Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior | C-

CBS loves crime show spin-offs. The network has allotted many hours for franchises of popular shows like CSI,NCIS, and other shows with indecipherable acronyms as titles. So it is far from shocking that CBS created an anticipated spin-off of the celebrated series Criminal Minds.

Its name is Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, in which the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI searches for unknown suspects based on behavioral trends in criminals. Isn't that what every investigative unit does? For this reason, we're not exactly sure which specific cases the unit handles. But we do know that the team has enough experience to tackle any issue. Special Agent Sam Cooper (Forest Whitaker, The King of Scotland) of Criminal Minds now heads his own handpicked team. His ability to work through a criminal's psyche makes him almost clairvoyant in predicting the delinquent's next step.

With the use of an ex-con, the team has a different perspective to aid in catching a killer. Ill-tempered pending agent Jonathan "Prophet" Simms (Michael Kelly, The Sopranos) killed a child molester and now lends his "unique" (sociopathic) insight into bringing bad guys down. Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) also returns as the familiar fast-talking data whiz from the original series.

Everything about the pilot was formulaic. A young girl is kidnapped at arm's length from her house. The team is baffled, until they discover (surprise!) another abduction that occurred a mere week before. Could these two crimes be related? After much questioning, sources relay that both children were seen entering the same vehicle—a sky blue panel van with no windows. Obviously a van like that practically screams "pedophile."

The team then profiles and identifies the perpetrator and tracks down his location. They ultimately bring the girls safely home, but not before the culprit faces Simms through the barrel of a gun. "Why not just kill me and get it over with?" taunts the perpetrator. "Because I killed a guy like you once before," Simms coos wisely. "It wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be." Simms refrains from shooting and the group's boss (Richard Schiff, The West Wing) upgrades the Prophet to a full agent. The team is astounded, but the audience is not.

Not a word spoken in the episode gave Suspect Behavior an original voice. The actors were superb, including scrutinized comedian Janeane Garofalo (24), especially when working with a campy script so heavily inundated with clichés. The show is only worthy of attention because of the performances. And yet, for all of its flaws, the pilot still attracted 12.9 million viewers. The only surprise of Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior is how well the spin-off has succeeded thus far.