Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

This review will reference the original Criminal Minds a lot and is solely based on first and only episodes released so far, therefore my opinions may change as the season progresses.

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior follows a Rapid Response Team (aka RED Cells) consisting of SA Sam Cooper (Forest Whitaker), the "level-headed" leader, Mick Rawson, the calm "foreign-accented" pretty boy, Simms, the trouble-some, angry vigilante, Beth Griffith, the overly attached empathizer, Gina LaSalle, the yet undeveloped personality, and lovable tech-savvy Penelope from the original CM. The team contains the typical garden variety of character archetypes.

Like I mentioned in the title, CM: SB is more detective work than profiling unlike the original series from which it took its name. Also unlike the other series which utilizes natural dialogue to explain what they are doing, CM: SB crowbars this in awkwardly with pointless conversation and ridiculous monologue. Characters also jump from one conclusion to another without much thought and rely much on assumptions. Other details such as when the team found the location of the body annoyed, since it is rather impractical to take your whole team without police help to canvass an area for a body. I know the opening title said "untraditional" but seriously, an FBI team operating from a gym? Little stuff like that bothered me in this series for some reason.

One last thing, in CM, the unsub was revealed more and more as the episode progresses and based on what the team concludes which I think is a very clever method. However in this, the unsub was hidden and then totally shown midway through the episode even though RED Cell didn't have a clue as to who he was. The hints of his identity came after his identity was already revealed.

All in all, it is an average detective show but no way on par with the original series.

I absolutely loved the show and kudos on them bringing Garofalo into this I love her acting. I enjoy shows more when they don't always bring in perfect sized or looking people because in real life that isn't very realistic. There are a few actors/musicians that didn't make it on their looks alone.

I found that TV/movies has put so much glam on that perfect hero figure that they all should be 6 foot tall and very pretty to look at, or have their girls half popping out of their shirts. Most work places around here would have you fired for dressing like that.

I hope that this show continues on as I really enjoyed it.

I liked it ... If you watch the pilot and first season of L&O SVU, which is also a spin off show, it was very poor. But the producers identified what (and who) worked and what didn't and by the second season fixed it and most people would now say that the show is better than the original. It's always the case with spin off shows, they are very difficult to get off the ground because people can't let go of the original and are reluctant to accept and get comfortable with new characters in the world, created by the "mother ship". Even in the original show new characters are hard to integrate when they are the replacement of a former character when Rachel Nichols came in to fill A.J Cook's position she wasn't greeted with open arms by the shows fan base even though she is a great actress and plays her role very well. But after one episode of CM:SB I would say there is room for improvement but on the whole, if you can forget about Hotch, Reid and the rest of th BAU and try to view it as just another drama series then you'll enjoy it a lot more.

It started off feeling rushed and pushed but by the 7th or 8th episode they found their stride, unfortunately we'll never knew the end of the cliff hanger that they left us on in episode 13. I enjoyed how they started to bring in the characters back stories, but it did take until the 5th or 6th episode to get there. The first 3 episodes were scattered and rushed as if they didn't know exactly where they were going to go with it. I really enjoyed the cross over of Penelope Garcia from the original Criminal Minds. I hope Netflix picks this up if the actors schedules are available, however since it's already been about 5 years since this show was canceled, I highly doubt it will get picked up.

Most people probably dislike the show because they were expected, basically a Criminal Minds, from this point shortened to CM, clone, and no, that is not what you are getting or should expect.

The show have after 3 episodes done a bad job at making you bond with the characters, it's almost like they expected you to have seen the episodes of CM where these people appeared, and then assumes that they don't have to give you a better insight.

In difference from CM, these people don't seem to make much of a profile, they seem more obsessed with finding small hints, that other have overseen. Only the main character seems to have some insight in the minds of the criminals, since he try to place himself in their shoes, and understand why they did what they did.

However it isn't all bad, the criminals are somewhat interesting, as well as their crimes, and there seem to be a element in the series that have been poking my mind, but I have yet to put the finger on, which might make it better with time as one get used to that element (assuming it exists, and my mind aren't tricking me). Currently this seems to be all it is living on, but I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt(for now), but it really do help to not think of it as an attempt to clone CM, and stop comparing it to CM.

Will not recommend it, at least not in it's current form.