‘Criminal Minds’ raises its IQ without Patinkin

"Criminal Minds" exhausts its stockpile of new episodes tonight, and thanks to the ongoing writers’ strike, episode 13 will likely be the show's season finale.

But if this is the end of the season, the CBS crime drama can find solace in the fact that its third season, abbreviated though it was, was still its best. And that is all the more amazing because this season was supposed to be a disaster.

Last summer, just as filming for this season was to begin, lead actor Mandy Patinkin, who played soft-spoken, bird-loving profiler Jason Gideon, announced he was leaving the show. The unexpected declaration interrupted filming and left "Criminal Minds" fans nervous about the future of the series.

CBS go-to guy Joe Mantegna ("Joan of Arcadia," "First Monday," "The Last Don") was eventually cast as David Rossi to replace Patinkin, but Patinkin gave such short notice that Mantegna’s character wouldn't show up until episode six.

That left lingering questions before he arrived: Could Mantegna fill the void left by Patinkin's commanding screen presence? Would fans abandon the show too quickly to give Mantegna a chance?

A familiar scenario
These questions were especially troublesome to anyone who was a fan of Patinkin's previous network series, "Chicago Hope." They had been through this before and knew disaster was imminent.

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In 1994, "Chicago Hope" aired its first season on CBS with Patinkin leading a cast that included, among others, Thomas Gibson, who now plays Hotch on “Criminal Minds.” In the show's second season, Patinkin abruptly left soon after his Emmy win for best actor got the show some much-needed buzz, and just as "Chicago Hope" was becoming creatively and commercially successful. The medical drama nearly flatlined soon after his exit.

The show did recover, eventually exorcising the ghosts of Patinkin's Dr. Jeffrey Geiger and establishing new stars such as Christine Lahti and Mark Harmon. But it took more than a year and a half of erratic storylines and numerous cast changes before the show in season four returned to, and then exceeded, its former glory.

With that kind of show-killing track record, it's no wonder "Criminal Minds" fans feared the worst. Here was a CBS show starring Patinkin and Gibson that was just finding its voice creatively and, thanks to a post-Super Bowl airing, was starting to generate serious buzz. And Patinkin had just announced he wanted out.

It was all too familiar.

But this time the show didn't get worse without Patinkin. It got better.

A stealthy transformation
With no ready replacement for Patinkin, the show's remaining six characters had to fill the space of seven. So they grew. Characters who were little more than badges and haircuts — stuck in that impersonal world of crime procedurals — developed layered personalities.

Sure, fans got a glimpse of Agent Morgan's past last season, and geeky Dr. Reid got himself a drug habit. But most episodes were about the crimes more than the people.

This season, "Criminal Minds" stealthily transformed into a show about the people who solve crimes -­ a small but important difference.

Now team liaison J.J. isn't just the blonde one who briefs the team. She's a compassionate professional desperately trying to figure out if she cares too much for the victims and their families, or not enough.

Computer whiz Garcia moved past the "feisty lab girl" stereotype CBS procedurals love so much, getting a bullet to the shoulder and a boyfriend in the span of two episodes. And straight-laced Hochner went from being an agent with a wife and kid to being a tormented husband and father as his wife and son moved out of his life.

Plus, the show was able to beef up its characterization without sacrificing its identity.

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This season's crimes were as twisted and disturbing as ever. The "Lucky" episode, in which a killer fed a young woman to the very people trying to rescue her, was one of the creepiest hours of TV in years. And the show even managed to turn “Malcolm in the Middle” into a badass when Frankie Muniz guest starred as a comic-book artist suffering a psychotic break.

So whether fans watched the show for its characters or for its creepy crimes, this season delivered, and it did so in spite of Patinkin's exit and Mantegna's entrance.

Filling the vacuum
It always seems to take a while for new characters to acclimate to a series, but after 12 episodes, Mantegna's agent David Rossi still feels like an outsider — an unnecessary outsider.

CBS obviously wanted to bring in the anti-Gideon, so they made the old-school Rossi brash and direct, someone who doesn't care about hurting his fellow agents' feelings to close a case. And that might have been a good plan if he had stepped onto the show just as Patinkin left. There was a vacuum to fill then.

But in those few post-Patinkin episodes, the characters filled that vacuum themselves. They began mentoring each other.

When 20-something J.J. started identifying too closely with kidnap victims, who are usually 20-something blonde women, Hochner stepped up to console her. When Reid needed help processing Gideon's absence, Agent Prentiss, who had clashed with Reid last season, helped him through it. And when Prentiss began wondering if she could ever be a mom, much less a good one doing what she does for a living, it was J.J. who was there for her.

For two seasons the show had followed CBS' crime procedural plan of putting a young team of diverse personalities behind the firm leadership of a middle-aged white guy played by an established star (see: "CSI," "CSI: Miami," "NCIS"). But "Criminal Minds" doesn't follow those rules anymore. It's become an ensemble.

To be fair, Mantegna's been doing a fine job as Rossi. And Rossi's antiquated crime-fighting techniques have added some fun and drama at times.

But the big question going into this season was whether or not Mantegna could fill Patinkin's shoes.

As it turns out, he didn't need to. The rest of the cast did it quite well.

Jeff Hidek is the entertainment editor at the Star-News in Wilmington, N.C. Contact him at or through his blog at tv.starnewsonline.com.

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