CSI: Vegas season 1 Finale: The Nose Knows

An excellent all-hands-on-deck to what I hope is just the Season One finale of the revived CSI aka CSI: Vegas series on CBS tonight.

[Spoilers follow ... ]

Everyone working on the same case, just one case, and that's always the most fun.  The case, of course, is David Hodges, who has been kidnapped after a false video confession from him has been extorted.  That's what we the audience know.  The judge is still convinced by the evil Wix.  The goal of Sara, Gil, and Maxine is to get the evidence that will convince the judge.

The lead to that evidence is olfactory -- as in perfume, as in scent.  Sara and Gil identify the scent and therein the hotel that has it.  But when they search it from bottom to top, there's no sign of Hodges.  What did they miss?  Scents change over time.   (We could say, scents are change, just as cents are change.) (Sorry.)  But our top-notch CSIs can figure out what the scent was, and therein where Hodges is now.  And we get a happy, champagne-popping ending.  Sara and Gil celebrate it not with a toast, but a ride on an effervescent roller-coaster.

A strong, concluding episode for the season. And a glimpse of what I hope we'll see next season -- a serial killer.  CSI still has spunk and savvy.  Its devotion to truth and evidence, to science and reason, is refreshing in this cynical, often lying world of ours, where a former President lies about winning the election, and he and his adherents pretend that a deadly pandemic is no big deal.  Right, I sometimes mix politics into my reviews, and I'll be back here for sure with a review of the next season, if there is one, and that's the truth.

See also: CSI: Vegas 1.1: CSI on Trial ... CSI: Vegas 1.2: My Half-Joking Suggestion for the Villain ... CSI: Vegas 1.3: Three Especially Enjoyable Facets ... CSI: Vegas 1.4: Difficult Progress ... CSI: Vegas 1.5: Double Header ... CSI: Vegas: 1.6: Bald Luminol ... CSI: Vegas 1.7: Monet, Grissom, and Truth ... CSI: Vegas 1.8: Down the Drain ... CSI: Vegas 1.9: The Confession and the Stain

CSI: Vegas 1.2: My Half-Joking Suggestion for the Villain

Circling back, maybe stepping up, with a review CSI Vegas 1.2, which is actually a continuation of the original CSI, then and now on CBS.  I'm still liking it.

The modus operandi appears to be one ongoing case involving David Hodges, who stands accused of forging evidence in who knows how many earlier CSI cases, and another case which will likely change each week.  For 1.2, I enjoyed seeing both unfold, but I'll confine my review to the profoundly important (for CSI) David Hodges case.

Sarah and husband Gil disagree strongly on Hodges' guilt.  Sara feels in her bones that Hodges is innocent, framed by some nefarious player.  Gil can't go by feelings, not even by Sara's logic.  He has to wait for evidence, to tell him how he feels. 

[Spoilers ahead ....]

Good news for Gil's reliance on evidence and Hodges' innocence at the end of the episode.  Gil finds that someone was silencing Hodges' neighbor's dog.  Since Hodges has no reason to do that, Gil concludes that Sara's instincts and logic are right:  The person who framed Hodges must have been responsible for the neighbor's dog,

The question still remains of who and why?  I'm half jokingly thinking that a good candidate would Nick Stokes, played by George Eads, who was with CSI from the beginning until almost the end, leaving after he had some kind of altercation with a writer for the show.  He'd have a big grievance against CSI, right?

In any case, it's very good to see Sara and Gil back in action, and I'm liking the new characters, too, so I'll likely be back here with another review or more.

See also: CSI: Vegas 1.1: CSI on Trial

CSI: Vegas 1.1: CSI on Trial

My wife and I saw and enjoyed most of CSI and a smattering of the myriad spinoffs, so we figured we'd watch the CSI reboot -- now CSI: Las Vegas -- which debuted tonight on CBS.   It was good.  Much like original.

Here's the set-up: someone tries to kill a retired and partially blind Jim Brass.  He's played by Paul Guilfoyle, whom I saw not too long ago as The Guardian of Forever (yes!) on Star Trek: Discovery.  I last saw him in the CSI 2015 series finale in the hospital, recovering from a bomb blast.  Good to see him and his character again.

Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) is also back in Vegas, called in by Brass to help with this case.  Gil Grissom (William Peterson), whom Sara ran off to join on a boat and a lifetime relationship in the original series finale, is also back in town, as we see at the very end of this first new episode, which is part 1 of a two-part or longer story.   Also at work on this case is the current CSI head Maxine Roby (Paula Newsome, last seen by me in Chicago Med) and Joshua Folsom (Matt Lauria from Friday Night Lights).

So the cast looks good (but one suggestion: bring back Nike Stokes/George Eads), as do the lights in Las Vegas and the gleaming new equipment in the lab.  And the plot has promise.  David Hodges (Wallace Langham), a major character in the original CSI, in umpteen episodes from 2003-2015, is being framed to look like he forged the evidence in God knows how many cases in which he played a pivotal role.   Sara and Gil are of course convinced of his innocence.  Maxine and the newbies of course are not so sure.  And what's at stake are countless convictions in those very 2003-2015 span of years -- in other words, the very status of CSI itself.

I'd say that's a pretty significant set-up for the new series, more than enough to keep me watching.

Chicago Fire - Chicago Med - Chicago PD - Triple Crossover

Chicago Fire and Chicago Med began a triple crossover of related stories on NBC last night, which will conclude tonight on Chicago PD.   Crossovers are nothing new on television, especially for Dick Wolf, who has already done crossovers with Chicago PD and his remaining NYC cop show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.   But Wolf has made a fine art of this, thoroughly integrating the ensemble cast of all three series, making the result more like a three-hour movie than a series of connected episodes.

In contrast, CSI had an excellent triple-crossover some years ago with its Las Vegas, Miami, and New York shows, but the narrative featured the head of the Las Vegas group going to Miami, then New York, then back to Las Vegas on a vexing case.   Last night on NBC we saw major characters from Med and PD on the Fire hour, and then major PD and Fire characters on the Med hour.  The result was seamless and satisfying.

Even when there aren't cross-over events, the three Chicago shows are well blended, with characters from each of the series naturally appearing on the others.  Gabby on Fire has a brother on PD.   She also had a flirtation with a guy who turned out to be PD undercover, who in turn has a brother in Med.  One of the firefighters just became engaged to a sergeant on PD, and another is striking up a relationship with a nurse on Med.   And even when there aren't romantic or familial connections, characters from the other two shows regularly show up on Fire, PD, and Med.  The EMT Unit on Fire brings the injured to Med, and if crime is the cause of the injury, or arson is at work on Fire, that effectively pulls PD into the story.   The result is that the three series are always on the cutting edge of crossover.

Of the three series, I like Fire the best.  Series about firefighters are more rare on television than shows about cops - of which there seem to have been hundreds over the years - or medical shows, which have been on television continuously since the days of Dr. Kildare.   The only fire show I can recall is Rescue Me, which like Chicago Fire, was outstanding (and drop-dead funny, to boot).

In age in which television is rapidly evolving into new kinds of narratives on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, it's good to see the networks reinventing their storytelling via Dick Wolf's crossovers.

Falling Skies 5.2: Hybrid

The fifth and final season of Falling Skies is still looking to be one of its best, judging by where it is now in its second episode.   I like the fast, no-nonsense pace of the fighters and fighting, good to see after the over-agonizing in some of the recent previous seasons.

But the big reveal takes place not in a hot battle, but in the insect that landed in Tom's hand at the end of the first episode.  We've seen insects put to provocative use in previous story lines in this series, but we learn in 5.2 that this insect is something different: a hybrid not only of at least two alien species, but with human eyes! This means that some advanced species is doing some more gene-splicing, with human DNA part of the mix.  The question, of course, is to what end?

This is an enjoyable science fiction trope, with a CSI overlay.  Where is Grissom, when you need him, to help make sense of this insect?  Anne is better than you might expect with DNA, but she's more of a biologist Jack of all trades than an expert like Grissom - he ended up where, in CSI, in Costa Rica? - and it will be fun to see how our gang can get to the bottom of this bug.

Too bad Roger bled to death last season - he certainly would have been of help in this.  We do have a guy who is deft with building flying drones, and perhaps his knowledge of flight patterns will play some role in the decoding of the insect and its meaning.  Otherwise, probably the best we can hope for is a revelation at some point that comes to Tom - hey, with any luck, provided by the same aliens who've seemed to have such an enormous impact on him and his spirit.

Looking forward to more next week.

See also Falling Skies 5.1: Still Worthy of Viewing

And see also Falling Skies 4.1: Weak Start ... Falling Skies 4.2: Enemy of my Enemy ... Falling Skies 4.3: Still Falling ... Falling Skies 4.5: Cloudy ...Falling Skies 4.7: Massacre Indeed ... Falling Skies 4.8: Spike ... Falling Skies Espheni: How to Pronounce? ... Falling Skies 4.9: To the Moon, Anne, To the Moon ... Falling Skies 4.10: Lexi ... Falling Skies Season 4 Finale: Self-Sacrifice and Redemption

And see also Falling Skies 3.1-2: It's the Acting ... Falling Skies 3.3: The Smile ... Falling Skies 3.4: Hal vs. Ben ... Falling Skies 3.6: The Masons ...Falling Skies 3.7: The Mole and a Likely Answer ... Falling Skies 3.8: Back Cracked Home ... Falling Skies Season 3 Finale: Dust in Hand

And see also Falling Skies Returns  ... Falling Skies 2.6: Ben's Motives ... Falling Skies Second Season Finale

And see also Falling Skies 1.1-2 ... Falling Skies 1.3 meets Puppet Masters ... Falling Skies 1.4: Drizzle ... Falling Skies 1.5: Ben ... Falling Skies 1.6: Fifth Column ... Falling Skies 1.7: The Fate of Traitors ... Falling Skies 1.8: Weaver's Story ... Falling Skies Concludes First Season

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no aliens, but definitely insects

Intelligence 1.10: Lillian's Daughter

A good Intelligence 1.10 this past Monday, with personally motivated terrorism in San Francisco, and Gabriel, Riley, and Lillian heading out there to stop it.  Once again, digital sophistication is not enough to stop an attack - boots on the ground, worn by people with talented as well as cyber-assisted heads on their shoulders, are needed.   As I pointed out at length in my 2003 book, Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, the palpable reality of flesh and blood in the physical world will be an ever necessary accompaniment - sometimes enjoyable, sometimes not - as we increasingly live important parts our lives on the Internet.

But the best part of Intelligence 1.10 was learning more about Lillian and her life, which becomes a center-stage issue because her daughter is living in San Francisco.   Lillian's relationship with her daughter is not the greatest - interesting, because Marg Helgenberger's Catherine Willows also had a difficult relationship with her daughter on CSI.   This is more than coincidence.  It has to be especially difficult for any mother in law-enforcement to have a good relationship with her children, with the life-and-death demands of the job taking precedence over family.   Maybe in Andy Griffith's Mayberry, but not in our real world.

J. J. in Criminal Minds is constantly torn between her family and her work, but Lillian has it even worse on Intelligence, because she doesn't live with her daughter, and indeed they live on opposite sides of the country.  It's easy enough, to get back to the digital world versus the real world, to keep in touch with a child or a loved one via Skype and any number of Internet ways.   But last time I checked, you can't give a reassuring hug through digital means - even three-dimensional holography wouldn't do the trick - and that possibility of a hug makes all the difference.

See also Intelligence Debuts ... Intelligence 1.2: Lightning Changes ...Intelligence 1.3: Edward Snowden and 24 ... Intelligence 1.4: Social Media Weaponry ... Intelligence 1.5: The Watch ... Intelligence 1.6: Helix meets Rectify and Justified ... Intelligence 1.7: Nanites ...Intelligence 1.8: Heart of Darkness, Cyberstyle ... Intelligence 1.9:  EMP Amnesia and Children

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Like science fiction about chips in the brain?  Check out The Pixel Eye

Intelligence Debuts

Intelligence debuted with a strong episode tonight - cerebrally as well action-wise - along with a good starting plot and set-up for the series, and a generally outstanding cast.

Leading that cast is Josh Holloway in his first major television outing since his portrayal of Sawyer in Lost, one of the most memorable characters in that now classic series.  Michael Emerson who played Ben in Lost has done well for himself in Person of Interest, so Holloway had a lot to live up to.  He's doing fine so far with his customary mix of sarcasm and no nonsense, a good persona for the lead character who is a master operative with the added advantage of a brain that's hooked into the Internet.   It's a good premise for a series for our day and age - the digital equivalent of The Six Million Dollar Man - and Gabriel (Holloway's character) even has a lost love he is searching the world to find.

Also excellent is Meghan Ory as Gabriel's secret service agent protector Riley - yeah, he's more important than the President - with a good combination of mental and physical agility.  Gabriel loves his wife, but there's a chemistry between hum and Riley that's bound to lead to interesting complications sooner or later.

Marge Helgenberger as head of the unit Lilian I'm not so sure about.  Her cool, deadpan performance as Katherine on CSI worked great for that almost anime-come-to-life series, but in Intelligence ... I don't know, I'll need to see more before I buy her as someone with sufficient wisdom and vision to be running this whole operation.

Meanwhile, the world depicted in Intelligence is sufficiently different from and similar to ours to host good continuing story.   It's not the Chinese who are our enemies, it's a conservative militant group within China, in the classic James Bondian tradition.   And the set-up recognizes and in fact is predicated upon the increasing interconnection of all forms of communication and information delivery - indeed, this is what makes Gabriel's connection to the Internet so powerful and effective.

The series moves to Monday night next week, replacing Hostages on CBS, which had its moments, but was based on a fundamentally absurd premise through the very end.   In contrast, Intelligence is a realistic as tomorrow's app, which Gabriel is well aware of, and which makes the story, at least in its premiere, refreshing and convincing.





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