The sudden finish of the long-standing Felony Minds, which aired on CBS for 15 seasons, was devastating. With, on this author’s opinion, the most effective group within the present’s historical past in the previous few seasons — Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), Jennifer “JJ” Jareau (AJ Prepare dinner), Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler), Matt Simmons (Daniel Henney), Spencer Reid (Matthew Grey Gubler), Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez), David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), and fan-favorite Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) — and no scarcity of fascinating tales and dynamics to discover, the top got here far too quickly for these beloved BAU profilers. Fortunately, the Paramount+ revival Felony Minds: Evolution has picked issues again up with a lot of the group, however don’t anticipate this to be the identical present you left behind.
After viewing the primary two episodes of the season, the “evolution” within the title appears extremely becoming. That’s exactly what this revival is. With out strict community boundaries to work inside, the collection is increasing in main and satisfying methods. From the longer size of episodes to the a lot larger, considerably serialized story of a bunch of killers working collectively, Felony Minds is profiting from its new life and succeeding at doing so. The revival is new and improved, shaking up a number of very important features of the collection to inform deeper, darker, and extra thrilling tales.
As we meet up with the profilers, it’s unattainable to disregard how a lot has modified over the previous few years. Reid and Simmons are gone on task, stored secret from the group by the powers above them, promising they’re free to return if and once they determine to — pretty consultant of the real-world scenario. JJ and Will (Josh Stewart) are struggling to seek out their footing once more with their hectic schedules. Tara has gone in a brand new route romantically, whereas Prentiss has accepted a promotion to Unit Chief that has taken her out of the sector in an try to assist her division do their jobs to the most effective of their potential amidst distinctive and mind-boggling bureaucratic interference.
Nobody has skilled fairly as a lot change (at the least up to now) as Rossi and Garcia. Rossi is a wreck when issues choose again up, having skilled a profound change in his life throughout our time away that has fully turned his life the wrong way up. Whereas he’s the brand new chief of the BAU, he’s turning into obsessive about their instances and shutting out the world. He’s notably preoccupied with the current homicide of a household as he desperately tries to place the items collectively earlier than the killer strikes once more, all as a distraction from his personal emotions. However, Garcia has put her serial killer looking days behind her since she left the BAU, focusing extra on letting mild and positivity into her life. She has no real interest in returning to her former group however begins to be sucked again in when the mission she has been engaged on in her time away turns into an important a part of the investigation.
As a complete, the Habits Evaluation Unit seems to be fairly a bit totally different after the FBI determined to vary up its approach of doing issues. As an alternative of being a cohesive group, they’ve been cut up into a number of instructions and tasked with fixing totally different crimes as micro-teams to keep up peak effectivity. When the revival begins, Tara is on her personal in Yakima County, Washington, digging into a chilly case that piques fairly a little bit of curiosity. Rossi is coping with the above-mentioned case alone. Luke is heading up the division again at Quantico, filling in for Rossi every time he’s comparatively unreachable. In the meantime, JJ is simply returning from wanting into a special case on her personal.
It takes a little bit of time to get used to the brand new regular, however the writers have excitingly developed the characters within the time away. Everyone seems to be on a brand new path now, although it’s straightforward to see how they need to, ultimately, come again collectively to be the group we as soon as knew. Altogether, there’s a heightened give attention to the characters as people, which is one thing that was at all times sorely missing when the collection was on CBS. There was by no means sufficient time to inform the tales of serial killers and dig into the characters on a private degree in each single episode, however that doesn’t appear to be a difficulty now with extra time at their disposal (even when there are fewer episodes).
Felony Minds has at all times informed mind-boggling, twisted tales of fictional serial killers that constantly result in surprising locations. This hasn’t modified on the revival. However, what has modified is how they’re going about it. There’s nonetheless the case-of-the-week facet, however as teased within the description for the season, it’s all related to a community of serial killers began by the devious Elias Voit (performed by Friday Night time Lights and The Midnight Membership’s Zach Gilford). From the very starting, we’re watching the evolution of this horrifying particular person and the way he has turn out to be one of the crucial prolific serial killers the BAU has ever been tasked with looking. So, whereas there’s nonetheless the gratification of discovering a killer on the finish of an episode, the serialized storytelling continues… which permits the collection to take action rather more.
We’ve seen it earlier than with season-long villains like Mr. Scratch (Bodhi Elfman), who feels someway remarkably much like Elias, nevertheless it hasn’t had fairly the identical impact as a result of these tales had been pressured to construct in a really scattered method. With Felony Minds: Evolution, every episode picks up with the story from the final and continues to develop it, in the end giving the writers extra energy and no must someway discover a approach to write off their season-long villain within the interim. It permits the viewer to remain invested within the overarching story with fewer distractions, which might solely improve the eventual payoff of the profilers lastly catching this nefarious villain.
After solely two episodes, it’s unattainable to say something as if it’s matter-of-fact. There are nonetheless eight extra within the first season of Felony Minds: Evolution that would fully change issues up once more. Nevertheless, the collection is on an incredible path to date. The characters we have now come to like over time are again, the BAU is collectively once more, and there’s an incredible, winding story to accompany the reunion. Plus, a brand new life on streaming permits the present to be darker, extra twisted (with out getting too ugly), and in the end way more life like. An interview with a suspect within the premiere episode is probably the most real on the collection thus far and is likely one of the first examples of every part that stands to be gained from embracing this new path ahead.
Total, it’s a pleasure to have Felony Minds again once more in any kind. Optimistic change is in retailer, even when circumstances aren’t the most effective for the characters upon our return to their lives after witnessing their “fortunately ever after” within the collection finale on CBS. Evolution feels true to who every of them is and offers the chance for extra of every part that folks liked concerning the unique present. It’s clear that the actors are completely satisfied to be again, and the writers have much more sadistic and perverse tales of serial killers to inform.