Gary Sinise is back behind a badge, and coming soon perhaps to a country near you, in OSN First HD's Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, the newest globetrotting version of the durable television franchise.
While it's unlikely to do any favours for the tourism industry – and may well magnify the xenophobia that already afflicts some Americans – this second Criminal Minds spin-off injects international intrigue and richer visuals into the franchise with its exotic locations and cultural escapades as an elite FBI team rescues Americans in danger abroad.
"Crime can happen anywhere, criminals are everywhere," says executive producer Erica Messer, noting that 68 million Americans travel abroad every year. "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders might make you think twice in the way that you travel, but we certainly don't want to scare anyone away from going anywhere in the world, because it is still a beautiful place out there."
Of course, while the world can be stunning, it’s full of ugly crimes. The opening episode, which debuts at 10pm on May 22 on OSN First HD, introduces sheer horror into the lives of young women who have volunteered to work on farms in Thailand.
And then there’s the case of the wife who is found dead in Mexico – and all fingers point at the husband. In another outing, we even get to wander the “suicide forest” of Tokyo.
“You learn about the Japanese culture through that episode,” says Messer. “Suicide is a real thing there and people do go to that forest to kill themselves. At least three Americans die there every year, but what happens in our episode is that three people die in a week.”
First spin-off flopped
When compared with typical procedural dramas, what swiftly distinguished the original Criminal Minds series, launched in 2005 and just renewed by CBS for a 12th season, is its focus on profiling the criminal – the "unsub" or "unknown subject" – rather than the crime itself.
The first spin-off, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour, debuted in 2011 with Forest Whitaker in the lead role, but was cancelled after one season of iffy ratings.
“[In 2011], we were trying too hard to be different,” says executive producer Mark Gordon. When you create a spin-off, “you want something that’s fresh and different but at same time you want to honour the show you’re spinning off from.”
This time, by placing the right kind of case in a new country each week, Gordon says, Beyond Borders now fits "correctly in the Criminal Minds family – but with its own identity".
The team
As with the original series, in Beyond Borders, too, viewers get to more or less ride along – and intelligently guess along – with an elite squad of FBI profilers as they analyse twisted criminal minds, motivations and emotional triggers in a bid to predict the perpetrators' next moves before they can strike again.
Sinise leads members of the specialised International Division of the FBI as veteran Unit Chief Jack Garrett.
“He’s a father of six. He’s a successful family man,” says Sinise.
“He’s married to his high-school sweetheart. One thing that we haven’t established too much in the first 13 episodes is that he comes from a line of FBI agents. We’re going to learn about his father and his uncle and his son, who’s now in the [FBI] academy.”
Future episodes will explore the personal lives of team members who include Matthew Simmons (Daniel Henney, Big Hero 6), a military hero with lighting-fast profiling skills, and Russ "Monty" Montgomery (Tyler James Williams, best known as Noah on The Walking Dead), a brilliant tech analyst who handles communications with the families of those who are in trouble.
Other members include Clara Seger (Alana de la Garza, Forever), a smart, well-traveled and multilingual cultural anthropologist, and Mae Jarvis (Annie Funke), the team's fearless and fun medical examiner.
A veteran of CSI:NY
This is hardly the first cops-and-sickos rodeo for series star Sinise – who has a knack for bringing pulse-pounding presence to heroic roles – and who enjoyed a successful run as a 9/11 widower, Detective Mac Taylor, in the CBS series CSI: NY (2004-13).
After rising from theatrical roots, and co-founding the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1974, Sinise first became a household name for his Oscar-nominated role as the anguished, legless Lieutenant Dan opposite Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (1994).
He went on to win a Golden Globe for his portrayal of American President Harry S Truman in Truman (1995) and an Emmy for his role as the presidential wannabe and Alabama Governor George C Wallace in the television film George Wallace (1997).
Through his new character of Jack Garrett, Sinise says he hopes “to show somebody who was able to balance home and work, even though he’s dealing with a pretty dark world.”
•Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders airs 10pm on May 22 on OSN First HD
artslife@thenational.ae
