By Matt Webb Mitovich
Things aren't exactly B.A.U. at the BAU this Wednesday on Criminal Minds (CBS, 9/8c), when the team is enlisted to assist in solving a brutal crime committed against Americans outside the States.
In the planted spinoff episode, titled “Beyond Borders,” International Unit Chief Jack Garrett (played by CSI: NY vet Gary Sinise) reaches out to Hotch & Co. when the abduction of a family in Barbados dovetails with a case the Stateside BAU once worked. Rounding out Garrett's team are Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn (as international law expert Lily Lambert), Daniel Henney (Hawaii Five-0) as Special Ops Agent Matt Simmons and Tyler James Williams (The Walking Dead) as tech guru Russ “Monty” Montgomery.
TVLine invited Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer — who penned the potential spinoff — to talk of past lessons learned and why Sinise elected to play CBS crimesolver again. (Messer also teases another upcoming episode, directed by cast member Matthew Gray Gubler.)
TVLINE | Most simply put, what lessons were learned from the previous attempt at a Criminal Minds spinoff that were applied this time around?
In a word, many. The most noticeable one — and it's probably a struggle that every spinoff has – is: How are you the same but different? And what happened last go-around [with Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior starring Forest Whitaker] was, “Oh, they're different because they're rogue.” They don't work at the FBI, they work out of a dojo. And they've got this whole sort of “rogue” mentality about them. But [for Beyond Borders] I thought, maybe how they’re the same but...
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