CSI: Las Vegas season 12 thread

That was an okay premiere for the new season.

The introduction of Ted Danson's character was okay as well. They appear to be trying to paint him as a quirky character, similar to Grissom's quirks, yet also show him as a serious CSI and more seriously, an administrator and manager in contrast to both Grissom and Catherine. The most ominous bit was DB's conversation with Eckly about loosing Stokes.

I found the case less interesting then the personal sides of the characters and the update as to what happened to Langston. And also the business at the beginning with Catherine and DB as to who was in charge. I didn't like the way he put her down. Then later at the close of the episode, the blow up with Catherine as she was putting her foot down because she was demoted due to how the Langston situation affected everyone.

I was wondering why the producers would need to bring in another actor as the lead, but I guess a number of factors led to it. Marg Helgenberger apparently wants to leave and I wondered if they would have ever given her star billing anyway. So they needed to find a male lead as the "star". Yet, I still wondered why they bring in a known actor such as Danson to take over if the other characters were more deserving of the role to lead the group. But now I see why, the Langston situation caused a lot of review of the lab leadership by the "suits" which apparently Eckly is doing.

Looks like rough days ahead and they set the stage for Catherine's departure. Not sure I like what I see. I miss the early days when the team was tight and just did their jobs. But this seems like a realistic work situation I've seen that wasn't fun.

I thought I saw something on the wikipedia entry for the 12th season that Grissom will return for an episode this year. Perhaps that will relate to Catherine leaving. That will be a shame.

As for Danson, not sure yet. He's playing a new character and he's certainly written with some layers we have yet to see. The more serious side we got glimpses of. The good CSI we got glimpses of. But there is a cold hard administrator side I am not liking. He's a version of Eckly in a way. The business with his wife felt like a bit of Columbo to show a softer side. I wouldn't be surprised if she is never seen like Maris from Frasier or Norm's wife on Cheers. Or they bring on Mary Steenburgen as DB's wife.

Overall, I'm concerned for this series.

I am concerned with multiple things from the opener. Ted Danson did not grab me into his character. I almost felt like he was just there for a few episodes.

I have been with this show from the first one. I know all long run series eventually have major changes. I am willing to give it time.

What bothered me most was the shoddy closure on Langston.

I enjoyed the opener. For me last season was a drag. Danson is a breath of fresh air and could add more life to the show.

 

While I think Laurence Fishburne is a very good actor his arrival as the low person on the totem pole crippled his ability to fill the void created when Grissom quit. In a sense Danson is not a Langston replacement, he's a Grissom replacement.

If I remember correctly. Isn't Catherine very wealthy? Her father left her all of this money after he died.

I agree with both of those items. Not to say that he's copying Grissom but they did write a character who is a more quirky brilliant guy than Langston (who was very serious and brilliant) and that's reminiscent of Grissom. Ted Danson has a charisma that makes him and the characters he plays fairly likable so I think he'll bring something good to the table.

I'm pretty sure that's the case. Although I don't she's concerned about her paycheck as much as the fact that she got demoted.

Tonight's episode was quite well done I thought. The first of the final two for Catherine. And following on a story started earlier in the season.

A few things I have to ask. Spoilers:

Why did the killers miss Catherine if they are pros with that first shot? So she'd live through the next episode. I saw that ambush coming the minute she put her gun down. But was it a real hit, or the FBI set that up? That was a really nice house too.

Is Catherine's friend and her FBI boyfriend really dead? I have my doubts.

Will she survive next week? She's quitting CSI, will she join the FBI as was alluded to earlier in the season, or will she enter the witness protection?

It's too bad she's leaving the lab and the series.

And finally, why is William Peterson in the credits still as a producer? Does he really do that? I thought he left to go back to the theater. Perhaps he does theater while CSI is in hiatus.

Don't quote me but I'm betting that when he left the show, a deal was reached where he still gets a producing credit (and a paycheck) rather than him actually still doing anything on the show.

I suppose that's possible. I'm not sure I see the advantage for the producing company to pay Peterson for nothing in return, unless it's to keep him away from the show.

The executive producer / producer credit is often offered as an inducement to the lead star of a show, later in their contractual commitment, or in contract renewal negotiations to extend their contract for x number of seasons.  When Petersen left he had fulfilled his contract but he earned and still keeps his executive producer / producer role for the life of the show.

That was a good exit for Catherine. I knew her friend wasn't dead! I'm glad Catherine wasn't killed. I have expected to see Grissom in that last shot.

Elisabeth Shue is joining the cast? Is that really necessary? They've got a large cast with members senior enough to take Catherine's position. Or did they feel the need to add another girl to keep the balance? Eckley''s daughter just joined the crew, that actress must feel slighted by that.

I'd love to see Grissom pop up again but since leaving was a pretty spur of the moment decision or at least her announcement of it was, it made sense that Grissom wouldn't be there.

That last scene was really nice since the emotion and the words seemed very real between Helgenberger & the rest of the cast and Catherine & the rest of the team. It must be rough to leave a gig or see a co-worker leave after working with them for 12 years.

Thanks for the link Patrick. I think it was better Grissom wasn't there. It would have taken focus and emotion away from Catherine leaving

I agree Travis, the emotion felt real for both the character and the actors.

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum. Let me start by saying I have been a fan of the CSI Las Vegas show from the beginning. Unfortunately the last couple of episodes IMO were kind of stupid.

Episode one:
It started with the first killings of the lawyer and his staff. Why would so called 'Pros' use a machine gun to do the job when they had to clean up after, utterly stupid writing. Even an idiot would not conduct themselves in that way. Also why would you use a gun that is so rare it can be traced back to you and let's not forget that after you go to all the trouble of redecorating you dump the bodies where they can easily be found. The bio engineered beetles were also a stupid twist. It would have taken a truck load of them to do the amount of eating they supposedly did in a few hours. The only murder (or shot) that made sense in the scene was the hand gun shot to the legal assistant's head. Of course it was after she had been machine gunned and bled all over the office. All of the hits should have done with a small caliber weapon, one hole in and no exit. By the way if the clean up crew ever decide to give up a life of crime they could start their own carpet cleaning business, they obviously can work wonders!

Episode two:
I must admit as soon as Laura (I think that was her name) was found under the floor of the house I figured she was in on the whole thing. The scene at Catherine's house was as equally stupid as the lawyer's office. I mean come on... did they have a glass smith waiting to replace all of the glass they shot out, preposterous, and of course more hungry beetles were dispatched.

Do the writers not consider how stupid some of this stuff is?

I am interested what others think. And yes I will continue to watch it.

Cheers
Edited by Morecoffee - 1/28/12 at 1:55pm

The entire point of the guns was to implicate the husband, and the sloppy cleanup allowed the CSI staff to jump to that conclusion.

 

I'm sure there are plot holes all over the place, but the logic of why the hits were done the way they were done made sense in the context of the plot.

I agree. I'm sure they wanted to have BIG episodes since Helgenberger was leaving so they had gun battles and conspiracies but it seemed like I was watching a weak episode of 24 rather than CSI.

I still thought that last scene with Catherine saying goodbye to the team was excellent and made up for the wackiness though.

A pretty well done introduction to Elisabeth Shue. I like her character and her blood speciality. Intrigue too set up about the shared past Ted Dansen's character had with her.

Though, I turned my head away for a moment and thought I saw her name in the credits pretty high up. I guess she's a known name and the contract says she gets billing above Jorja Fox whose been with the show longer. This is show biz, there's no seniority.

She's aged since her Back to the Future days, but not bad!

In the last few eps since Shue has joined the cast I feel like all the momentum the show has gained with Danson has been killed and the life has been sucked out of the show.

I definitely felt that tonight - far too many jumping to conclusions.

A three hour rule? In a blackout - wouldn't the kidnappers be slowed down too?

And assuming that because the blood was type O and the husband also was type O meant it was the same blood? Aren't there millions of type O's running around.

I've been enjoying Danson's episodes - felt like early years with Petersen, after the wrong turns it took with Fishburne (IMO). This wasn't a good episode for me

David

I'm not sure I follow you guys about the life being sucked out or conclusion jumping. Seemed like Russell was trying to stick to his gut that something wasn't normal in this case and Shue's character Finn and Brass were jumping.

What I felt more troubled by is the sudden prominence of Danson and Shue's characters. Of course Russell takes over the lab and is the new boss after taking over from Catherine. I agree up till now that's been working out. He's acting like the boss. so that's expected for his role. This week it felt like Finn was over shadowing Nick and Sara. Sort of like the new company that takes over the company it just bought and they are bringing in their people. While everyone was utilized in the episode to solve the case, it felt like the new guys were taking over. Sara and Nick found the boy, I expected them to deliver him to the father.

I guess I feel bad for the long timers on the series. They didn't get seniority priority. Maybe it's my imagination, Nick was in charge of a case recently. Hodges and Henry had a breakthrough in the elevator and Morgan and Greg further bonded.

Anyone have time for a very brief synopsis of Catherine leaving and the Elisabeth Shue character starting?

This weekend was to be CSI catchup, but my Dish receiver croaked and had to be replaced.

Saw the first episode with Catherine's house being shot up and Ted Danson driving her off in his SUV. Lost the next 3-4 episodes until this week.

Thanks

Catherine survived the shooting up of her house. At the end, she decides to take the offer to join the FBI. She felt it was time to move on. Her demotion at CSI and recent set back at the office pointed to getting out to join a new group that appreciated her abilities. she had a nice send off.

Finn is a past associate of Ted Danson's Russell character. It's not clear what happened. She left under bad circumstances. She's a blood splatter expert who Russell brings in to help on a case. He convinces her to stay.

Tonight's episode was fun. Jaclyn Smith's guest starring as Hodges mother turned out well. Too bad Wendie couldn't come back to be Hodges girlfriend again. Maybe Conrad can get together with Hodges mother. Too bad Hodges spilled the beans to the bad guys and took them hostage, I like how Hodges took out the girl and got the gun.

Anyone else catch Christopher Knight in the episode?

Interesting finale tonight for this series as it gets on in years. I like how they are bringing back past storylines and characters. They've really been ramping up the action and sensationalism! And they may have generated interest back to the series for the new season. It sure was rolling along quietly this season after Catherine left.

The killer: did anyone else thnk it was Sqegle? Or whatever his name was?

I think it was cool they brought back Warrick's killer McKeen and that he's controlling things behind bars. I didn't think he was going to go as far as kidnap Russel's granddaughter. Though the way it was directed, you knew they were setting up the audience for something big to happen. I was expecting someone to get shot. I was hoping it wasn't going to be Hodges or his mother. So I wasn't surprised it was Eckley. I bet he survives. You can't kill him!

And I was worried that Finlay was going to get hit too. Good thing she went to the lady's room. I think she saw it coming.

So is Nick really quiting? Not sure that's something I believe yet. If the following season is the last, they sure are going out with a lot of changes to the cast, if Nick is out.

And I wonder if Grissom will come back for an episode or not. Perhaps for the trial of McKeen next season.

Last week I read that he had signed up for season 13.

I figured it was a dramatic moment. I didn't think George Eads would quit the show. It will be interesting if Nick really quits the CSI lab. Or they sort out the corruption.

I missed the final episode when Catherine left and joined back in a little later after Elizabeth Shue joined the cast.

So far I'm enjoying it. Kind of like ER, it's good to bring in new characters after a while.

Now switch over to CSI Miami and I stopped watching that years ago. Absolutely can't stand David Caruso so it ruins the entire show for me.

Luckily the original CSI never had that problem, all very likeable characters. Other than the Lawrence Fishburne era, didn't particularly care for that, but Ted Danson is great, fits right in.

Missed the last episode. Is Nick really leaving the show? Being an ensemble show as it is, he's easily replaceable, but have always liked him. I'd actually like them to give more on screen time to Wallace Langham, he's got a great personality and nice to see him out of his comfort zone a little more often.

With a cast that can always change, as long as they keep up decent story lines and good writing, this could turn into a soap opera and run for decades.

Stan, you should see the finale so you'll understand why I wrote what I wrote about Nick. Sorry to spoil it for you. More spoilers below.

I don't know if the writers were deliberately doing a Cheers and then Frasier gag where we always hear about Norms wife Vera and then on Fraiser, Nile's wife Maris, but we never see them. So here for Dansen's character of Russell, we always see him talking to his wife on the phone. but we never see her. So I was surprised a little that she appears here on CSI's season finale played by Peri Gilpin of Frasier fame!