I'm not gonna lie. After the trainwreck of a season premier, I had visions and nightmares of my favorite series circling the drain....but then this episode aired. "Pool Shark" felt like a blast from seasons past, and it reminded me of all the reasons I love the show and why CSI has been so successful.
The premise was not new - murder at a casino, and Catherine takes point on the investigation, her knowledge of her father's world and business again becoming an asset and leverage. The mystery unravels in vintage CSI style, with a few newer elements thrown in as well. Drops is back for a visit, and heads right back through the revolving door of prison. This time I actually felt kinda sad for the guy. Wendy says a tearful goodbye to Hodges, which felt sad but a little overplayed. On one hand, the moping in the corner, starting to drown Henry suited Hodges' flair for melodrama, but it came off as insincere somehow. Anyway, Wendy's gone and will be missed.
What else was right with this episode, you ask? Notice how I haven't mentioned Langston yet? I have nothing specific against Langston, but I personally feel he's a horrible fit for the series, and - on the whole - the more prominent he is in an episode, the less I tend to enjoy it. He and Doc Robbins did the autopsy, which fit given his prior job, and I tend to like the dialogue between those two. Otherwise, he was mostly uninvolved, as was the (I shudder to recall) Bomb Twinkie from the last episode who I feared might become a lingering presence.
Only other comment I have is that I love the Catherine/Vartaan relationship; the producers said that this would be Catherine's last season, and that she would develop a love interest. I really want it to be Vartaan. One of the suspects in this episode, a casino-owner and acquaintance of her father, looks at Catherine with what I really hope is fatherly admiration. If this is supposed to be the start of something between those two, I'm gonna be sad.
The premise was not new - murder at a casino, and Catherine takes point on the investigation, her knowledge of her father's world and business again becoming an asset and leverage. The mystery unravels in vintage CSI style, with a few newer elements thrown in as well. Drops is back for a visit, and heads right back through the revolving door of prison. This time I actually felt kinda sad for the guy. Wendy says a tearful goodbye to Hodges, which felt sad but a little overplayed. On one hand, the moping in the corner, starting to drown Henry suited Hodges' flair for melodrama, but it came off as insincere somehow. Anyway, Wendy's gone and will be missed.
What else was right with this episode, you ask? Notice how I haven't mentioned Langston yet? I have nothing specific against Langston, but I personally feel he's a horrible fit for the series, and - on the whole - the more prominent he is in an episode, the less I tend to enjoy it. He and Doc Robbins did the autopsy, which fit given his prior job, and I tend to like the dialogue between those two. Otherwise, he was mostly uninvolved, as was the (I shudder to recall) Bomb Twinkie from the last episode who I feared might become a lingering presence.
Only other comment I have is that I love the Catherine/Vartaan relationship; the producers said that this would be Catherine's last season, and that she would develop a love interest. I really want it to be Vartaan. One of the suspects in this episode, a casino-owner and acquaintance of her father, looks at Catherine with what I really hope is fatherly admiration. If this is supposed to be the start of something between those two, I'm gonna be sad.