Re: Natalia Boa Vista #1- New. Cool. Attitude **SPOILERS**
I think they're making her a love interest because they have absolutely nothing else to do with her, which should give the writers some clue as to why hiring LaRue, or at least making Natalia an analyst, was a bad idea in the first place.
Natalia has Yelina 2.0 written all over her. A character whose job is menial, and often times useless, and becomes a love interest so the writers have an excuse to put the "semi-popular, semi-deserving" actress in the main credits. But then, after a while, they'll lose interest in her, because this is a procedural not a soap opera, and they'll get rid of Eva the same way they got rid of Sofia.
I'd love to see what they're gonna do with her afterwards. At this point I don't know anything about her, nor do I care for her one bit, to root for her in one way or another in the love department. The only person I could see her with is Horatio, but even that sounds as exciting as watching paint dry.
Even though this has been done to death I'd rather see her showing interest in becoming a CSI, and eventually making that switch. Either that, or the same people who placed her at the lab can give her a promotion, so she goes from useless to... something other than Horatio's personal file retriever.
I still can't believe they created a character who can only work on cold cases, for a show that doesn't work on cold cases AT ALL. Great thinking, there.