Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders

Seriously, who on earth believes that some pseudo-"qualified" Americans need to fly into a country to "fix" things and resolve a crime? And who wrote this script that has Alana De La Garza spouting local so called legend wherever she lands? It is painfully bad viewing.She has zero depth and I want to do to her what the perp did to the victim in episode 5. I'm kinda serious. She has no acting chops but she flips from country to country and we are expected to believe she knows all the local languages, habits, and so on, and she is no one with no background and doesn't have the strength of character to carry off such a task. Give me a break. She is so puffed up and secure in her so called knowledge of the area and country. And yeah, who believes that this crowd rolls into a country in their private plane all equipped with vehicles and weaponry? What rubbish.

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.

Well, I just read all the previous reviews and It seems that I agree with the vast majority of them.

It is actually preposterous that anybody would believe that any country in the world would actually give up on their own police forces and justice systems so that the FBI could come in and take over and show the world how to do it.

I have watched all of the episodes and I think that each one becomes more ludicrous than the last. The latest episode set in Singapore nearly takes the cake, this is a country with an unbelievably stringent the legal system and one of the lowest amounts of major criminal activity in the world, yet we are expected to believe that more murders are committed in a 24 hour period than in the previous 6 months. The the condescending attitude of these awesome Americans to locals in countries around the world goes more to how Americans are perceived than anything else. Why would the medical examiner just accept that the American medical person on this team would be better than her, why does the inspector does not accept that he could find the perpetrator, how the hell does Alana De La Graza know every single language in the world and every single local custom but is caught working for a pathetic team in the FBI. It is so implausible that I spend half of each episode laughing my head off.

Don't even get me started on the acting (or lack thereof), I really enjoy the original Criminal minds but this is an insult to its legacy.

All this does is reinforce the fact that the American TV Industry thinks that every other country in the world is third world and even in that they are not consistent. Let's portray every other country as backward but meanwhile we can access the greatest WiFi connections that exist with no buffering no matter where they are, and we can also access every single piece of communication in every country and the blueprints of every single building ever build. The more you think about it the more you realize how much rubbish it really is.

The April 13 2016, episode was supposed to be set in a real place - San Pedro on Ambergris Caye in Belize. They showed a map in the opening section. They also showed huge sandy beaches which are virtually nonexistent on Ambergris. Then they landed a giant aircraft and unloaded vehicles. The only runway in San Pedro can just take the twin engined prop planes that hop around the islands. Then the storyline was that the honeymoon couple had vanished into the jungle driving a rented jeep heading for the west coast of Ambergris Caye. The trouble is that the distance between the east coat and the west coast in San Pedro is three blocks and there are no rental cars. In fact, there are virtually no cars at all as everybody gets around on golf carts. And the few cars there are, mostly taxis, are not allowed on the north part of the island. One of the characters supposedly spoke only creole. Everybody on Ambergris speaks English; the place used to be called British Honduras. Now I know this was fiction, with a plot that was laughable, conflating Mayan and Aztec legend with cannibalism and polygamy. But really if it's set in a real location at least let it reflect a little of that. And, just for the record, there is no American consulate in Ambergris Caye. I can only conclude that the creators of this shambles never read a guide book or even heard of Google.

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