CSI: WTF? Also, rock on Veronica Mars

[jlh]

So I'm really giving into the idea that for the time being this LJ is going to be mostly about television. My real life can be summed up as: I go to class, I teach class, I research, I read, occasionally I get anxious, I see friends. I don't think that makes for very compelling posts, so, television. CSI musings cut for length and spoilers.

I took Six Degrees off the TIVO. I wasn't watching it and there were plots that I didn't find compelling. In the end the presence of Campell Scott and Hope Davis doesn't make up for crappy JJ Abrams plots. I feel sort of sad about this, because I'm sure they think that they're making quality television or whatever, but while the characters were interesting the situations were annoying.

Speaking of interesting characters in annoying situations I'm almost caught up on CSI and WTF? The missing kids episode with Alan Tudyk was super lame. CSI has often had a single moms might work hard but ignore their kids undertone, between Catherine's constant issues and a steady stream of cases, though that probably just goes to the weird misogyny that often weaves through the cases as well, the message of "ladies, don't you dare do one thing that is unsafe, or you will be raped and murdered by some weirdo." Anyway, that he turned out to actually have done it was a big yawn, especially for this show.

The whole Greg running over that kid thing is already tiresome. While I loved how he stood up for himself on the stand about his blood alcohol level, I'm tired of the ways that CSI portrays elected officials as pandering to the lowest common denominator. I'm also offended that the good point of being skeptical about the police's account of events and about underlying racism in law enforcement gets used as a straw man when the viewer already knows what happened with Greg. And the law suit plus the menacing brother is really, really a silly plot idea.

Also, another elaborate serial killer? Are you fucking kidding me? I really hope Sara's untraceable cell phone means that the two people had a meaningful connection, because the whole "Grissom is taunted by a killer that he is driven to outsmart" plot has been done to death, thanks. Way to stay strong against Grey's Anatomy, folks.

I'm worried about Grissom though. Something tells me that migraine he had in the missing kids episode will be important. As some of you know, last season's promo art (used in out-of-home ads in the US) was a mockup of that "diner at the end of the world" picture, only with a person who had been shot slumped face down against the counter, which turned out to be a hint for Brass's shooting at the end of the season. Well, this year the promo is a mockup of the Abbey Road cover, and who has bare feet like Paul McCartney? Grissom. Given that this was one of the classic "Paul is dead" clues, and that Petersen has been threatening to leave for about three years now, and that there were a lot of episodes last season without him, and that they decided last season to finally make Gil/Sara overt (though it was badly handled) I'm thinking we might not have him after this year. And since they've decided to stagnate the other characters—Gil not changing makes some sense but the rest, not so much—I'm not really sure what they'd do without him.

How I Met Your Mother continues to be awesome. There isn't much you can say about it that I haven't already said, but it's just so clever without being arch, and silly without being a farce, and I hope that the Emmys recognize it in some way this year.

Ugly Betty is also so much fun, yet it allows itself to be complicated, and go places you don't think it will. I like that Daniel is aware of his little-boy-lost appeal, and he knows he's spoiled, and he doesn't care. I like that Betty gets called on her control freak/martyr tendencies. I like that Hilda isn't just a flake and wants to take on more responsibility. I like that Vanessa Williams is working. And I'm pretty sure that Betty and Daniel won't end up together, nor should they really, but I'm really getting sick of Walter, who is annoying.

As for Veronica Mars, I think I'll have more to say when this arc is over, two episodes from now. The episode commitment from the CW has been raised from 13 to 20, so we'll definitely get through the second arc and I can't imagine we won't get through the third and get the full season order; I think it's less VM's performance and more CW's inability to plan that is the issue here. But I love it when shows allow their leads to be unlikable but in an understandable way, and we got piles of that in this week's episode. Rock on, Rob Thomas.

Comments

[tropes.livejournal.com]

Dude, Sophie and I had like a three hour long conversation about how we thought the CSI ep with Tudyk was going to delve into some really interesting stuff by having the pedophile totally not have done anything to anyone, and were so disappointed when he was guilty of criminal neglect in the end. Arrrrgh.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of you, of course, because he was very good. But the plot was very lame. That's CSI, pulling the most mundane ending possible out of a good set up. It's really what they do best, unfortunately.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I didn't see CSI last week, but I was comletely annoyed by the trial the week before. I give them some props for avoiding one out of the two cliche scenes of this kind of episode: I was glad that Greg didn't lose it on the stand. Usually in those eps you get a scene of the lawyer warning the person not to get defensive, and then they do. But they got the other scene--apparently any time you go to the bathroom if you're on trial, you will run into either the person you're facing off against or a scary member of his family.

Anyway, one of my main problems is I just didn't buy the anti-Greg attitude that anyone had. The family maybe since they would have a reason to not want to face what their son had done. But why would the judge be getting points by pandering to that given this crime? I felt like a public faced with a gang of teenagers murdering innocent people--killing one and seriously injuring two in one night--would be less patient with this family, not less. I'd imagine the judge would have to be more worried about seeming soft on that kind of danger, whatever the race of the kid who got killed. After all, it's not like there's really any alternate interpretation for what happened that I can see. The family's vague ideas about costume parties and his trying to stop a killer don't really make sense.

And then there's the whole "he's a cop!" thing. Would Greg really come across as a cop in this case? He's a scientist, he doesn't carry a gun, he looks 12 years old. The kid who got killed was a college student acting like an irresponsible college student. It's just in this case he didn't have that background. I don't know, I just found the whole thing a bit bizarre.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Not only was Greg coolness personified, with his ability to calculate his own blood alcohol level in his head on the spot, but so was Nick, and they're always making Nick into a hothead.

Greg =/= cop and that guy from the jury was totally annoying. OTOH, Warrick, Nick and Sara all carry guns and I know Cath does from time to time so why doesn't Greg? I mean, Gil doesn't, but he's Gil; no one wants him to have a gun really. And he did have one first season, because he rescued Nick from that random chick who had a gun to his head.

The judge was typical of the way CSI sets up all elected officials as pandering. I think in this case to the nice black family. (I'm thinking that pandering to black families does not get you elected to state-wide office in Nevada but whatever.)

HA, bathroom cliche, you are so spot on there.