DJariya

By null at 2011-01-30

Synopsis for "Two of a Kind"



Series Synopsis:

Starring:
Forest Whitaker
Janeane Garofalo
Michael Kelly
Beau Garrett
Kirsten Vangsness as Garcia (She's a series regular on this and Criminal Minds)

Guest star:
Richard Schiff (The West Wing)

13 episode 1st season. Ed Bernero, the showrunner for Criminal Minds, is also head writer and showrunner for this spinoff.

Trailer:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/913MYPAZ6jw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm a fan of Criminal Minds, but I didn't like the idea of a spinoff. The backdoor Pilot that aired last season on Criminal Minds wasn't that good. But, I'm willing to give this shot as I like Whitaker and at least Garcia is in this as well. I just don't get how 2 BAU teams are working at the same time. The trailer does look good.

DJariya

So did anyone here check this out tonight?

I would probably give this episode a solid C as Entertainment Weekly gave it.

For the most part, I like Forest Whitaker, but he seems to give a very lazy performance here as Cooper. I think his team definitely doesn't have the same charm as the original BAU team. I didn't really like them in the Criminal Minds backdooor Pilot last season and they still don't really impress me. I'm not a huge fan of Janeane Garofalo and I don't give a shit about her political views, which she seems to get flack for, but I found her to be a good 2nd lead character on this show. She played a pretty straight forward FBI agent.

The opening graphic that introduced this team as the "Red Cell" division of the BAU, reporting directly to the Director seemed so hokey. I wonder if Richard Schiff will make any future appearances. And how come we've never seen the Director of the FBI on the original Criminal Minds?

Another problem I had was it didn't set up this team and the characters well, especially if you didn't see the backdoor Pilot. It felt like we were jumping into episode 10 of this show.

Seeing Garcia on here was a little weird. I know they probably cast her on this show to give original Criminal Minds fans some familiarity and have some tie-in to the original, but it seems a little desperate if you can't have trust that this group can carry the show.

Raphael Sbarge was a decent villain, but the case didn't really make much sense. I did think the kid actors were good.

Unfortunately if you missed this, your not going to be able to see it online as Criminal Minds & this doesn't get posted online legally since it's a co-production with ABC. Since this airs right after Criminal Minds, I will continue to watch and see how it goes.

Deftones

shit. i totally missed it. fuck.

Patman

I have a hard time buying Garafolo as a FBI agent, but weekly doses of Beau Garrett, tough trade-off...

conscience

It was just okay. The cast doesn't gel but it's just the premiere. And Forest Whitaker - why did he sound like he was having breathing problems during ever line? He was even struggling for breath in scenes were he was walking. I will say that he was sporting some cool ass jackets, though.

Patman

Maybe the repo man came for a lung or something.

Quatermass

Totally agree - JAFP (just another f***in procedural). Same shit, different cast. I noticed Whitaker's breathing problems too and I thought he looked terrible. He lost weight, but he did not look healthy. I saw him on Letterman the other night and he seemed better so maybe he had the flu or something when that was filmed.

DJariya

FYI this did really well last night. 12.9M viewers and 3.3 in the demos. It's going to be around for awhile.

DJariya

Just DVR next week. Like any procedural, there isn't much recurring plotline.

coladar

I was shocked to see Kirsten Vangness on the credits as a series regular. I wouldn't have been shocked to have seen what they did with Pauley Perrette on NCIS LA, appearing as a special guest star once in a while to get the show going... But seeing her in the title sequence as a regular? That was pretty surprising.

Anyway, it brought to mind a question when I watched it on my DVR a few hours ago, that I'm dying to have answered. Has an actor ever been a series regular on two shows at the same time? Not "This show was canceled, and we are burning off episodes filmed a year ago." while their new show premieres. I mean an actor being a series regular on two shows at the same time, when both shows were filming simultaneously? I'm sure it's happened at some point... But I have to imagine this is the first time an actor has been a series regular on two shows as the same character.

I definitely wouldn't mind being Vangness... Two series regular credits, and two paychecks as a series regular. For a character that films her scenes all on the same set, for both shows. The residuals she'll get, getting paid for 44 episodes a year... Unless she gets a massive slash in pay compared to the other actors since she isn't "out in the field", she must have been on cloud nine when told "Hey, we are adding you as a cast member to Suspect Behavior. And you'll still be a regular on the original."

DJariya

I can think of one.

Tahmoh Penikett was a series regular on Dollhouse season 1 and Battlestar Galactica's final season in 2009 at the same time. And to top it off they both aired the same day. Granted he finished work on Battlestar months before he started Dollhouse.

skacore

Janeane Garofalo was an FBI Agent in Clay Pigeons. She did a great job.....though it was more of a comedy.

This show sucks though. Unsub, unsub, unsub, unsub unsub!

conscience

Clear!

Clear!

Clear!

I was laughing so hard. Whitaker's character was last everywhere and it seemed like he just had to say clear because everyone else did. That very well may be protocol but it just sounded phony here.

DJariya

Do you watch the original Criminal Minds? Unsub is used all the time. I don't know why some people find it annoying. It means Unknown subject.

Patman

It's a terrible sounding slang. Hated it when I first watched the original CM, and ditched the show after about half a season.

NORML54601

This didn't click for me, though I don't like Garrafalo or Whitaker much. As for the breathing thing, he always sounds like that, kinda took me out of S5(?) of The Sheild, though I got used to it watching them back to back.
Am I missing something, hasn't Garcia been traveling with the original team during this season? How can she be in two places at once?

skacore

Yes. I marathoned seasons 1-4. I don't like it. Gave this a try because I'm a huge Janeane Garofalo & Forest Whitaker fan.

unsub.

DJariya

Watched last night's episode and thought it was much better than the premiere. The case with the female killer who enjoyed watching the suspect die was pretty creepy. I liked the twist on who the killer actually was.

at Garcia. She had blonde hair on last night's Criminal Minds and red hair on Suspect Behavior afterwards.

The thing I don't like about this show is them trying to differentiate this BAU team as the "Red Cell" division reporting directly to the Director. To me that just seems really corny. Also, since this airs right after Criminal Minds, I can see this show getting really repetitive with similar storylines. At least the CSI's and NCIS, NCIS LA have different locations to help broaden the storytelling.

NORML54601

Agreed that it was better than the first two.

aintnosin

No, that only happened for the first couple of episodes after AJ Cook left.

movie diva

Heather Locklear was on TJ Hooker and Dynasty at the sametime.

chowderhead

DA Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson) crossed over a bunch of the L&O spin offs at the same time i.e. SVU, CI, Conviction. Trial by Jury.


I am not a big fan of this spin off. It seems like conclusions/leads were reached/arrive at with very little reason or believability. There were scenes I had to roll my eyes at. The original CM is much better executed.

DJariya

The show is watchable, but I'm not a huge fan of this team. I have to laugh everytime Whitaker (Cooper) speaks softly to describe the Unsubs. It seems to be the show is really redundant after watching Criminal Minds at 9pm.

Wednesday's episode was okay. Justine Bateman looks like shit and I thought her motives for killing those people and the tying it in to the "See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil" was silly.

I don't remember seeing his name in the opening credits, but was the 1st victim Marc Singer?

wz42

Ugh...Tonight's ep (at least on CTV Canada) Devotion has turned me off to both CM shows for good I think.

They do gore once and awhile but only for a bit but a rotting corpse in mutiple scenes...this is fine to air on OTA but Janet Jackson's nip slip was a disaster?

DeadLamb

at least the case was really different. It's can't be easy to come up with some sort of twist that people can't really see coming but is still foreshadowed well.

Forest Whitaker's character getting sort of worked up as he gets into the killers mindset or whatever is getting a little old already IMO.. I don't know, maybe it's that the team just doesn't seem to click that well together or something.

still, IMO the cases have been interesting so I'll keep tuning in for now..