Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
Genre	Police procedural Drama Thriller Crime drama
Created by	Erica Messer
Starring	Gary Sinise Alana de la Garza Daniel Henney Tyler James Williams Annie Funke
Opening theme	"Leave It to Stevie" by Stevie J (Season 2)
Ending theme	"Leave It to Stevie"
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Erica Messer Mark Gordon Nick Pepper Adam Glass
Producers	Gary Sinise Matthew Lau
Running time	40–45 minutes
Production companies	The Mark Gordon Company Erica Messer Productions CBS Television Studios ABC Studios
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	March 16, 2016 (2016-03-16) – May 17, 2017 (2017-05-17)
Related
Criminal Minds Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders is an American police procedural television series created by Erica Messer that aired on CBS from March 16, 2016, to May 17, 2017. The show is produced by The Mark Gordon Company in association with CBS Television Studios and ABC Studios. The production is a spin-off from original series, Criminal Minds , airing on the same network, and is the third series in the Criminal Minds franchise. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders follows an elite team of FBI agents of the fictional International Response Team (IRT) tasked with solving cases that involve American citizens on international soil. ^[1]

CBS aired a backdoor pilot on an episode of Criminal Minds on April 8, 2015, introducing the characters with a crossover episode eponymously titled "Beyond Borders". ^{[1] [2]} The series was originally intended to premiere on March 2, 2016, but was pushed back by two weeks and instead premiered on March 16, 2016, and filled the Wednesday 10:00 p.m. time slot, airing immediately after the original Criminal Minds.

On May 14, 2017, CBS canceled the series after two seasons. ^[3]

Characters

Main article: List of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders characters

Main

• Jack Garrett (Gary Sinise), Senior Supervisory Special Agent and International Unit Chief. ^[4]

Garrett is a 20-year veteran agent with the FBI and is the Unit Chief of the International Response Team (IRT). In his personal life, Garrett is married to Karen (Sherry Stringfield) and together have six children, including their oldest, a son named Ryan and their middle child, a daughter named Josie.

• Clara Seger (Alana de la Garza), Senior Supervisory Special Agent, Linguistics Specialist, and Cultural Anthropologist. ^{[5] [6]}

Seger is a smart, well-traveled, and multi-lingual cultural anthropologist and special agent with the IRT. Before rejoining the IRT in October 2015, Seger was married to a man named Brad who was a fellow agent and, like her, knew Jack. ^[7] In 2013, she took a sabbatical from the FBI after her husband Brad died, during which she visited countries across the globe.

• Matthew Simmons (Daniel Henney), Supervisory Special Agent and Special Operations Agent. ^[4]

Simmons is a Special Operations agent and special agent with the IRT. Simmons is married to his wife Kristy (Kelly Frye) and has a total of four children, including two boys Jake and David and twin daughters, all of them under the age of three. He was a former member of a Special Ops unit, and his experience with the unit allowed him to hone his profiling skills.

• Russ Montgomery (Tyler James Williams), Supervisory Special Agent and Technical Analyst. ^[4]

Montgomery is a technical analyst with the IRT. He upholds a positive attitude, though he shows it in a different way. In addition to his job as a technical analyst, he liaises with the families of victims on the American homeland while the rest of his group is away.

• Mae Jarvis (Annie Funke), Supervisory Special Agent and Medical Examiner. ^[5]

Jarvis is a medical examiner and special agent with the IRT. Young and spunky, Mae has a fun-loving sibling relationship with Simmons and was in the FBI purely as a medical examiner before being brought onto the IRT as a resident medical examiner to bypass the bureaucratic red tape in various countries. By the events of the first season, Mae had become a fully qualified FBI field agent, in addition to being the IRT's resident ME. ^[7]

Recurring

• Karen Garrett (Sherry Stringfield), Jack's wife and the mother of their six children. ^[8]
• Josie Garrett (Brittany Uomoleale), the middle daughter of Jack and Karen Garrett's six children.
• Kristy Simmons (Kelly Frye), the wife of Matthew Simmons and the mother of their four children, Jake and David Simmons and their two daughters.
• Jake Simmons (Ezra Dewey), the son of Matthew and Kristy Simmons and the brother to David Simmons.
• David Simmons (Declan Whaley), the son of Matthew and Kristy Simmons and the brother to Jake Simmons.
• Ryan Garrett (Matt Cohen), Jack's and Karen's oldest son who was accepted to and received training at the FBI Academy. He later becomes an undercover agent in Mexico, where he crosses paths with the IRT in the second season.

Episodes

See also: List of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders episodes

In total 26 episodes of Beyond Borders have aired, in addition to the pilot episode, "Beyond Borders".

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
Backdoor pilot			April 8, 2015 (2015-04-08)
1	13		March 16, 2016 (2016-03-16)	May 25, 2016 (2016-05-25)
2	13		March 8, 2017 (2017-03-08)	May 17, 2017 (2017-05-17)

Production

A proposed new series in the Criminal Minds franchise was announced in January 2015, and was to be named Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. Former CSI: NY star Gary Sinise and Anna Gunn had been cast in the lead roles of Jack Garrett and Lily Lambert, with Tyler James Williams and Daniel Henney being cast as Russ "Monty" Montgomery and Matthew "Matt" Simmons, respectively.

On May 8, 2015, CBS announced that Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders had been picked up for the 2015–16 season; however, it was soon announced that Gunn had departed the series, ^[9] with Alana de la Garza and Annie Funke further being cast as series regulars. ^[5]

Reception

Critical response

The first season of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders received generally unfavorable reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a 20% of approval with an average rating of 3.5/10, based on 15 reviews, with the critical consensus reading, "Beyond Borders relies on the same characters and storylines the franchise has used for years, with an extra undertow of xenophobic paranoia." ^[10] On Metacritic, the season was given a score of 28 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". ^[11]

The series has received criticism from both viewers and critics for its "inaccurate" depictions of the countries the episodes are set in. ^[12] In its review of the show, pop culture news website The A.V. Club labeled the series as "bland" and "xenophobic". ^[13] In a more scathing commentary, Slate and USA Today have opined that the show was "jingoistic", especially due to the then-current context of Donald Trump's allegedly xenophobic 2016 presidential campaign rhetoric. ^{[14] [15]} Following the airing of the episode "Cinderella and the Dragon", which was set in Singapore, the network received significant backlash from locals regarding the "misleading" representations of Singapore and Singaporeans, ^{[12] [16]} with local Internet celebrity blogger mrbrown and the Singapore Tourism Board posting up their own satirical responses. ^{[17] [18]}

Ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

Note: Each US network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season	Episodes	Time slot (EST)	Premiered		Ended		TV season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
			Date	Premiere viewers (in millions)	Date	Finale viewers (in millions)
1	13	Wednesday 10:00 pm (March 16 – May 25, 2016) Wednesday 9:00 pm (April 6, 2016; May 11; May 25, 2016)	March 16, 2016	8.88 [19]	May 25, 2016	5.19 [20]	2015–16	No. 46	9.02 [21]
2	13	Wednesday 10:00 pm (March 8 – May 17, 2017) Wednesday 9:00 pm (April 12, 2017; May 17, 2017)	March 8, 2017	5.35 [22]	May 17, 2017	4.16 [23]	2016–17	No. 56	6.91 [24]

International broadcast

The series premiered in Australia on the Seven Network in April 2016. ^[25] In Canada, the series airs simultaneously with the U.S. on CTV. The series also airs same day as the U.S. in Asia on AXN. ^[26] On April 20, 2016, the series premiered on W in the United Kingdom and Ireland. ^[27] On July 11, 2016, the series premiered on TV One in New Zealand. ^[28]

References

1. Hibberd, James (December 12, 2014). "'Criminal Minds' doing new spinoff". Entertainment Weekly .
2. Mitovich, Matt Webb (December 12, 2014). "New Criminal Minds Spin-Off in the Works, to Follow Globe-Trotting Team". TVLine . Archived from the original on October 25, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
3. Goldberg, Lesley; O'Connell, Michael (May 14, 2017). "'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' Canceled at CBS". The Hollywood Reporter .
4. "'Criminal Minds' Episode 10.19 Photos: Meet the FBI's International Unit". Buddy TV. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
5. "Alana De La Garza & Annie Funke Join 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders'". Deadline. July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
6. "'Forever' Alum Alana De La Garza Joins 'Criminal Minds' Spinoff". The Hollywood Reporter. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
7. "Meet the Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Team". TV Guide.
8. "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Casts ER Alum as Jack Garrett's Wife". TV Guide. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
9. "How The Criminal Minds Spinoff Will Replace Anna Gunn". Cinema Blend. 28 May 2015.
10. "CRIMINAL MINDS: BEYOND BORDERS: SEASON 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
11. "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders : Season 1". Metacritic. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
12. "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders depiction of Singapore slammed as inaccurate, misleading". The Straits Times . April 18, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
13. "Criminal Minds gets bland, xenophobic Beyond Borders". The A.V. Club . March 16, 2016.
14. Canfield, David (November 29, 2016). "On CBS During Election Season, Viewers Watched Trump's America in Prime Time". Slate .
15. Bianco, Robert (March 15, 2016). "Review: 'Criminal Minds' spinoff feeds fears". USA Today .
16. Roberts, Jonathan (April 19, 2017). "Criminal Minds v Singapore: TV hates reality". The New Paper .
17. "STB takes on Criminal Minds' portrayal of Singapore". The New Paper . April 27, 2017.
18. "WATCH: mrbrown serves hilarious takedown of that awful Singapore-themed Criminal Minds episode". Coconuts Media. April 19, 2017.
19. Porter, Rick (March 17, 2016). "Wednesday final ratings: 'The Goldbergs' and 'SVU' reruns adjust up". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
20. Porter, Rick (May 26, 2016). "Wednesday final ratings: 'SVU' finale adjusts up, 'Supernatural' finale adjusts down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on May 28, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
21. "Full 2015–16 TV Season Series Rankings". Deadline Hollywood. May 26, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
22. Porter, Rick (March 9, 2017). "'Star' adjusts up: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on March 10, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
23. Porter, Rick (May 18, 2017). "'Empire,' 'Blindspot' finale adjust up: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
24. "Final 2016-17 TV Rankings: 'Sunday Night Football' Winning Streak Continues". Deadline Hollywood. May 26, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
25. "Airdate: Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders". TV Tonight. April 12, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
26. "New found love for Thursdays with @GarySinise and @danielhenney on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders! #AXNCMBB". Twitter. March 17, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
27. "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, exclusive to W". UKTV Corporate. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
28. "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' Gary Sinise talks about his return to TV". Stuff.co.nz. 30 June 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders at IMDb