Friday, May 20, 2005
CSI Tarantion Style
Last night was the season ending episode of C.S.I. I actually watched it live, something I almost never do with network television. I also have watched only a couple of C.S.I. episodes this season. I still watch every episode but this is the first causality in my cutting back in watching television when I have the ability to watch an entire season on dvd over the summer.
The finale was directed by and story by Quentin Tarantino. While his early forays into television have been a mixed bag, his ER directed episode seemed forced and his appearance on Margaret Cho’s old show as embarrassing, I though this might actually work. His style of interesting camera movements, lots of blood, and intense violence seemed tailor made for the show. Even the pop reference wouldn’t seem out of place with the relatively geeky characters that populate the show.
Well not only was I not disappointed but it exceeded expectations. This is about as intense a since episode of a network television show can get. Nick Stokes was kidnapped and buried alive in a coffin with a finite amount of oxygen. The criminal provided the C.S.I. team with a video link that they could watch Nick suffer. The race against time had the same feel that Silence of the Lambs had in it race against the clock construct. The show also tapped into a couple of primal fears for the audience members. The Closter phobia of being buried alive is a classic but then add to that of fire ants crawling all over you and not being able to get them off and that took things to the next level.
Only one Tarantino touch didn’t quite work, that was Nick’s dream sequence after his death. But the pop culture references were very nice. I enjoyed the Dukes of Hazzards game but Grissom’s having a honorary ownership of Trigger was a classic. He has to be the biggest grown up geeky character in television history.
I think even fans of the show would enjoy this as a one-off episode and it is well worth looking for in repeats or on DVD.
The finale was directed by and story by Quentin Tarantino. While his early forays into television have been a mixed bag, his ER directed episode seemed forced and his appearance on Margaret Cho’s old show as embarrassing, I though this might actually work. His style of interesting camera movements, lots of blood, and intense violence seemed tailor made for the show. Even the pop reference wouldn’t seem out of place with the relatively geeky characters that populate the show.
Well not only was I not disappointed but it exceeded expectations. This is about as intense a since episode of a network television show can get. Nick Stokes was kidnapped and buried alive in a coffin with a finite amount of oxygen. The criminal provided the C.S.I. team with a video link that they could watch Nick suffer. The race against time had the same feel that Silence of the Lambs had in it race against the clock construct. The show also tapped into a couple of primal fears for the audience members. The Closter phobia of being buried alive is a classic but then add to that of fire ants crawling all over you and not being able to get them off and that took things to the next level.
Only one Tarantino touch didn’t quite work, that was Nick’s dream sequence after his death. But the pop culture references were very nice. I enjoyed the Dukes of Hazzards game but Grissom’s having a honorary ownership of Trigger was a classic. He has to be the biggest grown up geeky character in television history.
I think even fans of the show would enjoy this as a one-off episode and it is well worth looking for in repeats or on DVD.
# posted by ChrisR @ 2:15 PM 
