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Hurting Too Much (HTM) is the third book by Harry Keeble and Kris Hollington following on from Baby X and Little Victim. In a slowed-down real-life version of the TV drama Southland, Detective Sergeant Keeble (shortened to DS in the UK) continues with an account of just a small selection of the child protection cases he encounters but at the same time, is shadowing a rookie social worker.
The book is boosted partly by the general rush to print, considering that HTM fits in social comment on England’s summer riots of last year despite only happening six months before publication. In the actual abuse cases it does well to cover maternal incest. However, the wide coverage of the Vanessa George case that happened within the date of at least two of Keeble’s books made me feel that encountering a female sex offender should have been less shocking that it was implied by either author. A teen sleeping with a teacher is also covered and the handling of that case is also surprisingly sensitive – but the coverage of the debate about reversal of genders and informing attitudes is long overdue and another big plus to the book. The same goes for culturally-based honour killings and/or forced marriages, abuse by grandparents or internet predators. To his credit, Keeble is unafraid to highlight where the cops have got it wrong and the consequences, a trait you’d be forgiven for thinking was seriously lacking among the top brass.
The BBC TV series Protecting Our Children has given the layman another view of social work in recent months. In HTM, the reader gets to experience the “street induction” of the social worker working with DS Keeble. Their permanent state of overwork and the effect on life in general is laid bare.
There’s another international incident although this time, it happens by accident. It’s not a witness chase related to child protection as with earlier books. As such, it provides the sole light relief in HTM as well as the positive outcomes to long-term cases that might have otherwise stayed cold.
So HTM is a better book than Little Victim, sticking to the same format as the second child protection book but expanding on other general social themes. It’s all the more annoying then, that the publishers dumped the pastel/sketched child model of Baby X and chose another cute and glossy cover picture aimed at the Judy Piccoult fan market, the stories in this book stand up well enough without that BS marketing ploy by the publishers. The cove is the worst thing about the book, so try to ignore that and give Hurting Too Much a read, whether or not you’ve read the first two in the series.
Amazon Page: UK
- CBG
Posted
March 16th, 2012 in Book Reviews, Reviews
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comicbookguy|
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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March 11th, 2012 in In the News
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MikeM|
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The Guardian is running a blog series on American prisons. The most recent entry tackled prison rape in private facilities and discussed one ex-con’s fight for full disclosure on sexual assault statistics using his minority shareholding. That article is here and the link for the whole series to date is here.
Posted
March 9th, 2012 in In the News
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comicbookguy|
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A couple that tortured and murdered a 15 year old old boy in London on Christmas Day 2010 have been jailed for life. The BBC has the story and trial transcripts here and the Guardian general comment is here.
Posted
March 8th, 2012 in In the News
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comicbookguy|
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