Friday,
January 30, 2009

What are they doing to my show?

I accidentially typed the subject line in capitals and was tempted to leave it that way, because it accurately described my reaction to last night's episode of CSI. I can only assume that one of the following is true:

1) Billy Petersen was tweaking the scripts as well as executive producing.

2) This was a hastily re-written Grissom story that had Langston jammed in it, and it desperately needed another editorial pass.

3) Both credited writers (who have produced excellent episodes in the past) were kidnapped by aliens, and the frantic producer went on line and grabbed the first fanfic story he could find.

Actually, that last bit is unfair -- I've read better CSI fanfic than "Disarmed and Dangerous." But Zuiker, really? Really? Come on, guys -- no stoner hears screams of pain, sees blood splash against a door window and then kneels down to peek underneath the door.

And don't even get me started on the extreme wrestling subplot that was tacked on, then left to dangle in the wind without any real resolution. And worst of all, I wound up yelling at my boy, "Jesus, Allah and Zoroaster, Brass, what are you smoking -- THEY AREN'T FEDS AND YOU KNOW IT!" (And Paul Guilfoyle was not happy with this script, if I'm any judge of body language, although he does take down one of the bad guys so Jim FTW.)

*sigh* I'm really hoping that Uncle Fish can lead the show as well as Billy -- he's got the chops, and once they stop trying to turn Langston into a CSI/social worker I think he'll do a fine job. But man, he's going to need better scripts.