Criminal Minds season 13: Paget Brewster on Thomas Gibson, Damon Gupton exits
For Paget, her situation returning to the show is a little unique in which she was already set to appear in a guest arc before Gibson was dismissed; however, after his exit happened she received the series-regular promotion. This offered her a chance to reunite with many of her close friends after a four-year absence as a main character. She did some great stuff during that break, including a great arc near the end of Community.
Speaking to TVLine while promoting her Poison Ivy voice role in Batman and Harley Quinn, she explained that “replacing” Gibson was the biggest disadvantage that came with getting an opportunity to come back on the show:
“The con was the situation in which it happened, which was Thomas Gibson no longer being with the show. That was unfortunate.”
Brewster also noted in the interview that “it’s always hard when someone is gone, whether by choice or not by their choice… but it’s the same as any job … you roll with it.”
Following the departure of Gupton from the show, Criminal Minds is bringing over Daniel Henney from the now-canceled Beyond Borders spin-off as a new regular. Hopefully, the new lineup (which also includes Adam Rodriguez, who was hired before Paget signed on again as a regular last year) is the one that sticks around for a while. This is a show that has played casting musical chairs for longer than we can remember.
Maybe in some ways all of the cast turnaround is an accurate reflection of life, where people often do come and go from their jobs; unfortunately, it’s also made it rather difficult on the show to build more of an established audience the past few years. If you are watching a crime procedural, odds are that one of the things that you enjoy about it the most is the comfort-food factor. You want to know that the same people are going to be there year after year as you relax and watch familiar faces kick butt against some bad guys.
There’s already one big change with Criminal Minds moving back an hour to 10:00 p.m. Eastern this fall; hopefully this, coupled with Henney’s addition, are the only major alterations to the formula that we see within the next year. Keep most of the other surprises wedged within the stories.
What do you want to see from Paget and her character on Criminal Minds season 13? Be sure to sound off in the comments!
Also, head over to the link here to secure some additional news and insight when it comes to the series. (Photo: CBS.)
JackHotchner
July 28, 2017 @ 1:15 am
I think more than Thomas Gibson’s exit, fans of the show are just angry that Hotch’s character was given such a bad exit. I don’t know what happened with Gibson. His firing may or may not have been justified, but even if it was, the way they just ousted Hotch from the show and gave such a flimsy excuse was so stupid and unbelievable. They could have kept Gibson on for 3-4 more episodes and wrapped up Hotch’s storyline, giving him a happy ending like they gave Morgan. Even if Gibson didn’t deserve it, Hotch did. He was an amazing FBI agent and took care of his team like he did his family. He deserved more. My heart broke when Shemar Moore left too, but I got over it because Morgan got his happy ending and I was just so happy for him, and his exit made sense. It felt right, but Hotch’s didn’t. His exit just left a big hole in the show and in the team dynamic.
Matt Carter
July 28, 2017 @ 3:48 am
This is my view on it: I’m super-bummed about what happened with Hotch. I wish there was a better way it could’ve been handled, but I understand that it was a tough position. I can’t judge what happened with Gibson because I wasn’t there. I do love a lot of the characters there so I’m happily still watching, but I can’t tell any other fans what to do and I know there are plenty of people upset over it. I get where their passion comes from.
Tachibi
July 31, 2017 @ 1:00 am
Yes, Mr. Carter: We Don’t Know what happened, and we also know that in showbusiness anything goes. And since Mr. Gibson was never known for being a trouble-maker in his 30-years-old-career, I believe him…
So yes, they could and should have handled it all better. They should have kept quiet about the details of Mr. Gibson’s firing, and about Hotch, they should have done it way, WAAAY better. They used such a basic, lame and poor explanation to say goodbye to such an important and beloved character that they only enraged the fans even more! I’m a writer, and I read fanfiction, and let me tell you that I’ve read fanfics that made more sense that what they showed in the series, therefore, I KNOW that more interesting, plausible solutions to explain his disappearance exist. The WP explanation made the writers come across as lazy, mediocre, and showed that they just wanted people to forget Hotch really soon, cause if you analize it, it’s ludicrous and unfair that Gideon had one entire episode devoted to explain his “death” (7 years after his exit!), and they showed respect to the character even when the actor dumped the production and talked so badly about the show, and in return, Hotch disappeared to fade in the nothing in 8 or 9 sentences at most, the team didn’t mourn the loss of their 11 year boss for even five minutes!! and now they all act like if he never existed, like he and his son weren’t still in danger, (considering that Mr. Scratch it’s free and has the powers of Zeus All-Mighty)
Mr. Gibson never missed one episode, he carried the show when producers wanted to cancel it after Mr. Patinkin dumped them, supported the writers in the strike, supported AJ and Paget until they were rehired, supported Rachel Nichols when the fans HATED her, supported his friends and their causes (like when he supported Shemar with his events raising funds for the disease his mom has) and in return, he has being treated so badly that it’s just unbelievable.
Both he and Hotch deserved better; we fans deserved better! And if they wanted people to forget about him with that unbelievable quick fix, they managed to obtain the opposite: it’s been almost a year now and while Netflix offers SXII, more fans than ever say (or keep saying after all this time) that they want him back…
I loved the show, I really did, but I’m really exigent in my criteria, I know what I want to watch, and I won’t waste my time in getting bored in front of the tv watching CM just because one day it was so good or because I feel sympathy for others in the remaining-shrinking-expanding cast. The quality was not what it was in the beggining, the current writers had let me down since season 9 or 10, and as a writer I know that you can’t survive if you just vanish such a crutial character in the team’s dynamic without giving a proper closure and if you don’t create another character that can sustain the team and the show. I wont watch just cause I feel sorry for the crew, really, I feel bad for them, but I wont waste my time, especially not now that so many other tv shows have such an incredible level of quality.
#NoHotchNoWatch
Lima
July 26, 2017 @ 2:09 am
Paget has no talent for replacing Thomas Gibson. After his departure from Criminal Minds, everything she did was not audience. She will sink Criminal Minds along with her stubborn producers.
Thomas Gibson/Aaron Hotchner is missing a lot. Why did the show change to the 10:00 PM? Simply because the show has no more audience.
Yuki
July 26, 2017 @ 1:42 am
I don’t know what you want? Hotch back?(Or Morgan?) I agree that this would be awesome, but we have to face the truth. And at this moment the truth is that he’s not there! I like Emily though I not need she around all the time. Fact is Thomas Gibson did something and was fired. Justified or not. We don’t know! Criminal Minds is a great show with and without Gibson. I’m just hoping that this stupid NoHotchNoWatch tweet won’t destroy a good show just because you guys are pissed… There are people who still adore the show and watch it since 2005. Me, for example.
Tachibi
July 30, 2017 @ 11:57 pm
Tweets can’t destroy a show! Criminal Minds it’s a TVshow, and therefore, it’s mission it’s To Entertain, and most of the people that stopped watching doesn’t even know about the #NoHotchNoWatch movement, they just got BORED (check Criminal Minds facebook page, read thousands of comments of people admitting they fell asleep while watching, and that they skipped parts cause they couldn’t stand one episode complete!)
People got bored to death with S12, that’s why they lost over 2 million viewers, that’s why they got the 10pm slot, and that’s why the producers keep doing changes in the cast, cause Paget as chief and the mix of agents combined with the awful non-sense of Reid in jail plotline Didn’t worked.
The chemistry was wounded when Morgan walked away, and died when they fired Thomas, and firing and hiring random people it’s not going to improve that whatsoever, specially with such poorly written episodes and when the current group of writers has proved to be unable to develop new characters in an interesting, believable way.
So, if CM it’s dying, and if /when get’s cancelled, it will only be the producers fault, cause they made it BORING!
phyllymd
July 25, 2017 @ 11:57 pm
Paget will do for Criminal Minds what she did for all of her other series…NOTHING! Her crass glee over benefiting from the carnage left by Thomas Gibson’s firing has been repulsive. She’s managed to tone it down a bit in the TVline article, but her obnoxiousness is still present. She’s not worthy of Gibson’s role and doesn’t have the talent to fill his shoes. CBS and ABCStudios have already discovered that-bigger than normal drop in the ratings, move to 10 p.m. Their choice to hang on to her over Gibson will be CM’s undoing. But I guess ABCStudios is prepared for that, which is why they gave Erica Mess-Up an extended deal. Stick a fork in it…#NoHotchNoWatch
Lima
July 25, 2017 @ 10:01 pm
Paget is boring. The cool thing about watching her and Garcia was watching the chemistry with Hotch and Morgan. No Hotch impossible to watch. Now at 10:00 PM it got worse!