New CSI: The Lighter Side of Violent Crime?

Wait till I get ’em with the old rubber snakes-in-the-cadaver gag
So this bartender walks into a crime lab…still working on the punchline there. Maybe Ted Danson will be able to help me out a bit.

CSI showed up to the Television Critics Association press tour with producers and the “new Grissom” in tow. The show’s producers were quick to point out that this upcoming season will be much lighter in tone, which is a complete 180 from the darker serial killer story arc of last season.

What angers me most about this news is that producers, when talking about previous seasons, said they “wanted a Sherlock Holmes, not a science nerd,” so of course their answer to that is an intellectual that was born to hippies, played by the same guy who once served Fraiser his wine…wait maybe they have something there. In fact, when asked about the transition from Cheers to dramatic roles, Danson responded, “Trying to hold together a crazy group of people, whether they are crazy-bright or crazy-silly, is something that I respond to.”

I’m hesitant about this season.  I have no problem with heroic “nerds.” I mean, why is it bad to be smart? Is it because the only way these producers can see an intellectual as a sympathetic protagonist is by making him/her crack wise? Do they even know their demographic at this point?

For even more about the funny man/scientist visit Deadline.

Comments

  1. Laura K. Curtis

    I hate this casting. Hate it. I don’t mind if they want to get out of serial killer mode–that’s not really CSI territory–but where on earth did they get the idea the audience wants them to “lighten up” the show? Every once in a while, they’ll do a comedic episode and they’re always bad. *sigh*

  2. Christopher Morgan

    I’m still trying to figure out how Sherlock isn’t the sterotypical nerd. I mean he is a socially awkward, quasi-homebody that is smarter than everyone around him and has no problem letting people know when they are being silly or stupid. Unless of course they want the comedic, questionably sober, Guy Richie Holmes, but if that’s the case do they really expect Ted Danson to have the same screen presence as Robert Downey Jr.?

  3. frogprof

    Danson played a scary-mean guy in “Damages” — and did it well — so I know he can do drama. Doesn’t mean he should do it in CSI, and I’m not happy with the casting choice. I actually preferred Langston to Grissom (Grissom’s wariness about emotions, and his creepy collections — dolls’ houses, bugs, fetal pigs — [b]always[/b] got under my skin. Not as much as does Horatio Cain, but that’s a whole other ball of wax), and I’ll watch Danson until I can’t stand it anymore … but it’ll be like eating Brussels sprouts for the first time: nose held, a grimace on my face, and a quick gulp of water to wash away the nastiness.

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