Report: ‘CSI’ Season 14 Fall Preview
4 min readCSI: Crime Scene Investigation will honor its fourteenth season (and commemorate 300 episodes) by “looking back and looking forward.” Get the details in CSI Files’ Season Fourteen preview.
“There’s a sense of renewal; a sense of looking back and looking forward,” one source explains to CSI Files about the show’s upcoming season. This year CSI will celebrate its 300th episode, an achievement not many reach in the television industry, and also a feat that only two current scripted primetime shows can claim (the other being Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).
The season–which starts off this Wednesday at 10pm on CBS–will explore the “fullness of the lab.” While the show has a long history of lovable and endearing lab techs–Archie (Archie Kao), Mandy (Sherri Rappaport), Bobby Dawson (Gerald McCullouch) to name a few–CSI will explore new techs and investigators that occupy the Las Vegas Crime Lab. The Vampire Diaries‘ Matt Davis joins the cast in a recurring role starting with Episode Six, “Passed Pawns.” He’ll play a dayshift CSI that the graveshift has yet to meet. When news of Davis’ casting came out on the day of CSI‘s 300th episode cake-cutting party, the online community viewed his addition to the show as a response to filling the void left by George Eads‘s Nick Stokes, who is on a leave of absence from the show starting with Episode Four. “Matt’s character was conceived before what happened with George, and not a response,” a source familiar with the situation tells CSI Files. Davis’ character arrives at a time when dayshift and graveshift work together due to the timing of a discovery. In Episode Eight, “Helpless,” written by supervising producer Tom Mularz, the show will introduce a CSI from the swingshift. “In the past you would see other techs linger about the lab [and] we want to show that there are other people working in a very big lab,” so going forward “we want to interact with that more.”
CSI‘s 300th episode, “Frame by Frame,” will air October 23. Described as a “Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox)-centric episode, the installment “deals with a cold case that got away from her that we did not see when she first joined the lab,” another source elaborates. The hour marks the return of original cast member Marg Helgenberger, last seen in Season Twelve. Helgenberger participated in one day of filming for scenes that will be used in “flashbacks.” “There’s a lot of cool Easter eggs from the show’s history,” the source continues. And while William Petersen will not make a cameo in the hour, “his presence is definitely felt by the end of the hour.” Just don’t expect that presence to be some inkling of a GSR reunion: “Sara’s struggles we will touch base with, but we’re not sure where that’s going to go. Hopefully that will come to a satisfying resolution, but she’s still struggling.”
Fans of Nick Stokes, however, will not see the character for at least six to seven episodes. After appearing in the first three installments the character will head to Quantico where he will receive special training. Though a firm return date is not yet known, sources say that fans of the actor and character can look forward to him returning by “Episode Nine or Ten.”
Eric Szmanda‘s Greg Sanders will find himself in some serious legal trouble in Season Fourteen. In “Under the Cloud,” written by co-executive producers Elizabeth Devine and Richard Catalani, Greg gets accused of tampering with evidence. “It’s a new case that we’re referring back to as an early one from his career,” a source reveals, adding “It fits the theme of looking back.” In further detail: “Just the accusation of that can be dangerous so it’s a question of how will he be exonerated from that; obviously Greg would never do such a thing.” Robert David Hall will also have an episode that spotlights Doc Robbins. “Doc Robbins is called in to consult on a case out of state. The coroner in the town calls it a suicide, and the family does not believe that. He is at the center of that investigation.”
Though it was previously reported that Jaclyn Smith would appear again as Hodges’ (Wallace Langham) mother, that is not the case. “In Episode Four Hodges and Elisabetta are planning the wedding,” a source says, also noting the criticism by fans towards the personal storyline. “We have to continually surprise and satisfy the audience. Everyone thinks they want the same meal but they really don’t.” Finally, adding “We’re going back to elements that people sometimes forget about.”
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Make all the characters miserable–and make fans just as miserable. No longer do any of these characters seem to love the job–they are sad, frustrated, why do they stay? Am I supposed to be thrilled about a Sara-centric episode? Not if it gives us a mopey, miserable, woe-is-me Sara! The show was much better when it was about crime scenes instead of personal disasters. And now I’m thinking George Eads probably won’t be back.
So for Brass it’s what, one and done?
“everyone thinks they want the same thing but they don’t”…..really?? Fans have kept watching the show because it’s been mostly the same thing, now your going to tell fans that they are wrong and they want the show to be changed? B.S.