Criminal Minds: Evolution – Season 17 [2024] on Paramount Plus / Disney Plus

Criminal Minds: Evolution clearly needs to evolve. As much as I love the show, and was excited for the great comeback, it clearly needs a shakeup.

After a short break, the show came back in 2022 and made the switch from streaming to cable. This allowed the first season of Evolution to be serialized, exciting, a fresh. However, this can’t be said about the second season of the reboot, or the 17th of the series.

Picking up where we ended, this installment focuses on Gold Star. Mixing storylines from the last season, as well as earlier episodes from seasons 10 and 11.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the group, and their chemistry. But the show felt tiring, and tired, this time. Between the cheaper and darker sets, as well as the random storylines being weaved together, I would have thought that the producers have a weird mandate to cut costs and prepare for a hard reboot. I hope I’m wrong.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Pun Intended.

In fact, I loved the new more realistic approach to the show with this season specifically. Yes, it took longer than one episode to solve the case, but something is brewing. Story wise? 9/10. However, production? 3/10. This season was so dark you couldn’t tell what was happening. What’s going on?

Should You Watch It?

It’s not nearly as strong as it could and should be. Given that the series ran successfully for 15 seasons on CBS, and we had a great first season on Paramount+, what’s going on? It’s still a good show, but there’s so much missing potential!

Where Can I Watch It?

You can stream all seasons of Criminal Minds on Paramount+ in USA and Disney+ in Canada.