Have always had a love for detective/mystery shows and there are so many great ones out there, whether it's the slow-burning, more intellectual ones ('Inspector Morse), ones that mixed comedy and drama ('A Touch of Frost'), anything Agatha Christie (namely 'Poirot'), the light-hearted ones ('Midsomer Murders' in its prime) or the gritty ones ('Taggart').
Am a great fan of 'Criminal Minds', if more in the early seasons which were much more consistent. So was looking forward to 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour'. Especially after catching up on some short-lived shows, that while having flaws showed a lot of promise and were cancelled when they were still growing. 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour' unfortunately never seemed to get off the ground, a slow start like this one would have been forgivable (most shows do and even 'Criminal Minds' did a little) but to show little, if any, improvement even when halfway through was indication of a show that wasn't going to work and for me and many others its cancellation after 13 episodes was justified.
Its pilot episode "Two of a Kind" is a perfect example of how not to do a pilot episode. There are fantastic examples of show pilots around, a prime example being 'Lost', but when a pilot doesn't establish anything or make its characters, interactions and how they work interesting or clear one knows something is wrong.
Sure "Two of a Kind" is well-shot but never anything extraordinary, lacking the darker, grittier touch that the original 'Criminal Minds' show brought to its darker scenes. Also thought very little of the music, the background scoring brings nothing different compared to that of other detective shows, sounding more generic than haunting or pulse-racing and the opening titles theme is so rushed that remembering it is impossible. The writing is all over the place, constantly not knowing what to do with itself and filled with poorly written lines delivered like wood. All of it just sounded rushed, on-the-surface with no development whatsoever and often over-the-top.
The story line for "Two of a Kind" is never attention-grabbing, feeling like retread of a standard child abduction story for the original 'Criminal Minds' but with none of the tension, suspense or the emotion. It was all just so dull and bland, parts were ridiculous and motivations are vague . None of the characters are easy to engage with at all either, little if anything is learnt about them, one actually doesn't know who is who at first, apart from Garcia (who is pointless on this show and has none of her spark) and Simms of the new characters. The interaction between them is barely existent and quite awkward and there are no little character moments, which was a constant strength of 'Criminal Minds', even in several lesser episodes. The unsub, revealed too early and used too much (a weakness of latter season 'Criminal Minds') is too vanilla, not creepy enough to be anywhere near as detestable as the best villains on the original and their development is at best sketchy to feel anything else for him.
Acting is also some of the worst ever for any detective/mystery series from personal opinion, with only Michael Kelly showing any effort of the regulars. Raphael Sbarge does his best in an against type role but his character doesn't give him much to do anything extraordinary or memorable with it.
Especially bad is Janeane Garofalo, who shows the emotions of a robot, if she was trying to be serious it comes at the expense of personality, and the character just grates. Forrest Whittaker is terribly and shockingly inconsistent, at points he goes completely through the motions (slurring words and all) and at other points he clearly over-compensates for the poor writing, the authoritative personality is overdone and then any empathising or emotion is delivered with a face of stone. Kirsten Vangsness, a bright spot in the original, doesn't make a smooth transition here, Garcia is pointless and just doesn't fit, like numerous episodes of the later seasons of 'Criminal Minds' her role is also too convenient and there to just provide the answers. Vangsness has lost her spark due to poor writing and being underused.
Overall, a less than promising and actually pretty poor pilot. 2/10 Bethany Cox
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