Why Lindsay Must Go (Part 3)

I've been partaking in some of KEntuky's greatest elixir, so what I post may not make sense, but here goes.....

I think part of the thing with Lindsay is that yeah, maybe she Does love Danny; but what does it mean for her to love? I think she's just as messed up as Danny is, but while Danny is sweet, needy and sympathetic, hell, even empathetic, Lindsay just comes across as cold, aloof and manipulative. I think that part of Lindsay's way of loving someone is to manipulate them. Pull their strings and watch them dance. She has an inflated sense of herself, as others have said, she thinks of herself as "awesomesauce." It seems like anything she's done, with the possible exception of one or two things is for either her own gratification, or for her to show how good she is.

I've pulled out the Season 3 DVD's, and have been watching them (I still have about four eps to catch up on completely, but I'm starting at the beginning, just because) and one of the things I notice is that she doesn't admit when she's wrong, at all. Like in "People with Money," She was insistent first that the victim's girlfriend killed him, then that the dynamite on the tie was an act of affection, but never, ever did she even say that she didn't have it right, or that this is what the evidence was saying. It was all what she knew. Like it had been handed down to her from God Himself. We also see this in the other episodes, where all she's doing is trying to either get her way, or prove how great she is. "PWM," "Stuck on You," "Fare Game," "Zoo York," and "Manhattan Manhunt," to name a few.

Look at the way she made Danny dance for her in Season 3. Then, all of her displeasure with him is related to the fact that he didn't do things for her on her terms.

I don't know how much of that is intentional, or how much of it is just what comes out in the character. I know it's been discussed before about Anna's limited acting range and that she doesn't know who her character is.

However, because Anna's acting range is so limited, there's no empathy for the character of Lindsay. Danny, you at least get that he's messed up, and does what he does for specific reasons, like his low self esteem, and whatnot. Anna, you don't understand anything. The PTSD is a bit of a flimsy excuse, IMO. I don't know, maybe it's because she doesn't pull it off well, but I really don't get that she's feeling it.

And, in response to Kimmy's question about whether she's just using Danny as a sex object: I don't think so. I think Lindsay's just a user, and she just uses what's there to be used. If that's what Danny has to offer, then so be it, she'll take it.

 

How old is she supposed to be ???

Just seems her emmotional/relationship age is about the same age when her friends got killed.

 

I don't know how old she is supposed to be, but her real age is 35 or 36 and personally I think she looks at least that old and with the new hairstyle I actually thinks she looks older. If she was brought in to be young and hip then I am guessing she is supposed to be late 20's, but I think she was a poor casting choice if that was their goal. Also I think they messed up the time line because her big secret was supposedly only 10 years ago and those girls in the flashback seemed about 14 but there is no way that I can buy Lindsay as 24. I do think you are right that emotionally she acts more like a teenager than a grown woman.

In general CSI:NY does seem to de-age their actors.

 

At the time of the trial one source said she was supposed to be 14 at the time of the murders and another source said 18. So she was either 24 or 28 when she testfied. If the CSI: NY timeline is roughly the same as RL, that would mean at the end of S4 she'd be (just turned) either 25 or 29. Sorry, but no. Just N.O. :wtf:

 

Now that you have mentioned that I do think I remember reading it somewhere. Although, if I remember correctly, the girls in the flashback looked much younger than 18. They were more like pre-teens almost. But, either way . . .

 

After the whole 333 plot line with Mac, somebody estimated Mac's age to be at least ten years younger than Gary Sinise's age, right? Like, Mac is in his early forties instead of fifties? The thing is, for Mac/Gary, pretending to be a forty-plus-year-old guy when you're over fifty is not as bad as a woman in her late thirties pretending to be ... 24. No way, just ... no way. Even if Lindsay's age is 28, it's still unbelievable. I've actually had people tell me they thought she was in her forties when they first watched the show and older when they watched her in season four.

I won't buy it either if Danny turned out to be only 24. But according to Run Silent, Run Deep, he was 17 when he was pushed away by Louie in front of the Tanglewood Boys and then didn't speak to Louie for 15 years after that. That would put Danny around 32 during season two ... which is about right in line with Carmine's age. At least TPTB kept his age believable.

Now why did TPTB feel the need to make Lindsay so much younger? Don't tell me they expected us to suspend that much belief just for the sake of 'appealing to the teens'! I think a person would have to be in pretty deep denial of some sort to presume Lindsay's no more than 24. :wtf:

 

I could buy Hawkes being younger than Hill because damn, the man does not look like he's over 40. Expecting me to believe Gary is only in his 40s, though--not so much. Frank Grillo was supposed to be the same age as him? Please. No. What's wrong with Mac being Gary's age? There's no benefit to him being younger as far as the storyline goes, and I think they put too much emphasis on the audience wanting 'younger' characters. Age = experience = believability on this type of show. Don't expect me to believe some early-twenties whippersnapper knows everything. Someone older, now that will be more agreeable.

That being said, making Lindsay younger not only doesn't work because of Anna's age and appearance, but it just doesn't make sense for me to believe she's in the job that young. She was a CSI in Bozeman for three years prior to moving to NYC, and she's been here 2 1/2 years. If she's 25, that would mean she'd gotten out of college when she was like 19/20-ish. Hawkes is the prodigy, not Lindsay. 29 is pushing it, even.

The thing that really bothers me about making them younger is the idea that Adam is the quote-unquote youngest and hippest guy on the show. Dear God, am I supposed to believe he's like 21? *dies*

I see no benefit to aging them down, and it just makes them less believable as investigators. Also, it would be nice if the writers paid attention to timelines. Didn't they have some bullcrap about Stella graduating from the police academy 10 years ago, after they'd already had her or Mac mention that they'd worked together for 10 years in season one? That's just sloppy.

(And yes, I'm aware that I went way off topic. )

 

I don't know hill's real age but if you're telling me he's 40+ I am SHOCKED.

I don't mind thinking of Mac as being in his early 50's, Grissom is, isn't he? But I can definitely buy him as still being in his forties too.

I also struggled for a while with trying to figure out what age they were placing Lindsay and it seems to fluctuate a lot from season to season. Someone said it right when they mentioned that despite the fact she looks like she could be pushing forty, she acts like hes fresh out of middle school and that mismatch makes me feel like Anna was terribly miscast for the part.

 

According to his IMDB page, Hill Harper is ... 42 years old. Damn, he is good looking for his age. *pets the intelligent, statuesque god of chocolate thunder*

And that's if she got hired immediately after she graduated while she was 19/20-ish. Hawkes is the only one on the show who's been touted as the 'prodigy' who graduated very early from college so for TPTB to explain Lindsay's age as her being a 'prodigy' as well is ... kinda funny and sad at the same time. I will LOL very much if TPTB decides to go with this and use it as a means of making Lindsay and Hawkes BFFs. :guffaw:

Wait, Adam is the youngest? So does that mean Kendall's older than he is? :lol: There is no way I'll believe Adam's 21. Late twenties, sure, but 21? Uh, no.

This reminds me of how much change Lindsay's character went through before she even appeared on the show. Summer Hamilton, anyone? Summer AKA Lindsay was supposed to be 'blonde and beautiful and young' or something like that, but when Anna Belknap was cast, they completely changed the bio for the character to reflect Belknap instead. Heh, they were already making the mistake of 'shaping' the character to suit the actress from the beginning.

And yeah, TPTB should have 'test-ran' Belknap first as a recurring character on the show instead of chucking her straight onto the main cast and lumping her with Danny and using him as her prop for all these years. God knows how much 'turmoil' could have been avoided if that had been the case. And before anyone says anything, yes, TPTB did intend Lindsay to be only a recurring character.

 

OMG he is the same age as my mom, and 1 year younger than my dad *straight face* Can he adopt me? [/random]

Yes, I do remember about Summer Hamilton, she could have given "Summer in the City" a whole different meaning, but what do you do, instead we had a breath of fresh air. One thing is new for me though, she was a CSI in Bozeman? I know that Mac told her that her interpretation of a blood splatter made her discover a murderer or something like that, but Lindsay strikes me as a lab rat kind of person. I mean, all those experiments she is performing all the weird things she is proud of finding, as opposed to being at a crime scene, the rest of the group are more observant in a crime scene than she is.

Really? Haha. She does seem to fit the profile of a recurring character

 

I think they do that with ALL the characters. They make them younger than the actors who portray them. The only show that I know portrays birth years is the original CSI, and that's in the "Ultimate Crime Scene Companion" book.

I'd ballpark Lindsay's age at right around 30, probably more like 31,32. That's just going by how long college takes, and having three years experience in the Bozeman crimelab. She looks closer to her that age.

Hawkes, IIRC, there was a thing in "What you See is What you See" where Mac showed Stella the form Hawkes filled out to become a CSI, and it showed a birthdate, and the year was 1973....BTW, I thought Hill Harper himself was born in '73. Guess I was wrong. He does look younger than 42, though.

Danny, in "Bad Beat" they had the Lindsay comment about "30th Birthday party footage" That was Season 2 in November 2005, so that would make Danny 32.

In the whole 333 storyline, Mac was portrayed as having been what 13 or 14 when that whole thing happened 30 years prior, so that would make him 43 or 44. I agree, I thought he was closer to 50, myself.

Stella, maybe 35. Could be a bit older.

Flack, I can see in his early 30's, probably about the same age as Danny.

However, there's no way I would perceive Lindsay Monroe as being about 25-26. There's just no way. Not even if she was a child prodigy. Not at all. Plus, that doesn't leave any room for her PTSD stuff from her friends getting killed.

I also agree that TPTB should have test ran Anna's character as recurring first. Because, now, they're married to her. I just hope that they don't make the mistake of stapling her to another character, like Hawkes or Mac.

There's some episodes I actually didn't mind her in, like in "Open and Shut." She wasn't overly annoying, even in her argument with Stella. She wasn't all "Listen to the goddess from Montana tell you how it all went down." And she wasn't even stapled to anyone. It's all in how TPTB and the writers use her. And please, keep it light, and don't give us the "Goddess from Montana" or the "Emo Tearz."

 

How long does college take in the US? I graduated with a PhD in Chemistry at 24, which is not the unsual here in the UK. So timeline wise I can believe she was 27/28ish when she arrived - college and 3 years in Montana. However looking at Lindsay I have always assumed she was mid 30's - although behavour wise I'd put her at 13.

If she had been 28 when she arrived in season 2, then the birthday missed in season 4 would have been her 30th. I know people might say thats why so was so annoyed with Danny but if it was her 30th I think we would have seen other people in the lab making references to it/ giving her cards and presents etc. Your 30th Birthday doesn't go by unnoticed. So I think she was already in her 30's when she arrived.

 

What I don't understand is why they would change the character to suit this particular actress. I can understand changing a character around for a great actress who can really bring a lot to a show, but . . . well, I don't really think Anna is that great an actress and it just puzzles me what they saw in her to make them shape a character to suit her. And I wonder if they wonder why they did it too

 

When they were looking for somebody to play the part of 'young Lindsay', they were looking for a 14 year old girl but Lindsay was supposed to be (unless they changed it) eighteen when her friends were murdered. I have a hard time believing that she could be younger than 28 in season 3. She's been a CSI in NYC for almost three years. She was a CSI in Montana for three years. I'm assuming she had four years of college prior to becoming a CSI. That's ten years right there. So, if she was 22 when she graduated college and got a job as a CSI right out of college (not sure if they have to go to the police academy in Montana), the youngest she could be is 28.

According to that storyline, Mac is only 44. He was 14 when that murder happened and he said it was thirty years ago. Gary is 53 but he is believable as a 44 year old.

Anna cannot pull off a 24-28 year old Lindsay. She just doesn't look that young.

*coughI'mayearyoungerthanhillcough*