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RSS'CSI': Dark days
Just in case you missed last week's season premiere, the CSI team worked to save Sara from the Miniature Killer. Sara, meanwhile, pretty much saved herself, though she did collapse and need to Touch o' True Love (well, of Grissom) to return to the land of the living.
Spoilers ahead, of course.
Sara's gotten drastically better, because our first scene is Miss Sidle walking through the lab to... Ecklie's office. Our favorite slimy day-shift supervisor is back, and he's more than a little angry about the whole Grissom-Sara interoffice relationship. In fact, he has to do an administrative inquiry, and Sara tells him the two have been dating for two years.
Music? Nope. Well, other than the jaunty tune accompanying a severed head, itself bouncing down the highway. First Bones, now CSI. What is it with bouncing heads this season? The head comes to rest on the side of the road, where the night shift examines it the next day. (Don't get me started.) And... cue The Who.
In the better of the two plots, Warrick and Catherine (plus Brass) are investigating a stabbing death at Blind, one of those restaurants where you eat in total darkness. I have to say, the concept is pretty cool. The restaurant, that is, not being killed in one. The victim, as it turns out, is Hampton Huxley, publisher of "Hux" magazine. "Hux" is a skin mag, and Hux the man is a very thinly veiled copy of Hugh Hefner. By the way, we find out in a throwaway line here that Warrick's unseen wife has divorced him, and there's a definite spark in his interactions with Catherine.
Let's dispose of the B-plot. The head belongs to Vincent Barkley, a high-school student and avid Go-Kart racer. Vince had a beef with another racer; they decided to settle it on the highway at night; part of a blown-out tire decapitated Vince as he was drafting behind an 18-wheeler. Yawn.
As for the restaurant killing, we get some great stories from the patrons, re-enacted with the characters lit against a pitch-black room. We've got Hux and his "Kitties"; a quartet of drunk morons; a newly engaged couple; and a blind waiter. Love it! Oh, there's also a man who brought military-grade night-vision goggles to catch his wife cheating. In the real world, waiters at these places wear low-light goggles, but the blind waiter angle means no witnesses, so I'll let that slide.
Speaking of said goggles, when Warrick finds them, he asks Catherine to turn out the lights and creeps up on her. She lights the place again, and her "oh" at finding Warrick inches away carries more surprise and desire and chemistry than Sara and Grissom ever did.
In the end, the waiter did it. Turns out he and the head chef had had an affair years before, and she owed her success to stealing his recipes. Killing a celeb was his attempt to ruin her. Why didn't he just take to the talk-show circuit? Oh, well, hindsight.
Grissom, by the way, tells Ecklie his relationship with Sara began nine years ago, when both were at a conference. He's not helping his case. Sara and Grissom get a nice moment remembering, and then she tells him she's transferring to swing shift. Seriously, people, the night shift works days so often, they pretty much are the swing shift. One more step toward the door for her, though.
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Zap2it Twitter Talk 
Are any of you as disturbed about Grissom's choice of headgear as I - that old straw hat makes him look like an eccentric old southern woman in her garden. And while the scenes between him and Sarah in the truck were "sweet", she still looks to me as is she is backing up against the car door to avoid him - no chemistry at all.
I don't get that hat either - there are so many other choices he could have made for headgear.
I have to say, the Sara/Grisson thing makes me want to puke!
Good riddance Sara - only what 5 more eps to go.
I much prefer Grissom with Lady Heather - they are much more suited to each other and actually do have chemistry. My second choice would be Catherine, but I do like Catherine with Warrick.
We have had this created relationship shoved down out throats. there is no chemistry between these two and their interactions are extrememely wooden and creepy- Narcissists and Borderlines ( you know there is a borderline in the room when there is such a polorization of the audience half wanting to rescue her the other half wanting her as far away from them as possible) do not unite for long without destroying one another. and what is this great relationship founded on 5 years of her pursuing him with school girl apple-polishing vigor and him treating her like a door-mat.Its also interesting that they needed to make all the other possible female companions look bad in order to make her look good- They've had many opportunities to at least address the EEO issues in an appropriate manner and they didn't even get that right-and we all know the character ECKLIE has been gunning for Grissom for years and felt Sidle was a time bomb- but the CSI's are teflon-they don't die, they don't suffer PTSD they miraculously overcome substance abuse and become suddenly different people in the stroke of a pen- You can't deconstruct characters and expect loyal views to keep watching!! I hate that science and the joy of solving the puzzle have taken the back seat to a third rate and rather seedy feeling romance.
Unlike those who have commented previously, I've enjoyed the relationship between Grissom & Sara tremendously. Both characters are dysfunctional, each damaged emotionally in childhood. As dysfunctional adults, each has actually managed to find someone who truly cares about them, but, although long-standing, the relationship is still dysfunctional - a secret, risky romance between two people who are not alone but are lonely. When Grissom is with Sarah privately, his walls come down. His manner changes subtly. He speaks to as he does no one else. He isn't quite the same Grissom.
Sarah is good for Grissom, but I don't think Grissom is good enough for Sarah. The relationship is destined to fail because, while Sarah trusts and feels affection for Grissom, I don't think she loves him as he loves her. She will go away, and that's fine for her, but I worry about what will happen to Grissom - that damaged inner Grissom - when he loses her.
One of the things I particularly appreciate about this CSI is that, unlike Miami and NY, the plot is never mucked up by loves scenes between primary characters. Grissom and Sara's scenes together are exquisitely subtle romance, something not much seen in film or TV, anymore. Theirs is a more realistic office romance than most people realize.
For me, it's painful to watch Sarah gently pulling back all the time, while Grissom, who is professionally so incredibly perceptive, doesn't seem to have a clue that he's losing her....
The "science" has begun to bore me. The mysteries are often too predictable, now. The very human Grissom/Sara relationship is the *only* thing that has kept me watching CSI.
As for the hat - I see that as a symbol of Grissom's fussy, fubsy character. He has a very cool side in private - remember what he was wearing in the one bedroom scene with Sara? - but at work he's basically just the bug guy.
Clark Kent wore horn-rimmed gl***es.
it's painful to watch Sarah gently pulling back all the time, while Grissom, who is professionally so incredibly perceptive, doesn't seem to have a clue that he's losing her....
The "science" has begun to bore me. The mysteries are often too predictable, now. The very human Grissom/Sara relationship is the *only* thing that has kept me watching CSI.