It is a small but important victory for the show.
Criminal Minds is a legendary series that has been running for 17 seasons. Over the years, viewers have seen it all – crazy maniacs, tragedies of the main characters, conflicts and reunions, and bloody crimes that take place in almost every episode.Each new episode adds a new shade to one of the main characters, and the main actors have more space to demonstrate their skills.
All these seasons Criminal Minds have followed a proven formula, but it has not broken one rule that you may not even notice. The show’s characters did not smoke on camera.
Criminal Minds Just Got Its First Smoking Scene
On June 5, the highly anticipated Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 17 premiered on Paramount+, where viewers saw Emily Prentiss and Dr. Tara Lewis head up to the roof for a… cigarette break. The scene may seem inconsequential at first, but to showrunner Erica Messer, it holds great significance:
“I could never make it happen on CBS, and we tried for years, since Season 4, 5, 6. […] Prentiss is under such intense pressure, trying to navigate these issues, that she’s up there smoking. And the news is so bad that [Tara is like], ‘I have to smoke, too!’”
There are a lot of taboos on television, and smoking on camera is one of them. But now that Criminal Minds is streaming, the showrunner and director can at least forget about that restriction – and that already helps to better reveal the characters.
Streamings Also Tend to Follow This Rule
Now, however, these restrictions are extending to streaming as well. In 2019, Netflix promised to reduce the number of scenes in which characters smoke cigarettes in its future projects. The streaming company promised that all new projects with a TV-14 rating for TV shows and PG-13 for movies will not contain smoking scenes, and the only exceptions will be episodes filmed for historical accuracy.
The reason for this statement was that the nonprofit health organization Truth Initiative conducted a study based on 13 projects shown by Netflix, and found that the number of scenes with tobacco use has almost tripled compared to 2018: from 299 to 866 scenes. According to the report of the health organization, in every episode of the series Stranger Things one of the characters smokes.