PILOT REVIEW: Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR

Starring: Forest Whitaker, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Kelly, Beau Garrett, Matt Ryan, Kristen Vangsness

Created by Chris Mundy and Edward Allen Bernero
Written by Rob Fresco, Directed by John Terlesky

CBS has had lots of success spinning off its procedurals to new successful editions and now they try it again with the spinoff of the popular Criminal Minds - the very similar Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. Though the pilot had the storyline of Without a Trace with its abduction/vanished person storyline, the dialogue and feel of the show was pure Criminal Minds. Centered on a different profiling team of the FBI B.A.U., it is led by the Unit Chief Sam Cooper (Forest Whitaker). The rest of the team was not flushed out very much except for Michael Kelly as Agent Simms who is on shaky ground after killing a sex offender, but awarded a permanent special agent status after showing restraint in the field. The remainder of the team (Janeane Garofalo, Beau Garrett, Matt Ryan) will likely be given a bit more depth (but not a ton) in the coming episodes. Rounding out the cast is a familiar face from the parent show - tech specialist Penelope Garcia (Kristen Vangsness), who will appear in both shows.

If you like Criminal Minds, chances are you'll like the spinoff. The cast seems to have gelled more after last spring's weak backdoor pilot on the parent show. These procedurals will never be award winners but they are enjoyable and some weeks are better than others. A big strength in this show is Whitaker, who is a natural leader with some charisma. The other agents are hard to assess after the pilot but Kelly had a nice scene at the end and there doesn't seem to be any glaring weakness. They aren't as dynamic as the agents on the parent show, but that took time as Criminal Minds does not devote much time in each episode to character develop, which works for the genre. Seeing the familiar and talented face of Kristen Vangsness was a plus too, though she does not have the rapport with the new team that she has developed with the parent show's team yet. And as always, there was a whole lot of creepy in the pilot, but it was a pretty solid storyline.

These types of shows have their fans and their detractors and this is unlikely to be any different. It plays it safe and doesn't stray much from the format. It will likely only be as different from the parent show as CSI: Miami and CSI: NY are from CSI. There is enough to like about the 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. Basically, it's CBS to a tee. Safe and formulaic. But as a fan of the original, I don't see anything wrong with that.