After ten years of trying to show a particular scene in Criminal Minds on screen, producer Erica Messer finally won her case!
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Franchise Criminal minds gave rise to Criminal Minds: Evolution, whose second season has just arrived on Paramount+. Emily Prentiss (played by Paget Brewster), is the head of the BAU team, an iconic character in the series. At the start of this second season, after going in search of clues about Gold Star, she discovers that it is not a small group but a person. The news is heavy to announce, and the investigator decides to share it first with Dr. Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler). The scene takes place during a cigarette break. A key and seemingly innocuous moment, which was nevertheless difficult to film because cigarettes are not really welcome on screen in the United States…
A cigarette in Criminal Minds? The producer “had never won his case”
Imagine the scene at the office: a cigarette break between two colleagues to chat away from prying ears. You’d think Prentiss and Tara Lewis would be used to this kind of break. However, this is the first time in the history of Criminal Minds that a scene of this kind has occurred. Television series, including the oldest ones that came out at a time when cigarettes had better press, rarely show characters smoking… This is why it was necessary for the series’ producer, Erica Messer, to arm yourself with patience. “I never managed to get that scene with CBS. However, we tried for years, since seasons 4, 5, 6… In vain. We never won our case”she tells the American site TV Line.
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Criminal minds : a welcome cigarette break for Prentiss
It was thanks to the detective series’ move from a traditional channel to a streaming platform – far from the restrictions of television standards and practices – that Emily and Tara were finally able to take a cigarette break! “Prentiss is under so much pressure that she needs to smoke. And the news is so bad that [Tara se dit] : ‘I need a cigarette too!’underlines Aisha Tyler. “In a profession where people are regularly murdered, it’s normal to give in to a cigarette”adds the actress, who believes: “It’s a nice moment between the characters”.
Article written in collaboration with 6Medias
