CSI: Season 6 ongoing thread (1 Viewer)

[Joseph DeMartino]

Why? What seemed "off" to you or what mistakes did you spot?

Joe

 

[JeremyErwin]

the gentleman had whalebone in his corset. Authentic, maybe. A more practical (and still authentic) alternative would be spring steel. The corset looks as through it was tied at the bottom, instead of at the waist. Excruciating pain is associated with improper technique, and ill fitting corsets. Of course, he was described as masochistic, so maybe...

I had forgotten to save the bitstream, so perhaps I'm forgetting some things.

 

[TheLongshot]

Missed that one. Guess it went over my head.

The big groaner was Grissom suggesting the guy was a "Cereal Killer". :rolleyes

Can't say the reveal in the end was that big of a surprise. They've been kinda flirting with each other the past few weeks. Just a little surprised that Grissom decided to change his mind about Sarah.

Jason

 

[Charlie Campisi]

There's been sexual tension between them for years. Are you saying you thought this was the first time they were together? They looked pretty comfortable like they'd been there many times before. What you described as flirting, in retrospect I think could be described as knowing looks between two people sharing a secret.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I thought about that the second time I watched the episode. While in "Butterflied" Grissom clearly renounces the idea of a relationship with Sara, she remains interested and he's tempted. At the end of that same season he takes her home after she's picked up for DUI. A lot of people wondered if he was going to spend the night and what would happen the next season - but nothing seemed to come of it. When next we saw Grissom and Sara it was weeks or months later and she had finished some kind of counselling - and she was just working up her nerve to tell Grissom about her family history.

The S6 finale could have been their first time. Tthey've had a long and increasingly intimate relationship - Grissom probably knows more about Sara's past than anyone else, and he helped her through the drunk driving thing and a couple of other near-firing situations. So even if they just took it to the next level at the end of the season finale, they might still seem very comfortable with each other because they already were.

I had one of these things going with a close woman friend for years and years. When we first met in school our mutual insecurities kept us from trying anything, even though our friends kept telling us we'd be perfect for one another. Over the years each of us went with other people - whom we'd discuss and bitch about, and we'd console each other over busted romances. The problem was that we never had busted romances at the same time. She'd always been happily dating or living with or engaged to somebody whenever I was alone and (except for the engaged part) vice versa. Neither of us was ever single and available at the same time. (As Deitrich said about her and Hemmingway, "We were the victims of unsynchronized passions.")

So nothing ever came of it. But once a mutual friend asked me what I'd do if we were ever both free. Would I ask her out? I said it would be weird. It would almost be like we'd go from the first date to being married because we already knew each other so well that it wouldn't be like a new relationship. It would be like the old one except that we'd be sleeping with each other instead of with other people.

So it may be brand new. On the other hand, it could be that the relationship started anytime between "Butterflied" in mid-season 4 and the end of S6 and they've just been incredibly discrete about it. (And I can see both Sara and Grissom getting a kick out of the game aspect of fooling their colleagues and the rest of the world.) He may have spent the night with her at the end of S4. Or the relationship may have become sexual at some point in S5 and continued.

It will be very interesing to find out where this goes next year.

One other thought: If the finale wasn't their first time then CBS was either outrageously over-hyping the two-parter or what they meant by "the two episodes that will change everything" was a reference to the as-yet-unseen effects that the events of the two-parter will have on the characters next year. Because if the relationship between Grissom and Sara isn't new, then nothing's changed for them. We just found out about it now.

But if they're referring to how Warrick's fight with his wife, followed by Brass's near-death and his odd acting-out with the suicide's sister (dissing the guy for "giving up"), will play out, or where Catherine's relationship with her daughter is headed, or Brass's with his daughter, then the promos could still make sense even if the Grissom/Sara thing isn't new.

Damn! How long until next season? (Good thing I've got all those DVDs and a 400-disc changer to load them in.) I want the S6 set and there had damned well better be a commentary track on the finale.

Regards,

Joe

 

[JeremyErwin]

Could well be. Although wearing an ill-fitting antique corset is bound to be bad for both corset and wearer. Mmm, pinched nerves. Ah, well.

 

[Nelson Au]

TV Guide quotes from the producers that the effects of Brass near death will have lasting effects next year. I think the Sara/Grissom thing is the other. Warrick might get together with Catherine, who knows!

 

[Patrick Sun]

So that leaves Nick with Greg!!!

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I don't think Greg likes Nick in quite that way. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that." TM) Now Hodges, on the other hand...

Can't Nick end up with Sophia? Or the hot chick from the DNA lab?

Regards,

Joe

 

[Anthony Hom]

The day this show just plays matchmaker to every character in this show is the day it's over. Sorry, but if they just pair everyone up to have sex, then they turned this into another 'Friends'. Would be sad if that happens. I know the above comments were just jokes, but this is a good show and hate to see it go down the tubes.

I thought the reason Grissom finally got the nerve with Sarah was feeling how fleeting life can be seeing Brass almost die. He finally realized there is more to life than his work. It will not likely happen between Gil and Katherine. Katherine is almost like his conscience, an opposite partner with good working chemistry.

 

[JeremyErwin]

sigh. I remember when the show was about performing experiments with pigs. I remember being amazed when Nick Stokes suddenly developed a personality. Now it's just like a freaking soap opera.

I'm glad I bailed on CSI Miami. At least when CSI-Las Vegas had a personnel issue, blood wasn't likely to be spilled. Maybe a lack of interset in soap operas is why I like the New York stuff...

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

The cast was on one of the morning shows this morning and they were talking about it. They seemed to think it was something that had been going on and not the first time.
i liked the touch. About time they get some.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I was watching one of the documentaries on the S2 set the other night, and one of the producers was talking about how they had set-up Grissom's advancing hearing loss very subtly and indirectly. They kept having scenes were someone would be talking to Grissom and their voices would seem muffled or distorted while he was concentrating on something, then suddenly break in loud and clear when they got his attention. At first it seem just like Grissom being Grissom with the sound being a way to dramatize how Grissom can tune out distractions when his mind if focused on something. (I tend to do this a lot, to the point where co-workers standing next to me need to shout to break in on my thoughts if I'm analyzing a problem.) But in retrospect it become clear that at least a lot of the time it was simply Grissom's hearing cutting in and out. Similarly a lot of the little "moments" that seemed like flirting or teasing or playing with the fact of Sara's crush on Grissom in the past few years might have been code signals between the two - hiding the relationship in plain sight.

Also saw one of the reruns on Spike tonight: At one point Sara, Grissom and Sofia are in the lab, discussing a bit of technology that improved over the years, and Grissom says, "You've come a long way..." Then looks at Sara (they are both standing behind Sofia, who is seated) and adds "...baby" Sara laughs. There's nothing else to the moment, and it could just be Grissom making a joke of an old advertising slogan. But in retrospect, it could also be a lot more.

It will be interesting to see if they reveal just when all this started.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Paul McElligott]

I think they've been dropping hints ever since Sara was brought in for the Holly Gribbs case. There was, in my mind, clearly something more than just a professional history evident in that scene in the second episode when Grissom was dropping dummies off the hotel roof.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Oh, there's no question that Sara has been interested in Grissom since she was his student - as I noted above. But it was almost entirely one-sided for a very long time. That Grissom trusted Sara was evident from the fact that he brought her in from the outside to investigate Warrick's actions. That he probably had to push to keep her on (an experienced CSI from a major police department would command a higher salary than probationary CSI Gribbs, whom Sara effectively replaced) also suggests a personal interest in her. But Grissom was constrained - first by the teacher/mentor-student relationship, then by the supervisor-employee relationship, then by his own history of isolation and the difference in their ages. (Clearly played out in "Butterflied" where a young woman who looks strikingly like Sara is murdered by her older lover.) Catherine saw Sara's interest and also saw that Grissom wasn't going to do anything about it - and warned him that he had to deal with it one way or another. When Sara laid her cards on the table more directly, Grissom made it clear that he couldn't respond (and thereby necessarily revealed that he'd like to.)

But I don't believe for a second that there was a romantic relationship prior to Sara's arrival at CSI:LV, or at any time prior to "Butterflied" (and probably not for some time after that.)


How does one scene in 6 years make it "a freaking soap opera"?

I love TV fans and the Chicken Little that lurks in the heart of all of them. Change one thing in a show, replace an actor, try something different and the reaction is always the same: "The Sky is Falling! We're Doomed! The Show Sucks!" Or (that most tiresome of TV cliches) - "It's officially J*U*M*P*E*D T*H*E S*H*A*R*K!!!!!"

Relax. The writers didn't all suddenly get lobotomized, and neither did producer William Peterson, who certainly knows what makes his show work.

Gradually, over many years, and in the margins of many episodes, we've come to learn a few things about our characters. So what? Did you want Dragnet where we never saw the character's home lives and neither they nor their relationships changed? Almost every TV show gradually evolves its characters. Professional acquaintances become friends and more over time because that's what happens in real life, too. You may start a job and be all business, but if you work someplace for 6 or 7 years you're going to witness birthdays, and weddings (even if you're not invited) and the birth of children and you're going to start liking some co-workers and disliking others. You're going to learn about them when you work long hours on projects and some you'll hang out with after work and on weekends, and some you won't know what town they live in 6 years into the job. That isn't soap opera. That's reality.

It isn't like the show is going to start focusing on the characters personal lives for 40 out of 44 minutes every week. But their personal lives have always been a part of the show: Grissom's mother and his hearing problems, Catherine's ex, her daughter, her relationship with Sam Braun, Nick's sexaul abuse, Sara's horrific childhood, Warrick's gambling problem (there in the pilot), Brass and Ellie. The fact that Grissom and Sara are in a relationship is just another one of those personal threads that has always been and will always be part of the background fabric of the show. And the fact that we're trying to figure out how long it has been going on is a tribute to how unobtrusively the writers have been in setting this up and presumably how careful they'll be in pursuing it.

Regards,

Joe

 

[TravisR]

To me, if you didn't focus a little bit on the personal lives of the characters, the characters (and thus show) would be much less interesting. You'd just have Beard Guy, Brunette Lady, Blonde Lady, Black Guy, White Guy, and Funny Guy instead of the charcters of Grissom, Sara, Catherine, Warrick, Nick, and Greg. They'd all be essentially the same person if they didn't have backstories or relationships.

As for 'jumping the shark', I couldn't agree more.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

For anyone who doesn't have the DVDs and wants to watch it again in light of more recent developments, Spike TV is running "Butterflied" as their 11 PM (ET) CSI rerun tonight. And, of course, they're running the 90 minute "Lady Heather's Box" in a two hour slot as part of Casino Cinema at 9 PM Eastern.

I think these are two of the best episodes of the series, even if I do find it painful to watch it in 4:3 and standard definition.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Nick Martin]

I could not possibly agree more with what you have said with your last few posts.

Fantastic.

 

[Anthony Hom]

Yes, but CSI:LV has just enough on each character not to overdrown us in personal issues, or at least keep those on the backseat to the case stories. They sometimes throw some in, like Catherine's ex finally getting his, but usually just enough to show the characters are human but keep the focus on their jobs when at work. We rarely see them outside of work.