Criminal Minds: TV Show Inspired By True Stories
There is an increasing number of movies whose story source draws inspiration from real-life events and people whose lives make for an interesting watch. Much of these films are inspired by true personal stories of either tragedies or successes. The Primetime drama series, Criminal Minds is largely presumed to be in this category following its creation of over 300 episodes centred on kidnappings, serial murderers and various other crimes worthy of FBI's investigations.
Since the end of the last season which was the 14th, core fans of the series are eagerly waiting for the release of the final season of the crime drama TV series to see how it will end. But while we wait, let's dissect the more pressing concerns of fans regarding whether or not the series is based on real crimes and criminals.
Is Criminal Minds Based On A True Story?
Criminal Minds was created by Jeff Davis. The TV show incorporates the police procedural, crime drama, thriller, mystery, and science fiction genres, and stars actors and actresses like Mandy Patinkin, Lola Glaudini, Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore, A.J. Cook, Matthew Gray Gubler, Kirsten Vangsness, Joe Mantega, Paget Brewster and many others. The show’s executive producers are Mark Gordon, Jeff Davis, Deborah Spera, Edward Allen Bernero, Simon Mirren, Chris Mundy, Erica Messer, Breen Frazier, Janine Sherman Barrios, Glenn Kershaw, and Harry Bring. So far, 14 seasons of the show has aired, with a total of 314 episodes.
Meanwhile, following the growing speculations about the making of the film, there have been reasons to believe that the crime drama TV show might just be based on a true-life story. Despite the speculations, however, producers of the show have come out to state that the show is not based on a true-life story but rather, some of the show's inspirations were gotten from real-life criminals and criminal cases. The main characters on the show are all fictional and are not linked to anyone in real life. Though some episodes of the show might have been adopted from similar criminal cases in real life, characters' names were changed to protect their real identities.
Some Criminal Mind Episodes Based on True Stories
Carefully following the twisted ways of killings of people in the crime drama series, you probably have been able to figure out which of the episodes are based on real serial killers escapades. BLet's go on to identify some of these Criminal Minds episodes that are based on real events.
The first known episode which was inspired by a real-life criminal is “Natural Born Killers”, the 8th episode of the show's first season. The criminal on this episode carried out crimes which were similar to the crimes carried out by Richard Kuklinski (The Iceman) the infamous American hitman convicted of several murder cases.
The show’s 11th episode titled “Blood Hungry” is also similar to the crimes committed by Richard Trenton Chase, aka 'The Vampire of Sacramento'. Like in the show, the criminal suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and he was known for serial killing around Sacramento, California.
On the 14th episode of the show titled “Riding the Lightning”, similar crimes committed by Fred and Rosemary West, the killer couple, were revealed. The couple would kill their victims and bury them around their home.
Other cases on the show where real-life events and criminals were portrayed and revealed are in the episodes “Unfinished Business” ( season 1 episode 15), “The Tribe” (season 1 episode 16), “Damaged” (season 3 episode 14), “Omnivore” (season 4 episode 18), “The Big Wheel” (season 4 episode 22), “To Hell…“ (season 4 episode 25), “Our Darkest Hour” (season 5 episode 23) and The Thirteenth Hour” (season 6 episode 13).
Facts About the Crime Drama TV show
The TV show centres around a team of FBI's behavioural analysis unit operating in Quantico, Virginia. The Mark Gordon Company, Entertainment One and Touchstone Television were the production companies of Criminal Minds for its first two seasons. The first episode of the show aired on September 22, 2015, titled “Extreme Aggressor”. On the other hand, the last episode of the just concluded season 14 aired on February 6, 2019, titled “Truth or Dare”. The show’s distributors are CBS Television and Disney – ABC Domestic TV Worldwide. The former distributes the show in the United States while the Latter distributes the show worldwide.
To summarize, what differentiates this show from other procedural crime drama is that it focuses on profiling its criminals rather than the crimes committed.
