"Feeling the Heat" and "Prodigy"

[ealgylden]

Hodges is nicer to Sara than he is to anyone else, ever? Nick slants his presentation of the results of an investigation to give a father peace of mind? If it turns out that you've secretly begun writing for CSI, carolinecrane, I'll be very thrilled and terrified. Mostly thrilled, of course. When can we see Nick and Greg waking up hungover and married, exactly?



Feeling the Heat

I really, really wish CBS hadn't skipped an episode, since obviously, for once, there was character continuity. I felt like I was missing many little things. Grrr. I know we'll get to see it eventually, but it was still irritating.

So anyway, tonight was Death by Negligence Night on CSI (or murder inspired by negligence, in the baby case). Pretty depressing. Catherine seemed slightly off to me throughout, possibly because she was yet again not able to separate herself from her case. It's understandable that the baby case would trigger all of her "mother tigress" responses, but her over-involvement has been an issue from day one, and I'm wondering how much longer she can go without burning out. She looked exhausted in this episode. Maybe Marg was just tired when they filmed, but I'm taking it as a character choice, since it permeated her voice, her posture, and her reactions in nearly every scene. Even her hair looked less fierce than usual. And in the opening scene, when she and Gil first saw poor dead Baby Whatzit (I remember the older child was Howard, but I forget the baby's name), her expression was pained and saddened, but her voice was flat. Too flat. Normally, I vote for Sara or Warrick taking a vacation before they crack, but this week I'm going with Catherine. The scene with her sitting in her broiling-hot car at the end made me want to hug her and ship her and Lindsey off to a spa or a ranch or something. Poor Catherine.

I'm totally shipping Sara and David the Backup Coroner now. He's not all nervous and fumbling around her! Well, okay, he's less nervous and fumbling. More importantly, she seems comfortable around him, which she never does around Gil. She likes him, and it shows. They could become friends and slowly realize they mean more to each other... aww... Hey, David's a catch. Sara could do much worse (Gil the Unavailable Boss, Hank the Lying Bastard, etc).

Speaking of Sara, promotion? I assume that was something else from last-week-that-never-happened? I've completely lost track of her rank by now, but I didn't think she and Nick would be in the running for the same promotion. He and Warrick, yeah, they have been before. But I missed when Sara caught up with them (unsurprising, since I missed a lot of Season 2). I'm very unhappy with the tension that this possible promotion has introduced to Sara and Nick's relationship. They usually work comfortably and easily together, despite their very different personalities and methods, and she relaxes more around him (which admittedly still isn't much) than around anyone else on the team, except perhaps Catherine. If this promotion plotline ends up sabotaging their friendly, familial vibe, I'll be very unhappy. Their joint interview of Dead Slacker's dad had me wincing too much to even enjoy Nick turning on the charm.

Hodges and Sara, dude. Scary. So, so scary.

So is the new, example-making ADA ( or DA?) going to be a recurring character? He was a little irritating. But I was amused by Catherine responding with "always do" to his request that all the little details of the case be carefully treated. Well, I don't suppose the CSIs try to keep screwing up, but considering how often we've seen a case fall apart because someone on the team screwed up, I think "always" might be stretching it. "Always try to," maybe (please, stop with the "CSIs screw up" plots, writers. Or at least cut it down to two a season).

Gil was barely in it (which was more than made up for with a bunch of Greg, so I was very happy), and when he was there, he was weird. Strange little anecdotes in his bonding time with Warrick (killed with a soda can?). But truer words were ne're spoken than his, "I don't get people." Gil, hon, we know.

Oh yeah, the Sara/Nick scene I did like? Them standing waist-deep in the lake. Cute, and refreshing I'll bet (why was everyone wearing jeans instead of slacks? I can't imagine wearing denim in 100+ degree heat and not melting into goo).

Nick and Greg are so obvious. "If you need an extra set of hands..." "Uh, no, no, boss." And Sara somehow manages to choke down her snicker at her oh-so-whipped buddy. Greg was cuter than cute, and I always get a kick out of his raised-eyebrows "you tell me" expression whenever anyone asks him, "what do you think?". He picked that up from Gil, I think. And Greg knows the good make-out spots at the very pretty lake (during which moment Nick was staring down at the table, either telling himself that Greg's his now and any past loves don't matter, or reminding himself that they're at work so no pouncing. I'm feeling schmoopy, so I'll pick Door #2 for now). But Nick is obviously not over the explosion yet, since he was so firm about not wanting Greg in the field. Hmmm, didn't I just read that somewhere? ;)

Warrick seemed subdued to me, but since the-episode-that-wasn't was a Warrick ep, I assume that's probably why. But who cares, when he got Archie into the field! Archie lugging heavy things! Archie with muscles! Archie gleefully saying, "Ultimate power!" Archie musing about how he'd want to die (quietly, in bed with me when we're very old, of course. Delusional? What?). It was a festival of Archie, his greatest amount of screentime since "Random Acts" (which has mucho Archie, plus mucho Nick/Greg, so I forgive the Warrick/Gil stupidity). Oh, frabjous day!

The preview- furries? Wow, that seems kinky for CBS. This show is so odd sometimes.


Prodigy

It was good enough, it was interesting enough... but it wasn't really compelling. It seemed just... standard, like they had a certain number of beats to hit, and they made sure they hit them all. But it didn't fly. Ack, listen to me. Moving on.

Nice music, naturally. But not as nice as the music in "Revelations."

The girl who played Natasha was very cute, like a cross between Natalie Portman and Lindsay Lohan. And I liked that she wasn't a bad kid, her manager and parents weren't bad people (ex-con father or not), her boyfriend wasn't a bad kid (a bit screwed up, but still rather sweet)... her parents kept saying that they had tried to give her a normal life, and except for the Russian Mafia guys lurking around, most of the guest characters did seem pretty normal. Maybe that's why it seemed like such a subdued episode, I dunno.

Sam vs. her therapist was a start. Thank god she's finally giving therapy a try, because I hated seeing her slowly come apart at the seams every week. When she was deciding whether or not to get her gun, I was yelling at her not to, but at least she put it back at the end. Again, it's a start. And happily her therapist (Lisa, right?) seems like she'll be tough enough not to let Sam hide, because she's going to fight this every step of the way. Sam is not a sharing kind of girl. I also liked Sam's interview with Natasha's doctor (who had a beautiful voice, btw). The subtle poking at the topic of panic attacks, the wide-eyed reaction to a mention of therapy... there were interesting undercurrents in that scene.

Of course Jack speaks Russian. Hard to picture him as a busboy at the Russian Tearoom, though. I bet he was a surly teen.

I'm with Danny about the 10,000 hits to Natasha's website. I had no idea violin was that popular either, even with a cute teen girl playing it.

There was a lab tech in this ep, but he wasn't my lab tech. It was like expecting Archie and getting Hodges. I was so disappointed.

Lots of Viv in this one, which is always good. She is one fierce mom (if I were Reggie, no way would I ever call her a bitch. Much too scary), and she had great chemistry with Natasha's mom. Her scene at the end with Natasha was good, too- she's pretty good at communicating with teens (never an easy task). And her scenes with Jack are easily my favorites of his these days. They have a comfortable, teasing friendship, and she's one of the few who can stand up to him and not get bulldozed. It's like Gil and Catherine, except that Jack does get people. He might not like them much, but he gets them.

Okay, Danny? You were cute and flirty this week, but watch it with the Martin-teasing. It was okay this time, because you didn't overdo it and Martin seemed only mildly irritated, but take it easy. I was ticked at you for a long time for hurting my guy. It wouldn't take much to do it again. (He was cute, though. Something about the cadences of Enrique's line readings, I don't know.)

Martin as Undercover Dork was so great! The glasses! The facial hair! The (really stylish) suede jacket! If he weren't gay and my heart didn't belong to Archie, Martin would so be my TV boyfriend. So instead he's just my guy. But oh, how I loved his smooth undercover black-market violin buying. And yet again we saw that personal space boundaries do not apply with these two, as Martin made himself at home on Danny's desk. I hope Danny got to see him as Undercover Dork, though, because he was just too cute to miss.

Lastly, the fashion report- Martin's first scene was not a good start. The combination of the too-harsh lighting and his oatmeal check suit made him look washed out and unhealthy. The color was just too light for him; he needs something warmer. Something like, say, that excellent camel suede jacket he wore undercover. That was a really flattering look all-around, even with the glasses and facial hair. The fact that his hair is longer every week helps, too. Soon, soon it will be back to a good length. Then for the second half of the ep, he changed to one of his standard, conservative, dark suits, with a normal tie for once. Not hideous, but not exciting, just plain old "I'm blending in" preppy Martin. He used up his daily quota of splashiness on the undercover wear, I guess.

I'm assuming Martin's change in suits was because of his changes into and out of disguise, because Danny and Sam wore the same outfits throughout. How much time passed? Anyway, Danny still hasn't found his hairbrush. Methinks he needs to clean his apartment a little, because no matter how often he gets away with it, the JBF hair is still not appropriate for a federal agent. He could do with a little less stubble too. Remember, Danny- Martin is very pale, and beard burn will show. I like Danny in jewel tones, I think; the blue shirt and tie combo was pretty good. I couldn't really tell if his suit was pinstriped or not on my tv, but overall his look this week (except for the hair) was a little more subtle than in the past, but not so subtle as to be Martin-esque. It was pretty good, actually. Better than Viv's sweater, at least. Not that that's saying much.

In other news, I haven't been able to leave or respond to comments all day. On the plus side, the delay in receiving comment notifications that so many have been plagued by hasn't really affected me. I just can't do anything about the comments I know about. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow.

Comments

[kathlaw.livejournal.com]

Okay, as a desert dweller, I'm going to bitch about a couple real screw-ups on CSI that frankly surprised me.

First, after all those on-screen news updates about the heat and heat exhaustion, that Nick and Sara climbed that hill with NO WATER was idiotic and stupid. In that heat, they'd have been near passing out by the time they got back down. We have people DIE from lack of water around here in Summer when hiking.

Second, having Catherine grasp the door of her dark-colored SUV, first at the handle, then holding the edge? Try first degree burns. In the desert you touch hot metal as little as possible. Even with darkened windows, a seatbelt buckle can burn you.

That said, I too miss the Warwick screws up episode which obviously fit in there. Catherine was so edgy it makes me wonder if at some point she left her daughter in the car, or was remembering her late, mostly un-lamented ex leaving her in the car when he got shot. And as always, I adored Greg.

On WaT, adored undercover Martin. Take him home and rumple him, adore him. Danny good as always, as was Viv. I'm looking forward to the follow-up about Reggie. This show does seem to deal with a certain measure of continuity anyway, so I have hopes.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never lived anywhere south of Massachusetts (unless you count a month in the Yucatan, which I don't), and even I knew about the water thing. What a stupid mistake to make. And the burning hot car door didn't occur to me, but now that you mention it, ow. Big ow. It's not comfortable to touch cars up here in August- I can't even imagine what it would be like in 100+ degree weather. You'd think they'd have someone around to point out that sort of glitch.

Catherine was so edgy it makes me wonder if at some point she left her daughter in the car, or was remembering her late, mostly un-lamented ex leaving her in the car when he got shot.

I was wondering about that too. I could just imagine her running through all sorts of unhappy scenarios in her head and almost-happeneds. And I'm still not sure what to think about her last scene, sitting in the car, roasting. I wonder where they're going with her this season.

On WaT, adored undercover Martin. Take him home and rumple him, adore him.

Yes, yes, and yes. Me too. *g* I was torn between giggling at his beat poet look, and marveling at how sexy it was on him. He looked good inspecting the violin, too. Really nice hands. And I was so happy to see Viv getting something to do, though now I hope that wasn't her big episode for the season. It's so early that I don't think so, but then she really only had one or two showcase eps last season. Such a waste.

[kathlaw.livejournal.com]

You'd think they'd have someone around to point out that sort of glitch.

Usually they do. I'm guessing it was one of those things that they were trying to get done and it didn't get caught until post production, when it was too late to fix it. I did like the filters they used to make the Vegas long shots look hot and brassy, but it wasn't quite right -- no wavering from heat rising, so I knew they weren't shooting in the height of September heat. And the actors weren't sweating enough, either.

Sometimes given production schedules and budgets, "good enough" really is.

Really nice hands.

You too? Somehow it's ears and hands for me. Not exclusively, but a well-shaped ear matters. And hands, most definitely. But that's perhaps because like Lord Peter Whimsey, I'm a bit vain of my own. :-) I wear an 8-1/2 size glove, but have long slender fingers that suit well, and were great for piano and violin. Not to mention typing. :-)

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Usually they do. I'm guessing it was one of those things that they were trying to get done and it didn't get caught until post production, when it was too late to fix it.

You're probably right. And I do feel a little bad complaining about it, when every other week I complain that it's always raining and isn't Vegas in the desert? I never used to be this nitpicky...

Hands, definitely. Also noses (weird, I know) and shoulders. But hands are a biggie. And I bet you won't be shocked to hear that I also have a bit of hand-vanity. ;) My piano teacher used to say she wished she had my hands, no doubt because then they'd actually be used for playing the piano rather than embarrassing it. *g* But hey, if you've got 'em, flaunt 'em!

[kathlaw.livejournal.com]

Well, the desert gets rain twice a year, for months. We just get sudden downpours in small storm cells, so it's unusual for the entire city to be wet at the same time, at least in Summer.

Noses. Yes. Mark Hamill's original nose in that sunset scene in STAR WARS. Peter Wingfield's nose. (They even have that joke about it in one script, "It's the nose, isn't it?")

Odd thing about ears? Realized why Michael Rosenbaum doesn't do a lot for me -- his ears are too small. :-)

Yeah, I've got a Music Major friend who envies my hands and my reach across piano keys. :-) I had this little problem with hating to practice that made me never as good as my hands might have desired.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Odd thing about ears? Realized why Michael Rosenbaum doesn't do a lot for me -- his ears are too small.

Ha! You're the second person I know who's said that. Dearest Friend B. calls him "Hamster Ears Boy." Poor, wee-eared fella. *g*

[carolinecrane.livejournal.com]

Know what's really scary? I didn't even pick up on the shout-out to "Sweet Cool Water" and the dad thing until you mentioned it. Somebody owes me some royalties, damn it.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

If they wanted to shout-out to some of the more risqué parts of your fic, I'd be all kinds of pleased. And righteously furious on your behalf at those plagiaristic jerks, of course.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

I really need to not forget about WaT night and not go to bed early and sleep right through it. Grrrr.

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Oh no, again? That's not good. And I'm not even taping them yet, so I can't loan them to you- I figured I'd tape them on the rerun (no idea why, actually, since I'm just as likely to miss one then). Darn it. Oh well, sleep is your friend, and you need energy for kid-wrangling. They'll be repeated.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

That's ok, I'll just catch them in reruns. I did manage to remember about tonight's ep, at least. Interesting developments, I must say.