{"id":27962,"date":"2012-09-25T10:35:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T17:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/?p=27962"},"modified":"2012-10-02T14:43:04","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T21:43:04","slug":"advance-review-csi-crime-scene-investigation-karma-to-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/2012\/09\/advance-review-csi-crime-scene-investigation-karma-to-burn\/","title":{"rendered":"Advance Review: ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’ — ‘Karma to Burn’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Saunders<\/strong> reviews the Season Thirteen premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation<\/em>, “Karma to Burn.”<\/a> Read Rachel Trongo<\/strong>\u2019s take later in the week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A refresher for those who have completely forgotten how Season Twelve ended: In “Homecoming,”<\/a> the CSI team\u00a0reacquainted\u00a0themselves with corrupt former undersheriff, Jeffrey McKeen, known to many as the sack of slime that killed Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan<\/strong>). After connecting him to a triple homicide and pursuing his son as a suspect, McKeen’s spawn is gunned down by Conrad Ecklie (Marc Vann<\/strong>) and in an act of retalliation, Ecklie is shot after reuniting with his daughter, Morgan Brody (Elisabeth Harnois<\/strong>) after attending a dinner with Hodges (Wallace Langham<\/strong>) and his mother, Olivia (Jaclyn Smith<\/strong>). Exhausted and unhappy with the direction of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, Nick Stokes (George Eads<\/strong>) informs two of his colleagues that he’s ‘out’; walking out on the lab he’s called home for over a decade. Unwinding at a bar with her new bedfellow Detective Moreno (Enrique Murciano<\/strong>), the newest member of the CSI team, Julie Finlay (Elisabeth Shue<\/strong>), is approached by Moreno’s partner, Michael Crenshaw (Billy Magnussen<\/strong>), a seemingly sinister detective who by all means should be a supermodel instead of patrolling Vice. As the finale’s montage reached its conclusion, DB Russell (Ted Danson<\/strong>)’s home was invaded, his ice cream loving granddaughter Kaitlyn kidnapped by McKeen’s people, and left with a note with the word “Karma” etched onto it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
"Karma To Burn"-- Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox, left) and D.B. Russell (Ted Danson) make some sort of discovery at the crime scene, on the 13th season premiere of CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, Wednesday, Sept. 26 (9:00\/10:00 PM, ET\/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Monty Brinton\/CBS \u00a92012 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Season Thirteen literally picks up the second “Homecoming” left off: with Finlay in the bathroom, washing her face, and interrupted by a text message from Sara (Jorja Fox<\/strong>) alerting her that mass chaos is errupting; the Russell home in disarray; and Ecklie in critical condition. Stokes is nowhere to be found during the opening teaser, and when\u00a0he finally does enter the picture, viewers will be surprised with the action he’s taken to cope with the recent hurdles he’s been a part of. But, for the most part, Nick’s future at CSI is not a huge factor; in fact, the two important issues at hand here–Ecklie’s fate being the other–really don’t get much bang for their buck. While there’s some interesting moments for Nick and Sara, and Brass (Paul Guilfoyle<\/strong>) getting to sink his teeth into an issue that’s long bothered me (CSI’s going rogue and acting as cops is something that’s really been a weakness in the past few seasons; less door-busting and more print dusting is really what this show should focus on), much of the season’s first hour is spent on Russell and Finlay as they attempt to resolve their own personal differences (which, predicated by the last scene, are finally resolved one way or another) and the case of Russell’s missing granddaughter, a topic the show acknowledges as a conflict of interest, but a matter they let pass.<\/p>\n

At this point in the show’s run, it is absolutely certain that some storylines will be repeated albeit with their own creative twist. Over the past twelve seasons, a myriad of established characters have been abducted: Catherine in “The Finger,”<\/a> Nick in “Grave Danger,”<\/a> Lindsey Willows in “Built to Kill, Part Two,”<\/a> Sara in “Living Doll”<\/a>\/“Dead Doll,”<\/a> Gloria Parkes in “In A Dark, Dark House,”<\/a> Morgan in “CSI Down.”<\/a> This time around, it’s another member of a CSI’s family, one we know very little about beside the fact that she adores ice cream and loves a bedtime story. While there’s really nothing new or different in regards to the resolution of that plot, there is some payoff in terms of seeing an entirely new side of leader DB Russell. Danson has proven himself to be a jolt of caffeine in CSI’s leg, and continues to be a great addition to the show’s cast. After a first season as the “zen master,” Russell’s persona enters a whole new light due to the events from the finale and the proceeding arc told here. No longer calm and cool, and certainly not in the mood for zen, Russell’s worries and emotions are unleashed, resulting in two great scenes between DB, Sara, and Nick.<\/p>\n

Fans will see Sara as the voice of reason for a few characters this hour, which is definitely a highlight. Sara’s had a tangled history of personal and professional demons, and after learning from her mistakes and maturing, she’s able to speak wisdom to those going through similar issues. As a bonus treat her husband, the one and only Gil Grissom (William Petersen<\/strong>) who is out there, somewhere, doing something, is mentioned in a manner that fans of their relationship will enjoy. It’s a nice spot of continuity from a classic CSI<\/em> moment.<\/p>\n

This is a very pivotal year for CSI and will be a season that determine’s the future of the show. Some contracts are up after this season, the franchise is slowly going towards the big TV light in the sky, and the numbers are starting to dwindle. Going forward it would be nice to see more of cohesive team episodes as well as bringing many of the show’s original characters back to the forefront. An issue for the last couple episodes of Season Twelve, one of the show’s strongest seasons in recent memory, is that CBS is pushing Shue’s Julie Finlay character in a way they did with Laurence Fishburne<\/strong>‘s Ray Langston, and we all know how that ended. Easing off the family drama (which will continue this season), settling on a consistent tone for Finn (Shue is great, but this character has more personalities than Toni Collete<\/strong> in United States of Tara<\/em>) and getting back to forensic stories (remember the investigation montages from earlier years? Please bring those back; the ALS would like to come out of retirement) would work wonders on a show that regained some creative traction last season, but has a few quirks still to figure out.<\/p>\n

“Karma to Burn” premieres tomorrow, September 26, on CBS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shane Saunders reviews the Season Thirteen premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, “Karma to Burn.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2906,2919],"tags":[3089,2910,2932,3113],"class_list":["post-27962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-csi-lv","category-reviews","tag-danson","tag-eads","tag-fox","tag-shue"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","newsphere-slider-full":"","newsphere-featured":"","newsphere-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"Shane Saunders","author_link":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/author\/shane\/"},"category_info":"CSI<\/a> Reviews<\/a>","tag_info":"Reviews","comment_count":"16","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27962"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28367,"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27962\/revisions\/28367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csifiles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}