“I have outlets. I read. I study bugs. I sometimes even ride roller coasters” (Gil Grissom)
As a long time fan of CSI: Las Vegas, well, to be honest from the very start it was first shown on the Channel 5 way back in mid 2001. It’s slick, clever, interesting plotlines, story arcs, character development, and good dialogue. But the one character who held the team together with this quiet dogged demeanour was Gil Grissom (William Petersen).
Ah, Gil Grissom who studied bugs and rode rollar coasters, with his scalpel sharp scientific brain, was a sympathetic character who showed real humanity and compassion though seemed shut off from the world at times and his colleagues. He also suffered burn out. I liked Grissom, especially his tenacity for solving puzzles and his comments at a crime scene just before the credits at the start. And it makes forensic science look sexy. It is not deep on the analysis but it is fascinating to watch.
And it was Sara Sidle who was able to communicate with him, enter his life as she had a similar outlook on life therefore kinda understood him. Other thing I like about CSI: Las Vegas is that it has great strong vibrant clever women like Sara Sidle and Catherine Willows, they hold their own and are realistic in their outlook.
Anyway, Gil and Sara finally got it together (boy, that was a build-up) and their relationship didn’t conform to the usual stereotypes and expectations. It was different, refreshingly different. I found the scene where Sara shaves Gil’s beard off with a cut-throat razor as strangely erotic.
And then they split after she was kidnapped by the ‘Miniature Killer’ and couldn’t handle the experience of working with death everyday.
The final two-parter was Grissom’s swansong where he hands over the baton to Dr Raymond Langston (Laurence Fishburne) and was a bit of a disappointment. The serial killer was a cross between hammy Anthony Hopkins a la Hannibal Lecter and Kenneth Williams in Carry on Screaming (I was half expecting to see the guy laugh hysterically and utter the immortal words: “Frying tonight”…).
But hey, they caught the bad guys…. and therefore sayonara Gil Grissom, who ended up running off into the Costa Rica sunset with Sara Sidle..
And I am sure Laurence Fisburne aka Morpheus will do a damn fine job as Grissom’s replacement.
I’m sure he will. But sad to see Grissom go. I always thought of him as a sort of older and wiser version of Petersen’s character in Manhunter.
Indeed he was great in Manhunter and Brian Cox was so much better than hammy Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter (and Michael Mann as director)
Once the main character leaves these programs end very quick, I cannot stand the other two CSI programs, but this one I really enjoyed all though it would be nice to have the odd normal looking women so to speak or the fat lady who came on to do the real CSI on another program I enjoyed. It seems you have to be like a match stick to be a CSI on TV.