Each week, I take a look back at a pilot from the 2010-11 season, first reviewed on my blog during that season. This week, I am looking at CBS's first attempt at franchising Criminal Minds with Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior
The Details:
Premiered: February 16, 2011 on CBS
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Kelly, Beau Garrett, Matt Ryan, Kristen Vangsness
Created by: Chris Mundy and Edward Allen Bernero
What I Thought Then:
"Though the pilot had the storyline of Without a Trace... the dialogue and feel of the show was pure Criminal Minds."
"If you like Criminal Minds, chances are you'll like the spinoff. The cast seems to have gelled more after the weak backdoor pilot on the parent show."
"A big strength in this show is Whitaker, who is a natural leader with some charisma."
"There is enough to like about this pilot for fans of this type of show to be assured that it will be another comfortable procedural. However, it's unlikely to draw in any new fans to the genre."
What Others Said:
"Forest Whitaker is an arresting, oblique performance, and it works well amid all the procedural muck." - Tom Gilatto, People Weekly
"The story reflects how badly these procedurals have degraded over the years, forced to come up with increasingly more over-the-top motives for murder. If cookie-cutter cruelty is your nightcap, this show will send you well off to sleep." - Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald
"It's business as usual on Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, an uninspired spin-off of the undistinguished (except in its degree of gruesomeness) long-running hit." - Matt Roush, TV Guide Magazine
"I will only say that Suspect Behavior is basically the same show, but other than Whitaker, it's a much less interesting cast and collection of characters, with Garofalo particularly bad." - Alan Sepinwall, HitFix
"It is uniquely stupid, profoundly stupid, an ecstatic nirvana of stupidity, a stupidity that defies all previous boundaries of time and space." - Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald
What I Think Now:
Before I got a more sophisticated palette for TV Drama, I was a big defender of Criminal Minds. Looking back, I feel a bit silly. I can't say it is good TV and I don't try to make a case that it has a lot of merit. But I'm not going to lie, I can still make the argument that it was entertaining. Even when the cases were exploitative or trashy (and they often were), there was still that core group of actor who worked together so well (and still do on Criminal Minds: Evolution). I'm not saying the acting is great (Joe Mantegna often delivers some lines with no believability) but there's a chemistry happening that can be taken for granted on procedurals (look at Shemar Moore and Kristin Vangsness or the early episodes Mandy Patinkin). Enter Criminal Minds: Suspicion, This time around, the formula is the same and there are some good actors (Forest Whitaker, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Kelly plus Kristin Vangsness again, who was double dipping with her role on the mothership). But there was no chemistry. So then a pilot that involves the abduction of little girls feels extra exploitative and extra trashy with no saving grace of a strong cast. Whitaker in particular was disappointing here but maybe he felt it was beneath him, because it was. It also didn't have anything new to offer to the title. At least the CSI and NCIS shows took things to a different city. There was nothing that differentiated this show besides the cast, and they were a disappointment. So it felt completely pointless.
What Happened to the Show:
By 2011, CBS had experienced a lot of success with franchising its crime dramas. CSI: NY and CSI: Miami were in the midst of long runs alongside CSI and the network had launched NCIS: Los Angeles to hit status in 2009. So it seemed obvious that Criminal Minds would be next. The mothership had been a top performer for the network since its launch in 2005. Then they added an Oscar winner in Forest Whitaker, another well-known name in Janeane Garofalo and brought in Kristin Vangsness, who was a popular character on the original show. It got to launch behind the original show and all seemed set up for success. It got terrible reviews (42 on Metacritic) but that didn't seem like it would matter, it's not like the original was a critical favorite. For whatever reason though, this show just didn't connect. It lost a lot of the Criminal Minds audience and was cancelled after half a season. CBS tried again with the franchise with Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, which had an international angle. It fared slightly better but still only lasted two seasons from 2016-2017. CBS was never able to spin this show off, perhaps because the draw to the original show was the cast not the format, which is a bit different from some of their other franchise shows.
Final Episode: May 25, 2011
Episode Count: 13
Where to Watch: Available for purchase on Prime Video or on DVD
I'm excited to be contributing to The TV Ratings Guide! You can read my regular work at Benjamonster's TV!
