4 Jan 2007 CSI: The Original returns tonight! [boxed spoilers]

Cafe Society
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And to think, this time last year I was close to giving up on the show. See what happens when Grissom lets down his guard and picks up his razor?

I’m opening this thread early so we can review the season so far and speculate on upcoming storylines. I ask that you put details of tonight’s episode in spoiler boxes until it has aired on the East Coast, and please please keep speculation and spoilers concerning future eppys in spoiler boxes throughout. Thanks.

So, tonight’s episode: It’s “Leaving Las Vegas”, and Grissom does.
There’s apparently yet another guest star, some white guy I’m supposed to have heard of. Add that to Cirque du Soleil, John Mayer, Danny Bonaduce, Sean Young, Kevin Federline(?!), and Roger Daltry, and you get the first major theme of the season. Going down the list, I liked the Cirque appearance and thought it blended with the show but Mayer’s performance, although competent, dragged on and was too obviously product placement. Danny Bonaduce still grates on my nerves but I give him props for holding still when playing a corpse and for keeping a straight face through lines like, “Now, you may argue, ‘Izzie, African people are not a food source’”. I didn’t recognize Ms. Young at first, so she didn’t distract from her character. Daltry’s a great singer and a decent actor but talk about stunt casting. Of K-Fed I will not speak.

IMHO the best thing going for Season Seven has been the miniature crime scene killer. Now that Petersen has ditched the superhero of Seasons 4-6 and returned to playing a science-nerd-turned-reluctant-authority-figure, he looks better than ever. With Grissom burning out professionally, this unknown genius taunting him couldn’t come at a worse time for the CSIs or a better time for the audience. Too bad the suspect completed the Millander/BPK trifecta by confessing to Grissom and committing suicide. Oh, but …according to reputable sources , the guy who shot himself is NOT the MCSK.

And moreover, (even bigger spoiler, with casting news) …it’s been widely reported that Petersen wants off the show at the end of this season, and now the same source as above predicts the return of the MCSK will be Grissom’s exit. This has the potential to be the best season yet. Or the worst, given this wildly uneven bunch of writers and producers.

What do you think of the celebrity casting? Do you like how the MCSK played out?

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Roger Daltry has made all sorts of appearances before, so I only find him distracting because I think of him as Hugh Fitzcairn from the “Highlander” series (yes, I know, I know, terribly cheesy show, but it was bad enough that I could work with it playing in the background). It would have been more fun if K-Fed had been run over.

Speculation: The MCSK plot ended to “easily” somehow. I think it’s a red herring and that plotline will continue.

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On Wiki they refer to Grissom’s leaving as a Sabbatical. If that is accurate then there could be a return of Grissom later this season, either as himself or perhaps as a victim in order to write him out of the show as spoiled by plankter. They also mention on Wiki that Debra Messing will be joing the Lab rats.

4

Okay, just saw it. Open spoilers for the ep from here on.
Oh swell, the short-awaited return of Marg’s real-life spouse. At least they didn’t suck face this time, but we got something almost as bad - stripping for a suspect. Although it gave me a grin later in the show when Cath was wheedling the kid witness and I imagined him demanding to see her cleavage in return.

That scene with Nick and Catherine in the truck early on felt like someone said, “The fans keep asking about Sam’s money and Grissom’s midlife crisis. Let’s throw all this stuff out at once so they stop bugging us!” Ah, CSI. You get your continuity in a big lump or not at all.

Case, small-town corruption, blah blah. More interesting was Grissom’s series of goodbyes, especially the bittersweet little scene with Sara in the locker room.
Duhn duhn duhn…the Box of DOOM! Heh. I didn’t expect the MCSK back so soon - has the crime already occured, or is it set to go off, as it were, in four weeks? No more spoilers for me, I want to be surprised.

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I find Madd Maxx’s news – i.e., the last bit – very displeasing. I liked her fine on her previous show, but I don’t want to see her here.

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I only watch sporadically, and I didn’t see last night’s show. Was Grissom’s departure portrayed as a “sabbatical” as the TV Guide listing said, or a permanent departure.

Having him leave on a sabbatical would actually be a graceful way to get him gone permanently. Something could happen on the sabbatical that makes him decide (or not be able to) come back.

As far as the stunt casting–I don’t like it. I always like Roger Daltrey, just because I like Roger Daltrey, but the episode was weak. The Kevin Federline episode was excellent overall, and he just stunk up the place. Danny Bonaduce was okay, but he really didn’t add anything.

If they want to breathe new life into the show, then stunt casting isn’t the way to do it. Cast changes could work, a’la Law & Order. It was good, IMHO, when they got Greg out of the lab and onto the scene, although I do kind of miss his geeky expositions of how he came to his conclusions as he tries to impress Grissom. Maybe they need a new Greg-ish character.

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Was this one new? Or the old one with Roger Daltry? I thought it was a repeat.

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This one was new.

CBS reeled me in with their ads that made this ep sound like it would be more about Grissom than anything else. Every scene they teased in the ads was nearly verbatim of what was in the show. Grrr.

Am I the only one who thought at the end when he was saying goodbye to Sara that he was going to say “I just wanted you to know…I won’t be coming back”?

Also…maybe I was missing something but who killed the 2 ladies at the hamburger stand? The bullet they found in the picnic table didn’t match the gun of the other killer. So they just let those 2 murders go without doing any follow up?

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It’s a four week teaching sabbatical, (at Williams College in Boston, I think). He kept telling everyone he’d be back in a month, but you got the idea everyone kind of expected not to see him again.

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Am I the only one that kind of expects to see a “CSI: School” spinoff? I am thinking along the lines of “The Paper Chase”…

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Not one of their best episodes. But I knew the dioramas were going to come back. I knew it!!

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my issue with the dioramas coming back is that the other guy more or less confessed and then off’d himself… while I like the questions it raises, it kinda bugs me more than it probably should.

also, since when does a CSI get to be a detective and determine what cases to pursue? I know they’ve played fast and loose with the lines before, but this was way over the top for that.

As for the other two ladies, their bodies weren’t found… they just disapeared, so its unknown what happened to them or who did it… not a related case.

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Petersen was in a five week run in a play in Boston. The scripted four week sabbatical may be to cover his absence during that time.

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Trinity rep is in Providence, not Boston. I’ve been to a few plays there.

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Have they ever finished off the storyline with the home invaders/rapists? The one where the young girl picked them out and then they got out and killed her?

I don’t remember them ending that one off.

I am so pissed I missed last night. I thought it was a repeat. Can anyone recap?

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If you mean “Homebodies” from early Season Four, you’re right - it just ended with the girl shot dead in her driveway. The killer(s) got away in part because she froze at the lineup and never actually picked out the perp.

Sorry, I would but I’m pressed for time. If you can wait a week and don’t mind snarky humor, try FandomTalk.com’s CSI recap page.

Yes, you’re the only one. :stuck_out_tongue:

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It’s odd in a way. I’m 48 and I’ve dated women older than I am that look less haggard than Catherine. The fact that she’s supposed to be some super hottie is always good for chuckle.

Also the blitheringly insane conversation where he asks about the incredibly valuable piece of Las Vegas strip real estate she received as an inheritance and she says “I’ve got no dog in that pile” as it’s disposition is beng litigated.
Wha…?

Ummm… OK… was that supposed to be an answer that makes sense in some moon language kind of way? It’s incredibly valuable real estate you inherited dipshit. You certainly do have a “dog in that pile”.

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She said that all of Sam’s money was tied up in that piece of real estate, and that she had no dog in that fight… not that she had inherited the piece of real estate. The status of her having inherited anything is still in question…

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What simster said. The exact line is, “Oh is that what people think? That Daddy’s little girl got herself a big inheritance? Well lemme tell you something Nicky, all of Sam’s money is tied up in a big hole in the ground. On a very nice piece of Strip real estate but, I got no dog in that fight.”

Ever since Catherine took Sam Braun’s bribe - sorry, gift - of $250,000 in early S4, and then when he gave her a million dollars for Nick’s ransom in “Grave Danger”, I’d been wondering how she’d get out of owing him for his largesse. (Judging by the myriad fluttering scraps of paper we saw after the kidnapper went boom, I am assuming that much of the money went unrecovered.) Now that Sam is dead, Cath is off the hook. She should thank her lucky stars for the reprieve and not fight for an inheritance (which, to give her credit, she doesn’t seem to be doing).

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I only started watching CSI recently, so I read the episode and character descriptions on the CBS website to catch up. On that site, Catharine Willows is described as “the eldest daughter of fourth-generation ranchers” from Montana. It also said that she could ride a horse before she could walk and that she first left home at sixteen. That doesn’t sound like the character as she is now. Where does Sam Braun fit into the picture? Was she adopted by the ranching family?