The Only State Criminal Minds Never Visited
Criminal Minds, the CBS show about a team of FBI profilers in the Behavioral Analysis Unit, premiered in 2005 and ran for 15 seasons until its end in 2020. Starring Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, Matthew Gray Gubler, A.J. Cook, Shemar Moore, and many more, the series quickly became a fan-favorite and a pop-culture juggernaut. In each episode, the team takes on a new case somewhere in the U.S., hunting down vicious murderers and serial killers (each criminal is referred to as an "unsub" during the investigation). While their day-to-day work continues, all members of the BAU squad face different personal obstacles over the course of the show's 15 seasons.
As mentioned, Criminal Minds has an extensive fanbase, and for good reason. Many viewers love the relationships between team members and the fun moments throughout, while others are drawn in by the darker nature of crimes that the show covers. With 323 episodes total comprising Criminal Minds' run, you'd think that one thing that would be easy to accomplish would be a visit to all 50 states in the U.S., but that didn't happen. There's one state that the team never visited — and where nothing happened in the series' world.
Criminal Minds' team of FBI criminal profilers never visited Hawaii, and the state doesn't get a shoutout either
Through 15 seasons, Criminal Minds never once covers a case in the state of Hawaii.
A devoted Criminal Minds fans who goes by u/Emily_kruegerr on Reddit made an extensive map detailing all the places the series goes in every episode; Arkansas, North Dakota, and Hawaii are the only ones left blank. As one Redditor in the thread noted, both Arkansas and North Dakota never receive their "own episode" of Criminal Minds, but both states are mentioned in the series, and part of an episode takes place in Little Rock, Arkansas. North Dakota, on the other hand, gets a shoutout as the state in which Sydney Manning (Adrianne Palicki) from the episode "The Thirteenth Step" murdered the girlfriend of Ray Donovan (Jonathan Tucker) prior to the events of the episode.
The place with the most visits is Washington D.C., with 40 episodes of Criminal Minds featuring the location. Looking specifically at states, California wins with 38 episodes; comparatively, Hawaii doesn't even get a mention.
The fact that Hawaii's a bunch of islands surrounded by water can't excuse this, as the FBI team constantly travels for cases in their own jet, but one legitimate reason for the exclusion might be the show Hawaii Five-0. The television series, a remake of the older version that ran from 1968 to 1980, shared a network with Criminal Minds. Both shows aired on CBS, with Hawaii Five-0 also ending in 2020, so it's possible that the network didn't want the two hit shows to cross wires in any way. It would've been cool to see a crossover between Criminal Minds and Hawaii Five-0, but despite both focusing on crime, the two shows have vastly different tones. Plus, it's too late now.
All in all, it would've been quite the accomplishment if Criminal Minds had been able to hit all 50 states throughout its run.