# Criminal Minds (2005)

> An elite FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit team hunts America's most twisted serial killers by thinking like the criminals they pursue.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/3856

## Facts

- Seasons: 19
- Episodes: 364
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Jeff Davis
- Network: CBS, Paramount+
- Cast: Mandy Patinkin, Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, Thomas Gibson, Adam Rodriguez, Kirsten Vangsness, Lola Glaudini, A.J. Cook
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452046/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: tense, methodical, harrowing, witty

## What critics say

Viewers broadly rate the series as a consistently solid, well-crafted procedural whose ensemble of profilers and sharp case-of-the-week plotting hold steady across its long run.

## Synopsis

Criminal Minds (2005-present) is a US crime procedural series created by Jeff Davis for CBS, a long-running franchise now in its nineteenth season. Veteran profiler David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) leads a Behavioral Analysis Unit team alongside Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) and tech analyst Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness). Their engine is the hunt itself: each episode they fly to a new city, study a crime scene and the victims left behind, and build a psychological portrait of an unknown offender before he strikes again. The format is largely case of the week, with occasional multi-episode arcs, and the grim subject matter is balanced by the team's close bond and dry banter. Tone is tense, methodical and often harrowing, with dread built through profiling monologues and brutal crime scenes. Fans of Mindhunter, Hannibal and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit will find resonance here.

## Shows like Criminal Minds

- [Perception (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/36656)
- [MINDHUNTER (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/59547)
- [The Mentalist (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/5574)
- [The Blacklist (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/42516)
- [NCIS (2003)](https://ember.film/tv/4392)
- [Profiler (1996)](https://ember.film/tv/2519)
- [Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/57052)
- [Criminal Minds (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/62653)
- [Bones (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/1803)
- [CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)](https://ember.film/tv/1347)

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