Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders

When I saw the title of the show I got very interested, but after three episodes I have to say it is a huge disappointment and a totally missed opportunity. As someone with international background and loved the original CM series, this show unfortunately demonstrates a very simplified, distorted, American-centric view of the world. The plots are OK so far. But the offensive, one-sided plots/comments about other countries/cultures keep jumping out, making me want to turn off the TV immediately. Ep2(India) is slightly better than the others, but after watching ep3 (Egypt) I just decided it is time for me to stop watching the show.

This show is just so horrible and it has Erica Messer's signature all over it. First, the original Criminal Minds frequently messes up details because its writers don't seem to know US geography (hence Quantico and DC are contiguous communities). But once the writers go "beyond borders," they really show their ignorance both geographically and culturally. Second, CBS seems to have adopted an ominous signature cinematography which makes everyone look horrible… and it's doing Sinise no favors. Third, everything on this show seems formulaic (again, a Messer signature); anyone who is paying attention can figure out the ending before the first commercial break. And finally the cast, which changed since the "pilot," has no chemistry. Frankly, my co-workers and I have no chemistry – but we aren't asking millions of people to watch us every week either.

Cancellation in five…four…three

Even given the xenophobia of the show, I'm surprised that their first four episodes took place in countries that use the British right hand side driving system (Thailand, India, Egypt and Japan) but the local cars in the show have the steering wheel on the left ALF (Aft Looking Forward). Most prominent was the old BMW in Cairo and the plot point that showed a clue on the 'passenger's seat' which was on the right rather than the left. This adds to the feeling that the show's producers' mission is to denigrate foreign cultures and peoples. This lack of attention to detail adds to the lack of sensitivity to foreign cultures that seem to be a hallmark of the show. As an American who has lived in Iran, Jordan, Germany, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, I'm surprised with the world wide audience nature of TV these days that more attention wasn't paid to these details.

I honestly don't understand what people expect from fictional television. This show may be a stretch in reality, mainly that the FBI would actually go overseas to investigate, but it is very entertaining. I don't find the social inaccuracies insulting either. I dont watch fictional TV or movies or historical or societal accuracy. If you want that, watch educational channels. If you're a fan of Criminal Minds, or procedural crime drama in general, give it a shot. It's entertainment, and that is all I'm looking for after a hard day at work. If you're the same, you'll enjoy it.

I was quite excited to see a new CM spin-off after 'Suspect Behavior' was unfairly cancelled, but after watching 3 episodes I think I'll only be watching in future because it's SO bad! The cast seem to be doing their best with the material provided, and it's nice to see them include another actress who isn't stick-thin (although I have my doubts about her supposed assault course abilities), but for a show whose main premise involves foreign countries it seems to be doing a fair job of p*****g them off. Here we have the FBI sweep in to save 'innocent Americans' from the incompetent, funny-speaking foreigners (never just Americans, always 'innocent Americans') and yet still taking time to point out the cultural stereotypes. For example, in episode 2 set in Mumbai, presumably we're supposed to be impressed that one of the amazing FBI agents can name the most famous Indian cricketer who has ever lived (Sachin Tendulkar) - and yet the producers couldn't even take the time to find an old video clip of India actually playing cricket ('no one watches cricket except the Brits, Aussies, Indians, Pakistanis, Jamaicans, Kiwis, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis etc so they won't notice if we use England vs the West Indies') - if only there were resources where you could research this sort of stuff?! And we're told at the start of the episode that it's considered to rude to refuse an offer of hospitality - and yet at the end of the same episode Gary Sinise's character (I can't even be bothered to remember his name) refuses an invitation to a wedding! Maybe the average viewer now has such a short attention span that the producers assume we won't remember something from 30 minutes previously? Maybe it's this bad on purpose just so we keep watching for the patronising cultural clangers?? Can't wait for them to visit the UK so I can see the FBI pointing out that by law you have to drink 10 cups of tea per day and speak like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins . . .