User Reviews

My heart is heavy as I write this because I am such a fan of the Criminal Minds franchise. Upon watching season 1 – Episode 11 (Iqiniso) recently – I was appalled at how poorly my country (South Africa) was portrayed. I respect the international cast of the show – but I believe strongly that casting our local (black) South African actors could have vastly improved on the narrative of that particular episode. As South Africans, we live in a world where we have to accept that Morgan Freeman will portray Mandela and Jennifer Hudson – Winnie Mandela because we simply do not have the big budgets to tell our own stories on a grand global scene as our international counterparts. While I am glad that our country made an integral part of that particular episode – I simply cannot forgive the poor cast selection (representing supposed black South Africans). The accents were very poor and pronunciation made a mockery of our Zulu language. I am not even convinced that the episode was shot anywhere near our borders ("beyond borders"). South Africans are beautiful, talented and very proud. Our story goes beyond our Apartheid and Mandela legacy. The person responsible for that particular episode – should have researched (what are you using your big monies for?), cast South Africans actors and most importantly remembered that as much as the show is international – that it is sold to "entry level markets" as we are referred to as. This episode was the worst portrayal of my country and sadly, it also made a joke of the Criminal Minds brand as a whole.

This funny. which South Africa is this? I'm sorry but this is honestly terrible writing. A south African profiler who was trained by Scotland Yard speaks with such a horrid accent with both her zulu and English? can we not do our due diligence when looking at portraying other nations? Look I love criminal minds but this is an atrocity. The name used for characters sound like name of Nigerian or even Haitian nations, definitely not South African names. why are the writers going out of their way to make it look like Africa is one big country? At least the 'white Afrikaaners' are portrayed somewhat accurately although I don't who toggles between English and Afrikaans in the same sentence but hey. Hollywood stick to LAS and NYC and let us do JHB and CT yea!

I have never heard such terrible accents. The black detective (Bahni Turpin) has an Indian accent, the black military personnel all have Nigerian accents and the Afrikaners all have the most uneducated version of stereotyped accent. Even their Aunt's accent (Musetta Vander) is insane and she's allegedly an Afrikaans speaking actress.

How on earth do South African Actors and Actresses fake their own accent... Who was directing this circus?

The only authentic locals were Arnold Vosloo and Cliff Simon. The rest weren't worthy of their presence. What an insult to our

There are not many shows out there where none of their episodes throughout their run are good. 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' is one of the few examples of this, am a fan of the original 'Criminal Minds' but 'Beyond Borders' did nothing for me from the get go and never really improved (some sporadic individual improvements aside). None of Season 1 for example rose above weak and most of the episodes were actually downright awful.

"Iqiniso" is one of them. It is not quite as offensively bad as the previous episode "The Matchmaker", which would offend even those not usually sensitive (especially the way the Turkish and their culture are portrayed), but boy isn't it close. It is every bit as awful for almost all of the same reasons, although the case is different and not as gratuitous in content here and the stereotypes not quite as offensive so it is not exactly the same.

Arnold Vosloo is the least bad thing about "Iqiniso". He is the only one of the cast to show much signs of trying, he does bring a good deal of authority to his role sorely lacking everywhere else, and the episode's one attempt at authenticity. Alana De La Garza is usually a small redeeming quality but not when she has practically nothing to work with and when her limited material is so weak.

Otherwise, "Iqiniso" is a disgrace and one of the show's worst out of a very consistently bad lot. And although the inaccurate, sloppy and biased portrayal of South Africa and its citizens (one-dimensional stereotypes passing as character) is blatant and very distracting, indicative of the writers once again not being good at research, there is much more wrong with the episode. Vosloo aside, the entire cast look absolutely miserable, Gary Sinise is much better than this, and Mae still gets on my nerves. None of the team members are that well defined and they just don't gel as a team, they don't gel cohesively and they seem disconnected from each other. The supporting characters don't fare much better, there is nothing menacing about the responsible who would have benefited from being revealed later and used less. That way there would be more suspense and less predictability.

Because the story has nothing new to it really, it is very indifferently executed and it goes at a leaden pace. There is no tension or suspsense at all, because there is an over-obviousness throughout. The writing is awkward and constantly condescends, and even the production values look quite under-budgeted.

In a nutshell, awful. 1/10

Why do Americans persist in portraying South Africa as this weird state which is populated by people with odd accents from all over Africa? Big ups for using some South African actors (Arnold Vosloo is one of them) with the correct accents, but really, the head of a paramilitary police squad (which does not exist) sounds like he is from North of the Equator. I must say that this series is starting to turn into a bit of an American propaganda machine, where America is the only safe country in the world and everywhere else is full of depraved criminals and corrupt policemen. The story line is quite strong but I just find the poor casting very distracting.

This was a horrible episode to watch. As a South African I'm very disappointed at the poor research done. The fake accents and that horrible Zulu spoken . Ironic that the episode is called "Iqiniso" and yet there's no ounce of truth here.