CSI: Season 12 Premiere

It’s been a while since I caught an episode of CSI, and after 11 seasons it’s hard to imagine that the show would continue to have any sort of draw, but somehow it’s still got it. The show sort of fell off the radar for me during the whole changeover moment between Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Langston Hughes (Laurence Fishburne), but now there’s a new guy in town. D.B. Russell (Ted Danson) is a quirky “out-there” type who seems to know what he’s doing, but he also seems a bit too “hippie” for the CSI team—He notes that a rust pattern on monorail tram is shockingly similar to one of his favorite constellations, he steps on Hodges’ (Wallace Langham) toes by beating him to the answer of what produced the mystery chemical at a crime scene, he calls out Stokes (George Eads) for being too friendly with the suspects, and he asks around for good Vegas farmers markets right in the middle of a crime scene analysis because his wife called asking for one. But it is clear, to the audience at least, that he’s going to win them over eventually.

From all the references to Langston and “what happened in L.A.” in this episode, I gather that last season ended in a real shit-storm. Hughes is either dead or fired, Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) got demoted, and there’s an overall sense that these characters are still picking up the pieces.

This episode does a brilliant job of doing just that. Going back to its roots, it takes two murder mysteries, and lays in all of the character stuff around them. We’ve got a possible new love interest for Eric Sanders (Eric Szmanda) who just happens to be Undersheriff Ecklie’s (Marc Vann) daughter, so future sparks will fly, I’m sure. The new boss, Russell, gets Stokes’ old office, so tension builds there. Ecklie suggests that Stokes acts like a social worker instead of a cop and Russell defends Stokes, saying he’d hate to lose such a good asset, and so we see Russell as gentle but determined. Thus, while the characters are still dealing with the fallout from last season, new pieces are being laid to ensure good future drama.

Oh, and leave it to CSI to introduce you to something you never thought would ever exist in reality. I’m a bit of a “weirdities” aficionado, but I have never heard of, nor have I ever even considered the fact that there ever would be real-life octopus-on-girl sex clubs. I mean, I’ve heard of Hentai, I’ve heard of tentacle-porn, but this is extreme. I would imagine that something has to be pretty big in order for it to stay in business in Vegas, so I am a bit flummoxed by the concept. Another fun question asked by this episode is: how is it possible to have the face of a twenty year old and the body of a sixty year old? Answer: death by air compressor. Simply blow yourself up like a balloon with a truck stop air hose, ripping away all those annoying little muscle-to-skin connectors, and you too can look like grandpa. Of course, you’ll be dead as well, so you might want to stop and rethink if you were making any plans in this general direction.

As you can see, there is no lack of fun in these mysteries. They’re compelling and weird, which is just the way to draw us all in. And there’s a decent, interweaving balance between the action line and the emotion line. So we identify with the characters as they are confounded by the mysteries, and annoyed by their coworkers or circumstances, and empathetic with a sad perp or witness. I also  appreciate that the show is really laying in the baseline for the D.B. Russell character. We’re not sure about this new guy, so the episode is showing him off a bit. We’re getting in touch with who he is by learning about his constant contact with his wife, his love of astronomy, how he’s good with kids, his kooky way of putting himself physically into the same place as a dead guy in order to ‘see what he saw,’ etc. They did the same thing with Greg Saunders when he was pretty new to the show. We got to see him experiment with wacky techno/ska hair while he waxed enthusiastic about the Rat Pack and Vegas history. Saunders is part of the family now, and it is clear that Russell is on his way there too.

So, this premiere wasn’t bombastic, but it did a good job of shaking off what must’ve been one hell of a finale from last season—and, most importantly, I enjoyed watching it and was engrossed in what was going on, despite my long hiatus from watching. This season is clearly setting itself up for success and interestingness and drama. Watch along, you’ll see I’m right.