Why Lindsay Must Go (Part 3)

If great actors like Melina, Gary, Hill, Carmine, and Eddie can't bring the best out of Anna..there is no hope.

Its like if you line up the cast, you start singing "One of these things is not like the other..." I mean CSI Vegas have all strong actors, no weak link...but why is there a weak link in Miami and especially NY...

I wish Aiden was still here...her and Danny had great back and forth chemistry.

 

Very interesting.

In a spoiler box, since the episode hasn't aired nationwide:

Spoiler: 5.05

So, Lindsay had like 1 1/2 scenes in "Cost of Living" - a flashback and an exposition scene. That's all I can remember. Other characters were scarce (namely Danny), but she was the only one with such a minor role.

Not that I mind, of course, because less is more when it comes to Miss Monroe, but I think even Sid had more scenes than she did.

Does this have to do with Anna's pregnancy? This episode was filmed after the hiatus, I believe, so was she already stepping back her schedule due to being pregnant?

By the way, Sheldon expressing his own awesomeness was much better than Lindsay's "I rock" scene - at least he was quiet about it, and really, he was awesome. Figuring out the gun was made out of a floaty pen? Psh, that beats trial-and-error substance identification any day.

 

I didn't notice - I'll have to look when I re-watch the episode.

 

Heh, I've suspected this for some time, actually. TPTB planned for DL to end and for Lindsay to be separated from Danny in season five, which meant Belknap would no longer have Carmine as a prop and she'd have to wing it on her own and show her true colors AKA being unable to do her job without help from the others covering up her shortcomings. Then she gets pregnant after filming the first four to five episodes of season five knowing full well TPTB intended to end DL and separate Danny and Lindsay and make Rikki the one pregnant with Danny's baby.

Now, solely because of her pregnancy, the writers had to change their original plans and write DL back in just to accommodate her pregnancy. Carmine will now be her permanent prop and because of the baby written into the story, there's now a major excuse for Lindsay to remain stuck on the show even if TPTB wants to kick her out.

Thing is, if this is what's going on behind the scenes, it can totally backfire. I don't think it's occurred to most people yet that Lindsay being pregnant means there's no more silly fluff and flirting anymore, period. That means Belknap's going to have to emote angst/drama from here on out and there's only so long Carmine can cover for her before people throw their arms up and chuck the show. People have already done that during season four! And the Drama Llama then will be nothing compared to what TPTB intends to chuck at us this season! :brickwall:

So if she can't act the drama even with Carmine propping her up, something's gonna give sooner or later. Hell, for all we know, this is the network finally testing her out for real to see whether she's worthy of staying on the cast or not.

Spoiler: reply to Faylinn's spoiler box

Geezus, she's non-existent in the episode and her absence goes unnoticed and doesn't change anything? :guffaw:

Well, now. That speaks for itself, doesn't it?

If her schedule is already being whittled down this early in the season, ya gotta wonder if this means we'll see even less of her in later episodes.

And is anyone curious why the pregnancy will be all about Danny? :guffaw: It's like TPTB is telling us Lindsay's only good for popping out the kid and that she'll be chucked out after she's done that!

 

Also, all those who said that D and L was not going to separate (if they ever were a couple) was not true..

Well, they have yet to have interaction with each other this season, the first 4 episodes were shot before the break, which means = before they knew Anna was pregnant. It is a pretty solid evidence for why they should not have been together in this season, in the 1st place.

 

It's all speculation, definitely. :lol: Hence my ifs in my post. Can't fully discuss a situation without looking at as many possibilities as we can, right? And as you've mentioned, her being pregnant, there might literally have not been an opportunity to fire her if TPTB wanted to do so. Since she's pregnant again, history will repeat itself and thus guarantee she ain't leaving unless she chooses to do so herself.

Yep, yep. If her scenes are already so short this early in the season, it's possible we'll be seeing even less of her later ... which is pretty hilarious considering the person supposedly going through the most changes will be her thanks to the pregnancy. Oh, I forgot. It's all about Danny. :lol:

Exactly. The way things are going, the whole pregnancy storyline is going to smack viewers straight out of the blue. Imagine us, with spoilers months in advance, shocked at the news. Now imagine viewers who don't visit spoiler websites or online forums or read articles from TPTB trying to do damage control over this and only have what's shown on screen to follow the series. Can you guys imagine their shock?

 

I think we've seen her best, hard as that notion is to take, and I don't think there's a better. She just don't fit, and no, no hope for her ever finding a way to make the character palatable or redeem her performances.

Yep, had noticed that there had been next to no DL interaction early on, which made me very happy and thought maybe a corner had been turned.

Also noticed that until Sex, Lies & Silicone we'd seen very little of Lindsay at all, and mostly in the labs. I had thought maybe that was a way for Anna to avoid shooting on location so much while pregnant, but if they were all done before that was a consideration, then maybe they were already pushing her even further to the background.

Can only freakin hope so. No interest in seeing Lindsay as Babymomma.

All they can likely do is let her contract ride out. A pregnancy does not mean she's unable to meet her obligations, and also means that any work deferred for Leave is just that and not necessarily deducted from the totality of work given within the contract. Meaning she'll be back. Aside from the qualifying issue of being pregnant, even if she weren't it would generally be messy with the collective bargaining agreement with SAG to do anything other. I'm assuming she's SAG/AFTRA/Equity, one or more. I'm assuming they'd have recourse thru grievances and all to make firing difficult, arbitration or a settlement expensive, and a the whole thing a nasty headache to contemplate, despite the less than favourable impact she's had on the show.

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A snippet from Variety in 2005 actually said:

"Anna Belknap ("Medical Investigation") will recur as investigator Lindsay Hamilton on "CSI: NY," with a deal to become a series regular. She joins Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes and Eddie Cahill in the CBS crime drama, now in production on its second season." // Daily Variety, July 27, 2005, Justin Chang

From recurring to regular. Guess AJ Buckley and Robert Joy did similar. Have wondered about Hill Harper, seeing as he was the original ME, but bumped up, yet in the credits he's with Eddie at the end, apparently not starring but "With." Dunno really what that means. Both Hill and Cahill are behind Belknap in the credits. Talk about unjust. They renegotiated Sinise, but maybe none of the others have come up yet. His original contract was for six seasons I think. Makes sense they'd try to lock him down first, and let the others play out.

If they keep minimalizing Belknap's screen time I'll be happy. And if she's further reduced to only being present via being talked about by other characters with an accompanying flashback montage like in Cost of Living, I'm all for it.

She's definitely not needed on the show. That could have been any tech or team member who processed that stuff. Only says to me that they're abiding by a contract that mandates her inclusion in a specified number of episodes or studio week's worth of work. That they're managing to do so while minimalizing how they do it also speaks volumes to me about how the producers and TPTB really do feel about the whole situation, if her pregnancy isn't the sole consideration behind their actions.

The show didn't miss Lindsay at all for Anna's first maternity leave, certainly don't think she'll be missed this time around either. I can only guess the producers are counting the days. I am. Maybe a shooter-based weekly advent calendar would make things easier to take until she's done.

Well, her performances certainly do smack viewers... It does make it look like a sudden resurging Lindsay presence and bombshell pregnancy could be all the worse for coming out of the blue, but at least I know when it's coming, and hopefully having it 'seen thru Danny's eyes' will mean she's not given much screen time to mangle.

 

Not really - AJ and Bob were on the show for several seasons before they were bumped to series reg. Before season 2 started, it was announced that Lindsay would be recurring and then be added as a reg later on, but by the time she actually showed up, she was a reg to start with. There really wasn't a trial period.

Basically, AJ and Bob proved themselves and their characters for a while before they got put with the regs, but they apparently gave Anna the benefit of the doubt.

I believe the 'with' and the 'and' are special designations - being at the end is actually a good thing, if I remember correctly. Maybe Top can clarify that one for us.

I think it's a traditional thing to renegotiate for an extra year with a small raise at some point. (Here's the article I posted about Sinise adding a year, BTW - I didn't realize it had been a whole year ago. Time is going too fast.) I've often wondered about the details of the contracts everybody has and whether they'd all choose to re-sign when theirs comes up...

(As a random note, I just found this article, in which it states that Mac was originally going to be named "Rick Calucci". :lol: I don't know why that's funny to me. I can't imagine Mac being anybody but, well, Mac.)

 

Yeah, I do recall they were recurring before finally being made regulars. They really did carve out such an impression each of them it would have been unforgivable not to bring them on board full time

Unfortunate all the moreso now that Anna never had a trial period. Maybe that either woulda given opportunity to develop things or iron kinks out, or prevent it from having gotten this controversial.

Huh, interesting they had Carmine and Vanessa Ferlito locked into place while Stella was up in the air.

:lol: yeah, I can't see Mac as anyone but Mac. Certainly can't look at his face and see Rick. Hey Rick. Detective Calucci, howzit hangin'? Uh no :lol:

If I recall also, I think Sinise was the one who said "I don't really feel like a Calucci..." :lol:

 

When was it actually announced that Anna Belknap was pregnant? i know it was sometime after a few episodes were filmed, i'm assuming after the cost of living.

if she only told producers that she was pregnant after this episode was filmed, there was no physical or health reason that would have kept Anna Belknap from appearing in an episode...especially last night's ep. i know lindsay fans are upset that she wasn't more involved with last nights episode, citing that "they gave her stuff to do last time when she was pregnant, why not now?" it seems to me, once again, people are making excuses for her...if im correct in assuming that she was not pregnant at the time of the filming of the cost of living, that would mean the writers and producers were confining her to the lab and giving her as little scenes as possible, before she was due to be on maternity leave or have a less strenuous work load since she was expecting.

to me, this can only mean that tptb are finally recognizing her for the weak link that she is, and are now trying to rectify the situation by having her in the episode as little as possible. how else do you explain a cast member like aj buckley, who only very very recently has become a full time cast member, getting more screen time then belknap, who has been a regular for the past three seasons??

the fact that they are pushing her in the background of recent episodes as well as showing the pregnancy storyline simply from danny's pov instead of hers only tells me that the writers are realizing (rather belatedly, imho) how weak her acting and her character is...


...and i apologize for the lack of capitalization....my shift button decided to break this morning. sigh.

 

I think part of that was due to the need to set up for next week's big bombshell regarding Adam (as seen in the preview), but there's no denying that AJ has gotten a lot of great stuff so far this season and will most likely continue to get great stuff as the year wears on.

As for Anna's pregnancy - she was showing when they had the 100th episode party, so I assume they knew she was pregnant before they came back to film 5.05 on. It's possible that they've already started to step back her role in some episodes, I suppose, but I guess we can't be sure. In an interview done some time last season, Anna said she was on a part time-ish schedule already, so I imagine being pregnant again, she'll probably step it back even more for the time being. She worked for a long time when she was pregnant during S3, and she came back really quickly - I'm just speculating, but it's possible she decided to take a lighter load this time, knowing as she now does what the experience is like.