Even fans who have watched Criminal Minds from beginning to end might not know that there are two spinoff shows besides the mothership and the reboot series. However, there’s a reason why they’re not often talked about. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders attempted to recreate the main show’s success by exploring international crime. Introduced softly in an episode titled “Beyond Borders” in Season 10, the spinoff series revolved around the FBI’s international division to save Americans who get into trouble on foreign soil.
David Rossi also crossed over to support the launch of the spinoff series in the official pilot, “The Harmful One.” However, despite the network’s effort to get viewers invested in the series, it was eventually canceled after controversy, backlash, and a drop in viewership. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders is a spinoff show that the network doesn’t want fans to remember. In fact, the two times CBS tried to duplicate Criminal Minds’ success both ended in massive failure, which makes the mothership even more special. Unlike Law & Order, Chicago P.D. and other police procedurals with expansive universes, Criminal Minds’ success can’t be duplicated.
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Was Canceled After Two Seasons
With the success of the main series, Criminal Minds, a spinoff was an intriguing option to expand the universe and the franchise. Series like FBI and Law & Order have successfully pulled off location-based spinoffs. Criminal Minds is in the same genre. With the show having a similar form and niche topics, there have been two attempts at expanding the series into a franchise with spinoff shows, and one of them is Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. Just like its title suggests, the spinoff series primarily focuses on international cases, which sounds like a nice challenge that’s also full of potential. The series tapped Gary Sinise as the seasoned FBI veteran Unit Chief Jack Garrett to lead the Criminal Minds spinoff. Similar to the flagship, the international team consisted of unusual talents such as Matthew Simmons (Daniel Henley), who’s known for his sharp wit and excellent profiling skills, and Monty (Tyler James Williams), who’s a genius technical analyst like Garcia.
It sounds like the series has the right formula to make a successful procedural. However, it was review-bombed by critics when it first came out. Criminal Minds is used to unkind reviews and massive criticism, so despite the poor reception, CBS renewed the spinoff for another season, hoping that the spinoff team could pull a dramatic twist just like the flagship; but sadly, the series failed to live up to the expectations. Viewership has gone downhill since Season 1 and several episodes have attracted controversies. Compared to the main series’ reception and viewership, the spinoff wasn’t holding up. On May 14, 2017, CBS announced the series’ cancelation and closed the chapter of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders for good.
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Isn’t the Only Failed Spinoff
Before the controversial Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CBS also had already explored the idea of a spinoff. Headlined by Forest Whitaker, the predecessor titled Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviors is another failed attempt at expanding the franchise. The series didn’t take on an international angle but rather explored outside the FBI headquarters. Special Agent Sam Cooper is a troubled agent with several convictions, but nothing seems to stand in the way of him bringing criminals to justice. Against political bureaucracy, Cooper leads a strong team consisting of a former convict, a former British soldier and a cunning agent.
The series was dropped after one season. With a critical approval rate of 42% and an audience approval rate of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviors hits the wall before barely taking off. Despite having an attractive premise, the series didn’t live to deliver its promise. While it didn’t attract the same level of controversy as Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, the series was disastrous enough for the network to drop out after only one season. The attempt was made early, and one of the main reasons things didn’t work out was because the spinoff failed to find its own identity outside the flagship. Whitaker is a strong lead, but the series puts too much focus on his character, leaving the rest to the background, which is a mistake Criminal Minds made before Mandy Patinkin’s exit in Season 2. While the main series survived backlash and controversies, the same mistakes then tanked the two spinoff shows.
Why Did Criminal Minds Fail to Find Success Outside the Main Series?
It’s not like the original series didn’t receive harsh criticism when it first came out. The series is known to be dark and twisted, being focused primarily on the worst serial killers imaginable. Patinkin left the show due to it being too dark. Many also find the series very hard to stomach. Controversy isn’t news for Criminal Minds and much of the criticism that the two spinoffs received could be said about the early seasons of the main show. However, the reason why the spinoffs failed had a lot to do with what made the original series successful: the BAU. Talking about work-life balance, the series is able to juggle the intensity of serial cases and the team dynamics. Watching the group working together collaboratively to solve a case is more joy than the number of killers it featured. Aside from these cases, all the characters are fully developed and have their own unique personalities and backstories.
What makes Criminal Minds successful is memorable characters and really good writing. The ensemble is what makes the show so great, which is what’s missing in both spinoffs. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders has little to no character development. On top of that, the series features problematic storylines that often send the wrong message. The pilot was widely criticized for spreading fear and xenophobia by telling a story about the horrible things that happen to Americans when they travel abroad without a disclaimer that not all vacations would end up in trafficking or murder. Serial killers and xenophobia don’t go well together. Telling a story that only encourages fear and misconception is very fearful, which is why the series didn’t do well with critics or the audience, who were able to find something problematic in nearly every episode. The fight was lost from the start, but at least Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders had the chance to correct its course with Season 2.
Criminal Minds has told many heavy stories. Sometimes, the FBI fails to save the day, but overall, the series’ main storyline is about the work and life of the BAU team, who get triggered, angered and even frustrated over the cases; and most of the time, they do beat time to save the victims. The BAU is like a family full of unique characters, who come together and contribute their own skills for a common goal. The bond is what makes Criminal Minds wonderful, but sadly, neither of the two spinoffs managed to pull off the same magic with a different team. It’s also likely that the series realized that there’s simply no replacement for the original cast and characters.
A.J. Cook, who portrays JJ in the series, originally left the show. After failing to fill her role, the series brought her back. Similarly, Paget Brewster’s Emily Prentiss exited the show after exploring the character’s backstory, but she too came back to complete the ensemble. The first two seasons of Criminal Minds made the same mistake Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior made by making it a one-man show about Gideon. Not giving other characters a chance to shine doesn’t seem to work with the series, and Patinkin’s departure from the series worked in its favor. Due to Gideon’s absence, the series then redirected its stories to explore the team. With David Rossi having less of an alpha male vibe and Hotch being a more uptight leader, all the characters in the BAU team start to fall into the right places. It’s because of the lack of a “lead” that characters like Garcia, JJ, Will, Morgan and Reid can each get their turn to tell their stories. Neither Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders nor Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviors dive that deep into the characters. Procedurals that focus on a main protagonist like Cross and Bosch are able to find success by becoming personal and dark with their lead character. The spinoffs did neither of those. They are both trapped in between the space of Criminal Minds and other procedurals.