Monday, March 19, 2007

CRIMINAL MINDS: LETS DISCUSS THE CHARACTER PENELOPE GARCIA. ANY THOUGHTS?


Lets discuss Criminal Minds character Penelope Garcia portrayed by Kirsten Vangsness. Any thoughts? :)

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quentin says Kirsten is his absolutely favorite most beautiful actress in the world, and Penelope Garcia is his most favorite character. Esp. if she shares her lattes with him. With extra whipped cream! (But she'd better be careful! He likes to chew on pens, too!)

Anonymous said...

Quirky, fun loving, spunky, witty, technologically advanced supreme Goddess! I absolutely love Garcia. I love that she's not afraid to be herself and display her individuality. She obviously loves what she does and she's very good at it.

I enjoy the way she interacts with the team members......Reid, JJ, Prentiss, and Morgan in particular. I think Gideon and Hotch intimidate her, but I sense that she would love to be a lot less formal with them, and she's tries very hard to please Gideon.

I love the way she appears to be the only member of the team who doesn't have the stomache to deal with the atrocities they deal with everyday. Someone needs to be able to look at a dead body and feel squirmish about it. I don't want her to get anymore involved in the teamwork than her computer part because she wouldn't enjoy her job nearly as much.

The banter between her and Morgan is adorable, but I really sense that these two are just great friends and colleagues, and I personally think it should stay that way. She's just a very likeable person that seems to be a lot of fun to be around.

Anonymous said...

I love her, she adds humour to the show that would otherwise be really tense. Her banter with Morgan is awesome and I like her jokes with Reid.

I would like to see something about how she deals with the struggles of the job because she has to watch the nasty stuff over and over to pick up clues, thats got to get to a person.

A storyline that somehow impacts her would be nice.

Anonymous said...

Watching Garcia's reactions to horrible photos and pieces of evidence is so different than the seasoned bau team members. She is more like us and appalled at what she sees. Sickened much of the time. She is the ray of light in some really tense episodes. I too love her calls with Morgan. She is precious. Our Garcia!!

Kris said...

We love Garcia. The show wouldn't be the same without her, that's for sure. I'd love to see her character grow even more to really show her acting chops.

Elizabeth Bear said...

My favorite television character ever. She's smart, confident in her abilities, able to take her lumps when she makes mistakes, determined, funny, smart as a whip. Indispensible and a bit mysterious, fashionable, femme, glam, and totally plugged in.

A female Cory Doctorow. Right down to the thick plastic glasses, but Garcia's are, of course, bright red.

Any geek who has her flexikeyboard wired up to a typewriter-clack simulator has *got* to be the coolest geek around.

I love that she's uncompromising in who she is, that she big-sisters Reid (and manages to keep it together enough to drive him to the scene of a suicide attempt and then help him administer first aid when necessary, even when she's obviously freaking out.)

She's goofy and human and she's got the night-shift/hacker self-defense by humor and childishness thing, which rings really true to me.

I love her interactions with the other team members, not just Morgan. Her friendship with JJ is one of the great womanly friendships in the history of TV, I mentioned the big-sis thing with Reid, and I love the way she interacts with Hotch. And the way he handles her, as well.

Also, I think I'd love to know a little more about this list she's on. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Garcia is great. I love how lively she is. It's fun to watch her tease Reid or flirt with Morgan. She just has such great energy.

Anonymous said...

Garcia is in a league of her own, honestly. She's SO very different from the other team members but in the same token she fits in so well and they all have a great relationship.

I love how she acts around Gideon, I think it's so cute. I don't think it's just intimidation as it is totally awkward for her to be around such a dynamic man. I think she's also in awe of him. And I LOVED the scene where her and Gideon were holding each other's hand while they were watching Reid being beaten in Revelations. It was a touching moment for me and it goes to show that Gideon DOES notice her and they too have a good relationship, even if it doesn't show much on screen.

She's such a breath of fresh air, the light in a very dark show, almost always smiling, still very affected by what goes on around her in the cases they work on. She's got the pick-up lines to make any guy jealous, and she's by far the best person to successfully pull them off and make them sound as she does.

Everyone's gotta love Garcia!

Anonymous said...

Garcia is that rare combination of brilliant and fun. She really isn't your typical nerdy IT person. I enjoy every scene she is in which in point is not enough of them.

Unknown said...

Garcia is the kind of nerd I aspire to be: smart, witty, sexy, and totally confident.
I agree with everyone she's the light part in an otherwise dark show, and humanizes the crimes by her honest reactions to them.

Anonymous said...

What's there not to love of our special Garcia? Everything she does is so dang cute--makes me want to adopt her as my daughter!! We would have fun...both being "clutzy".

lisaw918 said...

Whenever the focus switches to her, I sit up and wait expectantly for the humor :) But she's so much more than the comic relief. I like her flirting with Morgan, although it's not as cute as the way their more substantial bond surfaces when the chips are down.

I just rewatched "Secrets and Lies" and I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about Garcia looking for Prince William's phone number in the CIA database :) Those scenes with J.J. really cement that friendship ("Goodnight, crazy person"), which is a good thing considering the way J.J. acts towards her in "Revelations." I realize this is the Garcia thread, but I just want to say quickly that J.J. was incredible in that episode. She'd never felt so real to me before as she does there.

Anyway... I really like Garcia's relationship with Reid. My favorite part is when she kisses her fingers and pokes them against his forehead; it kind of says it all :)

And the way she tries teasing Hotch even though she knows he never takes the bait... He just kind of shrugs and puts up with it, except when she calls him 'honey.' :D

And as macmillk said, the scene in "Revelations" when she and Gideon are watching Reid's torture is very special. It isn't just holding on to the nearest support, which is how it seemed to me at first. He has his hand on her shoulder, and she's hanging on to him. She trusts him to get her through the experience of watching Reid suffer, and he's accepting that responsibility, comforting her and leaning on that connection himself. It adds something basic and human to the "FBI agent gets tortured" tv plot.

I love this show :D

Anonymous said...

Okay - Garcia is awesome...that about sums it up!! Love the banter between her and Morgan...it makes me smile every single time. And Kirsten seems like such a sweet person too :)

Anonymous said...

Penelope Garcia is my all-time favorite TV female charactor! And it is all because of the way Kristen plays her! I love her interaction with each of the other charactors - each one unique! My favorite is Her & Morgan! I hope they do not take it furthur than what is is now. Absolutely, perfectly, adorable! She is so beautiful inside & out, upside & down, backwards & forwards - did I miss any aspect possible?

Elizabeth said...

Garcia is wonderful. And casting Kirsten in the role really was a touch of genius. I couldn't imagine this character being played by anybody else.

I have a couple of favourite Garcia moments:

1. When Reid asks her if hacking into the database is legal and she says "Course not. We'll go to prison and you'll be someone's bitch." (the way Reid says "Really?" in such an excited way is priceless)

2. When she is on the phone to Reid in The Boogeyman, freaking him out and knitting, like one of the old ladies at the foot of the guillotine.

She brings humour to a very dark show, but also a lot of warmth. Garcia cares about the people she works with and what they do matters a great deal to her.

nebula

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness they changed their minds about casting a man in this role. Kirsten as Garcia is one of the best parts of the show. In all the CM internet places I frequent I have never heard of one person who does not love Garcia.

Anonymous said...

She certainly is the most amazing character, played by an incredible actress.
She's very protective of her 'space' - the look she gave when someone had the audacity to put a drink on her desk was absolutely priceless!
I loved her sensitive attitude to Reid when he was 'confessing' why he didn't visit his mother.
I love how she was able to give the team the information they needed during 'The Perfect Storm', even though she was having to deal with the horrors alone. Kirsten/Penny blew me away, I can't praise her highly enough.
I agree Garcia couldn't possibly be played by anyone other than Kirsten.

Anonymous said...

I love this character because she is so different than all the others. She can provide some much needed comic relief but she also adds alot of soul and emotion. While the rest of the team tends to keep their emotions in check, Garcia has no problems shedding a few tears or expressing her disgust and horror of a situation. I also love her chemistry with Morgan; even though their not even in the same room for many of their scenes, their mutal affection always comes across.

Anonymous said...

Penelope Garcia= love. She's just an awesome character and brings so much light to a show that, without her, would be very dark and dreary. She's so friendly and such a sweetheart! :)

Anonymous said...

Penelope Garcia is a normal sized woman with an individual personality and enough computing skill to put the entire FBI/CIA/NCIS/ASPCA collectively to shame. Garcia says loud and proud that IT'S GOOD TO BE A WOMAN IN MALE-DOMINATED PROFESSION and still have a personality! She's quite the role model, for those of us of any age.

Anonymous said...

I have to say, my main interest in Criminal Minds has been all about the very sexy boys. Thomas Gibson, Matthew Gray Gubler and Shemar Moore are quite enough for any guy.

But I want to shout that I LOVE GARCIA! I honestly just adore her. She is funny and kind and has the most amazing dress sense. I would so love to go shopping with her.

Anonymous said...

I love Garcia, she's so confident in who she is. She knows exactly who she is, and she's exactly who she wants to be. Isn't that everyone's life goal. The courage to go after what she wants and the strength to face up to her mistakes.
She has a depth of understanding where emotions are concerned that rival anyone else on the team,the soft heart to cry for others in pain, and the strength to watch that pain for the good of others.
When JJ snapped at her in Revelations, she looked deeper and saw that it was pain causing it, insecurity and fear, then respected her wishes and booted up the murder scene so JJ could watch it even though she couldn't stay herself.
She's a friend to whoever needs her, sometimes whether they want her or not
Bottom line when I grow up I want to be her. (lol, I'm 37)

LoraLee

Anonymous said...

I posted on my blog a while ago all the reasons I love her, but it just can't be said too often - Garcia rocks! She's the best TV character ever.

Anonymous said...

Garcia is love!! Many of you have put your words so eliquently. She's amazing and is the best part of the show. She just rocks. She's funny, cute, and I love her banter with Morgan, they're so cute. ^_^
I would also love to see a storyline with her past. We've seen all of the other members "dark secrets" that drives them to be the best that they can be, but we know very little about her. To sum it up, she is love.

Anonymous said...

Penelope Garcia is an awesome character and kudos to Kristen who SO makes her work. I don't think any other actress could.

I enjoy the way Penelope interacts with each of the team...and so differently. With JJ she is more of a sibling...a sister. They both are kind of the outsiders, while smart, they don't see the unsubs the way the rest of the team does.

She treats Reid like an adored brother who needs to be cuddled a bit. (just like the rest of us want to cuddle him) *grin*

Umm...I can't express how much I love her banter with Derick Morgan. And I really like that they are letting her 'play' with the rest of the team. It's her comments to Hotch and Gideon and their reactions that really set me off. *grin* I think she was a bit intimadated by them, but she is starting to relax and tease. But still remains respectful. Most of the time. She seems to know when the team needs to be 'lightend up a bit'.

A lot of people have mentioned how she brings our reactions to the stage. I agree. And I also would love to know more about the charcters life. We know she likes computer role playing games...what else? It's hard on a show like this to let us into the personal lives, but I would love to see a bit more of Pen's life out of the BAU.

BTW...I think Penelope and Emily are much better together then she and Elle were. Elle seemed to be...I don't know. It seemed like Elle looked down on Penn a bit...and tried to put her in her place. I have only caught a few of the first season episodes, however, so maybe it was just those. But the two didn't seem like they had an easy relationship like Pen has with the rest of the team.

Ok. I'll shut up now...well, one more thing. I would love to see Kristen in more roles...she is an awesome actress! I hope Hollywood takes notice!

Anonymous said...

There is no character on the show more loving and caring than Garcia. She loves everyone in the unit and they love her. And so do I.

Anonymous said...

I think she's great! She makes me laugh a lot, and I marvel at her skills on the computer. (Mine are very limited, but then again I probably can do more then I give myself credit!) She cares greatly about all those she works for.

Anonymous said...

what is there to say? Garcia is an individual. she doesn't let anyone or anything define her. she is intelligent, energetic, and extremely confident. she's not so good with authority, however, and does tend to get a bit awkward when confronted with this, but it doesn't take long for that confidence to take over once again. she is basically everything I ever wish I could be...including the whole working for the FBI part.

jacqui