The Weak Link

[electra]

^ I think is more that Horatio saves everyone,rather then weak women on CSI miami.He does the same with Eric and Ryan when they are in trouble.He is just too powerful.

What I hated about Sara is that there were some times where she should have apologized.I remember a confontation with catherine where Ecklie told her to apologize and all we had was grissom visiting her!!! Not fair to the rest.

 

[Wojo]

I have to jump on the Sara band wagon too. I never liked her, she was depressing, whiny, and obsessive. The only thing I did like to watch was her friendship with Greg, those two worked and interacted so well together.

Hodges, I find him extremely annoying. I am not happy that they made him the funny one on the show and stole that away from Greg. Hodges is somebody you laugh at, while Greg was somebody you laughed with.

 

[Urban Legend]

I have to jump on the Sara band wagon too. I never liked her, she was depressing, whiny, and obsessive. The only thing I did like to watch was her friendship with Greg, those two worked and interacted so well together.

Hodges, I find him extremely annoying. I am not happy that they made him the funny one on the show and stole that away from Greg. Hodges is somebody you laugh at, while Greg was somebody you laughed with.

I agree, Hodges was only funnier in earlier seasons and now the forced humor mixed with bad writing makes him very annoying.

 

[Kimbo08]

Yes, and his hero worship is even more grotesque. I would consider Hodges a weak link in the sense of the way his character is portrayed. I like some Hodges scenes to a point but there is just something about the character that dries me crazy. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it is the delivery of the lines or what. They only problem I have when it comes to this is when does dislike for a character mix with being a weak link?

 

[Speedystokesgirl]

I only watch CSI LV so the weakest link on that show?

Surprise, surprise, I feel it was Sara.

She was ok season 1-3, I agree with that, but she always had the 'I'm better than you, because Grissom handpicked me to work here' attitude. I won't even mention that she said that to Nick.

Her holier than now attitude irritated me too.

That whole her being in subordinate to Catherine and Ecklie? She should've been fired, but at least she FINALLY, had to face the consequences of her actions. Because, lord knows, Grissom let her get away with everything.

I mean he is her supervisor and he goes to see her to ask find out why she did what she did? Ok, that would be a supervisor thing to do, but then does he reprimand her or say, I know you had a hard life, but that doesn't excuse what you did? NOPE, he held her hand instead and blame himself for it. Ummmm, excuse me, the only one at fault here is Sara.

Oh, Sara is also the ONLY CSI to commit an actual crime. A crime that should've gotten her fired. What was that crime. Driving while she was drunk. Again, what did Grissom do? Held her hand and took her home. Where was her reprimand, her suspension, her termination. I mean she could have KILLED SOMEONE, but I guess even then she would've have gotten away with it. If that had been any of the other CSIs he would've been all over them.

The favortism shown to Sara is also what made her a weak link.

As for the promotion, I don't think that letter actually said Nick got the promotion, but that the position was being eliminated and that Grissom recommended him. Sara was pissed because Grissom didn't recommend her. So this would be the 'I was handpicked by Grissom' so he should've picked me. I'm in-love with Grissom so he should've picked me.

She was depressing and whiny. I know she had a hard life growing up, her mother killed her father, she was in foster care, but at some point you have to stop letting that define you and move on with your life.

GSR was the other weak link. I mean the last thing Grissom should've have been doing was having Sara work with him all the time once this relationship started. However, that's exactly what happened. I mean you did have other team members you should've worked with too.

I'm going with the continuity thing too. Like Shytownmofo mentioned. Another example was their error this season in the episode "Turn Turn Turn". Nick's birthday is August 18th and has been since his character was created, now, all of sudden, his birthday was in February. :wtf: Gee, I wish I could change my birthday like that.

 

[myfuturecsi]

Yeah that b-day thing really bugged me..but to me it was a small factor in a wonderful episode.

 

[Kimbo08]

Speedy, I completely agree with what you said about Sara. I didn't even think about the favoritism aspect of it all. Interesting, very interesting. Oh, and I forgot about her Drunk Driving situation. Hmmmmm.....

 

[Biomeka]

How was Sara mean to Nick about the promtion? Though she was pretty jealous she still went out for a drink with him and even congratulated him. That doesn't seem mean to me

 

[byline]

For me, the weak link is not so much a particular character, but a particular way of writing the characters. Others have mentioned this, and so I'll just expand on it.

I mainly watch the Vegas original, but occasionally watch the spin-offs, and there certainly is a tendency in all three to:

1. Create personal relationships between certain characters to heighten dramatic tension. Or, at least, that's the intent. Doesn't work for me.

2. Create fairly predictable flaws in certain characters -- the women, in particular -- to make them needy and undermine their capability.

People keep singling out Sara, but I think we're all forgetting that, starting with Season 3, Catherine was written in such a way to make her seemingly neurotic, mistake-prone, evasive and even unethical. I hated it that both female characters in the series were often written in such a stereotypical way. For me, that's the weakest link. As others have said, women are capable. We don't need to be rescued. Yet that blasted "knight in shining armor" keeps getting written again and again and again. I realize that this is fiction, but trust me, we women and men can be entertained without resorting to all the usual worn-out Hollywood conventions.

 

[happyharper13]

For me, the weak link is not so much a particular character, but a particular way of writing the characters. Others have mentioned this, and so I'll just expand on it.

I mainly watch the Vegas original, but occasionally watch the spin-offs, and there certainly is a tendency in all three to:

1. Create personal relationships between certain characters to heighten dramatic tension. Or, at least, that's the intent. Doesn't work for me.

2. Create fairly predictable flaws in certain characters -- the women, in particular -- to make them needy and undermine their capability.

People keep singling out Sara, but I think we're all forgetting that, starting with Season 3, Catherine was written in such a way to make her seemingly neurotic, mistake-prone, evasive and even unethical. I hated it that both female characters in the series were often written in such a stereotypical way. For me, that's the weakest link. As others have said, women are capable. We don't need to be rescued. Yet that blasted "knight in shining armor" keeps getting written again and again and again. I realize that this is fiction, but trust me, we women and men can be entertained without resorting to all the usual worn-out Hollywood conventions.

Amen to that! It's nice to see, at least now, that Cath and Riley have been written away from this as of late. Though I'm not big on Wedges, I like how, so far, the roles seem relatively reversed between Hodges and Wendy. Wendy is the strong one, which fits perfectly with her character.

 

[Biomeka]

I don't think Sara was weak even though she was rather emotional. I mean she escaped from being traped under a car when she had a broken arm. I know I couldn't do that

 

[happyharper13]

I don't think Sara was weak even though she was rather emotional. I mean she escaped from being traped under a car when she had a broken arm. I know I couldn't do that

I don't think byline means physically weak as much as emotionally weak and needy. Personally, I liked Sara in a lot of ways, and for much of her tenure on CSI. It was the few episodes where she chased Grissom, bickered with coworkers and behaved unprofessionally that made her come across that way. That said, I agree that it had less to do with Sara Sidle's character and more to do with how the writers/TPTB chose to portray her in those select episodes, though of course it's difficult to separate writing from the character herself.

 

[byline]

I don't think Sara was weak even though she was rather emotional. I mean she escaped from being traped under a car when she had a broken arm. I know I couldn't do that

I don't think byline means physically weak as much as emotionally weak and needy. Personally, I liked Sara in a lot of ways, and for much of her tenure on CSI. It was the few episodes where she chased Grissom, bickered with coworkers and behaved unprofessionally that made her come across that way. That said, I agree that it had less to do with Sara Sidle's character and more to do with how the writers/TPTB chose to portray her in those select episodes, though of course it's difficult to separate writing from the character herself.

Yup, exactly. (And then there was that all-too-predictable jealousy "triangle" between Sara, Sofia and Grissom that thankfully ran its course very quickly.) For the most part, I liked Sara, and didn't dislike her quirks nearly as much as others did, but I did have a hard time with the way her character -- and Catherine's -- was written later on. It seemed like the women were singled out for various neuroses, while the men pretty much got a free pass. That balance shifted later on, but not before it had become a well-established trend starting in Season 3.

Maybe it's because of the speed and intense deadline pressures associated with the medium, but I think TV writers, in general, have a hard time creating and developing believable characters who are self-reliant and inter-dependent (as opposed to isolated and needy). They seem to write more in extremes, maybe because it's easier to write those extremes (using friction as a convenient prop, because supposedly that's what people want) than it is to craft more subtle nuances of character, and then keep them interesting, through a long-running series . . . especially if the writers keep changing. So I think that's why we get these weirdly familiar storylines that keep on coming back again and again, because they're old, reliable standbys. But for me, they're tedious conventions that I don't want to see thrust on my favorite characters. Especially not when they started out as departures from conventionality.

 

[Biomeka]

Well ok. I still don't remember her being mean to Nick (assuming we talking about the No more Bets episode?)

 

[talkingtocactus]

On Miami, Horatio's 'Captain Obvious' lines are the reason I dislike him and the show so much. So, to me, Horatio is the weakest link.

Miami: Horatio * zzzzzzzz * I swear that show puts me asleep ... but if it had less of his corny lines, I might be able to tolerate the show.

i agree totally - i used to watch miami when it was on randomly on uk channels but after a while i just had to stop, it was making me angry! i like a lot of things about the miami csi, i love the bright colour filters and stuff that make everything look vibrant and fresh and cool but i'm at a point where i actually can't watch it at all beause he bothers me too much, i'd be throwing stuff at the tv.

Lindsay is a fairly dull character who shows very little emotion. Just the fact that TPTB had to write such an OOC storyline just to accommodate her character's needs makes her the weak link to me.
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Prior to S9, I think Warrick was the weak link because he seemed like the most criminally undeveloped. In S1, it felt like he had the most potential to become the most intriguing, complex character, but it felt like TPTB just dropped the ball on him, especially in later seasons.

i actually like lindsay but i do see everyone's point about her not having enough to do, she's never been as invested emotionally as the others, or that's how it seems anyway. i also agree with the comments that she was much better initially, but she has definitely deteriorated. i still quite like her tho.

i completely agree about warrick - i always loved warrick but i thought towards the end it got a bit repetitive/predictable - oh look, he's been gambling again, what a shock. etc etc. they could've done so much with him but they didn't amd that was a shame.

Honestly, I think the main weak link in all three shows, at least Vegas and NY, is continuity. How many people's pasts have been retconned to fit storylines?

:lol: yeah i agree.

for me on vegas i guess it'd be *shocked look* sara sidle. she always seemed so miserable! i always liked hodges (although he is cheesier than ever these days) and i love wendy as well. i agree with the comment that david was beginning to overshadow robbins in the coroner's office.

in miami it's clearly horatio - duh!

in ny i dunno, do i have one? i love em all