With the benefit of hindsight and retrospection, I'd like to throw my own two cents into the ring as well:
Season 6 kept the great CSI writing track record going. I always think the good folks running the original CSI had a vision and idea as how they'd bring the series along. With the perimeter or the frame/boundary set, there was room for the characters to grow, evolve, and change as episode stories went. I was totally enthralled by CSI from the get go not just because the scientific aspect of the show, but more by the characters the show put in place.
To me, to watch TV is to be entertained, anything else I get out of it is extra bonus. So while it was fascinating to see how a bullet nip an internal organ in slow motion, how many times it'd take until the novelty wears off? Personally, it's always the characters draw me in and make me stay with a show. I'd like to know why those characters react and behave the way they do.
There's no way to deny it: Grissom was the show. He made CSI. It's utterly difficult to find someone to step into this unenviable situation when Petersen took a leave from the show. Liev Schreiber was brilliant. He carved out a place for Keppler in spite of the long shadow cast by Petersen's Grissom. Still, we shouldn't and couldn't ignore the smart and skillful scriptwriting. I was not disappointed at all even after all these years when I rewatched it over the weekend.
Here I'd like to reply to couple of very old postings:
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It was nice to see Sara smiling quite a bit in this episode. Could it be because she's finally away from the complications of a stressful, unhappy relationship? I hope so. I think she smiled more here than she has in the past season and a half. Her smile as she showed her ID to the stripper in the club was just so adorable.
Oh, and Grissom's note was interesting. Ending with "I'll miss you" as in the future tense of "will" and not present tense of "am missing you" or "I miss you".
It would have been helpful if fans like us paid some attention to what the actors/actresses had to say about the role they played. Sara's relationship with Grissom was sure complicated. Heck, both Grissom and Sara were complicated and full of issues. Falling in love/having an intimate relationship at workplace sure has its ramifications. But it's life. What made you hold on to the notion that it was a 'stressful and unhappy relationship' for them? Petersen didn't think so. Jorja didn't think so. And I think it was lovely and beautiful that two lonely and awkward science geeks could find love in each other. More power to them.
Now for the 'I will miss you' part --- sorry, lady. With due respect, I think you missed the point back then. I need to quote the first part of Grissom's letter here:
'Our parting was awkward. I don't know why I find it so difficult to express my feelings to you. Even though we're far apart, I can see you as clearly as if you were here with me..... I said I'll miss you, and I do.'
As for some regular bashers talking about Grissom 'finally realized what a bad idea the relationship is', I mean, didn't they have a clear look at Grissom's letter or listen to what he had to say? Why harping on Sara while Grissom was the other half of the relationship? How could Grissom's scene be said as wasting on writing a letter to Sara? Also, what was wrong for two people in love writing letter to each other regardless how old they are?
Trust me, I am talking from personal experience. My husband goes aboard half year of the time. We do talk over the phone, keeping in touch via e-mails, and yes, we still send letters to each other. To those who hold up their noes at this, I can only say I wish one day you, too, can experience the joy of receiving a letter from a loved one, let it be a friend, partners, children and whatnot.
Why didn't Grissom send the letter out? It was just Grissom being Grissom. I might not have the right read on this, but I do think some of his old self-doubt came out to play havoc with his head again. He was so afraid of doing things wrong and he tended not to do them at all. I have couple of friends have the same mind-set. Still, people do change, don't we all? Grissom was rather playful in the Pilot episode. He changed as episodes went on. So what was the talk about him having a personality change in Season 6?
It's too bad as fans we don't give the writers enough credit for taking the characters to new places. CSI's writings suffered after S10. I heard Petersen was rather picky with how things were done on CSI. So guess we do owe Petersen a big 'Thank you' for keeping the scriptwriters on their toes when he was around. I will forever grateful we had ten glorious seasons to enjoy this show. It's such a treat to watch those characters grow up and old along with us!
The writers said that Grissom was going to give Sara something in a later episode to try and make things right in their relationship and that it would be a reference to Butterflied.
