This post is about tonight's episode, and it's too long to put into a spoiler box, so I'm giving everyone an AMPLE SPOILER WARNING NOW...
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Hot bloody damn.
That's
four - count 'em,
four episodes in a row where
CSI has been absolutely and completely
gripping. See what a little competition will do for ya?!
Another episode that didn't go completely according to formula. This time we pretty much knew who was doing the beatdown right from the beginning, and really, so did the CSIs - but they had to gather the evidence and put names and faces to those shadows. Nice work; I felt like I was walking each step of the investigation with them. The pacing was great - the hour raced along, and yet I felt like there wasn't a single character that I didn't get to see, or didn't get to see enough of. Nice use of everybody. Kudos.
Damn good characterization this time around too - and the best part about it is that we're getting so much of it, and we're seeing those investigators as people in a way that hasn't been on screen since the beginning of the series... and yet, they're not going outside the workplace to do it; even Catherine's storyline, personal as it was, was very much rooted in the following of a crime and gatherine evidence in one way or another. Anyway, we got another wealth of it in this episode as well.
I was spoiled for this episode - I stopped reading spoilers around 7.6 - and, you know, for once I think it worked in my favour. Knowing that Greg was getting a beatdown from the Animal Farm later on in the episode made Doc Robbin's recounting of the vic's wounds that much more dreadful. The editing during the actual beatdown was very well done - you felt like you were right in the middle of it, and yet there wasn't a truly graphic scene in there. But it was
Greg, and that just made it worse.
Don't shoot me, Geek Lovers, but the Sandle scene was... really sweet. Sara looked so heartbroken - Jorja Fox really brought it. And Greg was so focused on the evidence, and in pain, and yet - well, Eric Szmanda has always played Greg as having a special rapport with her. Their chemistry really sold this scene, and made me realize that I've missed the kind of interaction they had in Season 5. In fact, if GSR hadn't been my first love, I think I coulda been a Sandler, no problem. Ah well - sure ain't tradin' in the GSR now, but this scene definitely made me think about what could have been. I hope we get to see these two interact more in future episodes.
And wow - did anyone see Greg as a "reluctant Mama's boy"?! Was that in the spoilers? At any rate, freaking ADORED how the writers took an aspect of Sanders that has been played up for
years on the show - the fact that he was never into sports, despite being somewhat robust and not exactly coming across as a computer nerd or anything of that ilk - and came up with a reason for it. Amazing that he'd never told his parents he was out of the lab - and he looked so afraid, thinking about how his mom was going to react. And then later, watching the
other mother weeping over
her son - who freaking wrote this episode, anyway? All hail the writer! We're not worthy! And Eric Szmanda - my hat is off to you, sir. Damn fine job.
The other characters were great, too. Sara
owned this episode... first being all sweet and thoughtful and sympathetic with the female victim, then putting the smackdown on that piece of canvas, then getting all verklempt over Greg, and the end scene - but we'll get to that. And the look of grief on Grissom's face when he walked into the hospital room and saw Greg totally got me. I thought he handled it wonderfully too - just listened to Greg talk, took everything in, was gentle and supportive and helpful. Totally ironic that the man finally learns how to be a supervisor now that he's schtupping a subordinate, huh?
Once again, Nick was totally in character - I have to say, it's really nice to see a character like Nick, who is so open and emotional and yet very much a man's man, and George Eads has such tight control over what he does - loved that look he gave once the Animal Farm showed up at the crime scene and dissed the victims. Then there's Warrick, who typically keeps his cool and yet manages to smack down Napoleon the pig anyway. I know that Gary Dourdan gets a bad rap for acting, especially in a cast of this caliber... but I thought he did a really good job this episode. And Brass with his list of "P"s was... perfect. Even Sofia, lazily chewing on the toothpick as she acidly listened to the two bozos who tried to cash in on the crime spree.... it was like there wasn't a single wasted action in this whole episode; every detail added to the plot or the characters or the themes. Just amazing. Again: who freaking
wrote this script?
And man, I don't know if someone's been sneaking tamales or jalapenos into the water supply or what, but did everyone look absolutely
smokin' hot this episode, or was it just me? My jaw dropped when I saw Grissom in the beginning - guess this is William Petersen's major weight-loss debut, huh? Somebody spank me! And while I always think Sara looks beautiful, she looked totally babelicious when kicking the crap out of the canvas. Nick never looks bad, of course, and when he goes all woobie (thanks,
Smallville!) and emotional he's just that much more delicious.
And Warrick always make me salivate, of course... but when he purposefully strode away from Napoleon the pig, telling Nick
now, boy, you know you can't do that through that glint in his eye? Homina homina homina.... And Greg looked so sweet and boyish and innocent in that suit, especially when he got all excited about getting to be primary, even if it was just to pick up a sweater.... *sniff* Aw, damn, Greggo, you broke my heart. And Sofia looked beautiful, I thought, when she and Brass talked to the bozos the first time, when they'd claimed to have been robbed. She looked a bit tired, and it was a good look for her - made her softer, somehow.
Finally: Locker Room Scene = LOVE. Has it really been "Unfriendly Skies" since we got that kind of interaction? Loved how we didn't know Grissom was there until the very end - it was like they were all freely talking because he was absent, then you realize that no, he really was there, and they've just jelled as a group like that and he's totally a part of them now. Thought that everyone's views on the matter were completely in character... except that I might have expected Grissom and Sara to say what the other one said, and I loved how that underscored what's going on between them without even having to hint at it, really. Ah, but it wasn't quite perfect... if only Greg had been there....
*sniffs again*
And nice freakin' twist on the "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" schtick and how everyone parrots it even though it's utter
bullshit. So glad the show finally came out and said that. All those tourists coming to Vegas to get wild... and the horrible way kids get raised today... it was a disaster waiting to happen, really. Nice juxtaposition with the culprits waiting to get booked as the CSIs were lamenting the state of society. Those kids looked so
bored... frightening, truly frightening.
Other thoughts:
---"Are you volunteering?" Yowza! Feel the heat!
---Aw, Nick - totally destroyed by the beatdown of his lovah! You smack up Kevin Federline, Nick! Nobody fannysmacks your boy... unless it's
you!
---Grissom working the teacher mojo again with Hodges. Think there's a theme here somewhere?
---Catherine, you've got your faults, but I will always love how you manage to put an obnoxious suspect/witness in his/her place. Your comments on the bag (
both of them; heh) were awesome.
---"Mickey Mouse club" - Brass, have my babies. Please.
---Liked the man that Greg saved, and that he told him to come around for a barbeque once he got better... especially since the scene with the mother and the dead assailant came right after it. Good God, somebody tell me NOW -
who freaking wrote this episode?! I gotta know!!!
Wow, this was totally - this was classic, old-school, Season 1
CSI. All this, and "Alter Boys: Redux" next week too? Man, I haven't been so freaking excited for a season of
CSI since... God, ever. I'm telling ya -
CSI is
bringing it. I am getting down on my knees and thanking God that
Grey's Anatomy went up against
CSI this season; I don't care if the show gets its ass royally kicked in the ratings all friggin' year. I'd
far rather a #2 show of this kind of calibre than a #1 show that's completely and utterly MEH.
