Riley/Lauren Lee Smith

I was really surprised when i read that Riley was leaving csi, she is deffinately one of my favourite csi characters - ever. I don't think they needed to get rid of her, she would of fit in even with Sarah coming back. You need different characters to keep it interesting and i don't think we got to see enough of Riley in just one season. Will miss Riley when season 10 starts here. :(
 
I think its the pits Riley is going,I really liked her,I think TPTB spent to much time trying to establish Ray as part of the team and not enough on Riley.
 
shigg66 said:
I think its the pits Riley is going,I really liked her,I think TPTB spent to much time trying to establish Ray as part of the team and not enough on Riley.
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That's exactly what happened. It's unfortunate. She was one of the strongest female characters on tv since Buffy. :lol:
 
I'm really upset to see Riley go. I thought Lauren was a fabulous actress, and she had great chemistry with the rest of the team. Riley was a very strong character, and I liked that. I was looking forward to learning a bit more of her backstory...but I guess now that's never going to happen.
I'm also mad that they really never gave her much of a chance. A year (Not even!) is hardly enough time to really show us a new character, especially if you devote all the screentime to another one.

ETA: This is slightly off topic, but I was watching Fringe the other day, and I think that Lauren looks strikingly similar to Anna Torv. Perhaps I'm just crazy.
 
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Well I hope Lauren all the best.
I think she is a good actress but I have to admit I never really liked her character, and the people I watch the show with didn't think much of her either.
I think the problem, as said above, that she didnt have much time to establish herself and the writers didnt give her much. I cant say I will miss Riley, but I think TPTB should have given her another season, to try and do something with the character. She did have potential.
 
Princess_Laurie said:
I'm really upset to see Riley go. I thought Lauren was a fabulous actress, and she had great chemistry with the rest of the team. Riley was a very strong character, and I liked that. I was looking forward to learning a bit more of her backstory...but I guess now that's never going to happen.
I'm also mad that they really never gave her much of a chance. A year (Not even!) is hardly enough time to really show us a new character, especially if you devote all the screentime to another one.

ETA: This is slightly off topic, but I was watching Fringe the other day, and I think that Lauren looks strikingly similar to Anna Torv. Perhaps I'm just crazy.
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I always thought Anna Torv looked a little like Poppy Montgomery from Without A Trace. :lol: Lauren to me looks similiar in some ways to Louise Lombard though... mostly only from the side and when she's wearing a ponytail, but there have been a couple of pics from the show that I wasn't sure what ep they were from and I had to look hard at the pics to figure out if it was Riley or Sofia. :lol:
 
What a shame. I wish they'd get rid of Ray and keep Riley..she was much more interesting. That whole shrink parents thing must have messed her up! No wonder she's all tough as nails...It would have made a great story arc. Let Greg uncover the real Riley /cough then make out /cough
 
Hello, new to the board and thread. Working my way into this site!

Just wanted to say that I was sad to hear she was leaving as well. I was starting to like her! She seemed to fit in well with the rest of the cast too. I like your story plot with Greg Finelabrats ;)
 
Hey guys - I saw a promo for the new CSI Video Game, and Lauren definitely did the voice over for her character :D
 
Drumchik said:
Hey guys - I saw a promo for the new CSI Video Game, and Lauren definitely did the voice over for her character :D
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Cool! I was so afraid they were gonna take her out of the game since she's not gonna be on the show anymore. Thanks for the info, drumchik.
 
I only learned this week that the character of Riley is gone. I saw a clip of the season premiere where Ecklie referred to her "exit interview."

I've read what the producers have had to say as to why they got rid of Riley. I am not satisfied with their explanations. I didn't think there was anything wrong with her character. I didn't see any problem with the way Riley interacted with the others. Now, there are no more young female investigators in the field (sorry, Marg/Catherine). Is this what the producers really wanted?
 
Bad_Bishop said:
I only learned this week that the character of Riley is gone. I saw a clip of the season premiere where Ecklie referred to her "exit interview."

I've read what the producers have had to say as to why they got rid of Riley. I am not satisfied with their explanations. I didn't think there was anything wrong with her character. I didn't see any problem with the way Riley interacted with the others. Now, there are no more young female investigators in the field (sorry, Marg/Catherine). Is this what the producers really wanted?
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I'm not satisfied with the answer either. I think they knew their ratings were slipping (but it was not because of her, it was because they'd lost several main characters and the screentime balance was way off in Season 9- way off) and so they decided if they brought back Sara, it would make their ratings better. But, they thought they couldn't afford to bring Sara back with the way the cast currently was, so unfortunately they felt that what they needed to let go was the new character. That allowed them to be able to afford to bring Sara back. It's disappointing really because I have wanted to see Sara and Riley meet from the beginning... so that Sara could like her and sort of give the character her blessing. I thought that might help people like Riley more. But unfortunately tptb had other ideas.

As for no younger females in the field... there's Wendy who has FINALLY been added to the opening credits with the theme song (David Berman aka SuperDave has been added as well) and they did say that the labrats would probably have to go into the field more due to the fact that the graveshift is understaffed at the moment. And I love Wendy, so I'm glad she's there... but still I was looking forward to Wendy and Riley bonding and becoming friends. Now that won't happen. :(
 
Honestly, I just think the powers that be saw the slipping ratings from last season, panicked and felt they needed to let someone go (and, given his status, it wasn't going to be Laurence Fishburne) so that they could bring Jorja Fox back to hopefully stop the erosion. And I suspect that she will, because there was -- and I assume still is -- a segment of the fan base intensely devoted to her. It was good seeing her back; refreshing, too, to see her having come full circle and be more like the character was back when she was introduced: happy, a little bit flirty/silly-humored with the guys, but very serious when it came to solving a case. She also brings a bit of stability back to the "family" unit, so there are a lot of positives, IMO, with bringing her back. It just seems very unfair to Lauren Lee Smith, who did the best she could with what little she was given.
 
I have watched the season premiere. It was so classy to Riley. :rolleyes: We heard nothing good about her. We only learned that she suddenly quit in the middle of 100 cases, and that she thought very little of Catherine's leadership skills and put it on paper for Ecklie.

Please refresh my memory--is there any real evidence that Riley had such a huge problem with Catherine? I'm sure Catherine isn't perfect and that she had a tough year. But was there ever an episode where Riley witnessed profound leadership failures by Catherine? It just doesn't seem very credible.
 
Bad_Bishop said:
I have watched the season premiere. It was so classy to Riley. :rolleyes: We heard nothing good about her. We only learned that she suddenly quit in the middle of 100 cases, and that she thought very little of Catherine's leadership skills and put it on paper for Ecklie.

Please refresh my memory--is there any real evidence that Riley had such a huge problem with Catherine? I'm sure Catherine isn't perfect and that she had a tough year. But was there ever an episode where Riley witnessed profound leadership failures by Catherine? It just doesn't seem very credible.
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No and in fact, the only ones that Riley ever took issues with were Ray (in the season finale) and Grissom (in "Say Uncle") and maybe a tad bit Nick in "Say Uncle" as well. She barely had any scenes with Catherine. I wish they'd just said Riley had to leave to take care of a sick family member. I know they needed the fratured team theme, but they still could have done that by saying that over the summer, they brought in a new CSI 2 from somewhere else and he or she didn't stay long due to Catherine's leadership. It almost felt like they wanted the audience to hate Riley and that didn't set too well with me.
 
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