Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

[faceless]

On the Scent of Psychopaths: Penetrating the Criminal Mind
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
February 15, 2011
nytimes.com

Forest Whitaker, who played Idi Amin in the 2006 movie “The Last King of Scotland” so convincingly that he won an Oscar, has one of the most distinctive and off-kilter faces in Hollywood. So it says something about “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” that his wardrobe is so distracting that it almost overshadows his character.

Mr. Whitaker plays Sam Cooper, an F.B.I. profiler who hunts serial killers on this spinoff of “Criminal Minds,” which begins on Wednesday on CBS. Not surprisingly, Cooper is a brooding and enigmatic investigator with a faraway look that suggests that he is channeling the thoughts of murderous psychopaths. Cooper’s clothes, on the other hand, say, “Party like it’s 1999.”

While discussing the disappearance of an 8-year-old girl in Cleveland with his team in the opening scene, Cooper wears a double-breasted leather motorcycle jacket with epaulets and cunning leather-covered buttons. Before he arrives in Cleveland, Cooper changes into a snappy gray wool field jacket that puts him somewhere on a spectrum between Tom Ford and a Civil War re-enactor.

And there’s no real explanation for sartorial deviance on a show in which criminal deviance is already on such lavish display — except that it does stand out in a series that mostly doesn’t. “Suspect Behavior” is not boring, but it is familiar. This variation on “Criminal Minds” does away with the highfalutin quotations from Nietzsche and Conrad, but it is otherwise faithful to the original template. It is fiercely earnest and intense, with even less of the playful quirkiness that serves as comic relief on many a CBS procedural.

This show, too, is based in the Washington area — there isn’t the kind of location change that allowed “NCIS” to spawn “NCIS: Los Angeles.” Instead, “Suspect Behavior ” offers a fresh start on a blueprint that has proved absurdly successful for CBS, which probably should be renamed the Crime Broadcasting System.

The network specializes in series that marry elegant cinematography to spooky setups and grotesque crime scenes. They take a high-minded look at the lowest common denominator, trafficking in people’s worst fears of abduction, rape, torture, disfigurement and excruciating death. These are horror stories told through a comforting veil of predictability: no matter how depraved and haunting, each crime is wrapped up by appealing, reliable characters who mete out justice while also acting out charged office dynamics.

Over time, however, those characters’ personal story lines tend to turn ever more overwrought and baroque: during her off hours on “Criminal Minds,” the F.B.I. agent Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) is being stalked by a crime boss she helped arrest while working undercover for Interpol as his gardener in a villa in the South of France. (The flashbacks look like ads for Calvin Klein perfume.)

Cooper’s protégés at the Behavioral Analysis Unit are not well fleshed out in the pilot, but it’s clear that these are not irreverent, fun-loving colleagues. Most are closer in spirit to the grim, somewhat depressive crime fighters of “Criminal Minds” and the now canceled CBS series “Without a Trace” and “Cold Case” than to the antic members of the naval criminal investigative service on “NCIS.”

They include John Sims (Michael Kelly), a law enforcement agent so ardent that he once killed a child molester and served time in prison for his zeal. (He was later pardoned.) And Sims is almost jaunty compared with Mick Rawson (Matt Ryan), a former British Special Forces soldier. Even Janeane Garofalo, a stand-up comic who was very funny on “The Larry Sanders Show” and on “24,” a Fox series not generally known for whimsy, is also passionately dedicated — and unsmiling — as the F.B.I. agent Beth Griffith. The closest thing to a cutup is the technical analyst Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), who plays the same role she does on “Criminal Minds,” putting a lot of sass into her whiz-kid computer searches.

Cooper’s co-workers are dedicated, energetic workaholics, but like their boss, they seem to have missed the F.B.I. dress-code memo. In the second episode they show up at Tucson police headquarters in hoodies and jeans as if headed to the gym — or a Saturday garage sale.

Mr. Whitaker is a talented, magnetic actor, and he does his best with the material at hand. But some of his expository lines are almost laughably heavy-handed. Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”) plays the F.B.I. director, Jack Fickler, and in his first scene he questions Cooper’s pursuit of martial arts like kickboxing. Fickler asks, with just a hint of malice, “I mean, you do carry a gun, don’t you?”

Cooper replies with mystical calm, “Its not just about self-defense, it’s about keeping body, mind and spirit in balance.”

“Suspect Behavior” balances dead bodies with spirited characters — and most viewers won’t mind that they have seen this kind of crime solving before. The series follows a formula, but it’s a proven one.

CRIMINAL MINDS

Suspect Behavior

CBS, Wednesday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

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Not exactly a glowing review, but he's a fine actor and serial killer stories are always worth at least a gawp...

[eefanincan]

Watched the first episode tonight and wasn't overly impressed ---- I didn't think the acting was great, but the storyline itself wasn't too bad. Very similar to the original Criminal Minds (which I watch every week) just not as edgy. Anyone who saw the movie "Misery" with Kathy Bates might enjoy tonights episode.

[faceless]

I watched this last night and thought it was just rubbish. Nothing original about it at all...

ah well

[Kezza]

I watched the first episode and it was OK. Love Forrest Whitaker, but not such a fan of Janeane Garofalo's character. Oh, and the Director of the FBI just hanging about to speak with them -- ummmmm not even a tad bit realistic. The second episode aired tonight, but I forgot to record it. Oh well.

[faceless]

it all sounded like it should work, but it all seemed too formulaic. I could almost hear the tv gears clicking...

[eefanincan]

I agree.... too forumlaic. I won't be watching anymore.