elmyraemilie (elmyraemilie) wrote in csi_lv_slash, @ 2008-05-08 22:10:00 |
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Current mood: | confused |
8X16--Two and a Half Deaths
It's two! two! Two eps in one!
1. Wow. Just. I. Hunh?
2. Drama writers seem to be better at being funny than comedy writers are at writing procedural plots. I watched Two and a Half Men on Monday, and while that's the first time I've seen that show, I thought it was pretty funny. (Not that I'd watch it again.) I'm just going to leave aside the plot of this episode except where it intrudes on the humor, satire and self-reference. Those were the best parts tonight.
3. A protracted lead-in establishes in no uncertain terms that Annabelle is a petty, mean-spirited, domineering, self-centered, bullying bitch whose main social skills are humiliation and oneupsmanship. All of this sets up a long series of "we the poor underpaid abused writers/directors/producers/lackeys" jokes that were funny only because they appeared to be tongue-in-cheek. First really funny line? SuperDave gets it--he actually prompts Grissom into the tag line with some well-worn puns of his own.
4. When the "EXTRA" show came on after the commercials, I actually groaned, thinking it was yet another ad. They got me.
5. The "sex scenes" with Annabelle using the rubber chicken to beat the shit out of her main squeeze Bud was, well, funny. Twisty, but funny. But the next really good line went to the studio exec, Stuart Littel (ahem), a bright bulb who, after watching Mandy at work for a while, says, "Beautiful people using advanced technology to solve crimes. There might be a series in that." Nick chivvies him along. Mandy's lovely, yes, but as far as I'm concerned, Littel should have had that thought while following Nick down that hall--now *that's* a beautiful view.
6. Gil gets another good one: When Doc talks about the rubber chicken found in the vic's mouth, Gil says, "It might have been a gag." Petersen pulls that one off beautifully, all its layers intact.
7. Where Gil sees a hermaphrodite on roller skates, Catherine sees a puppy. Hmmmm. Was that sexist? A blonde joke? I'm just not sure.
8. And then we're in Hollywood. WTF? But stand-in Natalie has died on the set of Annabelle's show, shooting the final episode, so of course Gil and Jim go to the scene of the crime. This is the best part of the whole ep: Jim thinks Annabelle's show jumped the shark when she won the Ferrari in a radio contest. Gil ponders for a moment and then asks, "What does that mean, 'jump the shark'?"
8a. Bets that Detective Whoever That Was on the LA set will be the Sara-replacement next season?
9. Proving that they're used to writing 22 minutes, not 45, the writers die in the second half. Clunky dialogue (even my man Billy could not parse out that line about the boyfriend, the two murders and the Emmy so it made any sense), lame gags ("a mime is a terrible thing to waste" was not funny) and more shots of the on-screen writers shooting one-liners at each other. Meh.
10. It was nice to see Henry again, and he does get a good line with "failure to coagulate."
11. The best part of the last half was the monologue by Megan, the supporting actress in the series. She takes care of the wrap-up and then some--doing an OJ, "speculating" on how a person such as herself might have committed the crimes. Gil and Jim play the rapt audience.
12. It was a goofy episode. The thing I enjoyed about it--and it was not unenjoyable, just not CSI--was the commentary on writing and acting and producing TV series. The cast seemed a little bemused by the whole thing, but generally gave as good as they got when it came to timing out the jokes. When Grissom says, "Oh, this is an Emmy?" that's funny. The jumping the shark bit, when Jim says, "The Fonz. The Fonz!" in reply to Gil's inquiry for meaning, that's funny. The female star with fake boobs, a fake butt and no uterus--that's not exactly funny, but it's certainly telling. The original "murder" turns out to be a ridiculous accident caused by a character resembling the Tin Man, who, if you recall your Oz, had no heart. I wonder if that was self-commentary, too, or just a little Freudian slip.
And next week, the last new ep of the season, and the last--very last, by the look of it--episode for Warrick. I now wonder how long the producers have known Gary Dourdan was leaving.