RogerBW's Blog

2015 crime, series finale; in a double-length episode, most of the original cast of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation return for one last case. Someone is sending suicide bombers into Las Vegas; can that someone really be Lady Heather? No, of course not.

Most of the cast came back, but not the one actor who had actually stuck with it continuously from the beginning, George Eads as Nick Stokes; he announced towards the end of the last full season that he'd be leaving the show, and for whatever reason didn't join what's otherwise largely a reunion of the team from the first few seasons, at least those whose characters haven't been killed off.

The characters who've hung around into the later seasons are here too: Ted Danson as D.B. Russell, mostly, but with two other principals absent (Elisabeth Shue's Julie Finlay is mentioned in passing) it's clearly the originals' show, with support characters being supportive.

The case itself, even more than usual, is clearly set up to allow for a nostalgia trip: we have the Magic School Bus Cam (used mostly in the early seasons) showing physiological effects of a poison, we have mildly unusual sexual tastes held up and laughed at, we have quips over evidence collection, and of course there's Lady Heather (Melinda Clarke). For a change there's rather less of the beautiful young women getting brutally murdered that the show's often descended to when trying to boost ratings.

William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger do their things, and do them well, showing why the show became popular in the first place. Jorja Fox carries most of the emotional weight, and almost pulls it off. This is more nostalgia than wrap-up; while there is some emotional closure for some of the characters, most of their stories are just carrying on into the un-televised future.

This is obviously not a place to start with the show, but for someone who's been watching it on and off since the early days it's a reasonably satisfying conclusion.