Skip to main content

Criminal Minds: Evolution trailer exposes a serial killer network

If there was ever going to be a serial killer network, it would probably be CBS. For the last two decades, CBS has had, shall we say, an unhealthy fixation on serial killer-of-the-week dramas. Among the ocean of CBS procedural dramas, Criminal Minds had a successful 15-season run that ended in 2020. After only a two-year hiatus, a new iteration of the show is returning in just a few weeks. But in the new trailer for Paramount+’s Criminal Minds: Evolution, the serial killers haven’t just upped their game. They’ve banded together.

Criminal Minds: Evolution | Official Trailer | Paramount+

The reunited members of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit team soon realize that the serial killers were impacted by the pandemic as well. And without their usual hunting grounds, these psychos have formed their own serial killer social network. That’s putting the team to the ultimate test since this is far from a textbook case. If anything, it’s rewriting their entire playbook.

Related Videos
The cast of Criminal Minds: Evolution.

Joe Mantegna is once again back as David Rossi, alongside Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss, A.J. Cook as Jennifer “JJ” Jareau, Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia, Aisha Tyler as Tara Lewis, and Adam Rodriguez as Luke Alvez. Zach Gilford will also appear on a recurring basis as Elias Voit alongside Josh Stewart as Will LaMontagne Jr.

Paramount+ is giving Criminal Minds: Evolution a special Thanksgiving premiere on Thursday, November 24. The first two episodes of the revival series will be released on that day, to give the holiday season an unsettling flavor. Three episodes will be released weekly through December 15, before the show goes on hiatus until January 12, 2023. At that point, the five remaining episodes of the season will once again debut weekly.

Editors' Recommendations

After Dahmer: best serial killer movies and TV shows to watch
Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal in bloody shirt

Americans seem to fear and love serial killers in equal measure. How else to explain us huddling, stricken, around a neverending deluge of movies, shows, novels, podcasts, true crime non-fiction, and even video games that constantly puts these (mostly) men and their bloody deeds front and center? Our latest national obsession is the Netflix miniseries, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which has already become one of its biggest hits. (Although given that so many people inexplicably equate Netflix with streaming -- or even television itself -- and given the streamer's persistent dearth of premium content, I wonder if anything semi-compelling and suitably buzzy would instantly become a huge hit for it.)

But where were we ... oh, right, serial killers! They've been everywhere in our popular culture for decades, the subject of acclaimed stories like Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Dexter, and True Detective. Even as real-life serial killing has declined since the 1980s due to a safer overall society and more sophisticated policing techniques, we remain hungry for more, um, serialized content. While we couldn't hope to create an exhaustive list in this space, here are four relatively recent shows and one movie you can switch over to once you've devoured Dahmer.
Black Bird (2022)
Paul Walter Hauser and Taron Egerton in Black Bird Apple TV

Read more
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story wrongfully humanizes a serial killer
Jeffrey Dahmer sitting with his father in a scene from Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

There were high hopes for Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which released its 10-episode series on Netflix in late September. Headed up by Ryan Murphy, who is behind hits like American Horror Story and American Crime Story, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story promised to tackle the story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer from a different angle. Instead of focusing on Dahmer, the idea was to examine the racial injustices and police incompetence surrounding the case that allowed the heinous acts to go on for as long as they did.

The show has quickly become one of Netflix’s most popular originals, breaking the record for first-week viewing numbers. But it’s also one of the most controversial. Many people have taken issue with the series, its disturbing depictions of events, and the traumatizing re-telling of stories that involved the brutal murder and dismemberment of several young men. Most notably is Rita Isbell, sister of victim Errol Lindsey, whose emotional victim impact statement was recreated, verbatim, for the show, bringing back emotions Isbell did not want to have resurface.

Read more
The cast and crew of See How They Run on the art of the murder mystery
A group of guests gather in See How They Run.

The lights go out, a woman screams, and a loud thud breaks the silence. When the lights come on again, a dead body is revealed and a room full of shocked witnesses eye each other warily. Which one of them did it? That's the premise of pretty much every murder mystery in the 20th century, and See How They Run, a new film starring Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan, doesn't stray too far from that formula. Its most appealing quality is how lovingly retro it all feels: the ne'er-do-well victim, the shady suspects, and the dark mansion where all secrets are revealed.

In an interview with Digital Trends, director Tom George and co-star Charlie Cooper discuss the eternal appeal of the murder mystery genre, how a cast of veteran American and British actors was eventually cast, and why films like this are best experienced in a crowded theater full of moviegoers eager to solve the case.

Read more