Here’s why Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders only lasted two seasons before being canceled. TV procedurals had grown fairly stale by the start of the 2000s, so many of the thriller shows that emerged during this period needed a new gimmick to attract viewers. CSI, for example, merged a glossy cinematic style with a focus on science and technology to put a fresh spin on the concept. Criminal Minds, on the other hand, centered around a team of FBI profilers known as the BAU that had to psychologically profile the killers they chased.
This made Criminal Minds stand out from a sea of somewhat samey procedurals. So too did the show’s violence, which actually caused original star Mandy Patinkin to exit after two seasons after dubbing the show’s darkness “destructive” to his soul. Criminal Minds more than survived Patinkin’s exit and would run for fifteen seasons in total, coming to a close in 2020. Viewers barely had a chance to miss the series, since a ten-episode revival is already in development for Paramount+.
When a show is as successful as Criminal Minds, it makes sense for the network – in this case CBS – to develop a spin-off. Both CSI and NCIS have spawned very successful offshoots, but Criminal Minds never managed this feat. The first attempt was Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, but despite being fronted by Forest Whitaker, that series only lasted for a single season. A similiar fate befell the second and final spin-off attempt Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, which ran from 2016 to 2017.
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders lived up to its title and focused on the International Response Team, which is a team of FBI agents that travel to foreign countries to work on cases involving American citizens. Where a common complaint with Suspect Behaviour was that it wasn’t different enough from its mother series to stand out, Beyond Borders added a new hook to the format. That said, many critics accused the series of being intensely xenophobic, and would often depict the countries the fictional IRT traveled to in the worst possible light.
Despite receiving largely poor reviews in its first season, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders performed well enough to get another series. However, like with Suspect Behavior, the core ensemble – consisting of actors like Gary Sinise and Alana de la Garza – never gelled like the main Criminal Minds cast. As the viewership dipped on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders – and the critical response failed to improve either – CBS pulled the plug on the procedural after two seasons.
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Author: Padraig Cotter
