The Screentime Tallyboard

IMO season 4 was when things started to go down.When Speed was there i sensed a team that cared about each other and worked well.Not sure if I consider the Natalia/Eric/Ryan triangle better then the one with Eric /Calleigh/Jake becouse I hated both.I like the changes for Ryan and Horatio as well that the screentime is more balanced in this season.

And i honestly feel that regardless of whom Calleigh,Eric and Horatio are romantically involved ,they will the ones to carry the main storylines.Not that I exactly like it becouse Calleigh needs a break to put an exemple,but that is how I believe TPTB see it.
 
electra said:
IMO season 4 was when things started to go down.When Speed was there i sensed a team that cared about each other and worked well.Not sure if I consider the Natalia/Eric/Ryan triangle better then the one with Eric /Calleigh/Jake becouse I hated both.I like the changes for Ryan and Horatio as well that the screentime is more balanced in this season.
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Maybe it was started in season 4, but IMO it was much better then what we have now. It's started then, but tptb makes thing worse with new seasons. :(
 
The bottom line is, they've managed before with having all the characters have fair amount of screentime, & stories - & it always worked, no matter who was paired with who in each scene! They've mixed up the scenes before & the arcs, so they can actually do this - it never killed the ratings before, nor would it now.
The general audience is just going to look for a good interesting story/case in the episode - most people probably could care less which character is focused on in the actual episode, so throwing out storylines focusing on Natalia, Ryan, & on accasion Frank, would do absolutely no harm - nor would shifting & balancing out the screentime.


IMO season 4 was when things started to go down.When Speed was there i sensed a team that cared about each other and worked well.
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IMO, season 4 showed a great deal of the team caring for each other. Horatio & Eric bonded well in that season. Calleigh had moments where she was concerned for Ryan's eye problems - on the flipside Ryan as well showed some interest in how Calleigh was doing after Hagen's death; Calleigh was concerned & eager to help Horatio when he was a suspect in his girlfriend's murder, & still showed concern when Eric was selling pot.
The ending in 'Blood in the Water' showed how H felt about his team.
Again we had concern/care when Natalia's past was brought up about 'abuse', from both Horatio & Eric. Ryan & Eric were pretty much at odds through the season, other than that, there were far more "team togetherness" in that season than what we've seen lately. IMO, it started to go downhill in season 6.
 
mjszud said:
The bottom line is, they've managed before with having all the characters have fair amount of screentime, & stories - & it always worked, no matter who was paired with who in each scene! They've mixed up the scenes before & the arcs, so they can actually do this - it never killed the ratings before, nor would it now.
The general audience is just going to look for a good interesting story/case in the episode - most people probably could care less which character is focused on in the actual episode, so throwing out storylines focusing on Natalia, Ryan, & on accasion Frank, would do absolutely no harm - nor would shifting & balancing out the screentime.
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Yes, the writers managed it when there were less characters on the slate. If, as some people believe, the writers pander to the audience and read this board then they can't help but notice the ...Frank, Travers, Dave, Valera, Kyle, etc.... We want more of them threads/posts.
If that is true (which I personally doubt) then the writers are just trying to give eveyone what they want, which is impossible with as many characters are present. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it is difficult. Especially if the main actors need time off for personal reasons.
 
Yes, the writers managed it when there were less characters on the slate.
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The main characters haven't changed for a while,however their screen or air time has. As I mentioned earlier ,the peripheral characters like Travers,Dave,etc are not going to get the same air time,stories,etc.and shouldn't be expected to.
The tallies listed here are basically for the main characters and it's the main characters that most of us here are speaking of as far as stories,air time etc.
 
I don't expect the peripheral characters to get the same ammount of screen time. Just pointing out that the more extra characters that have screen time the more it cuts into time left over for the main characters and the less time the main characters have on screen. It seems that lab work is now done by techs and the resulting 'information' scenes are the tech and one CSI (instead of 2 CSI's).
 
electra said:
If i am not mistaken on season 4 Ryan and Calleigh were mainly working together while Eric was paired regularly with Horatio and having a relationship with Natalia at the same time.So really this is not the first time.But honestly,I just think the writers do the pairings that they believe work best.
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Have to agree with you here. Just finished watching Season 4 all over again and I would say that season 3 and season 4 Ryan and Calleigh were paired almost all of the time and Eric and Horatio were paired almost all of the time.

Orla_Dark said:
But she working with H and Eric too, now we see that Calleigh working only with Eric and have one scene with someone else in few eps. IMO, season 4 was better, even if Cal and Ryan working together a lot.
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Ok...but Cal and Ryan were paired for almost two full seasons which I really hated because I didn't see Cal working that much with H anymore. Every few episodes you saw Cal and Ryan interacting with other characters but for the most part they worked solely with each other. Just like Eric and Calleigh do now. I purposely went back and watched because I was looking to see when exactly the characters started losing their minds and acting crazy for a fanfic I'm writing. I didn't even realize how much Ryan was paired with Calleigh and I can actually see why the non E/C folks aren't happy because they just switched out the two guys and now we see Calleigh and Eric paired working together (I'm not talking about the ship itself but just them working together) more than we see them paired working with anyone else. Ryan is now always paired with Horatio for the most part and they all have occasional interactions with other characters. I do agree with you though that the season 4 was better as far as screen time goes.

However as mjszud said it isn't really about the pairings as far as who is working with whom but the actual screen time. In seasons 3 and 4 although you got the same pairs with occasional interactions with the other characters ALL of them had pretty equal screen time.

Now what we've got is the same pairings with occasional interactions and three of the leads getting the most screen time. I'm not a big fan of either Ryan or Natalia but I can say I feel they've been getting shafted on the screen time in S6 and S7. After watching S3 and S4 again it's actually really obvious.

Also, I can see why they did what they did in S3 and S4 with Ryan and Cal because they were letting the fans get to know his character, as well as, witness his training as a CSI so it actually made sense.

A little OT but I have to say that the pairings now and how they have them segmented does trend toward the solidarity 'us' vs. 'them' kind of thing. (OMG did I really just say that :eek: ) I'm still a shipper but after watching again I do see how the dynamic has changed to give that impression. However, I'm not convinced that's what they are trying to portray (I really think they are trying to show the working together and their being together as two different things but this tactic has taken screen time away from others) so I can definately see how some fans could come to that conclusion just based on who they have interacting with whom. If they readjusted the screen time with the characters like they did in S4 (which it looks like they have been trending toward based on the last three eps) then I think it would make things a lot better.

I have no theory for Natalia. I honestly don't get it. I didn't expect to see much of her in S4 because she was really new, however, like Ryan I did expect to see more of her in S5, S6, and S7 since she went through training just like Ryan. I'm stumped on this one. Although, remember that Alexx had the same kind of issues where we didn't see her a whole lot (yes we saw her more than Nat, but we saw her a lot less than the other characters)

Hope that made sense what I was trying to say :)
 
luvcsimiami said:
Ok...but Cal and Ryan were paired for almost two full seasons which I really hated because I didn't see Cal working that much with H anymore. Every few episodes you saw Cal and Ryan interacting with other characters but for the most part they worked solely with each other. Just like Eric and Calleigh do now. I purposely went back and watched because I was looking to see when exactly the characters started losing their minds and acting crazy for a fanfic I'm writing. I didn't even realize how much Ryan was paired with Calleigh and I can actually see why the non E/C folks aren't happy because they just switched out the two guys and now we see Calleigh and Eric paired working together (I'm not talking about the ship itself but just them working together) more than we see them paired working with anyone else. Ryan is now always paired with Horatio for the most part and they all have occasional interactions with other characters. I do agree with you though that the season 4 was better as far as screen time goes.
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Yes, but Ryan and Calleigh working with others in every ep. Now, how many eps Calleigh not working with Ryan (no one scene), the same between Nat and Eric. Though, Natalia have especially awful screentime in this season.
 
Mj,most of these exemples could also be the same as Horatio helping Eric about his father situation or H tellling Natalia about Julia in this season.There should be something like that in every season actually IMO.What I am trying to make is that since Speed died,this doesn't feel like a team anymore at least not like vegas does it.

This is probably off topic but I can't recall if Eric apologized to Natalia for saying to Ryan that she was clear for landing ot if she explained why she accepted to be the mole.Becouse if that is true there is no major difference in E/C/N not learning why Ryan compromised evidence in WISC.

I generally think thta this show is good but there are major holes of continuity everywhere(like in most shows).
 
^ I think Eric told Natalia that he was sorry and said "it just came out". In other words, it's not what he meant to say.
 
Finale, 'Seeing Red'

Horatio: 20 total
Individual: 7
Interaction:
Yelina- 3
Eric- 1
Ryan- 1
Frank- 4
Natalia- 1
Calleigh- 1
Frank/Ryan- 1
Frank/Calleigh- 1

Eric: 6 total
Individual: 2
Interaction:
Horatio- 1
Calleigh- 3

Calleigh: 12 total
Individual: 3
Interaction:
Eric- 3
Ryan- 4
Horatio- 1
Frank/Horatio- 1

Ryan: 8 total
Individual: 1
Interaction:
Horatio- 1
Calleigh- 4
Natalia- 1
Horatio/Frank- 1

Natalia: 2 total
Interaction:
Horatio-1
Ryan- 1

Frank: 6 total
Interaction:
Horatio- 4
Horatio/Ryan- 1
Horatio/Calleigh- 1
 
Oooohhh we're getting more Frank, yay!!! He's interactions with suspect are just so funny. He and H make a good team :). I had a feeling H would have a lot of scenes. This was quite an H episode, which is not surprising since it was a finale and they usually focus a lot on H. Ryan's numbers are also up, good :).
 
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