S03.E10: Tunnel Vision

[Snazzy Daisy]

SERIES FINALE:

Quote

After an explosion in a bio lab, the CSI team races to determine which nerve agent left one of their own unconscious, while the others explore a dangerous underground tunnel to find another CSI who got kidnapped during the blast.

Air Date: May 19, 2024

 

Ariana Guerra and Marg Helgenberger on the set of the series finale.

[slowpoked]

8 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

Ariana Guerra and Marg Helgenberger on the set of the series finale.

It’s kinda sad thinking the cast didn’t know at the time they’re shooting what would be the series finale.

I know she’s a vet, so she knows these things happen, but probably new territory for Marg too, who was able to say goodbye to CSI on her own terms, come back again, left again, and did the TV finale.

[Attatude]

On 5/17/2024 at 5:55 AM, slowpoked said:

It’s kinda sad thinking the cast didn’t know at the time they’re shooting what would be the series finale.

I know she’s a vet, so she knows these things happen, but probably new territory for Marg too, who was able to say goodbye to CSI on her own terms, come back again, left again, and did the TV finale.

I think so too. Next week ends on a cliffhanger so we will never have a resolution either.  There aren’t many fans on this site.  I’m going to miss the show.

[Bookworm13]

3 minutes ago, Attatude said:

I think so too. Next week ends on a cliffhanger so we will never have a resolution either.  There aren’t many fans on this site.  I’m going to miss the show.

The finale is tonight. 

[Bookworm13]

Wow, that actually wrapped up nicely. I’ll post more thoughts tomorrow when I can keep my eyes open, but I’m glad we weren’t left with a major cliffhanger as I’d seen reported earlier. 

[NeenerNeener]

What a waste of Owain Yeoman. But even five minutes on screen is better than no work, I guess.

I'm going to miss this show, but it must have been expensive to make. There's a fairly big list of executive producers:

Ann Donahue

Carol Mendelsohn

William Petersen

Jerry Bruckheimer

Steven E. Blume

Cynthia Chvatal

Jonathan Littman

KristieAnne Reed

Anthony E. Zuiker

Craig S. O'Neil

And lower level "producers":

Brad Tanenbaum, Tom Szentgyorgyi, Alex Berry, Christopher J. Connolly, and Safia M. Dirie.

That's a lot of people who have to get paid besides the cast, crew and special effects folks. So even though the ratings are good the cost/benefit ratio may not be.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Overall, it’s an underwhelming series finale.

It’s a decent twist that Truman is actually innocent. But the big baddie (Mr. Gray Suit) has been introduced quite late into the game, out of nowhere.

The writers have to resort to heavy info dump, especially via Catherine’s character.

“The bureau has been warning us for years that foreign governments are infiltrating U.S. companies and stealing tech.”

Bla bla bla. It’s ineffective storytelling. Owain Yeoman is truly wasted on this arc.

The Penny/Jack stuff is a waste of screen time and Sonya’s return is pointless. We don’t actually need the Nikolayevich siblings in this episode.

The final scene that teases a new killer preying on the unhoused has been edited out. Good call! 👍🏻

[milkyaqua]

21 minutes ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

The Penny/Jack stuff is a waste of screen time and Sonya’s return is pointless. We don’t actually need the Nikolayevich siblings in this episode.

The final scene that teases a new killer preying on the unhoused has been edited out. Good call! 👍🏻

Definitely agree with the first part.  I'd have rather had the other doctor and Penny focusing on her job.  Didn't know anything about the new killer tease.

Owain Yeoman was wasted but at least he got a paycheck.

I'll miss the show as well even though I suspect that the things that annoy some of us would have continued if the show had survived.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Got to admit that even as a season finale that was disappointing -- glad that it didn't end on a cliffhanger.

The season long arc just did not pay off -- it was just made more confusing by the last minute introduction of a new guy (who didn't even get a name -- just gray suit) that has never been seen all season who was apparently the big bad all along and we have no real explanation why.

I'm still not sure exactly why this new guy (gray suit) was forcing Maxine to create synthetic DNA.

One week later (where are the mice from the movie 'Babe' when you need them).

Ocho gets sent packing.

Folsom gets his Level 3 back -- nobody cares.  

Chavez gets all upset because she sees Folsom and Allie talking in the hallway.  Chavez needs to get over herself.

Penny proposes to Jack -- also, nobody cares.

Chris wakes up but ends the episode still in the hospital.

Maxine has dinner plans with Dean -- I'm drawing a blank, who's Dean ?

Catherine just says good night to Chavez and walks off.

Beau doesn't even get mentioned because they spent too much time on Penny and Jack.

Edited May 20 by ottoDbusdriver

[illdoc]

57 minutes ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

final scene that teases a new killer preying on the unhoused has been edited out. Good call! 👍🏻

For those who might wonder what that ^ was about: https://tvline.com/interviews/csi-vegas-series-finale-ending-explained-cliffhangers-cancelled-season-4-1235235888/

[Snazzy Daisy]

35 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Beau doesn't even get mentioned because they spent too much time on Penny and Jack.

Beau only got this... 😥

[slowpoked]

It’s an underwhelming unplanned series finale for sure. The arc wasn’t built up properly, for us to care that it wasn’t Truman after all, but some bad foreign guy. Catherine was wasted in this season, and I can’t believe she was ok working as a CSI staff, after being very conscious of her position, title and responsibilities in the original iteration. Don’t buy that Josh suddenly has it in him to start yelling and kicking about how he feels helpless saving Max. Don’t care about Josh and Allie ever. 

2 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

I'm still not sure exactly why this new guy (gray suit) was forcing Maxine to create synthetic DNA.

Max bluffed that their synthetic DNA was full of errors and that’s why she was able to easily trace it back to them. Max bargained that she can create them the perfect synthetic DNA if they keep her alive.

2 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Maxine has dinner plans with Dean -- I'm drawing a blank, who's Dean ?

No one. For a moment there I thought it was the temp ME. But I don’t think that’s his name.

2 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Chavez gets all upset because she sees Folsom and Allie talking in the hallway.  Chavez needs to get over herself.

I don’t think she’s upset, but more like finally resigning to the fact that there was never anything between them anyway. Doesn’t make sense she would be upset considering she won’t even make nice with Josh after he tried to fix things with her in a proper breakup way, not getting back together.

[Silver-hyren]

6 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

The season long arc just did not pay off -- it was just made more confusing by the last minute introduction of a new guy (who didn't even get a name -- just gray suit) that has never been seen all season who was apparently the big bad all along and we have no real explanation why.
 

I think this is what made "Vegas" so weak - too much emphasis on story arcs.  The cases of the week were half baked and uninteresting because they needed to be rushed through in order to cram in scenes to advance the overarching story.  I watched CSI classic to see how the team solved contained mysteries, not unravel globe-spanning nonsensical conspiracies.

[slowpoked]

22 minutes ago, Silver-hyren said:

I think this is what made "Vegas" so weak - too much emphasis on story arcs.  The cases of the week were half baked and uninteresting because they needed to be rushed through in order to cram in scenes to advance the overarching story.  I watched CSI classic to see how the team solved contained mysteries, not unravel globe-spanning nonsensical conspiracies.

The writing on original CSI is just far superior. They made compelling cases in a single episode. Some of the ones that stood out were Gum Drops, Still Life, Bloodlines, Say Uncle. And there’s a lot more. The thing about arcs is you really have to be consistent about it, commit to it, or else it would come out silly if the threads don’t connect.

[Bookworm13]

Back with more thoughts. I thought this was a pretty average episode for this show. Had I not known it was a season/series finale, I’d have just assumed it was a regular episode and for me, that speaks volumes for how poor the writing is. 
 

Having Owain Yeoman just be a nobody pawn in the end seemed out of left field. 
 

Liked Beau/Catherine working together for once instead of constantly bickering. 
 

Didn’t care about the sibling ME’s. If there was ever an explanation for why this show had had 4 different ME’s, I missed it. 
 

So confused by Penny saying they weren’t engaged since they hadn’t picked a date yet. WTF does that even mean? I’ve known quite a few couples who didn’t start wedding planning as soon as they got engaged. 
 

I wouldn’t be mad if Max and/or Serena happened to show up on the new CSI coming, depending on where it’s based. 
 

Who was Max shipping Ocho to at the end? I figured they’d dismantle/destroy him. 

[illdoc]

53 minutes ago, Bookworm13 said:

Who was Max shipping Ocho to at the end?

I think he was just being crated up and moved to evidence storage.

[Ceindreadh]

3 hours ago, Bookworm13 said:

I wouldn’t be mad if Max and/or Serena happened to show up on the new CSI coming, depending on where it’s based. 

 

I would definitely like Max and Serena to be there.  They can bring Chris and Beau with them too!

 

I would have felt a lot more sympathy for Folsom's little tantrum when he realised they'd just missed out on finding Max in the underground lab, if he hadn't just wasted god knows how much time on processing the truck with the dead body in it.  I mean, if you're tracking somebody, you don't just stop because you've found some shiny new evidence to play with.   If he'd left Ally there to do the processing and he'd continued on down the tunnel, he might have actually been in time.

[milkyaqua]

On 5/20/2024 at 12:04 PM, slowpoked said:

I don’t think she’s upset, but more like finally resigning to the fact that there was never anything between them anyway. Doesn’t make sense she would be upset considering she won’t even make nice with Josh after he tried to fix things with her in a proper breakup way, not getting back together.

I agree with this.  Serena was lucky to have dodged that bullet.  Why TPTB thought that Josh and Allie were that compelling was beyond me.

I wouldn't mind Max, Beau, Serena and Chris popping up on the new version.  And yes, what was up with all the medical examiners.  The twins can sail off to oblivion and take Penny with them.

Edited May 22 by milkyaqua

[Bookworm13]

On 5/21/2024 at 3:44 PM, illdoc said:

I think he was just being crated up and moved to evidence storage.

That makes sense. I thought I saw an address label on the box, but it was probably just a general label. 

 

On 5/21/2024 at 6:23 PM, Ceindreadh said:

I would definitely like Max and Serena to be there.  They can bring Chris and Beau with them too!

Yes, Beau and Chris would be good too! 

[Poohpoohpooh]

On 5/20/2024 at 7:54 AM, NeenerNeener said:

What a waste of Owain Yeoman. But even five minutes on screen is better than no work, I guess.

I'm going to miss this show, but it must have been expensive to make. There's a fairly big list of executive producers:

Ann Donahue

Carol Mendelsohn

William Petersen

Jerry Bruckheimer

Steven E. Blume

Cynthia Chvatal

Jonathan Littman

KristieAnne Reed

Anthony E. Zuiker

Craig S. O'Neil

And lower level "producers":

Brad Tanenbaum, Tom Szentgyorgyi, Alex Berry, Christopher J. Connolly, and Safia M. Dirie.

That's a lot of people who have to get paid besides the cast, crew and special effects folks. So even though the ratings are good the cost/benefit ratio may not be.

Wow, didn't know Petersen (Grissom actor) was still an exec producer in this final season. I bet if he wanted to act in "season 4", CBS would no doubt have given CSI:V a fourth 10-episode season. (Petersen is completely done with CSI-ing though).

Petersen and Mark Harmon are permanent A-list with CBS, because they led the network through the golden 2000's years when network TV was still " top of the pops".

[StarBrand]

Well, at least they had the good sense (unlike NCIS Hawaii) to edit out a cliffhanger. 

Paula Newsome held her own as the woman in charge. But the show's calling card was allowing us to see several original CSI characters again, whether that made any sense or not. If the show had simply put forth a new cast from the start, it would never have been burdened by its own history.  But I don't blame the actors. The writing kept failing to present compelling cases. How many can you remember from the original? How many can you recall from this version? There's no contest.

I'm sad to see it go, but it's definitely not a show of the highest calibre that never got its due..

[GiandujaPie]

Well it turned out to work as a series finale since I guess they edited out anything that would appear to be a cliffhanger. I know Penny and Jack were a little annoying but I'm glad they didn't go the route of Penny and Chris actually realizing they were in love when Chris finally wakes up from the nerve gas poisoning.