The closing victor within the streaming wars has been the target audience, which now enjoys the spoils of a content-starved surroundings wherein loss of life is by no means final, and any acquainted TV franchise has an amazing shot at being resurrected. For evidence, as though any more is wanted, appearance to the motley group of psychopath hunters from the lengthy-strolling procedural “Criminal Minds,” now again in movement on Paramount+ less than 3 years after CBS took them off the case.
But this is not quite the show visitors watched for 324 episodes. This is “Criminal Minds: Evolution,” a 10-episode-long gentle reboot simply intended to push the franchise into a greater mature territory with deliberate pacing and a renewed consciousness at the profilers fixing the murders, in preference to the perpetrators committing them. It’s a logical development for the show, which for all its success on CBS, continually felt a piece too dark for the network, however still no longer as dark as it must accept the ghastly subject rely. With “Evolution” comes a risk to build a richer and extra actual generation of “Criminal Minds” past the strictures of the 10 p.M. Timeslot. At the very least, “Evolution” offers the show any other shot at a proper sendoff. “Criminal Minds” confronted the conundrum confronted by way of every retiring collection with ugly situation be counted or a nasty tone: strive on optimism, even if doing so defies what got here before it, or commit to a emblem-suitable ending that bums the target audience out. The February 2020 episode now technically taken into consideration the Season 15 finale, rather than the collection finale, opted for sweetness and mild at the cost of tonal inconsistency and unattended plot threads.
“Evolution” might be a ways closer to what fanatics recollect, with every character quivering below the massive psychic burden of a task that calls for occupying the headspaces of serial killers. Joe Mantegna reprises his position as David Rossi, the clever and fastidious lead profiler of the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Unit, who is in a much worse state of thoughts than he changed into remaining visible in. There’s a time soar — basically in real-time — to account for the pandemic, throughout which Rossi has suffered a crippling personal loss. He redirects his grief into the work, making him more likely to lash out at his colleagues when they second-bet the professional reviews that now incorporate his entire life.
The rest of the BAU gang is greater or less intact, except Spencer Reid (day-one everyday Matthew Gray Gubler) and Season 13 addition Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney). Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) remains heading up the unit after a failed bid to run the whole employer, however is now under the thumb of a boastful new superior who will luckily quick-change the BAU to get similarly in his career. Tara (Aisha Tyler) and Luke (Adam Rodriguez) are nevertheless on the beat, final in on their latest twisted “unsub.” (“Unknown issue,” for those out of the loop.) Meanwhile, resident white hat Penelope (Kirsten Vangsness) is decidedly not on the beat, having resolved to prioritize self-care over searching killers.This may additionally all sound like just some other season of “Criminal Minds” in preference to an “Evolution.” And that’s to be expected, with the display under the path of showrunner Erica Messer, an OG manufacturer who additionally labored on the fast-lived derivative “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.” But the breakthrough is within the plotting, which is designed to make “Evolution” a more serialized serial killer procedural. Rather than juggle a season-long Big Bad with frequently contained monster-of-the-week stories, “Evolution” braids the 2 together, lending the display a brand new momentum and cohesiveness that it’s simplest hinted at earlier than. With every killer the group neutralizes, they get toward their larger goal. The real masterstroke is casting Zach Gilford because the top unsub, the religious leader of a national network of murderous acolytes. Gilford’s intensity makes for a absolutely creepy foe against which the BAU feels properly-matched, and he makes the most of his opportunity to play the anti-Matt Saracen, his beloved “Friday Night Lights” man or woman.