Criminal Minds is Educational

I have a confession. I am obsessed with Criminal Minds. It has been almost exactly a year and four months since I started watching it (yes I know the date I started watching). I was vaguely aware of the show before this because one night in a hotel room with my best friend Cher, we were watching television and she insisted we watch it. She neglected to mention that it was the second part of an episode (actually it was Mayhem which is the first episode of season four, but it picks up after a cliffhanger). I honestly thought that it was the dumbest show ever because, well it didn't make any sense, they were just suddenly in the middle of a case for no reason with no background. But I digress. I re-watch the previous seasons constantly and Wednesday nights are a consistent highlight of my week.
Last term I took an astronomy course and I found myself suddenly understanding a larger portion of the dialogue on The Big Bang Theory (like REALLY understanding). Today was the final day of my introductory psychology course. Much like astronomy and The Big Bang Theory last term, I've recently realized that I understand more of the cases and conversations on my favorite show. I suppose it works the other way around as well because, after watching Conflicted (season 4, episode 20), the section on dissociative identity disorder was more like review than new knowledge. The fact that last weeks episode focused on schizophrenia really clarified that I can both learn from the show and apply my knowledge when watching it.
So it's not that I used to think television wasn't educational. I've sung The Big Bang Theory theme in astronomy finals and I know a whole lot more about medicine then I did before I started watching Grey's Anatomy. It also isn't that, before taking a psychology class, I assumed that all the behavioral analysis on Criminal Minds was made up by the writers to sound lovely and serve the plot line. I just had never put any consideration into how much I was learning, or really that I was learning anything, from watching most of my television programs. I also think this helps reinforce my education because I get so excited when, for example, Reid mentions catatonic schizophrenia and I know its symptoms and treatment. Suddenly that isn't just a term, it has meaning and depth. I guess what I wanted to say is that I am beginning to realize that having an education helps me get the most out of everything, not just obviously intellectual situations and materials, and that is a pretty exciting thing to discover.