<p id=”par-1_53″><em><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/criminal-minds/”>Criminal Minds</a></em> star Mandy Patinkin was seen <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/homeland-took-a-huge-risk-casting-mandy-patinkin-after-his-criminal-minds-disaster.html/”>as a risky hire</a> when another popular series, <em>Homeland</em>, recruited him. Especially when his experience in <em>Criminal Minds </em>proved to be a disaster for everyone involved. But Patinkin had a much better time in <em>Homeland </em>than on <em>Criminal Minds</em>, a series he always regretted starring in.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-mandy-patinkin-s-first-impression-of-the-criminal-minds-script”>Mandy Patinkin’s first impression of the ‘Criminal Minds’ script</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/criminal-minds-mandy-patinkin.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Mandy Patinkin posing alongside Shemar Moore at a ‘Criminal Minds’ photocall.” class=”wp-image-3794701″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Shemar Moore and Mandy Patinkin | Stephane Cardinale – Corbis / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-2_74″>Patinkin already had a reputation for unceremoniously abandoning his television projects early. But <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/criminal-minds-why-did-mandy-patinkin-leave-the-series.html/”>his departure from <em>Criminal Minds</em></a><em> </em>created a huge buzz because of his motives behind the exit. He played Jason Gideon, an experienced criminal profiler, for two seasons before he simply decided to stop showing up for work. But even before he left, there were clues that the dark nature of his character and the show were beginning to take their toll.</p>
<p id=”par-3_66″>In a 2005 interview with <a href=”https://variety.com/2006/scene/awards/mandy-patinkin-criminal-minds-1200338058/”>Variety</a>, Patinkin opened up about how difficult it was to prepare for the role. It was noted that Patinkin, who performed in theater often, was used to rehearsing for his projects. But television required Patinkin to work at a different speed. So the <em>Dead Like Me Star </em>had to find more creative, and torturous, ways to get into Jason Gideon’s headspace.</p>
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<p id=”par-4_49″>“The main challenge was developing a mental vocabulary for horror, sadness and pain,” Patinkin said. “I did it by spending mental time in the most horrible space of my life for hours a day. Eventually you start to access it easier. You have greater freedom and you recover quicker.”</p>
<p id=”par-5_23″>However, Patinkin couldn’t dwell in that kind of misery for long. He left the show after finding its content a bit too bleak.</p>
<p id=”par-6_36″>“I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year,” he once told <a href=”https://nymag.com/arts/tv/fall-2012/mandy-patinkin-2012-9/”>New York Magazine</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-7_41″>Touching on the issue again in <a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/magazine/mandy-patinkin-i-behaved-abominably.html”>The New York Times</a>, Patinkin suggested that he was somewhat aware of the show’s tone when he first signed on. But he might’ve tricked himself into thinking <em>Criminal Minds </em>was a different kind of show.</p>
<p id=”par-8_57″>“I’ll never forget sitting on the bed in my cousin’s house in L.A. reading the first script, and I schmoozed myself, I brainwashed myself, thinking, It won’t be like that as it goes along. I didn’t listen to any piece of myself, and I paid the price. I never expected to work in television again,” he said.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-what-homeland-had-that-criminal-minds-didn-t”>What ‘Homeland’ had that ‘Criminal Minds’ didn’t</h2>
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<p id=”par-9_97″>For a long time, Patinkin’s prediction about his television career seemed correct. It would take four years before audiences saw him on a TV screen. However, Patinkin eventually came back in a big way by being cast in the TV series <em>Homeland</em>. He played mentor Saul Berenson in the Showtime series for all of the show’s eight seasons. The show reinvigorated his career, and his performance as the CIA agent earned him four Emmy nominations. It was an accolade he hadn’t been close to since his last Emmy nominations and wins for his role in <em>Chicago Hope</em>.</p>
<p id=”par-10_40″><em>Homeland </em>co-creator Alex Gansa admitted that he was cautioned about casting Patinkin in the series because of his <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/will-homeland-star-mandy-patinkins-shaky-career-exits-influence-projects-moving-forward.html/”>shaky career exits</a>. But Gansa was too much of a Patinkin fan to pass up on the opportunity to work with him.</p>
<p id=”par-11_70″>“I’ve been his biggest fan since <em>Sunday in the Park</em>; that performance was indelible. And I was convinced that the creative environment we try to foster would allow him to thrive,” Gansa said. “Mandy is a tremendously generous, compassionate, soulful guy, and the message of ‘Criminal Minds’ was not commensurate with his worldview. You have to admire that. Look, he’s an artist, and all artists are eccentric in some way.”</p>
<p id=”par-12_49″>Given Patinkin’s longevity on the show, it seemed that the showrunner made the right call. Peculiarly, <em>Homeland </em>was also a violent series that tackled dark subject matter from time to time. But <em>Homeland </em>managed to keep Patinkin because the execution of its premise was much different from <em>Criminal Minds’.</em></p>
<p id=”par-13_66″>“I’m not making a judgment on the taste [of people who watch crime procedurals]. But I’m concerned about the effect it has,” Patinkin said about <em>Criminal Minds</em>. “Audiences all over the world use this programming as their bedtime story. This isn’t what you need to be dreaming about. A show like <em>Homeland</em> is the antidote. It asks why there’s a need for violence in the first place.”</p>