Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders

This show is just so horrible and it has Erica Messer's signature all over it. First, the original Criminal Minds frequently messes up details because its writers don't seem to know US geography (hence Quantico and DC are contiguous communities). But once the writers go "beyond borders," they really show their ignorance both geographically and culturally. Second, CBS seems to have adopted an ominous signature cinematography which makes everyone look horrible… and it's doing Sinise no favors. Third, everything on this show seems formulaic (again, a Messer signature); anyone who is paying attention can figure out the ending before the first commercial break. And finally the cast, which changed since the "pilot," has no chemistry. Frankly, my co-workers and I have no chemistry – but we aren't asking millions of people to watch us every week either.

Cancellation in five…four…three

Seriously, who on earth believes that some pseudo-"qualified" Americans need to fly into a country to "fix" things and resolve a crime? And who wrote this script that has Alana De La Garza spouting local so called legend wherever she lands? It is painfully bad viewing.She has zero depth and I want to do to her what the perp did to the victim in episode 5. I'm kinda serious. She has no acting chops but she flips from country to country and we are expected to believe she knows all the local languages, habits, and so on, and she is no one with no background and doesn't have the strength of character to carry off such a task. Give me a break. She is so puffed up and secure in her so called knowledge of the area and country. And yeah, who believes that this crowd rolls into a country in their private plane all equipped with vehicles and weaponry? What rubbish.

When I saw the title of the show I got very interested, but after three episodes I have to say it is a huge disappointment and a totally missed opportunity. As someone with international background and loved the original CM series, this show unfortunately demonstrates a very simplified, distorted, American-centric view of the world. The plots are OK so far. But the offensive, one-sided plots/comments about other countries/cultures keep jumping out, making me want to turn off the TV immediately. Ep2(India) is slightly better than the others, but after watching ep3 (Egypt) I just decided it is time for me to stop watching the show.

To be honest, I found the first episode story offensive, The Thai people are some the most polite and friendly people you could ever hope to meet who have turned smiling into an art form , This episode gives the impression that they are unsociable and standoffish. Then the idea that You could drive out into the Jungle and the first place you stop is the bad guys den, Totally unbelievable. I loved CM Suspect Behavior,And that got canned before the end of the first season. This show (based on the first episode) has not got a patch on CM Suspect Behavior. The Original Criminal Minds set a standard of good story telling and well made TV episodes, This is a very lazy attempt to recreate that success with great actors but cutting out all the style that makes CM a great show.

Even given the xenophobia of the show, I'm surprised that their first four episodes took place in countries that use the British right hand side driving system (Thailand, India, Egypt and Japan) but the local cars in the show have the steering wheel on the left ALF (Aft Looking Forward). Most prominent was the old BMW in Cairo and the plot point that showed a clue on the 'passenger's seat' which was on the right rather than the left. This adds to the feeling that the show's producers' mission is to denigrate foreign cultures and peoples. This lack of attention to detail adds to the lack of sensitivity to foreign cultures that seem to be a hallmark of the show. As an American who has lived in Iran, Jordan, Germany, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, I'm surprised with the world wide audience nature of TV these days that more attention wasn't paid to these details.