Raynn
Coroner
I thnk a reminder may be in order. Fishburne is an actor who portrays a character, as was William Petersen. You can be upset at an actor for leaving a show, but to start disliking a character because of it?
That's something that I think is sometimes hard to differentiate between. The actor "becomes" the character to some people (which is why some actors quit actually ).
Also, sometimes the explanations on-screen about real life decisions seem somewhat contrived and hard to believe, which makes it even harder. If a character starts acting "out of character" because the actor is quitting so the character needs to be written off, then it's easier to be upset at the character too, for changing, and not being "true to themselves." In the end though, we do need to realize that the actors make their own decisions (or in some cases, TPTB do), and we just have to overlook the oddness of how it comes across in story (I was thinking more of Liz Vassey's departure when I wrote this paragraph).
Besides, if tptb are trying to turn anyone into Grissom, it's Nick. :lol:
"The student has become the master"?
Personality-wise, WP made Grissom a wonderfully unique character, which I don't think anyone is trying to duplicate. They're all creating their own characters.
Professionally, Nick is certainly becoming what Grissom was - a competent CSI, a bug expert, and a supervisor. It's just natural though - there are certain roles in the lab that need to be filled, and when one person steps out, another steps in. Unfortunately, in Langston's case (in some opinions), he didn't step into the "newbie/learner/follower" role (that Greg should be moving up out of), but skipped through that quickly and into more of a "take charge" role that he hasn't earned yet.
One of the things that makes humans what we are is our ability to learn from the past. By bringing up Grissom, we're not "living in the past" - we're looking at how the past was, in order to understand how the present came to be, and have a better idea of what the future might hold.