Visitors Review

booklady331 (2012-05-26 02:59)

Janeane Garofalo -- drop her from the team

I was so excited when the viewers were first introduced to this newteam last season on Criminal Minds, one of my favorite shows. Then thisyear Janeane Garofalo was added to the cast. She does NOTHING butdistract. She seems to have a bigger part than the other three teammembers, except for Forest. Her acting ability is poor to bad. Hercharacter seems to have an ax to grind. Adding her to the mix has upsetthe balance of the team. What was the casting director thinking?Putting in someone who is such a poor actress and a high politicalactivist in this part? My husband and I are serious considering that isis time to stop watching CM: Suspect Behavior.

sasazg-1 (2012-05-25 21:08)

Not a "true" criminal minds

I was very disappointed with the first episode of this show and itseems this will be what show is about, a lesser version of trueCriminal Minds. Not a single character of this show is convincing, Forrest Whitaker hasseen far better roles then this one, as a team leader he is weak, notall too likable. Basically, this show is a copy of the real CriminalMinds, only far, far worse, actually it can't stand in the samesentence with the original show. Matt Ryan character, for example, youbasically couldn't understand what the guy is saying.In all honesty, I would be very surprised if this show survives thefirst season, it just isn't worth it.

dug_nichols (2012-05-24 21:45)

Needs Work - and Script - and Cast

I gave the show enough chances. The '3 star' rating is down to '0' andany hope of improvement has dwindled to nothing. What happened to theFBI – why is Whitaker the only one with answers? It almost seems likethe only reason the other agents are there, is to say stuff like, 'WOW,you are too smart' – and then go wandering off bumping into walls ortripping over air. What a joke? I know the FBI is smarter than what isportrayed on this show. And talk about team…communicate maybe? There isno team cohesion, and for that matter, no flow to the show either. Imean - it seems like Whitaker walks into a meeting room and the rest ofthe crew act like newborn baby chicks waiting to get a piece of somepre-chewed worm from momma bird. After the team congratulates Whitakerfor being too smart, they wander around – kind of aimlessly – and beginthe wait. Oops – there is one who does not need to wait. One who needsno direction or instruction. There is one who is never wrong (sited onlast week's show) - and that would be the character played by JeanineGarafalo. She is one of the most painful characters on TV. Talk about apermanent mood swing! That is one girl full of anger and hate.Previously I did try to be nice to the show. I thought I saw a glimmerof light shimmering through the new TV series fog. I wished there wassome hope for the show – but there seems to be none. Now it is only arace to the edge of the cliff between the original Criminal Minds andthis one, and I feel this one will find the bottom of the chasm first.I do not know what possessed the producers and directors to hire such apolitically charged hot potato as Garafalo, but she does provide somecover. When the show fails – she only needs to pound her chest andblame Bush and then – magically - all problems go away.

rwburkhardt (2012-05-24 10:44)

Disappointing

Poorly written with scripts that are at best,improbable.The story ideasaren't bad,but they are poorly written.The dialog is I'mguessing,supposed to be urgent and tense,but is merely rushed.There islittle empathy between the characters and no cohesion in the unit.It'slike every time they show up to work they're meeting each other for thefirst time.The acting is dismal-even Forest Whitaker turns in marredperformances.The premise of the show has promise,yet the writers andthe director(s?) churn out a very flawed product.I am surprised thatthis show has not been canceled yet.I will be further surprised if it'spicked up for a second season without drastic changes in front of,andbehind the camera.

booboo-jellystone (2012-05-23 05:14)

Extremely Disappointed

The original Criminal Minds is a well written series with outstandingcharacter development. This spin off show should have been marketed asa comical spoof of the original. In this roll, Forest Whitaker is theworst over-actor since Captain Kirk in Star Trek. He acts like he isreading Shakespeare in every poorly written line. The plots are veryweak and the dialog between characters sounds like they are readingfrom a preliminary script in rehearsal. It couldn't be moredisappointing. Further character development will be pointless becausethey are so lame. The only decent character was borrowed from theoriginal and that idea was stolen from NCIS. Anyone who advertises onthis turkey is wasting their money. I tried to like it but gave upafter a few episodes. Now they are in reruns already. Can it now. Itsan embarrassment to the original.

sagebrush-9 (2012-05-22 16:21)

So, so disappointing

Criminal Minds (the original) is probably my favorite show on TV now,so when I first saw there was going to be a spin-off, I was so excited.And then I saw the cast. I was already put off when I saw ForestWhittaker as the lead, and then I noticed Jeneane Garofalo as well, andmy suspicions for the show being a dud ramped way up. I watched,though, hoping that I would be wrong. I was, but only because Icouldn't guess just how bad it would be.Whittaker seems to slur his words a bit, making him a bit hard tounderstand, and even beyond that hasn't managed to create a credibleseeming character.Garofalo is just a seriously poor actress. She also manages to makethings seem political in a very off-putting way.Based on these two, the casting director should be fired and bannedfrom the industry.As a previous reviewer mentioned, another one of the characters isforeign with such a heavy accent that it's hard to follow what he'ssaying.And then there's the guy with the inflated bad apple given a new chancepast which also doesn't feel very believable.Garcia (a character I love in the original) seems to be part of thecast for no other reason than because the producers could tell alreadythey'd messed up with the rest of it and needed an already establishedand loved character to connect with the audience. Even this fails,though, because her scenes feel like inauthentic add-ons.We're left with one member of the team (the other girl) who feelssomewhat genuine, and unfortunately that's not enough to carry theshow.I also felt that the ultra-elite "red cells" premise was a bad idea,because it sets them up as being even better than the originalcharacters. The situations don't seem any more dire or complex thanthose for the original, so it fails at establishing even why there's aneed for a more specialized unit to deal with them, and the actors failat creating characters that even seem equal to, let alone more elite,than those in the original series.All in all, it is a thoroughly wasted opportunity to create a selfsustaining spin-off (like SVU was to Law & Order)... and because thisone will fail miserably, they likely won't ever end up trying again,let alone succeeding.

p w (2012-05-20 23:26)

Quite a letdown.

I watched this first episode with some hopeful anticipation. The storywas stereotypical of this type of show....a kidnapped child, a pervertand the "heros". We have seen this plot so many times on Law and Orderspin-offs and the ending was also to be expected. In case anyone hasn'twatched it yet, I will not reveal the ending. I was reallydisappointed. This spin-off doesn't have the pizazz of the original.While Forest Whittaker is an excellent actor - this part isn't for him.In fact the entire cast was pretty bad. Apart from Penelope, they don'tseem to have the professionalism, intelligence or looks that theircounterparts do in Criminal Minds. I hate to be so negative, but theirappearance, clothing, speaking style etc.....just doesn't work. AnEnglish accent is totally out of character for the FBI. Iwill not watchit again. It was indeed a flop.

dmcd07 (2012-05-20 12:20)

Just cannot get into it

I was pretty excited to see that they had made a spin off of CriminalMinds, as that is one of my favorite shows on TV. I'm three episodes innow, and just cannot get into it. I even stopped watching one of them,I was that uninterested. In fact, I'm in the middle of "watching" theshow I DVR'd last week, and stopped to type this review.They either need to get creative with the casting, maybe bring in somecameos from the original version to spice it up for an episode or twoor flat out replace some of these people.The cast is blah, the content is blah....whole thing is blah. Overall, very disappointing.

jessie_baverstock (2012-05-20 01:11)

Good Show, Love It!!!!.

OK so first things first, I read the other reviews and I have to saysomething, if you haven't watched enough of the show to know the namesof the characters then you haven't seen enough of it to write a properreview. There were even people saying that they hate it because of oneof the actors without even watching a single episode. That iscompletely ridiculous. It wasn't a bad show, in fact I quite liked it.There was a good cast and the characters were starting to bebelievable, there were also back stories starting to slowly unfold, ittook a while for them to in the original Criminal Minds too, you didn'tget a good look into some of the characters until the end of the secondseason. People shouldn't compare it to the original because it's notlike it. I hate that people can be so closed minded that theyautomatically start "Hating" things because they're not carbon copiesof the originals. They canceled the show and now we don't get to findout who was shot and or killed at the end of the last episode. (P.S.for those who couldn't understand Coup because of the slight slurring,or Mick's accent you are one or both of the following, either yourgoing deaf or your just plain stupid, I'm terrible at understandingaccents and I got everything just fine. I'm assuming that those whodidn't also had trouble understanding every single person in HarryPotter, because a lot of those accents where stronger than Mick's.).

ian_smith73-7-475431 (2012-05-19 10:01)

Zero chance of a second season

I was looking forward to this show for months, I assumed with ForrestWhitaker at the helm then the producers meant business and intended togive us a real alternative to criminal minds. How wrong i was !!!! Thisshow is at best mediocre, The casting is all wrong..In fact! Thecasting director should never work again. This show is bad beyond badand so disappointing. As great an actor as Forrest Whittaker is he isso unbelievable in this role, As for the rest of the cast , Why oh why???? This was a great opportunity for a show and they have not onlymessed it up then have messed it up beyond all realms of messing up. Ifthere is an award for the worst ever put together show then this showwould sweep the awards. I am so disappointed as i had so much hope andi even gave it a chance, The first couple of episodes were terrible buti thought it may get better! , I have now completed watching episode 5and i realise that its never going to get any better. In summary, Poorwriting and very poor casting = very poor show, Hell, They could add AlPacino and Sean Penn to the next episode and its never going to savethis dead duck. What a waste!!! Shame on the People responsible.

ppiper-979-128270 (2012-05-14 00:09)

Dumbed down version of Criminal Minds

Seeing the first episode was really a major disappointment. The Role ofJonathan (Michael Kelly)telegraphs the ending "drama" in such apredictable manner that I nearly have to say this review is a spoiler.It seems like all of the characters lack real emotional commitment andare basic stereotypes. The first episode of this series does not haveeither the layers of complexity or commitment of Criminal minds. Thisseemed to be a "buddy" show. Forest Whitaker can find and play farbetter roles than this. Don't watch it, it's a complete waste of time.Although not all of the character have been properly introduced in thefirst episode it does not appear to have the makings of a good show.

vjstigall (2012-05-13 16:10)

Wonderful...Don't Hate the Player....Hate the Game

I loved episodes so far. It's may not show character development yet,but if it does have a second season I sure the writers will write itin. The actors and actresses show great emotions...especially ForestWhitaker he takes my breath away and he developed his character to showgreat leadership and emotion. I've cried at a majority of the episodesthat have been released so far. Yeah I'm emotional person so what!The action scenes are amazing, it makes me feel like I'm there withthem. I hope that everyone give it shot and not judge it based on theoriginal because its not supposed to be like the original...its likethe old saying lightening doesn't hit the same place twice.

marychicagoland (2012-05-07 01:51)

Can't take it anymore

I liked the first episode somewhat mostly because I already had it mymind that I would like the show. When the this team first appeared onthe original Criminal Minds I liked them very much and thought "boy, Iwould like to see more of them" so it seemed like my wish was granted.Maybe I liked them so much on the original show because I enjoyed theinteraction of the two teams, especially Prentiss and Mick. After watching the first 5 episodes I just can't take it anymore.Forest Whitaker always seems distracted-like he's daydreaming-notfocusing on the case at hand. I do like him as an actor-thought he wasexcellent in "The Shield"-a really nasty piece of work character andalso in "Species" as the empath. However, the writers haven't fleshedout the characters quickly enough. Nothing to make the viewers like orcare about them.The detective work is shoddy. I found myself creating a better profilequicker than they did. Too bad, I really did want to like it, two hoursof quality Criminal Minds would have been awesome.

Hemanth Krishnan (2012-05-06 10:57)

Not so GOOD.

When I started to watch the "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior"I felt itmight be good or better than the "Criminal Minds" but it sucks. ForestWhitaker acting sucks. Its easily guess able that who the suspect mightbe. Also the at the end we feel like it's been completed in a hurry upmanner. For instance the episode "The.Time.Is.Now" was just shown thatthe convict went to victim's house and completed just like that. In thenext episode "Strays" also it was the same."Forest Whitaker" word "talkto me" doesn't make any sense on any part of the episode or it reallymake us irritating.Please try to bring some innovation on to the seriesso that we can watch it.

jrosscpa (2012-05-06 11:59)

Won't watch Janene Garofolo

I can't dissociate Garofolo's radical socialist agenda from hercharacter in Criminal Minds. Despite my enjoyment of Criminal Minds, Iwill not watch this show. Regrettably, she suits CBS well. Garofalo actually called Party-goers "a bunch of teabagging rednecks,"adding "this is about hating a black man in the White House. This isracism straight up." Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/04/16/garofalo-tea-partiers-are-all-racists-who-hate-black-president#ixzz1IE27YqspIt's obvious to anybody who has eyes in this country that tea-baggers,the 9-12ers, these separatist groups that pretend that it's aboutpolicy – they are clearly white-identity movements. They're clearlywhite power movements. What they don't like about the President is thathe's black – or half black (applause) – and they, what also is shockingis that people keep pretending that that's not really the case withthese people.

chembrat54-152-128040 (2012-05-06 04:57)

I like it

I like it. Not the best show ever made, but certainly isn't the worst.You have to separate it from the original. I appreciate that they triedto tie them together by bringing Garcia in to it, but there's no waythe FBI would have only one tech master so they could have had acompletely different character for that roll, but all in all I like it.I like the cast together and don't feel like I'm "missing" the castfrom the original because I can watch them too. Too bad people couldn'tgive this show a shot as a stand alone from the same family. If you cansee it as a completely different show I think you'll find its just asgood as anything else out there right now. The more episodes I watch,the more I like it, which is unfortunate since its over.

hzlnut_28 (2012-05-04 23:13)

What the H***

Nothing gets under my skin more than when a network cancels a showafter one season. It takes so much time to build up characters, and toestablish a following. The original Criminal Minds didn't even comeinto my radar until the second or third season. I only hope that in thefuture, networks will learn that it might take a little while. I can'tbelieve after all the success of Law and Order and CSI spin-offs, CBSwon't even give this show a chance. I imagine they will at least give aconclusion to the impressive season finale in the original series tosatisfy people like me, but if they don't, it might just end my lovefor CM all together.

ch_ris127 (2012-05-04 14:43)

The Laidback Criminal Minds

Whatever it is, don't be expecting the characters to jump off withcolorful personalities and lovable quirks. Suspect Behavior is whatyou'd call a toned-down version of Criminal Minds added with a splotchof depression and coffee stains. It's darker, more monotonous and well,drab. But it's not that bad, not at all.I heard people complaining about the cast, but I don't see the problem.They work out fine, if only you give some time to watch a few episodes.Whithaker's character as Cooper gets a little more interesting witheach episode, and he's different from the normal profiler, which I mustsay, is kinda intriguing. All the characters have a problem, or ahistory, but the show takes it very slow to show you these things andthey show it in subtle ways. It all depends on whether you have thepatience to watch through this series to find out.Suspect Behavior can't really be compared to the solid Criminal Minds,and I suppose that the creators wanted to take a break and start offnew with a different style and cast. I mean, after the long, longstretch of Criminal Minds with all their twists and turns, maybeSuspect Behaviour was meant to slow things down a notch and startagain. To tell the truth, I like the moody pacing of the series, causeit's perfect to watch when you're tired of following fast-paced seriesthat you can digest in one bite. Currently, I'm just watching SuspectBehavior while working on the computer, that is, I just listen to themovie and occasionally turn to watch it.If you like Criminal Minds, chances are you'll dislike this series whenyou first watch it. But try to step back, detach from Criminal Mindsand their world, and watch Suspect Behavior as themselves. Maybe you'llfind something new and interesting that wasn't there in Criminal Minds.All in all, not such a bad series, but there's space for improvement.

Pedro Feliz (2012-05-04 06:08)

Suspect Behavior, a new psychological technique of how to catch criminals.Great!

I love Suspect Behavior. Something new we can see the magnificent workof Forest Whitaker, making an excellent drama. Under the role of SamCooper, shows an amazing ability of how he can think like the criminalsin the homicide to discover every step through their peacefulpsychology. The actors around Cooper have the exact attitude tocomplement the good team. Janeane Garofalo "Beth Griffith" and BeauGarrett "Gina LaSalle" have an attitude a bit like Cooper, butsometimes not so peacefully, help as complementary. Matt Ryan, "MickRawson" and Michael Kelly "Prophet", with its experience can discovermany things along the way. Kirsten Vangsness' Penelope Garcia "alwaysgood mischief as Criminal Minds. This is a very good series where weshow another of the surprising ways of how criminals can be arrested.- This commentary was written by a Latino which his English may not bequite perfect.

Leon Ducky (2012-05-03 17:41)

Only useful when you have trouble sleeping

Since the very first episode of Criminal Minds it has been my favoriteshow ever. So, like many others, I was excited to find out there was aspin-off of this excellent series. I have seen 5 episodes now of CM:SB, and I can say wholeheartedly that it is a major disappointment.To start off: Forest Whitaker is a great actor, but this part doesn'tdo him justice at all. He can do so much better then this. To be frank:he seems high some of the times. I only know the other actors from somesmall roles in other movies, so I can't say much about their actingabilities, but their characters lack any kind of depth or honesty.Completely the opposite of CM-the original.The voice-over at the beginning of every episode tells about a Red-Celldivision being some kind of an elite division of the BAU, but isn'tthat somewhat contradictory? Isn't the BAU already an elite division ofthe FBI? Well, if this is an elite division, how bad would the realdivision be? Luckily we know the answer to that, because the actualCriminal Minds series is so much better.Even Kirstin Vangsness disappoints as Penelope Garcia. In the originalCM she is a shy, innocent and modest person, while in this spin-off sheis downright cocky and lacks the emotions we all have gotten used toand love in the original series. And why even put her in the show inthe first place? This implies that, while she sometimes travels withthe team of the original CM, she has so much time on her hands that shecan assist another team. Watching the original show she simply doesn'thave time for that. Therefor it's only natural that her contributionsto CM:SB seems fabricated and unnatural.As said I have watched 5 episodes now, and the plots are completelyunbelievable. I especially disliked the episode about the sniper(fourth episode).WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD! DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED.About 30-32 minutes into the episode character Mark assembles hissniper gun and loads it. When you watch the playback carefully you seea slug coming out at the moment he loads his gun. What's that about? Heputs in the magazine and to put a round into the chamber of the gun(which is ridiculous anyway, because you only load your gun at the lastmoment before shooting; it's a sniper gun, remember?) he holds back thehandle to make the gun ready for action. At that moment there shouldn'tbe a slug exiting the gun because THE GUN WAS ASSEMBLED AT THE SPOT andso it was unloaded. A slug exiting the gun implies that the gun wasalready loaded to begin with, which is unsafe and unwise for awell-trained sniper as he pretends to be.Then about 35-36 minutes into the show a guy gets shot just outside ofthe memorial center. He isn't dead, so the pretty blond agent (I don'teven bother to remember her name) runs out to drag him to safety. Thispart is particularly unbelievable. She is trying to be a hero, butactually she is being very stupid. Snipers often injure people to lureenemies out, simply so they can shoot them too. An agent of an elitedivision (of the BAU no less) should know that. And not only does shemanage to drag the wounded guy to safety, the enemy-sniper (who earlierin the episode manages to kill two people with two shots fired withonly a second in between the shots) misses! And why does he miss? Well,he misses because Red-Cell sniper Mark (who is said to be one of thebest) jumps up from his spot opposite of the enemy-snipers building andyells out, presumable to draw fire. I don't know if he had a death wishat that moment, but he should have been killed with a nice clean headshot only seconds after he jumped up. But of course that doesn't happeneither. Instead he points his sniper gun at the location of theenemy-sniper. But people, look at is position: he stands totally in theopen, in broad daylight and at a downward angle from the enemy-sniper.Again: does he have a death wish? I can go on and on about other big,big mistakes in both this and other episodes, but I think you catch mydrift. I will no longer watch this series. I simply get infuriated toomuch: how dumb do they think we are? Or maybe I will record some of theepisodes. You know, in case I can't sleep at night.