Post by Jemma on Apr 3, 2009 14:58:01 GMT -5
CSI: Previewing Episode 9.18 "Mascara"
I had to resist mentioning this on the title, but what the heck—this is episode 200 for CSI. Two hundred episodes! Nine years, hundreds of cases, a fair share of personal issues, two dead team members, three team departures (one of which was more of an internal shuffle), one almost shake-up, two spin-offs… should I continue counting the statistics?
I'll admit, I was barely an adolescent when CSI premiered in 2000, and I remember hearing the concept and going “oooh” over it. What was once the stuff of the local news and anything that followed the police and packaged as “reality” is getting the television series treatment—a puzzle being pieced together to solve the crime, something that I never exactly figured out. It's been an up and down ride since then, the more compelling episodes mingling with the misses and the underrated ones; the serial killers getting more and more sinister, or outrageous, or impossible; the science becoming convoluted yet oooh-inducing—and I'm speaking of the entire franchise.
But for the show that began a renaissance of sorts in the crime procedural, and one that continues to bring in the viewers (and amaze them) nine years after? Never mind the changes, as much as we've settled with Grissom and Sara and Warrick and who else.
The episode aired two weeks ago—that one with the hostage taking—was seemingly another passing of the baton, for new team members Langston (Laurence Fishburne) and Riley (Lauren Lee Smith). I've long held the idea that change is, more often than not, necessary to keep relevant, especially when you've been at it for so long. So here's the hostage situation, with Langston trying to save a victim while Riley almost gets everyone in trouble—not that she flubbed it, but you sense some recklessness, or hints of fear—and we're reminded again why CSI was able to last so long despite crime having a plausible limit when it comes to imagination. It's in the people that solve it—never mind the science, never mind the gruesome murders or the weirder cases, but it's in how we get to the end, if we ever get to the end.
Then again, it's somewhat comforting to know that, despite the many changes, it still feels like—should I say it?—home.
Tonight's CSI sees Langston deal with the murder of one of his former students, which leads the team to the world of Mexican wrestling. Yep, those masked folks, the people you've probably seen on the WWE or in cartoons. Oscar-winning director William Friedkin—he who helmed The Exorcist—directs the 200th episode of CSI, one that could make you go “ole!”, and it lands on your screens tonight from 9pm on CBS. As always, the photos are below.
I'll admit, I was barely an adolescent when CSI premiered in 2000, and I remember hearing the concept and going “oooh” over it. What was once the stuff of the local news and anything that followed the police and packaged as “reality” is getting the television series treatment—a puzzle being pieced together to solve the crime, something that I never exactly figured out. It's been an up and down ride since then, the more compelling episodes mingling with the misses and the underrated ones; the serial killers getting more and more sinister, or outrageous, or impossible; the science becoming convoluted yet oooh-inducing—and I'm speaking of the entire franchise.
But for the show that began a renaissance of sorts in the crime procedural, and one that continues to bring in the viewers (and amaze them) nine years after? Never mind the changes, as much as we've settled with Grissom and Sara and Warrick and who else.
The episode aired two weeks ago—that one with the hostage taking—was seemingly another passing of the baton, for new team members Langston (Laurence Fishburne) and Riley (Lauren Lee Smith). I've long held the idea that change is, more often than not, necessary to keep relevant, especially when you've been at it for so long. So here's the hostage situation, with Langston trying to save a victim while Riley almost gets everyone in trouble—not that she flubbed it, but you sense some recklessness, or hints of fear—and we're reminded again why CSI was able to last so long despite crime having a plausible limit when it comes to imagination. It's in the people that solve it—never mind the science, never mind the gruesome murders or the weirder cases, but it's in how we get to the end, if we ever get to the end.
Then again, it's somewhat comforting to know that, despite the many changes, it still feels like—should I say it?—home.
Tonight's CSI sees Langston deal with the murder of one of his former students, which leads the team to the world of Mexican wrestling. Yep, those masked folks, the people you've probably seen on the WWE or in cartoons. Oscar-winning director William Friedkin—he who helmed The Exorcist—directs the 200th episode of CSI, one that could make you go “ole!”, and it lands on your screens tonight from 9pm on CBS. As always, the photos are below.
