I've already 'aside'-ed this, but I thought it merited its own post. So here it is.
Now it's no great secret that David Caruso isn't much loved on the set of CSI: Miami. Or that Emily Procter and he don't get along and haven't done since season one.
But if you've been watching seasons six and seven, you'll have noticed that they've been having fewer and fewer scenes together. In fact, one or two a season seems to be the count, even when that makes a nonsense of the plot. In fact, you could even make a long-term drinking game out of it all.
The question is though: have the producers noticed that we've noticed? Take a look at this scene. It looks like Procter and Caruso are in the same scene. Yet... they don't exchange dialogue and when they are in the same shot, it's a long shot and you can't see both of their faces – I doubt they're using doubles but odder things have happened…
So are they actually in the same scene or not? What do you think?
In the US: Thursdays, 9pm ET/PT, CBS In the UK: Five, Five US, Living, etc, ad infinitum
It seems that just about every time I review an episode of CSI, I make the following points:
It's the only smart series in the CSI canon, with CSI:Miami being dumb, conservative propaganda with minimal resemblance to reality and CSI: NY being little more than live action fan fic now
It does dark and nuanced well
The characters feel like characters rather than plot advancers
And this time's no different. We open, as we have in most previous years, with a big character-related episode. And my, isn't it a tear-jerker?
Cast your minds back a bit. The Eleventh Hour was a really very bad ITV drama starring Patrick Stewart and Ashley Jensen, in which physicist Stewart worked for 'The Government' solving science-related crimes while bodyguard Jensen did her level worst to protect him. Derivative of just about everything from Doomwatch and Doctor Who to almost every US TV show ever made, it only lasted four episodes before being pulled.
So it was something of a mystery to me why Jerry Bruckheimer no less took a look at it and said to himself, "Yes, I'll be having myself some of that."
But, it can't help be noticed that over the years, when the UK has done its level best to produce TV shows that look a lot like US shows but are simply awful, when the US remake them they're a whole lot better. Look at Touching Evil. Mind-blowingly bad stuff in the UK, absolutely triffic in the US.
Getting people to watch your shiny new show (or returning old show) is always tricky. Billboards are among the main media you can use to get people to tune in, provided you create enough impact.
Here's a shiny collection of billboards (and a couple of magazine spreads and covers) for the current and returning shows in the US, as featured by TheHollywood Reporter, complete with rating. Where I've reviewed the show, I've included a link to the review
In the US: Mondays, 10pm ET/PT, CBS In the UK: Five, Five US, Living, Living+1, blah, blah, blah... Soon and then forever
Yes, it's back again, even though it never seemed to have gone away. It's CSI: Miami, the world's favourite source of mind-blowingly stupid storylines, science-fiction masquerading as police procedures, and acting that needs a whole new thesaurus full of synonyms for 'atrocious' for it to be adequately described - and it's back on our screens, ready to make us all go 'WTF?' again.
Wed 07 Jan: There was a competitor on the UK's Strongest Man on Bravo tonight called "Glenn Ross". Do you think there should have been a Glen Garry as well, just for symmetry?
Mon 05 Jan: For some reason, Gavin proposed to Stacey at London Victoria station mocked up to look like London Paddington. Why's that then?
Sun 04 Jan: Quote of the Day: "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did except backwards and in high heels."
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