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Last night, we saw the third part of the all-CSI crossover trilogy. I was so excited to see Laurence Fishburne on all three CSI series, and I knew the story would be gripping. I was not disappointed about either. But I felt just a bit like the three parts were a bit too different. Is it just me?

I get it that the same group was taking girls and forcing them into prostitution and when they refused to cooperate they would dismember them and dump them. And I get it that the girls were being trafficked all across the nation by crazy truckers. And I get that pimps in Las Vegas were fighting over turf and would hijack each other’s girls. But it just seemed a bit like each of the series’ portions of the story were too disjointed from the others. Maybe that’s just me…?

I loved Langston getting to work with both Horatio and Mac. And I loved the idea of a series of crimes that moved from city to city. But it seemed to me like the M.O. of the crimes changed too drastically with each city.

I could be completely wrong about it. I would love to hear your input about the three episodes. Do you think they tied together smoothly enough? Did you think the differences in the crimes on each of the segments was necessary or clear enough? I would love to get your opinions and hear what other CSI fans have to say. Please leave a comment and let’s discuss!

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Just as in the other two CSI franchise season finales, CSI: NY delivered a killer cliffhanger, loaded with questions. At least in CSI: NY, none of the best loved characters died.

• Who is Douglas Anderson, or “Joe”, or whatever his name really is?
• Is the gunman really operating under duress? Is someone really forcing him to do this? The ending tried to lead us to conclude that that was a lie. Was it?
• Will we find out that the bank manager was in on it, somehow? That’s a stretch, perhaps, but the writers really led us through some weird twists, up to this point.
• Where are the real (or other) bad guys?
• Is it possible that Douglas really is being forced, and that he acted in the end just to try to make it all work out?
• Is Douglas the actual mastermind, and he’s just that deranged an genius? That’s a weird lot to go through, as a ruse, isn’t it?

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This was such an intense CSI: Miami episode. We have a lot to discuss, and wonder about, over the long summer. Here are several points to think about. Please, feel free to comment and leave your own thoughts on the importance of this season finale.

• Miami plots don’t get much thicker, broader, and deeper in details that this.
• This episode has a couple of intertwined themes going: thinly-veiled threats, and “family”, notably, protecting your family.
• Khandi Alexander’s contract was through the end of this season. Her name has remained in the credits, even after her departure. Reports have indicated no other, upcoming projects for Ms. Alexander. Reports also indicated that she had “issues with the show”. Is it possible that the intrigue from the season six finale may have been written to pique her interest in a renewal?
• Eric has been having difficulty with his memory, and Calleigh has been helping hime, in a big way. This episode saw her covering for him, plus a few touching moments between them. Where will this all lead? Sooner or later, his issues will raise some questions. When? How?
• In the end, we see a few deja vu moments, all extremely tight follow-ups to earlier foreshadowing:
  • Julia excuses herself from Kyle. Earlier, Ryan excuses himself from Calleigh. Everyone seems to need an hour or so to “do stuff”.
  • Horatio’s blank, dead stare, in the closing scene. Higgins’ blank, dead stare, in the opening scene.
  • Ryan’s text message: It’s done. Juan Ortega’s phone conversation from jail: “let me know when it’s done.
  • Horatio doesn’t seem to be going back to get to know his son better. Kyle told him something always comes up.
  • The episode is so full of bad guys with bad guns, or bad ammo. In the montage, we see Kyle pull out his own weapon. This also ties into the “protecting family” motif of the episode.
• In the end, we have the montage, where all the little pieces that go together seem to be put in order, spelled out to make our conclusions. What are they going to lead us into, come next Autumn?
• What is Ryan’s involvement in the hit?
• What is Julia’s involvement in Horatio’s murder?
• Are Julia, Ron, the Ortega’s, and Ron Saris all linked, in a bad way?
• Are you sad that Horatio appears to have been murdered?
• Did David Caruso make everyone angry?

What do you see happening in the exciting seventh season?

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This was a very intense episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Warrick. Grissom. McKeen. Hodges. Organized Crime. CSIs arrested.

• Why didn’t Warrick suspect something bad, when Gedda called him?
• Did McKeen seem a bit twitchy, early in the episode?
• Was assigning the investigation to the day shift necessary protocol?
• After Grissom’s splatter pattern discovery, and the cuffs, did it seem like the DA changed his mind to drop the charges a little too quickly, given his misgivings just a couple scenes earlier?
• What else is McKeen up to, that he needed to get Warrick out of the way?
• In the second to last scene, did it seem like the waitress gave Warrick a funny look as she disappeared into the back?
• Is it possible that the waitress took out some trash, and may have witnessed McKeen at Warrick’s car?

What did you think of For Gedda? Discuss your thoughts on the episode in the comments.

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What did you think of CSI: New York episode Taxi? It was very fast paced and exciting, that’s for sure.

• Did some of the city shots and action remind anyone else of the film Summer of Sam? I thought it sometimes went beyond the superficial, obvious “serial killer in New York City” connection between the show and the movie.
• Last week, magnets used only at one cab company. This week, motor oil used at only one cab company. When you commit a crime, I guess, make sure you don’t work somewhere that is the only place that uses some obvious technique or product.
• Those vigilantes make me so angry.
• Any other computer/IT people concerned by the way Lindsay said she was going to use “Visual Basic” to create a GUI interface to track the IP address?
• Reed had lost a lot of blood. They definitely made that extreme, considering they didn’t kill him off. But then, maybe it’s not as uncommon to survive that kind of trauma, as I had thought.

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I enjoyed this episode, but it kept me thinking more than CSI: Miami usually does. This one was less about the scenery, and maybe less about Horatio’s sass.

• More than usual, everybody looked like a suspect.
• That Rossi found it awfully simple to pull a few strings with the state attorney’s office. Is that realistic?
• That Rossi seems to have fingers in everybody’s food. How is that? It’s almost like all the futuristic gadgetry that Miami CSI seems to have easy access to.
• Were you watching for the potential cast loss for the week?
• Don’t worry. Next week, they’re going to try to kill off everyone.
• Did you follow the dedicated phone line explanation?
• Did you buy the way that Rossi bought Decker? Maybe there was just that much cash involved. They didn’t talk about that so much.

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If you’re still thinking about this week’s episode of CSI: Vegas, feel free to leave a comment with your opinions, comments, suggestions, etc. Here are a few points to get you started.

• The rock only found in one nursery reminds me of Grissom’s figuring out where George was buried on CSI: Vegas by the fire ants in the video. Are nurseries a common element in real life?
• I was screaming at Brian not to run. Well, inside my head, I was.
• I was screaming at Brian “Why did you pull the knife out?
• Between X-Files, Supernatural, and this episode, I don’t know what to say about those few megalomaniacal FBI agents that are ruining it for the rest of them.
• Speaking of which, that obsession with this one guy is over the top.
• That Alexx. She was my favorite CSI: Miami character. I really like Warrick, too. Oh, man!

What are your thoughts on episode 6.19 Rock and a Hard Place?

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Tonight’s episode Personal Foul was classic intense CSI. We had some interesting twists, but no finishing touches.

• Was I the only one that thought that Lindsay was going to get into the Killer Cab?
• Paula lost an awful lot of weight, amazingly, not to enjoy the rest of her life, but to get revenge. Crazy much? Discuss.
• What famous serial killer does the Cabbie Killer most resemble?
• How will they find the new suspect –John Doe? Another vague and loose dead-end?
• How much more of this recurring tale, with its first season origins, can Mac take?
• Mac now has to find Reed. Assuming they rescue him, how will the relationship dynamic change? This is heavy stuff.
• First Mac has the phone call with a victim’s widow. Now, Reed is taken. How much closer to this can he get?

Let’s hear what you thought of tonight’s episode!

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The episode began with Tripp and Horatio responding to a call about a car that fell through a sinkhole in the highway. Upon investigation, they realized that a tunnel had been dug underneath the highway and into the vault of a bank. There was a woman’s body crushed in the tunnel and it was obvious that it was all about a bank robbery.

The bank manager identified the dead woman as his assistant manager and there was speculation that she had disabled the security codes. Lots of cash was left in the vault and Horatio said that he didn’t think they were after cash.
(click on “Read More” for the rest of the recap!)

Natalia finally got certified to carry a firearm and she started wearing for the investigations. She and Calleigh found that a tunnel had been built on an active construction site, but no one in the construction crew claimed to know anything about it.

One set of the prints found in the vault were for a man who had some prior suspicion of drug arrests, but no charges could ever stick. He claimed to have become a legitimate art dealer. His company’s safe deposit box was one of the ones broken into. Funny thing, though, he refused to tell Horatio what had been in the box.

Alexx found out during the autopsy that the woman had been shot before she was crushed by the tunnel collapse. She also found DNA on her that led to the man whose headquarters building was being built on the construction site where the tunnel began.

Meanwhile the detonation device used a signature of a man who admitted that he had been hired by the dead woman to be a part of a team to hit the bank. He identified the other man involved and Natalia was the first to arrive to arrest him. She had to shoot him before he could shoot her. It’s a good thing she had started to carry a firearm.

Horatio figured out that the entire robbery was to get a video tape of the millionaire’s daughter in bed with the drug guy who claimed to be an art dealer. The daughter said that she didn’t know the incident had been taped or that the robbers had wanted it.

They figured out that the murder weapon was buried in concrete at the construction site and were able to tie it to the millionaire. He ad masterminded the robbery to help cover up his daughter’s indiscretion. He had killed the bank assistant manager to cover his tracks. He wanted to get away from the drug lord’s blackmail. He was booked for murder, etc. Then they arrested the drug kingpin who had been shipping his drugs inside crates of oranges.

Here are a few discussion points for this episode:

• I thought it was interesting that when the robbers blew a hole in the wall of the vault, no one heard it.
• It also looked like a pretty clean, round hole. No jagged edges. I felt that the scene didn’t look all that realistic this time. What did you think?
• Did you notice the cool new visual tool for finding fingerprint matches? It’s really cool, but I wonder if it’s a thing that’s being used, or just created for the show to look cool?
• What did you think of the device that Horatio used to tell which of the millionaires’ valuables had explosive residue on it?
• The rolling x-ray device that they used to locate the gun in the concrete does exist. I’ve seen one used to try to find things underground. Pretty cool!

What are your thoughts about the episode? Leave a comment to share your thoughts!

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Image details: CSI Miami 100th Episode Party served by picapp.com

Matt Roush of TV Guide apparently thinks so as does the reader who asks this question:

Question: I take exception to this “No one with an IQ will watch CSI: Miami” stuff! I love Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Bones, Lost, The Office and many other “high-brow” shows that cater to those of us who actually graduated with a college degree and enjoy good writing and acting. But seriously, can’t you sit back and enjoy CSI: Miami? Strictly from an enjoyment point of view, this is one of the most hilariously entertaining shows of all time. I started watching six years ago when I first heard of the Horatio opening, but I kept watching because some of the actors on there actually act. It’s as much a mindless entertainment show as anything you could possibly think of from the ’80s (and I know you loved Miami Vice and The A-Team, so tell me this isn’t the same type of show!). It doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. The original CSI is much too pompous for me to watch (I’ve tried to watch re-runs on my DVR that I tape from Spike, but they’re so into themselves). Miami just is what it is: fluff. Give me one hour a week to watch pretty people put on and take off sunglasses, that’s all I ask! — Jeff J.
Matt Roush: That’s about as amusing a demonstration of diminished expectations as I’ve seen in a while. And for the record, I wasn’t much of an A-Team or even a Miami Vice fan back in the day, feeling the latter was more a triumph of style over substance, which I guess is what’s being implied here about CSI: Miami. What I love best about all of this (and I’ve had it reconfirmed by several recent conversations with friends who still watch) is that when you boil down CSI: Miami, it is actually a comedy series in crime-drama drag. I’ll keep that in mind next time I watch.

What do you think of these comments about CSI: Miami? Do you agree, or disagree? Leave a comment to share your thoughts!

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