Season One Discussion

PraetorCorvinus

PraetorCorvinus

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Moderator
I've recently sat down and watched all of Season One. I noted many interesting events, character quirks, cases and other various things throughout. Since it has been quite awhile since this season was talked about, and probably just as long since some have watched it, I figured this could be a good time to reminisce.

What were the good points you saw? Interesting character story arcs? Character behavior that differs from the current seasons? Cases that really left an impact with you? Favorite Episodes?

Likewise, what were some of the not-so-good points? Characters you wish hadn't been introduced or wish had been kept? Story lines that fell flat? Episodes that are just plain forgettable?

Here's a few points that hit me:

- I found the Pilot almost unbearable. So many characters were uneven and almost were complete contrasts to their current selves. A few (like the rookie kid) left me going :wtf:. It felt very 90's.

- Sara was a lot more jovial and flirtatious. She definitely was flirting with Nick throughout most of the season. Her current portrayal (minus the Nick-flirting) reminded me a lot of her here.

- I laughed at all the in-depth explanations of procedures we are now so accustomed to. The really funny parts were when Grissom would have to explain these things to Nick or Warrick, who as CSI 3's should know this.

-Favorite episodes: "Blood Drops", "Unfriendly Skies", and "Gentle Gentle".

-Least: "Pilot", "Too Tough to Die", "Sounds of Silence". (Nothing wrong with these eps, just not ones I care for).

There were of course a lot more things going on. Paul Millander, Judge Cohen, Teri Miller, Catherine and Eddie, Nick and Kristy, etc. Feel free to discuss everything and anything.

Episodes:

100: Pilot
101: Cool Change
102: Crate and Burial
103: Pledging Mr. Johnson
104: Friends and Lovers
105: Who Are You?
106: Blood Drops
107: Anonymous
108: Unfriendly Skies
109: Sex, Lies and Larvae
110: I-15 Murders
111: Fahrenheit 932
112: Boom
113: To Halve and To Hold
114: Table Stakes
115: Too Tough to Die
116: Face Lift
117: $35K OBO
118: Gentle Gentle
119: Sounds of Silence
120: Justice is Served
121: Evaluation Day
122: Strip Strangler

Here's a link to the episode list here at CSI Files. Reread and catchup.

Enjoy and please keep things civil. If all goes well, hopefully we can have a thread for the other season's as well.

(And thank you Destiny for giving me the go ahead for this :))
 
Good idea Praetor They were all so green back then, Petersen didn't think it would last over one year, and it used to be on Fridays:eek: Anthony Zuiker the creator was thrilled that Bruckheimer wanted to give it a go. I've got it on DVd and smile, when I occasionally watch it. I thought on Grissom' WOW, he's delectable, and was hooked, and loved the character Sara right off the bat. She's got a special aura. I wasn't sure about the rest for a while. They were all so young, and so fresh. Some of my favs. of this season "Gentle Gentle" "Crate and Burial" "Play With Fire" I'll post more later.. thank's:bolian:
 
One thing I miss about the earlier seasons - particularly season 1, is that it was lighter. We had more funny moments, more smiling, more happiness and friendship in general. I think it was a mistake of tptb to tone that down.

Simple little moments like Nick and Sara with the "leather and lace", or Gil getting excited over the birthday present he brought Lindsey.

I think characters - especially Gil and Sara - became much more depressing as the years go by, and that was one of the reasons I started disliking Sara - they just changed her character to become very dark.

Even Greg has toned down.

That being said, I liked when they brought Sara back at the start of the Season 11 that she's gone back to Season 1 Sara. Missed that one.
 
well, I wasn't too fond of the pilot. Like most pilot shows, they felt the need to cram too much into one episode and it was hard to 'catch up' with everything that was going on, especially when all the characters are 'new'. The show picked up steam right after that and developed into a nice format.

I agree with Anne, season 1 was much lighter & upbeat. Sara was happy & energetic, Grissom was a geeky scientist who got excited over the oddest things, Warrick & Nick had a nice rivalry between them, Catherine showed more of her 'street smart' and outgoing attitude.

They all still had their 'specialties' in season 1 - Grissom with bugs, Cath with blood spatter, Warrick with A/V, Nick with hair & fiber analysis, Sara with materials & element analysis. The only drawback was the labrats (except for Greg) were basically robots with no personality and no real function.

Season 1 also ended with what I still consider the greatest season finale so far - the team sitting in the diner eating breakfast.
 
SmokaHauntUs said:
Nice thread, Praetor. :)

I'll start off by saying Nick's clothes were too loose. :lol: I mean, really...what's with the tent shirt and baggy pants??

It wasn't just Nick with the sad wardrobe tho. What's with those blouses with giant collars and purple paisley that Catherine wore? :)
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See! The show at the beginning did have a very 90's feel. I was surprised Cath or Sara weren't sporting shoulder pads. (or was that the 80's? :lol:)

Grissom really lacked the authority he had later on as well. In fact, it wasn't until "Who Are You?" that he actually started to resemble the Grissom of later seasons.

I also laughed when Greg asked Nick in the "Pilot" about getting a new game for the Dreamcast and told him how awesome the graphics were:guffaw:. I'm a geek and a gamer, sorry.
 
PraetorCorvinus said:
SmokaHauntUs said:
Nice thread, Praetor. :)

I'll start off by saying Nick's clothes were too loose. :lol: I mean, really...what's with the tent shirt and baggy pants??

It wasn't just Nick with the sad wardrobe tho. What's with those blouses with giant collars and purple paisley that Catherine wore? :)
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See! The show at the beginning did have a very 90's feel. I was surprised Cath or Sara weren't sporting shoulder pads. (or was that the 80's? :lol:)
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It was the 80s. Big hair and big shoulder pads. :lol:

Ah, season 1. The season that started poor Nick's being in 'dire straights' career. :lol: He had two that season, being held at gun point and accused of murder. Boy, his 'dire straights' got progressively worse.

The 'Pilot' is like any pilot out there. It's basically to show you the characters and establish some kind of who they are story. If you have season 1 on Blu-ray, I high recommend watching the director's cut. The 'Pilot' definitely has a different feel to it.

Of course, season 1 is where we got to see Nick, with no shirt on, :drool: for the first time.

Also, it was the beginning of one of my favorite things on CSI, Nick and Warrick's friendship and competiveness. Man, I miss that. :(
 
Thank's Smokey the clothes:lol: Now when I watch it, I will look for those, and looking over the episodes, I guess I liked all of them, in one way or another.
 
I've heard it said that the first season of a tv show is the hardest to do, especially for the writers. It's as though you have to do the pilot of the show twenty plus times over; because you're trying to sell the premise of the show that many times to generate a hit. The pilot is also difficult, as that's the first thing people see, and oftentimes, it takes time to set the tone for the show.

I think that that is the case for the first season of CSI. They were going through everything, setting a baseline for characters' behavior, history, and style of dress.

I do agree that the pilot was the most unusual one. None of the characters, save for perhaps Nick and Catherine were the same.

Brass was the hard-ass and was...intense. He still had that sarcastic edge, but there was a meanness about it; a whole My way or the High way. thing.

Warrick had a much angrier persona, almost militant, and definitely not trusting of authority, especially white authority.

Grissom was even more quirky, if that was possible. Taking Holly's blood for an experiment, then feeding her chocolate covered grasshoppers. Wasn't there the thing with him taking a lab tech out to a Pink Floyd Laser Light show in this episode? I know that was in the first season, I just don't remember what ep.

Then, the later episodes they show in the first season, it looks like they're trying to build on the pilot, and continue to work in new bits of character that they did. That can be backstory, sense of style, temprament, etc, etc.

We learned that Warrick has a gambling problem, Sara has issues with domestic abuse and doesn't let go well, or willingly admit that she's wrong. Ecklie is a jackass, Catherine has some serious issues with being a single mom and is legally disolving her marriage to Eddie. Nick is loyal, used to be in a frat. Greg is.....Greg. Bisexual? possibly, wild, probably, Quirky and weird, Definitlely.

The thing that I miss the most about the first couple of seasons is the fact that they would have these pow wow's in the break room and dicuss the case, the whole night shift. I thought that was brilliant, especially to bring the entire team together. I really like that, especially because after S4-5 they didn't do that.

It's also a treat to see how much younger everyone looked in the first couple of seasons. I have 8 of the 9 seasons on DVD, and I keep up with the episodes on Spike, so I really enjoy watching the show and seeing the evolution.
 
Let's see I'd say my favorite episode of Season 1 was the Strip Strangler episode, I believe if I remember right that episode ended with everybody at the diner been so long since I've seen the episode I might be wrong though. I loved that the whole team got together after work, I've always loved those moments.

OMG the cloths as pointed out previously now I go back and laugh at how dramtic wardrobe has changed since then. :guffaw:

Too Tough To Die was an episode that made me kind of sad to watch though if I remember correctly. :(

I liked Holly when she was first introduced to thought she could have been an interesting character was kind of disappointed when she died. :( If I remember right that was the episode we got a little hint about Warrick's gambling probably don't remember if it was the pilot or the second episode though been a long time since I've watched them like I said so I probably screwed up what episode was which. :shifty:
 
Too Tough To Die was an episode that made me kind of sad to watch though if I remember correctly. :(
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That's why I dislike the episode. It is a great ep, but I just can't watch it without feeling sad.
If I remember right that was the episode we got a little hint about Warrick's gambling probably don't remember if it was the pilot or the second episode though been a long time since I've watched them like I said so I probably screwed up what episode was which.
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It was the pilot where we first see his issues with gambling. He left Holly at the crime scene alone so he could go place a bet.
Greg is.....Greg. Bisexual? possibly, wild, probably, Quirky and weird, Definitlely.
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:lol: Yeah, I got that vibe while watching it. He spent almost his entire time doing a subtle-flirting-thing with Nick. It wasn't until season 2 that he started flirting with Sara.
 
SmokaHauntUs said:
Nice thread, Praetor. :)

I'll start off by saying Nick's clothes were too loose. :lol: I mean, really...what's with the tent shirt and baggy pants??

It wasn't just Nick with the sad wardrobe tho. What's with those blouses with giant collars and purple paisley that Catherine wore? :)
Click to expand...

That was the style back then. Heck, I remember wearing the massive shirts and baggy pants during that time.

Anyway, my favorite episode of the first season would have to be the one where Nick and Warrick are going back and forth betting that their theories are correct (I forgot the title). What made me laugh was in the beginning when Grissom gave them the case and told them to "work together".:guffaw:
 
Also Gentle, Gentle was really hard for me to watch, I didn't like it cause I hate stuff where infants get hurt that episode made me really sad cause if I remember right the kid died and somebody in the family was responsible for it. So for me that episode was almost harder then Too Tough To Die at least when it got to the end of the episode, poor kid. :(:(

Also love the scene toward the end of Unfriendly Skies when the team reenacts what they believe happened on the plane it was a nice scene. I kind of enjoyed the competiveness between Warrick and Nick too that somebody else mentioned.
 
Anyway, my favorite episode of the first season would have to be the one where Nick and Warrick are going back and forth betting that their theories are correct (I forgot the title). What made me laugh was in the beginning when Grissom gave them the case and told them to "work together".:guffaw:
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That's the B Story in "Anonymous". It often gets overlooked because it's a Millander episode.
Also Gentle, Gentle was really hard for me to watch, I didn't like it cause I hate stuff where infants get hurt that episode made me really sad cause if I remember right the kid died and somebody in the family was responsible for it. So for me that episode was almost harder then Too Tough To Die at least when it got to the end of the episode, poor kid. :(:(
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I don't know why, but "Gentle, Gentle" doesn't bother me like the other one. For some reason,I just really enjoy how that episode goes.
Also love the scene toward the end of Unfriendly Skies when the team reenacts what they believe happened on the plane it was a nice scene. I kind of enjoyed the competiveness between Warrick and Nick too that somebody else mentioned.
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That is probably by favorite ep from this season and one of my Top Ten favorite eps off all. It's just really good :)
 
Drumchik said:
One thing I miss about the earlier seasons - particularly season 1, is that it was lighter. We had more funny moments, more smiling, more happiness and friendship in general. I think it was a mistake of tptb to tone that down.

Simple little moments like Nick and Sara with the "leather and lace", or Gil getting excited over the birthday present he brought Lindsey.

I think characters - especially Gil and Sara - became much more depressing as the years go by, and that was one of the reasons I started disliking Sara - they just changed her character to become very dark.

Even Greg has toned down.

That being said, I liked when they brought Sara back at the start of the Season 11 that she's gone back to Season 1 Sara. Missed that one.
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I agree with all of this. The camaraderie has been missing for a while, even before Grissom left. Watching Spike a lot lately and seeing old shows ... so many smiles, jokes and laughs between the whole cast. This new season has definitely given us a small taste again of what I believe is sorely lacking ... the CSIs working, but the friendship from working with each other so long (which, let's face it, they're like family). I don't care about all the romance and shipper stuff ... I just would like to see the FUN they used to have with their job with their co-workers. I know it's a job, and someone has to be the boss, but it worked beautifully in the beginning and they, like someone said earlier, toned it WAY down. Each time we learned something personal about the CSIs (or lab techs, or Brass or the coroners), it was like a juicy tidbit that you savored because it makes long time viewers more invested in these characters. And, to me, it never felt overdone (most of the time) ... it was just little snippets. I miss that. I hope there's more of it to come, for all the characters. The three oldest leads (Catherine, Nick and Greg) seem like wooden statues of their former selves ... I want to see some more smiles!! And Brass, well, Brass is always Brass and he's never changed ... I love him just the way he is.
 
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