Criminal Minds is currently in its fourteenth season and just celebrated its 300th episode with the season premiere. It is an impressive run by any standard. With another long-running CBS series calling it quits, it stands to reason that fans may be concerned CBS' hit crime procedural could join them. Responding to whether she has an endgame in mind for it, Criminal Minds' showrunner Erica Messer revealed how long she thinks the drama can keep going. Messer said:
I don't have the endgame in mind yet. I said to CBS if you know it's coming, let me know so I can think of it. Ideally, there's a way to end the show if it has to end in this incarnation. There's also a way to undue that little ribbon and open it up again and keep telling stories because we're never going to run out of good guys catching bad guys. I would love to be able to see this brand live on for a very long time.
Based on what Erica Messer told TV Insider, the showrunner seems confident that even if Criminal Minds were to come to an end, the series would live on in some capacity. One way of doing that would be through another spinoff. As Messer hints, people will never tire of stories that involve the good guys taking down the bad ones. Her optimism about the show's future coincides with something she previously shared in response to running out of bad guys.
While there has been a lot of talk surrounding Criminal Minds making it to its 300th episode, the series' outlook has been met with a slight cloud overhead. The issue? Fans had to sweat out whether the series would be renewed for a fourteenth season and when it was, it was with a reduced episode count. The current season will run for 15 episodes, seven down from the show's usual run of 22 episodes.
There were rumblings that the show's episode count would be increased, although it currently remains the same. Despite the outside tension surrounding the show's future, Criminal Minds has made it for another season. For her part, the series' showrunner seems confident about the drama's prospects, and her statement makes it clear that even if it ends, it can eventually be revisited. Whether fans are watching Criminal Minds' final episodes, only time will tell.
Albeit, crew members have reportedly said Season 14 would be the series' last. The fact the series' showrunner is so optimistic about the franchise's outlook should be comforting to fans. The pieces are arguably in place for the series to wrap up if that is what ends up happening.
Rossi will be embarking on a romance with his ex-wife. We know that Garcia will eventually come through the dark period she is in, following the unsettling events of the Season 14 premiere. Plus, there will be a deeper dive into the characters' personal lives throughout the season, so there will be no shortage of things to continue looking forward to.
Every show eventually comes to an end, so there is no reason not to relish the here and now. The fourteenth season of Criminal Minds will continue airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. The crime drama is among a myriad of new programming arriving on CBS, alongside other network series coming this fall.
