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Brokaw: ‘Criminal Minds’ returns with streaming sequel

By Francine Brokaw - Special to the Daily Herald | Nov 30, 2022

Courtesy photo

"Criminal Minds: Evolution" is streaming now on Paramount+.

Paramount+ has brought back the popular case-of-the-week drama “Criminal Minds” with “Criminal Minds: Evolution” — complete with the actors and characters viewers love. The cast met virtually with the media to discuss the return of the show.

The show explores what the characters have been doing since February 2020, when the pandemic hit and the show unceremoniously ended. After years away, the actors were overjoyed to discover it would be returning. Paget Brewster, who joined the show in its second season, said “We were all excited.” Aisha Tyler, who is credited for 87 episodes in the original series after joining in 2015, added, “It was pretty exciting.”

Tyler said that plenty of people were not happy with the initial cancellation, and Joe Mantegna joked, “The only ones that should be upset are the ones that were dumb enough to cancel it in the first place.” It was a very popular show with live viewers on CBS and took on a second life as younger viewers flocked to the series on Netflix and other streaming services.

When the discussion moved to the dark side of the stories they portray on screen, everyone was in agreement — it is difficult to imagine how the real FBI deals with these incidents.

“I’ve always been a defender of the fact that our show gave that realistic aspect to what these real men and women do. Because, you know, very often we hear, ‘Oh, how can you’ – ‘don’t you get nightmares?’ Or, ‘Doesn’t it disturb you to do this show?’ No. My feeling is it doesn’t disturb me at all. Because when they say ‘cut,’ that person lying there with the ax in his head pops it up and goes over to craft services and gets a sandwich,” Mantegna said. “The ones I worry about are the real men and women of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world who have to really do this for a living.”

The actor added, “… thank God we have the men and women who really do this job. And if you really want to see what they have to deal with every day, we’re giving you a snapshot of that.”

There is no doubt the return of the series will delight fans who have stayed with the show for years. There are ten episodes in this season and the first two were released on Thanksgiving. For viewers too invested in turkey and family, now is the time to catch up and be ready for new episodes, dropping on Paramount+ on Thursdays.

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