CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Nice scene.

Thanks, Nicholas!

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

My dvr locked up toward the end. What was written in pee on the paper?

Thanks!

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Thanks for posting that clip. I remember seeing someone finding that picture of Sara and Grissom from the promo, and kept watching for it during the episode. I was pretty sure it was Catherine who picked the picture up, but as the story played out I half-convinced myself that it was just a trick of editing and that Bonnie Bedelia would find it. Then the whole thing never happened and I started to think the last set of promos had also inlcuded flashes from upcoming episodes and the moment would air later.

I agree that the phone call at the end was from Sara, but I don't think the photo indicates that they were sleeping together back in San Francisco. For one thing, he was only there for a semester or less, teaching a seminar. He was already working in Vegas at the time. Also everything in the first four seasons indicates that Grissom is very uncomfortable with Sara's obvious crush on him, and either in deep denial about his own feelings or struggling to supress them. (For all the obvious reasons of the age difference, the student/mentor relationship and later his official role as her boss.)

Still, when he announces that he's bringing in Sara Sidle to investigate why Warrick left Holly Gribbs alone at the crime scene where she was shot*, Catherine repeats the name as if she's heard it before. She's never met Sara, but it seems she's heard Grissom mention Sara often enough that she has some idea of who she is. I always thought that was interesting.

By the time of "Butterflied" in season 4 (in which a girl who looks eerily like Sara is murdered) Grissom can admit his feelings to himself, but not to her, and he still can't act on them. The two become closer after her near drunk driving arrest, and closer still after Sara opens up to Grissom about her childhood and her family, but indications are that he is still keeping some professional distance at that point.

If I had to guess, I'd say the relationship turned romantic after the events of "Committed" in season 5, when Sara is nearly murdered before Grissom's eyes by a patient in a hospital for the criminally insane.

Certainly the producers planned to tease the audience by suggesting that Sara and Grissom spent the night together at a bed and breakfast in a small Nevada town in "Gum Drops" in season 6. (The plan was dropped when Grissom was written out of the episode because Willliam Peterson had to leave the location due to a family emergency, and the episode changed to focus on Nick as the main regular in the story.)

At the end of S6, of course, we got the revelation that Sara and Grissom were together and apparently had been for some time. (The bedroom in which we saw them didn't resemble Grissom's old apartment from the first two seasons or Sara's apartment, and it certainly didn't resemble Grissom's current place. Given the decor there, I'm guessing that it was his mother's house, which he inherited when she died. I think that when they decided to move in together they moved to Grissom's new place. That would explain how Sara could just take off the way she did. She had no lease to get out of or condo to sell, and no stuff to put in storage. )

When Ecklie asked each of them how long they'd been together (he actually askes Sara how long they'd been "intimate" - that is, sexually involved) she said "Two years" and he said "Nine". Sara was counting from when they started sleeping together. Grissom, who understands in retrospect that he has loved Sara since he met her, dates the start of the emotional relationship back to that forensics seminar in San Francisco.


Did you actually see the credits cut off on the SD feed, or is this just a deduction based on their location in the HD frame? I can't image SAG rules would allow them to obscure the credits in any way on the SD feed (which is still how the vast majority of viewers see the show.) I suspect that they're either letterboxing the SD feed (or at least the SD credits) or they're doing separate SD masters with 4:3 credits.


"Carve MK for me. Send me the photos"

Bonnie Bedelia's Deputy DA was named Maddie Klein. Speaking to Grissom later she points out that she was right about the guy planning to leave town, otherwise he would have killed her himself when he was released, not ordered one of his boys to do it. By intercepting the note, Grissom saved her life. (Which leads Grissom to suggest that maybe now they're even. )

Regards,

Joe

* And why didn't that little lapse in judgment make the DA's list of "CSI's biggest screw-ups"? As far I can recall, that's the only mistake any of them ever made that led directly to death of another character - and a CSI, at that. I notice the DA also didn't call Grissom on his flagrant violation of agency policy in dating a subordinate.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Don't get to see that question posed too many times.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Yeah, I finally caught up on "Ask Ausiello" and various other sources. Haven't heard anything about the CSI writer's plans for [i]TaaHM[/b], but Lorre's sitcom diva plot sounds like it should be fun.

It would be pretty funny if Carol Mendelsohn actually did center her episode around Alan's ex Kandee and her CSI-inspired TV pilot Stiffs. If someone gets murdered during the filming they could then have the real cops investigating the fake cops on a sitcom spoof of a cop drama written by the...

At that point I'm pretty sure the whole thing would collapse into a massive singluarity that would absorb the entire universe, so maybe this wouldn't be such a good idea after all.

Regards,

Joe

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by todd s What was written in pee on the paper?

Obviously you've never worked with small children.

Joe

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

I didn't see it personally (because I will NEVER, EVER, EVER!!!!!!! watch any of the CSI series in 4:3 ever again) but after it was mentioned in that thread on the DVD Talk forum, I took the recording of the episode I made (just bought a DVD recorder) and made a stand-alone video of the credit sequence. I made a cropped-to-4:3 version and the credits were indeed cropped off.

CBS has never letterboxed their SD shows as far as I know. NBC does and has done so for years.

I put three screencap comparisons here:
NL197/CSI Aspect Ratio examples - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

I couldn't get them EXACTLY the same, but in every name the first letter was cut off, and in Robert David Hall's case, his last name is never fully on screen as it moves.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

I didn't catch the credits on this particular episode but I don't think they're cropped in the SD feeds if memory serves. My local CBS affiliate doesn't yet broadcast HD through DirecTV so I have to watch in SD.

I want to try an external antenna to see if I can receive the station but just haven't got around to it yet.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Every episode prior, no matter the changes made to the credit sequence, always had the actor's names within the 4:3 safe area. There are no past examples of this to recall, as this episode featured these new revised credits outside that safe area for the first time.

There's one channel here that airs CSI reruns in widescreen, and if I didn't have the DVDs, I'd only watch it on that one channel. So I wasn't being some kind of SD / HD elitist, I'm just an OAR elitist for these shows.

If I didn't have an HD television I'd still have the HD cable box just so I could still watch (and record) these shows in widescreen.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Based on your screen caps, I'm sure that the SD feed either letterboxed the credits or that they have an alternate version with the names in the 4:3 area, because there is way too much chopped off for SAG to tolerate. They take these things very serioulsy.


Preach on! (OK, I do have to watch CSI S1 in 4:3, because that's the only way it has ever been released on DVD, much to my annoyance.)

Regards,

Joe

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

I saw the entire season 1 in widescreen HD once back in late December 2006 - January 2007, five nights a week. It. Was. Beautiful. It was a pleasant surprise that the image quality was on par with current seasons - it was always shot in HD from the beginning, so it wasn't stretched, upconverted, or anything artificial. It was the real deal. It wasn't in 5.1 surround, but that's nothing to complain about.

Unfortunately it never aired that way again (it's a Canadian channel called Showcase, owned by Alliance who co-owns the CSI properties) because despite airing it widescreen on both the HD and SD versions of that channel, they only ran season 1 only one time, and now have dropped the show more or less entirely in favor of CSI: NY. Now it's no surprise that they dropped the show, because they've been airing the reruns for many years now. It just stinks that they only got around to airing season 1 wide just that one time.

I'd gladly subscribe to the HD channel (I saw it during a free preview) just so I could record that onto DVD if they ever aired it again.

The odd thing was, I broke down and bought the season 1 DVD set for Christmas of that year, only to watch the pilot twice that day - once on the DVD, and again to my shock in widescreen on that channel. The timing of that was amazing, and I so badly wanted to throw that DVD set in the garbage for being so sub-standard.

I haven't seen season 1 since then, and never will unless it's wide.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

There was a rumor (or maybe just wishful thinking) that CBS/Paramount was thinking about revisiting the fairly barebones S1 release of CSI to add commentaries and more extensive extras, as well as to remaster the episodes in anamorphic widescreen and thus make it more consistent with the later seasons. Nothing ever happened on that score, and the last I heard about them taking another look at S1 was in an interview with a Paramount exec who said that CSI might be a good candidate TV series for release on HD-DVD. His thinking was that a lot of shows wouldn't gain enough from the HD treatment to tempt people who already owned them to double-dip, or get people with a choice of SD and HD releases to go for the pricier HD version, but that FX-heavy series like the Treks and the CSIs would offer enough extra sizzle to find a market in hi-def, even this early in the transition. Of course, HD-DVD has since gone the way of the Dodo, so presumably it is a Blu Ray release that the long-range planners at CBS are now contemplating. Personally, I'd settle for just a widscreen release of S1 with some new extras, as the existing DVDs look almost as good as the HD broadcasts upscaled on my JVC 720p LCoS and since I'm sat out the format war and probably won't buy a Blu Ray player until around Christmas.

Regards,

Joe

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Yup. That Season 1 snafu was really too bad.

I remember those rumors being discussed here at the HTF. I'd re-buy S1 if re-released in 16:9. It pains me to say that since the sets are so expensive (AND I always wait until I can pick one up "used")...but I'd do it.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

I emailed TV Shows On DVD about it, and why so long after the rumor of a re-release there was no follow up, and I was told that it was just that - a rumor, and if there was anything in the planning stage, it would likely be on an HD format (at the time I emailed them, Paramount was HD-DVD exclusive). However, nothing was mentioned about that article you guys are talking about, though it makes perfect sense.

I've found that the only CSI sets that look bad are those re-encoded here in Canada by Alliance, because they add french language stereo tracks, as well as a completely useless (and bitrate-consuming) english stereo track to the already existing english 5.1.

In the case of CSI: NY season 2, they abandoned the commentaries in favor of those stereo tracks.

CSI: Miami season 4 added those but preserved the commentaries, making that DVD release look absolutely terrible.
If I get a chance (as in money) I'm going to re-purchase the American CBS versions as replacements for those two seasons.

But yes, when done right the CSI sets do look very faithful to the HD broadcasts, and I don't even upconvert.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Tonight's episode, " A Thousand Days On Earth" ends with an issue I've always wanted to be addressed on these crime shows, and I hope it gets to be played out.

And, at least here on my local Canadian channel CTV, I ran out of the living room and into my room to look at the SD broadcast and the credits were indeed cropped off just like the screencaps I made.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Yeah, they were cropped here too. The names sort of moved right-to-left or left-to-right so you could see most of them. Still irritating though.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Re: Mike's spoiler response,

Specifically:
Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Back atcha, Nicholas!


Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Depending on your TV, you may be upconverting and not know it. Any fixed-pixel design (most plasmas, all DLPS, LCoS and LCD panels) scales every input to whatever its native resolution is, unless the input already exactly matches that resolution. (A 768p LCD panel will re-scale all inputs because none of them will come in at exactly 768. Owners of those sets are almost always better off by-passing any other upconversion because using it just adds another processing step to the signal path.)

The result of using just the TV's built-in scaler is often as good or better than an "upconverting" DVD player. (Of course really high-end outboard video processors or players may do a much better job.)

I have a JVC LCoS and a Sony DVD player that upconverts on one of its HD outputs, but not the other. (I can never remember if it does HD over HDMI but not component, or it does it on component but not HDMI.) Eitehr way when I got the TV I played with both inputs, plus the S-video input as a control, and I could not tell the difference between the player's upconversion and that TV's scaler.

Regards,

Joe

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

My plasma does handle a wide variety of DVDs quite well, so perhaps it is scaling appropriately. It's an LG 42"PB4D with the built-in recorder. I've seen enough upconverting DVD players in action to not be totally convinced of their effectiveness (stared at them as well as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players in action on TV sizes ranging from 26" LCDs to a 71" plasma as well as a home theater screen for four months straight in a high-end electronics store) so my run-of-the-mill DVD player does just fine. The HD players (both formats) look better for that purpose, at least to me.

I am completely convinced the visual effects wizards or cameramen have added filters to soften Marg Helgenberger's face in close-ups, because there was a scene where she turned her head from profile and back and her left cheek was slightly blurry, and the blur would stay there every time she moved her head. I've noticed it before but thought it was just my own eyes blurring out at first, but noticed a pattern.

Time hasn't been kind to her but still, that's a little excessive. CSI: Miami occasionally does the same with certain shots of David Caruso's face, though he does look better now than say, last season.

Regarding the writer's crossover coming soon:

Gladiators need a lift | The Daily Telegraph
(located at the bottom of the page)


Sagal is currently on Eli Stone playing one of the law firm's founders.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Casting news:

Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Too bad. But as it is at the Grand Hotel: People come. People go. Nothing ever happens.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

It is taking a lot of willpower not to click on the spoiler box.

But I prefer to learn my plot surprises from the show and not from the internet.

Regards,

Joe

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

It's not a storyline-based spoiler. You WILL learn of it somewhere - newspapers, TV, magazine, somewhere, and it sucks. Plain and simple, but these things happen.

Now if it were
Warning Spoiler! Click to show
I'd jump for joy.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Regarding that spoiler
Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Good luck with staying spoiler free, Joe. Like Nicholas said, even if I didn't read it here, I know I'd end up seeing it on a news site or a magazine or someone here will post about it without spoil tags so I read it now.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Presumably if it involves a change in cast it will necessarily involve some story changes, if only because some characters/relationships/history will be affected. If this isn't something that will be revealed by season's end odds are I will be spoiled, because over the long summer hiatus is very hard to avoid such things. But if this is happening between now and the end of May or whenever, I like my odds of avoiding it. I read and watch remarkably little showbiz news and even less general TV news. (I prefer the 'net and the political news shows to the standard fluff.)

I'll let you know how I make out.

Joe

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

I don't think this says much about serial TV shows...but this (Joe's attempt to stay spoiler-free) may be more exciting to follow than many of the programs on TV right now!

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

Just a heads up:

AVOID TV GUIDE.

That's where this story comes from originally.

Re: CSI: Las Vegas Season 8 thread

And I thought that news story above was going on to say Cybill Shepherd was going to either be on CSI or Two and A Half Men.

Katy Sagal was suitably mean on Eli Stone for the Sunday broadcast.