Text Review Assignment
I chose to review the TV series Criminal Minds for this text review assignment. Criminal Minds is a large series about a group of people from the FBI, specifically in the behavioral analysis unit, who find serial killers based on their behaviors. I chose this series because the team from the BAU is always working with serial killers from all walks of life from many different states/countries. Although there are many episodes in this series, they almost always include some sort of injustice or power distance in every episode.
The first example I would like to touch on is an episode where a member of the BAU, special agent Derek Morgan, was convited of murder because of his racial background. Derek went back to his home city, Chicago, to visit his mother and sisters. A couple days into his visit, he got a knock on the front door from a white police officer who had a warrant to arrest Derek for the murder of young boys in his neighborhood. The police officer arrested Derek mainly because he “profiled” it was a black male. Derek claimed the only reason why he was arrested is because the police officer had always been racist towards people in his community and didn’t like how Derek was doing well with his life. This shows a toxic power dynamic that could be related back to the “one” and the “other.” In this case, Derek Morgan would be considered the “other” because although he was given opportunities to make his career out of his life, he had to overcome obstacles that others did not. He is the “other” because the white police chief looked down on him even though he didn’t commit the crime and was fully capable of being in the FBI. The police chief would be considered the “one” because he likes to have people under him and have the control. He thought he was superior to the people he was patrolling in the city of Chicago. Overall, these types of characters show an unfair power dynamic that could be related back to the “one” and the “other.”
