Some compelling Mac Discussion to go along with the luscious piccies! :thumbsup:
Re: Which season is my favorite Mac, I do love them all, quite frankly. I think the writers have taken us on a rather fun ride through the seasons, where Mac is concerned. Seeing him evolve through the years... still in so much pain and heartbreak at the beginning of S1, but we also saw the strong desire to get back into life as he knew it before Claire's death, too. The lingering, wistful glances he would start casting at loving couples walking down the street, or at people obviously in family situations, and I think it was a lawyer or someone involved in a case that he was talking work with, and the guy had to break it off and tell Mac that his wife was waiting with dinner at home for him, and Mac looked crestfallen. Can't remember the exact eps, but I remember we started seeing these type of scenes and brief moments halfway through and near the end of S1.
I watched 'Cool Hunter' yesterday, and the final scene was one of those moments. Cool Hunter is the ep about the dead woman found in the water tower on top of an apartment building who killed herself but made it look like this doctor guy did it 'cause she wanted revenge on him for killing her daughter. She was dating the landlord, using him to get his keys so she could get in the doctor's place. Anyway, Mac and the landlord guy are walking together at the end of the ep, and the guy tells Mac that he doesn't care if the woman used him, he loves her anyway. He asks Mac if that makes him 'a chump', and Mac looks away for a second before he looks back at the guy and says quietly, and very sincerely, 'No', giving the guy a sympathetic/understanding look. They shake hands, and the guy hails a cab, and the episode ends with Mac looking after him. I think that is another scene that shows not only that Mac has experienced the kind of love the landlord had for the dead woman, for Claire, and that he wants it again.
Mac is a man who has very deep emotions, I think, and he does have a lot of empathy for victims' families, and he also cares deeply about people generally and about his team and friends. He's very capable of loving someone, we see that when he talks about Claire especially, and I think he longs for a family. So he's not at all cold, like some people think. And he's not inhuman or entirely lacking in emotion. It's like you said in your post above about what you want to see in terms of Mac development, MB, he's just
not good at showing all of that. I'm certain that comes from his time in the Marines ('no time for emotion in battle' attitude of the military) and very, very possibly from his coming from a childhood where showing emotion rarely happened, and maybe even was punished (if he had a strict father, like Ghawzee said, maybe). Similarly, when Mac has instincts about a case, they're usually pretty good and right (except for in the s4 finale:lol
. In 'Cool Hunter' there's a scene where Lindsay and Mac are discussing Science vs Instinct (Emotion). Mac tells Lindsay she has to rely on science/evidence, and Lindsay says 'Instinct points us in the right direction, science proves it' and I think this is exactly what Mac needs to learn, and has begun, slowly, to learn during s3 and s4 - that instinct (emotion) and science can work
together and that it's best to use both. I'd love to see him trusting his instincts AS WELL AS the evidence next season and in the future. I don't want him to be like Danny who trusts instinct a little too willingly (and the poor man is usually wrong too, though I love that about him) but I'd like to see him gradually find a balance between the two. He has done that lately, even when his instincts are wrong or get him in trouble (like with Flack in Sweet 16), and it's been great to see. Mac does generally have good instincts, he just needs to let himself go enough to trust 'em more.
And now, as always, some piccies.... from Cool Hunter...
Sexy Scientist Mac...:drool:
Mac in blue stripes, :drool::drool:
Nice view!:drool: Arms, neck, blue shirt...:drool:
Mac being sweet to the landlord guy. Nice bit of Eye and Neck Porn too.:drool:
Pics from CSI Caps.
EDIT - Just a random thing, one of the many, many things I love about Mac is that he LOOKS at people when he's talking to them. I've been watching the latest season of Miami, and I've noticed that H often doesn't look at suspects/colleagues when he's talking to them.:lol: It's strange! So I really like that Mac looks at people when he talks to them, like in the pic above. It shows a kind of directness that's very Mac. And Gary Sinise can do so much with his eyes alone, it's incredible!:bolian: And his eyes are just :drool::drool::drool: of course, as we can all see in Sam's pics. *swoon*