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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 9, No. 41 |
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Major changes coming
in the ninth season
of TheColumnists.com
When a TV series has been on the air for nearly a decade, efforts to give it a new spin sometimes send it right down the plumbing. I cite the case of NBC's "E.R.," which I stopped watching several years ago when all my favorite characters finally went away.
Now it's happening with CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which has been, for my money, the best crime show on American TV for most of the past decade. Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) has left and in last week's Season 9 premiere episode, Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) was murdered. I loved these two characters and didn't want to give them up.
Now we have to start bracing for the departure of the show's reigning star, William Petersen, whose Gil Grissom character leaves early next year to be replaced, sort of, by a new character we haven't met yet, played by Laurence Fishburne.
Losing Petersen will hurt "CSI" terribly, even if the marvelous Fishburne is as good as everybody expects him to be. The reason: The writers have made us take a deep interest in all the characters and we've been through so much with Grissom that it's going to be extremely difficult starting over again with somebody new.
For me, the main secret of the success of "CSI" has been the especially good character development. It isn't easy to slowly roll out character points in a crime show that's as fast-moving as "CSI" always has been. But the downside of that is that we don't want to let these people go.
Sure, they brought Sara Sidle back for Warrick's funeral last week, but that's not good enough. That's like the cameo "re-appearances" George Clooney made on "E.R." after he'd left the series for movie stardom. They just tease; they don't satisfy.
"CSI" has been a phenomenally successful show. It has spent more time as TV's No. 1 dramatic series, I'm pretty sure, than any other program since it first appeared in 2000. Like its CBS predecessor as the No. 1 dramatic series--"Murder, She Wrote"--"CSI" has totally redefined the TV mystery/crime genre.
With its close attention to clinical forensic details, it has captured the attention of young viewers that "Murder, She Wrote" never got its hooks into. A young woman I know is now taking classes in police science, looking ahead to a career on a crime scene team. She openly admits she's inspired by her favorite TV crime show, "CSI."
Think about that a bit. "CSI" has had two very strong role models for young women like my friend: Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) and Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) have been strong female characters from the series' start. They're independent and capable and, yes, pretty darn attractive, too, but not in the traditional sexpot style of so many other police shows.
"CSI" is still a Top 10 show, so the characters are not being dumped just to shake up the show and allow for new characters to come in because the ratings are slipping. Most run-of-the-show contracts start with seven years, so it's common for the players' money demands and/or desire to play new characters to bring about departures in year 8 or 9, which is what's going on at "CSI."
Petersen has been one of the show's executive producers right along, so he's had a money stake in the show's success. He's at a place in his career where he can afford to be a little adventurous. Often programs begin to decline in quality after the seventh season, but I haven't noticed a sharp dropoff...yet.
I'm currently doing something I never could do before as a TV critic: I'm re-watching the entire series, season by season, and rekindling my love affair with it. This is now possible because so many programs are now fully available in DVD boxed sets and "CSI" is especially suited to viewing the way my wife and I are doing it: Watching two or three episodes a night, taking notice of things you might not notice if you just watch the show one episode per week.
I'm finding a greater appreciation for "CSI" the more familiar I become with its trends and overlapping storylines. This is the way to truly understand and appreciate a great TV show. I might add, it makes you wish it could always be the show it was in the first couple of seasons when it hooked you for life. So far, I haven't been let down, but I fear I may not feel that way when Gil Grissom finally says goodbye early next year.
©2008 by Ron Miller. The photo is courtesy of CBS. This column first posted Oct. 13, 2008.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine.
You can comment on this column online. Please address your message to either "The Editors" or Ron Miller. To send an email, click here and don't forget to mention Ron's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
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