On Nov. 24, 2022, Criminal Minds Evolution, the reboot of the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, first aired. Criminal Minds was on television for 15 seasons from 2005-2020 and was a heavily praised show with an unbeatable cast and superior plot compared to most other true crime media that has been popular recently, so it is no surprise that two years later the cast is back to reprise their most famous roles. 

The show’s original plot revolves around the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) which is located in Quantico, VA, where some of the FBI’s most elite psychoanalysis profilers take charge in taking down some of the worlds most twisted criminals using their knowledge of psychology and profiling.

Criminal Minds Evolution did not shy away from changing the plot. For this season, the BAU is met with their biggest and most corrupted case yet, a criminal named Sicarius. Sicarius is an intelligent villain who makes frequent appearances throughout the reboot as he is our main antagonist. We see flashbacks into his childhood and earlier teenage years as well as his life outside being a perpetrator. 

The plot following Sicarius and watching the BAU try everything they can to prevent more harm is quite different then the show’s past seasons. It is a change seeing all of our favorite profilers spend so much time on one case instead of having a new case to study and solve by the end of a forty minute long episode like we have been viewing for the past 15 seasons.

However, the reboot has many redeeming qualities even if the plot has changed. I love how in-depth the reboot goes when it comes to the profilers’ lives. In the original show, we would often get small information about our main characters’ lives every now and then, but in the reboot there are whole episodes focusing on specific profilers and what their lives look like outside of work. 

For example, we get to see how agent David Rossi is handling the loss of his wife or when we get to see agent Jennifer Jareau trying to be a supportive wife and mother while having one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in the country. Seeing more about the characters we know and love is definitely my favorite thing about the season so far. 

While the reboot has not been fully released yet with only 6 out of the 10 episodes to be dropped, I thoroughly enjoy being able to watch a new episode every Thursday when it comes out on Paramount+. This season can tend to be vulgar and more gory than it has been in the past, but if you are not sensitive to those topics and you were a fan of the original show, then I highly recommend that you watch Criminal Minds Evolution.