It could have and should have been fabulous, but it wasn't because they didn't seem to care what happened after the setup. They were content to let Flack, easily one of the most dynamic characters, sit passively at his desk while the case went on around him. Flack became a bland prop in what should've been his story. The writers like coming up with dramatic stories, but they're exceedingly reluctant to allow those stories to reach their logical ends. If a story has consequences, they would rather not accept, then they simply pretend those consequences aren't possible in their world or change the characters to achieve the ending they prefer. They could've used the episode to truly illustrate NYPD politics and why Mac finds them so distasteful, could've shown overzealous IAB officers trying to ruin a good cop's career, if not his life, but they chose instead to show us that Flack is sampling Angell's panty manna.
I agree completely. What could have been a great episode ended up being mediocre one because they didn't have the character drive the story. I realize the CSI shows are about science and it's the star, yadda yadda yadda, but episodes like "Tanglewood," "Trapped," and even "All Access" (which I hated!) did well in the ratings and creatively (well, save for the slashfest that was AA) because the characters drove the episode. They need more of that, and that's why this ep just felt like a wasted opportunity.
Scheduling it against the Lost premiere didn't help, though.
As far as Anna's continued presence on the show, I can only surmise it's yet another symptom of the PTB's profound reluctance to deal with anything that runs contrary to the reality they wish to inhabit. They've opted to ignore Anna's lack of appreciable talent because it doesn't fit with their grand plans, and so they'll stuff their fingers into their ears and hold their breaths until they get what they want or until the show receives the cancellation notice.
Well, I did give it some thought a while back and realized because of her two pregnancies in the space of the four years she's been on the show, they probably only had a small window in season two to fire her. :lol: Not saying or implying they wanted to fire her at any point, but legally pregnant women or women coming back from maternity leave are untouchable when it comes to employment unless you want a lawsuit. Again, not at all implying they wanted to fire her at any point, just that there's literally been no time since season two in which they legally could have. In some ways, it seems they've recognized her limitations, since she's had little to do save for being a love interest in recent seasons. Still, having her handicapping one of their most interesting characters seemed a foolish way to go.
As much as many people here don't like the pregnancy storyline (and I have to say, it's definitely not the way I wanted it to go despite having some fondness for DL) I really don't think it's been an unmitigated disaster and see little evidence that it's influenced the ratings to any detriment to the show. The low ratings seem to me to not have followed any D/L or pregnancy drama heavy shows, although do feel free to prove me wrong! I don't think I've seen any indication that the relationship stuff has affected the ratings at all, either positively or negatively and the show had already dipped significantly before the pregnancy storyline began.
I don't think it has either, on an individual episode level. I don't really know what the ratings slide can be attributed to, other than the fact that there's been increased competition in recent weeks. I've noticed Miami and to a lesser extent CSI have gone up and down a fair amount as well this season.
Having said all that the season did start stronger than any before and it's a shame it's not continued. Personally I think the first few episodes were definitely the best but there has been a clear correlation between the drop in ratings and an increase in competition with other shows. As for 5:13 I've seen even die hard NY fans say they recorded it this week because they were already into Lost and wanted to watch the second half.
Yeah, I think running this episode against Lost was a mistake, especially since it was a one-time thing for Lost to run an ep in that time slot. I did notice, though, that earlier in the season (around 506 and 507), the numbers were similarly low, so maybe Lost didn't do any more damage than previous competition has.
