It is without doubt, the best one-hour crime drama on television today.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
Too much hype can sometimes generate the opposite effect by raising expectations to such an unsustainable level that it causes harm to the very thing that it tries to promote in the first place. For several weeks before the airing of "CSI"´s special 2-part season finale on May 19th, 2005, CBS swamped the media airwaves with a piece of news that got all the Tarantino fanboys blabbering incoherently. It was revealed that Mr. Tarantino, whom by the way is a big fan of "CSI", has agreed to take some time out of his busy schedule to both co-write and direct the season finale of the number one-rated TV show. Like me, if you love "CSI" and you occasionally bow down in reverence to the genius of QT, this is like a match made in pulp fiction heaven, right? Not necessarily.
While all of the hoopla over a respected movie director crossing over to the small screen sounds pretty enticing (at least on paper), limitations in terms of budget and story content of a prime time television show is sure to curtail any burst of creative energy that Tarantino might have had planned. Not to mention that the FCC and the censorship board would have a field day if Mr. Tarantino is given free reign on this project. This is not to say that this 2-hour episode (titled "Grave Danger") is in any way bad. On the contrary, it maintains the usual high standards of a "CSI" show while adding the zing of Tarantino´s own unique flair into the proceedings.
It´s just that Tarantino´s larger-than-life reputation when coupled with the CBS hype machine, jacked up expectations for this episode way into the heady stratosphere that not even a director of Tarantino´s stature could ever live up to, given the abovementioned limitations. Although one can definitely recognize Tarantino´s trademark dark humor and instances of head-turning gross-out images in "Grave Danger", these particular aspects have increasingly becoming a mainstay in almost every "CSI" episode. The best learning from the best, I guess. It is therefore easy to conclude that Tarantino´s brand of filmmaking fits right into the "CSI" universe like a DB in a body bag. Hence, is this one of the best episodes in "CSI" history? I would most definitely give a hearty Yea to that. However, given Tarantino´s massive reputation, anyone expecting a big-time genre-defining episode would definitely come away disappointed. That´s the danger of raising expectations.
While many seem to think that Season 5 of "CSI" was defined by that one Tarantino double episode, the show is simply too good for that rather narrow pigeonholing. After all, as a regular 24-episode TV series, "CSI" should be judged by the sum of all its parts. And it was certainly a critical and defining season that manages to maintain the familiarity of the show´s use of forensic science to solve puzzling crimes and yet is able to inject a freshness that makes all that is occurring inside the walls of the Las Vegas crime lab seem almost brand new. Taking a big but obviously calculated risk, the producers of "CSI" decided to muck around with the winning formula of the show a little bit, something that lesser shows would never have implemented let alone considered. And what exactly did they do? In an unprecedented and bold move, Grissom´s (William Petersen) graveyard shift CSI team was unceremoniously split up, effectively breaking the strong chemistry between the characters that the show has painstakingly sought to build for the past four years. People on the outside would think that it is utter madness to break up a winning team, especially one that has topped the Nielsen TV ratings chart for weeks on end. Frankly, it would not have taken much arm-twisting for me to concur that my beloved "CSI" was about to "jump the shark".
Thankfully, Fonzie can continue to keep his shark. Upon airing the show´s milestone 100th episode called "Ch-Ch-Changes", word came that big changes were indeed literally coming. How appropriate, huh? On the show´s 101st episode, "Mea Culpa", the proverbial shit finally hits the fan. Precipitating this change was the appointment of Grissom´s old office nemesis, Conrad Ecklie (Marc Vann) as Assistant Director of the Crime Lab a couple of episodes earlier. Unlike Grissom, who would much prefer to focus on his work than to play office politics, Ecklie is the perfect political animal, weaseling his way to his current post. In "Mea Culpa", Ecklie finally chances upon the perfect opening to shake things up at the lab at the expense of Grissom and his team. Grissom, as we all know, is more effective solving crimes than to worry about paperwork. But it is exactly this dreaded administrative portion of Grissom´s job that comes under Ecklie´s scrutiny. Upon realizing that he cannot find fault with Grissom´s impeccable fieldwork, Ecklie goes after the next best thing and is able to point out Grissom´s less-than-stellar performance as an effective supervisor of his team. Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) receives a promotion and becomes the swing shift supervisor with Nick (George Eads) and Warrick (Gary Dourdan) reporting to her while Grissom retains Sara (Jorja Fox) and rookie Greg (Eric Szmanda). A new character, CSI Sophie Curtis (Louise Lombard) is introduced and is unfortunate enough to get caught up in the resulting maelstrom. Sophie was the swing shift supervisor but is essentially demoted by Ecklie and is now asked to work for Grissom instead. And the configuration of the teams stayed this way until that fateful final double-episode of the season. Also new in Season Five are Reiko Ayelsworth (formerly from "24"), who plays Chandra Moore, Greg´s replacement in the DNA lab, who is then replaced by Aisha Tyler (who plays Mia Dickerson) after the first few episodes of the season.
The way that this personnel change was handled is actually quite realistic and shows that even a fictional crime lab is not immune to office politics, something that many of us suffer through in the real world. The change has also proven to be a good time out for both the characters and the fans of the show, as everyone now has something new to look forward to. This also accords the producers and writers the opportunity to focus a little bit more on character development, something that some fans have been clamoring for. "CSI" has always been a crime procedural, dishing out self-contained episodes that solve crimes in approximately forty-plus minutes, leaving very little time to tell any of the main characters´ backstories. Throughout the previous four seasons, certain episodes have been used as a convenient vehicle to reveal certain tidbits of information about the main characters. This is especially true in the case of Catherine, who has had the most revealed about her past. On the flip side of the coin, very little have been divulged about the rest. With the team´s break-up, the individual characters get to show more of their personality as they work to cope with their new assignments.
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.
[release]17307[/release]