Last year I caught A&E’s DVD releases of the 1st and 2nd seasons of “Profiler.” I was remotely familiar with the series, having heard about it when it first aired on NBC back in 1996. There was a lot of buzz going on about the show as it was being promoted as part of a Saturday night ‘Thrillogy, ’ which also comprised of “Sleepwalkers” and “The Pretender.” “Sleepwalkers” ended pretty quickly, but “Profiler” and “The Pretender” both ended up with fairly successful four season runs, and even included a crossover episode in the third season. As much as I heard about these shows, I kept getting tempted to tune in, but was afraid of getting caught up in yet another series. In a way, I’m glad I did, because now I’ve had a chance to watch the first two seasons of “Profiler” uncut and commercial free. I found myself getting totally sucked into the series, enjoying each and every episode. After the 2nd season cliffhanger, I couldn’t wait for the release of the 3rd. Once that wait was over, I had extremely mixed feelings as to whether or not I should have just left well enough alone with the first two. I’ll get into this in a little bit.

To give you a little background, “Profiler” starred Ally Walker as Sam Waters, an FBI ‘profiler’, which is someone who profiles criminals based on their behavior. They try to ‘get into the mind’ of criminals, by studying patterns in their crimes and using this information to predict their next moves. Sam is one of the FBI’s top profilers, but as we find in the pilot episode of first season, she left the force due to circumstances revolving around a case. While trying to track a killer known as ‘Jack of All Trades,’ it started to become a personal game of cat and mouse that culminated in the death of someone very close to her.

Sam is called back into action to help on a new case by her old boss (and head of the FBI/VCTF), Bailey Malone (Robert Davi). She hesitantly accepts, but is fearful that ‘Jack’, who was never caught, might find out where she is. Hitting the ground running with this new case, she finds that her services are needed now, more than ever, and soon she’s back on the job and using her real name. Trouble is, ‘Jack’ IS still out there, and as Sam soon finds out, knows EXACTLY where she is.

“Profiler” is a very dark and gritty show. There is a lot of camera movement, which gives each episode a feeling of almost constant forward momentum. This in itself is disconcerting at times as the pacing is often slow and deliberate. But it is a great show, nonetheless. I really had a hard time keeping myself from watching too many episodes in a row. Every time I’d get to the end of one, there’d be a little scene about ‘Jack’ that would whet my appetite for more. This was also one of the things I really enjoyed, in that the series was episodic in nature with the continuing story arc involving ‘Jack’ spaced out just enough to keep it interesting. I kept wondering when we’d see his face, or when and how they would catch him.

Of course, the 1st season had left us with a little cliffhanger, which made it even harder to wait for the second season DVD set to arrive. The 2nd season offered up not only a second helping of ‘Jack’ but included a new twist with the addition of ‘Jill’, an equally psychotic killer played by Traci Lords. Though I’m not really a big fan of Lords, she did a pretty good job in this series. There was no doubt that this chick was a whack job. The second season of “Profiler” turned out to be every bit as good as the first. The stories were increasingly gruesome, and it was interesting to watch as the effect ‘Jack’ had on Sam really started taking its toll.

Earlier this year I watched the release of the 3rd season, which brought with it a number of changes. I felt like I was watching a new series. The ‘feel’ of the show was different. Not excessively so, but I noticed right off that some of the attention to detail was gone. The cliffhanger from season 2 wasn’t sufficiently resolved, and I started to question some of the choices being made by the characters. As the season started to take shape I also noticed that there was a LOT of unusual changes in the characters’ backgrounds. Sam was now a Baptist, as opposed to being Catholic in previous seasons. And there was a new character introduced near the end of the 2nd season by the name of Marcus Payton, who was played by Shiek Mahmud-Bey. It appeared that he was going to become a major character, even so far as to be added to the opening credits, yet he all but disappeared in the 3rd season. I never even caught any kind of mention of the character. The most noticeable change however, was in the Sam’s daughter Chloe. In the first two seasons she was played by Caitlin Wachs, and was 8 years old by the 2nd season. She is replaced in the 3rd season by Evan Rachel Wood (“Thirteen”, “The Missing”) and is now 11. It seems that somehow she aged three years, though the 1st episode takes up right where the last season ended. Weird.

That said, I didn’t have any really major complaints about the 3rd season, and still enjoyed a good many of the episodes, but the shift in tone just made for a different viewing experience. The series was still pretty good, but admittedly not as good as it had been. It did include the crossover episode I mentioned earlier with “The Pretender.” I’m just thankful that it was the second part of the story so I could see how it ended.

I was rather hesitant to delve into the new DVD set of the 4th (and final) season of “Profiler” for many reasons. First was the degradation of the quality I already wrote about in the 3rd season, but more so it was because it marked the departure of Ally Walker. She only appeared in the first two episodes, where the storyline of ‘Jack’ was somewhat resolved. Walker was set to be replaced by actress Jamie Luner, who was brought in to play Rachel Burke, the new member of the VCTF. Major cast changes like this are generally hard to deal with for fans of a particular series. Often they are so used to seeing a particular lead character or characters, that no matter how good the newbies might be, they just aren’t accepted. The final two seasons of “The X-Files” are a perfect example.

In this final season, Luner actually did a fairly good job and I even found the episodes improving a little over the previous season. But she just wasn’t strong enough to win over the fans, or the network for that matter. Speaking of the episodes, the storylines were getting better and I would have even been curious to see another season. The 4th season brought with it a growing number of creative killers and even featured a second crossover with “The Pretender.” The episode, “Clean Sweep”, once again brought Michael T. Weiss’ character of Jarod into the “Profiler” fold, only this time teaming him with Burke. And again I’m glad it was the second part to the story so I got to see how this one ended. Now if we can only get someone to release “The Pretender!!”

Despite some of the plotting problems I had with the 3rd and 4th seasons, A&E did another great job with the transfer. The quality of the audio and video is very clean. As the show has so many dark scenes, much like “X-Files,” it was important to be able to maintain a good contrast so you can see everything you’re meant to.

Once again, however the DVD set is a bit short on extra features. There’s a really good interview with Howard Teten, who was a former FBI unit chief & criminal profiler and acted as a consultant on the series. You’ll also find a commentary with executive producer Clifton Campbell on the episode series finale, “On Your Marks.”

Though I had some problems overall with these final two seasons, I’m still really glad I got to see them on DVD. The series as a whole is a great one, and I really wanted to see how the whole thing played out.

Episodes:
Reunion, Part 1
Reunion, Part 2
Blind Eye
Old Ghosts
Infidelity
To Serve & Protect
Original Sin
Train Man
Quid Pro Quo
Clean Sweep
Random Act
Besieged
Proteus
Paradise Lost
The Long Way Home
House of Cards
Mea Culpa
Pianissimo
Tsuris
On Your Marks

Starring: Jamie Luner, Robert Davi, Julian McMahon, Roma Maffia, Peter Frechette
Extras: Interview with Series Consultant Howard Teten (Former FBI Unit Chief & Criminal Profiler), Commentary with Executive Producer Clifton Campbell on the Episode “On Your Marks”, Cast Biographies
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: A&E
Release Date: 11/26/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Profiler: Season 4 a B-.