I love CSI, though not nearly as much after William Petersen left. I was happy to see that the finale would include him.
I have to say I was underwhelmed, though. The story seemed lackluster and weird (like what was the deal with the painted bees, and the super-mind-control lilies, and for a huge series-ending plot, the guy only ended up killing, what, 5 people?) Even Petersen seemed like he was just kind of phoning it in.
Some parts were good, like Lindsay joining the CSIs (“Where’d the new kid come from?” “From my vagina.” :D) and Lady Heather coming back (though I thought she was underutilized). But I’d like to have seen a bigger and cleverer plotline for the final hurrah. I also wonder why they didn’t get George Eads back for Old Home Week.
I watched it for the first time in several years. The plot was OK, and the lilies were a pretty stupid plot device. As were the logistics of the bombs (what, the guy was able to buy three cars? Or break into three? How did he know there’s be three CSIs there? What if there were only two? Also, why didn’t the evacuate the building?)
The ending was a bit problematic. Sarah is given a big job promotion and chucks it all to be with the Love of Her Life, who, despite his declaration, will probably be emotionally cold and distant.
Yeah, they didn’t sell the whole love thing for me either. I always thought Grissom and Lady Heather had way more chemistry than he and Sara. And Sara the uber-feminist dumping a dream promotion so she can be with her Twu Wuv? Um, no.
I liked the review that said Grissom, in all those horrible hats and unkempt stubble, looked like a bad Hemingway cosplayer.
I wasn’t expecting the script to be very good, and it wasn’t. I tuned in because I love William Petersen, so I was quite satisfied by the show. He could have stood there and read aloud from an entomology textbook and I’d have been happy.
I’m assuming part of the reason the last scene was silent was so viewers could imagine dialogue addressing some of the points mentioned above without extending the episode or having to write something themselves that would get picked over. (E.g. “What about the lab?” “I’m taking a leave of absence.” “And after that leave of absence is over?” “… We’ll see.”)
I tried to start a CSI appreciation thread because I didn’t know this existed, so I’m literally copying and pasting what I wrote there
I’m a bit late on this since the series finale/speacial/movie-thingy aired a couple days ago, but I’d feel remiss if I didn’t start a thread about my favorite show.
I’ve said for years that I would be the most sad when this show ended because it was literally the first show I ever watched from beginning to end and lasted beyond a year or three. I don’t even doubt this thread won’t live too long, but I have to!
It had it’s ups (Miniature Killer!) it’s downs (Furry Killer!) it’s ups again (Burying Nick alive!) it’s downs again (Lawrence Fisburn!) and it’s final ups (Ted Danson!) but it was always fun and consistent.
I’ll never forget having 6-10 people every Thursday in my freshman year residence hall watching it as it premiered. Trying to figure out who did it and yelling at Nick to stop crying, playing the games and just following the characters along (Sara and Grissom were good together, everyone shipped Greg and Eckley’s Daughter, but she needed to be with the tech).
I was very underwhelmed with the finale and thought they barely had a good case for ONE hour, much less TWO…but I also understand that it was probably rushed and, really, it was nice of CBS to give them the send off anyway.
Any other CSI lovers in the crowd? Anyone sad to see them go?
I literally LOL’d at this scene. Because for me the show really did Jump The Shark when Grissom left. I actually stopped watching it until Sara Sidle came back, then I gave it another chance, but never enjoyed it like when Grissom was there.
I hear ya. I just got around to watching the finale last night and was THRILLED to see Grissom.
I agree that the plot was lame. Mind-control flowers? WTF.
I also agree that they should have made Lady Heather and Grissom have the happily-ever-after. She lost her daughter and granddaughter - it would have done her good to sail off into the sunset with him.
I feel like they phoned in the ending, but made up for it a little by having Grissom and Willows come back.
Same here. I never quit watching the show, but I didn’t enjoy it very much when “Super Ray” was the star (that’s what the spouse and I call Laurence Fishburne’s character–he came in as a junior CSI and ended up Marty-Stuing his way into everything). But I liked DB - he reminded me a lot of Grissom in many ways.
I still prefer the early seasons, though–both for Grissom and for the fact that they focused much more on the interesting cases and less on the CSIs’ personal lives.
I watched the show faithfully up until Super Ray, even though it had begun to PMO well before that. If they could have just made Ray a Grissom equivalent, rather than a Marty Stu, he probably would have been fine.
What bothered me from nearly the beginning is that Grissom was really a bad boss (lazy, distant, couldn’t be bother to actually manage his staff) but Katherine was an incompetent, malicious and downright horrible boss. Plus, she accepted a quarter million dollar bribe to cover up a murder, and the show never called her on it.
We couldn’t stand Saaarahh starting about the time her and Gris started their affair. She thought she was so precious, like the student sleeping with her teacher. I still pretend the show ended with the reveal that she murdered Grissom and kept him propped in a chair in her living room.