MickeyA weekly round up of sorts (spoilers for Spooks and CSI in the text)
Real life has ground my TV viewing to a halt this week, I'm a bit behind. Over the weekend I did manage to get past the season 7 premiere of Spooks and watch the second and third episodes. It was a hard, I'm a die hard Rupert Penry Jones fan. I knew his last episodes were coming but I didn't know he'd only shot the one for this season (I'm blissfully unspoiled now). After watching his noble death in the first episode, I wasn't sure there'd be anything to hold my attention to the show. But of course, the producers of Spooks know exactly what they have to do to keep fickle females like myself interested long enough to get sucked back into the action of the storylines: give us a good looking fella to perv on. The lovely Richard Armitage has joined the cast playing Lucas North, an MI-5 agent who has recently returned to England after being held prisoner in Russia for 8 years. I liked the dynamic between Lucas and Adam, but I realised too late that the reason there was so much pretty on my screen right now was because Adam was done for.
The following two episodes were great, fast paced, exciting and they kept me guessing all the way through which is what I've come to expect. I like the new sets, the Grid looks a lot better than it used to, I think something's been done with the costumes because the women seem to be much better dressed this season and Miranda Raison is lovely. I really hope that Jo gets some good storylines this year because she's now been assigned the role of my favourite character.
Right, that was Spooks, now let's talk CSI. Because you don't know me very well, here's an essential fact: I've always loved TV but I have never loved a show like CSI. Because of CSI I got on a plane, went on my first overseas trip and met a group of total strangers. When I look back at the last four years of my life, CSI has been the catalyst for so many things that have happened in my life, that it's hard to imagine not watching it. And yet, I feel it's getting there. Last year the season felt mediocre. Jorja Fox left and many of my fellow fans revolted. I love Jorja (and I've met her too), but I wasn't going to let that one departure, albeit a big departure stop me from watching my favourite show. But I found my attention dwindling. The storylines felt repeated, there were very few of the ground-breaking, exciting episodes that we had in the first four seasons. I think it's the way the TV world progresses especially in this case where the show follows a certain formula. The other thing is, that CSI made me a smarter TV viewer which means that half the time, they can't trick me, I see everything coming. For two seasons I tried avoiding spoilers seeing if not knowing what was coming made me a bit more shocked and excited about things as they happened. It worked for a while but I gave up last year. Spoilers were half the fun.
I heard about Gary Dourdan leaving and I knew that the end was near. But I tuned in for the premiere a couple of weeks ago and I cried like a baby and I thought maybe that was what I needed to keep me watching-- I couldn't get upset about Jorja leaving because Sara was alive and would clearly be back in the future, but with Warrick, well that was it. I had cared about him and that was it, no more.
When I was in Los Angeles last time, I was lucky enough to have a friend who worked on the show. He took me on set and we talked about what was to come. They were filming season 6 so it was just after the debacle with George Eads and Jorja Fox's contracts and pay. I asked my friend if he knew anything about other contracts and he said something along the lines of "most of them are signed to season nine." At the time I remember thinking that if Billy Petersen leaves in season nine, then the show is done for. It made me sad then, but now I know that Billy is leaving (at least as a full time cast member), I wonder how long the show has to go. There's a replacement coming in, that's the last I heard from the rumour mill, but I don't know that the die hard fans will keep watching without Grissom. I don't know if I can watch CSI without Grissom. But, that remains to be seen, and I'll keep watching for now.
I can't report on this week's episode because I missed the first five minutes and the rest failed to grab my attention. What did grab me were the previews for next week. Mystery video from Sara, the return of Lady Heather and Grissom making the sad face? Now that is the CSI I know and love.
Right, now I must go and watch this week's Gossip Girl.
xoxo (seems appropriate)
- Mickey
The following two episodes were great, fast paced, exciting and they kept me guessing all the way through which is what I've come to expect. I like the new sets, the Grid looks a lot better than it used to, I think something's been done with the costumes because the women seem to be much better dressed this season and Miranda Raison is lovely. I really hope that Jo gets some good storylines this year because she's now been assigned the role of my favourite character.
Right, that was Spooks, now let's talk CSI. Because you don't know me very well, here's an essential fact: I've always loved TV but I have never loved a show like CSI. Because of CSI I got on a plane, went on my first overseas trip and met a group of total strangers. When I look back at the last four years of my life, CSI has been the catalyst for so many things that have happened in my life, that it's hard to imagine not watching it. And yet, I feel it's getting there. Last year the season felt mediocre. Jorja Fox left and many of my fellow fans revolted. I love Jorja (and I've met her too), but I wasn't going to let that one departure, albeit a big departure stop me from watching my favourite show. But I found my attention dwindling. The storylines felt repeated, there were very few of the ground-breaking, exciting episodes that we had in the first four seasons. I think it's the way the TV world progresses especially in this case where the show follows a certain formula. The other thing is, that CSI made me a smarter TV viewer which means that half the time, they can't trick me, I see everything coming. For two seasons I tried avoiding spoilers seeing if not knowing what was coming made me a bit more shocked and excited about things as they happened. It worked for a while but I gave up last year. Spoilers were half the fun.
I heard about Gary Dourdan leaving and I knew that the end was near. But I tuned in for the premiere a couple of weeks ago and I cried like a baby and I thought maybe that was what I needed to keep me watching-- I couldn't get upset about Jorja leaving because Sara was alive and would clearly be back in the future, but with Warrick, well that was it. I had cared about him and that was it, no more.
When I was in Los Angeles last time, I was lucky enough to have a friend who worked on the show. He took me on set and we talked about what was to come. They were filming season 6 so it was just after the debacle with George Eads and Jorja Fox's contracts and pay. I asked my friend if he knew anything about other contracts and he said something along the lines of "most of them are signed to season nine." At the time I remember thinking that if Billy Petersen leaves in season nine, then the show is done for. It made me sad then, but now I know that Billy is leaving (at least as a full time cast member), I wonder how long the show has to go. There's a replacement coming in, that's the last I heard from the rumour mill, but I don't know that the die hard fans will keep watching without Grissom. I don't know if I can watch CSI without Grissom. But, that remains to be seen, and I'll keep watching for now.
I can't report on this week's episode because I missed the first five minutes and the rest failed to grab my attention. What did grab me were the previews for next week. Mystery video from Sara, the return of Lady Heather and Grissom making the sad face? Now that is the CSI I know and love.
Right, now I must go and watch this week's Gossip Girl.
xoxo (seems appropriate)
- Mickey
