I'm possibly overly invested in the characters as real people....

Who are you talking to?

Heh. It's like how I still worry about Hotch's ears!

Living in DC with a crazy job (though not as crazy as Garcia's), it's possible. it's a pain in the ass, which is why I don't act anymore, but it's doable.

From the Futoncritic:

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- CBS has pushed the next original episode of "Criminal Minds" to Wednesday, January 19 at 9:00/8:00c.

Said installment, originally set for January 12, will serve as the lead-in to the Wednesday premiere of "Blue Bloods" that same night at 10:00/9:00c.

"Bloods" likewise won't air an original episode until January 19: repeats of "The Mentalist" will now fill the Friday, 10:00/9:00c hour on January 7 and January 14.

Ahh, because this season they should make Criminal Minds more difficult for me to stay engaged with the show?

The dvr will watch unless I've dumped cable and then I'll watch or have a quiet break up with CM. Whatever.

This is basically my position on CM as well, Cass. I was holding on after they dumped JJ, but essentially replacing her - with another small blonde, even, as if small blonde women are interchangeable and you can get along just as well with the cheaper model - to the detriment of the show, I'm about done. It's no longer appointment tv for me, and the last three episodes have not engaged me at all.

The characters of the small blondes aren't remotely similar, and neither are their roles.

I'm pissed about JJ leaving, but I think it's merely a woman for cheaper woman trade. Not a stance of interchangeability. They still play like they're down a media person and up an awkward rookie.

They still play like they're down a media person and up an awkward rookie.

I agree with this. They're very different characters. And I don't have a problem that they are both pretty blondes. It's tv, there are a lot of pretty blondes.

My problems with the show are beyond.

I turned on the CM marathon too. Loved Prentiss teasing Reid, "He's so lifelike."

The characters of the small blondes aren't remotely similar, and neither are their roles.

That's not my point. Of course they're not. We know that, because we watch closely, and we're invested in the characters. But I'd bet that most of the tv-watching public is like most of the people I know outside fandom - they aren't really paying attention. The show is on while they're doing something else, or they're being constantly interrupted and they don't go back to watch what they've missed. My family, for example - I don't know where I came from, really. My sister invariably falls asleep ten minutes into a show and wakes up for the last ten minutes. If a show has more than two main characters, she can't keep track of them, and she doesn't care. Her boyfriend did not know that the new girl wasn't JJ - he thought he was watching an old episode because she seemed so new on the job. This is the guy who didn't realize that "the dark-haired girl" who is now Emily was not Elle, and I'm fairly sure the only reason he knew Rossi wasn't Gideon was because he knows who Mandy Patinkin is.

WE know they aren't at all the same character. I feel confident in saying there are a lot of people who won't know, and even more who won't care. So yeah, the fact that they got rid of JJ for no reason at all makes me mad. The fact that they immediately hired another petite pretty blonde makes me think they traded blondes for a cheaper model, and that makes me mad on a whole different level. (Going by one of Joe Mantegna's tweets, he feels the same as I do.)