Old-school attitude

Sometimes things really do happen for a reason. When star Mandy Patinkin went AWOL over at CBS’ “Criminal Minds” this past summer, the writers and producers may have flinched, but they did not falter. Within mere weeks, they had signed the formidable Joe Mantegna, whose stage, screen and TV credits, if not his singing voice, certainly rival Patinkin’s. He entered last week with an attitude, as agent David Rossi, a founding member of the Behavioral Analyst Unit. Having taken early retirement after tracking down hundreds of serial killers, Rossi is back to “help out.” But if his flashbacks to a brutal murder and his fondling of a mother’s charm bracelet can be believed, he has a hidden agenda.

Rossi, like Patinkin’s Jason Gideon, is a steely eyed expert profiler, though his insights come from years of experience when the field was still new. All the techy stuff, the computer cross-files and DNA testing, are foreign to him. In a world of modern, and often neurotic, cops, he’s the old-fashioned model; gruff, quiet, going with his gut. Not for him the tension between work and family or the pressure of parental expectation -- he is clearly haunted by other demons. A Joe Friday of serial killers.

Mantegna is always a pleasure, his voice a syrupy growl, his face the lined and mobile epitome of an urban cop or a mobster, depending on the circumstance. He recently did a decent studio head in “The Starter Wife.” So although fans will no doubt miss Patinkin’s tense and nervy Gideon, Mantegna’s Rossi will give the show both texture and solidity. And what show couldn’t do with a little more of those?

-- Mary McNamara

(CBS, Wed., 9 p.m.)