We all have those shows with which we have a special emotional bond, whose characters we can relate to, that help us through tough times in our lives. And when they come to an end, it can be emotionally devastating and leave much unanswered about where the characters end up. For me, one of those shows is Criminal Minds, which recently came to an end after fifteen seasons. 

                I think we, as humans, take comfort in things like shows, books, movies, basically any form of stories, because we need a little escape from reality to cope with everything going on in our lives. We also choose favorite characters based on different things, which usually relate to our personalities or things going on in our lives. In Criminal Minds, the character I latched onto was Dr. Spencer Reid, a nerdy, hopeful, FBI agent who was also battling his own demons while trying to save people from serial killers. The reason I chose to admire Reid was not simply because of his looks, although he was quite attractive; it was because of his immense mental strength and humility. In hindsight, I think I saw him as a role model and those qualities were something I wanted to make a part of my personality. And I now realize that they were already there, which is why I admired this character so much. 

                When I learned Criminal Minds was coming to an end, I was extremely upset. Over the past few years, I had used the show as a coping mechanism for my stress. I loved stepping into this world of fiction that had elements of the dark realities of the world incorporated into it. I know I was also not the only fan of the show who felt distraught over the news of the end. While I had only watched the show for a couple of years, there were people who had been there from the very beginning fifteen years ago. So for all of the fans, it was like losing a part, however big or small, of our lives that had seemed almost permanent. 

                The last episode was honestly a little disappointing. The FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit had just caught a serial killer whom they had been chasing for months. Things seemed good for everyone on the team. And then the tech girl, Garcia, got a random job offer from a non-profit in Silicon Valley that she decided to take even though she had made strong bonds with the other people on the team (she pretty much called them her family). It was obviously just a random excuse for a simple ending, which was quite upsetting. It was also odd that no one else on the team had any other major life changes that would explain why this series was ending. It also didn’t address some relationships that some of the team members had gotten into, which left much to be desired. 

                I thoroughly understand why the show had to end. Fifteen seasons is a lot of storylines, character development and just show overall. The show was losing fans and had to resort to repeating storylines because it had run for so long. And, compared to the earlier seasons, the show had started losing the chill factor that had captivated its audience for so many years. But it was still so sad to hear that we would no longer be able to look into the lives of these beloved characters. 

                I cried quite hard watching the last episode, not because it was sad, but rather because I didn’t want to lose this comfort. I wish there was some way to make it hurt less to lose something you love, even a show, or a book, or anything else that brings joy. But I guess that’s just a part of allowing ourselves to be submerged into stories we can relate to in any way.