Jorja on My Mind: CBS Bungles Sara Sidle's CSI Exit

When I finally sat down to watch an advance copy of tonight's CSI showing the exit of fan protest magnet Jorja Fox, I couldn't help thinking of Devon Pierce.

If you're a regular blog reader, you know I wrote about Pierce weeks ago, outlining her efforts from a room in her father's Dunedin hearing aid clinic to run a massive fan effort aimed at convincing CSI producers to keep Fox's Sara Sidle character on the show.

Now, her friendship with CSI's writers have led Pierce to turn her prodigious talents to supporting the Writer's Guild of America in their strike. Fans organized through her site have sent food to picketers, flown planes overhead with supportive banners and encouraged fans to join writers on the picket line at Universal studios in Los Angeles tomorrow.

Despite all the fan furor, Fox and CSI producers eventually admitted that Sidle would be written out of the show, and tonight's episode is her last. And even though I've never liked the CSI franchise much, I made a point of watching this episode, convinced by fans like Devon to take another look at the series.

As you'll see in this review I wrote for today's paper, I found watching CSI episodes comparable to getting random pokes from a tiny acupuncture needle; jabs delivered every time something totally outlandish happens onscreen.

Which meant watching this week's episode went down like this: I see Fox’s Sara Sidle and another CSI tech are the first cops called to a crime scene by a nervous patrolman investigating a possible missing woman – no detectives or backup in sight. Jab!

After the abusive husband shows up and freaks out, the tech hanging with Sidle wonders “How are we going to handle this?...He’s obviously abusing her,” forgetting that, as a CSI tech, her job basically is to collect evidence. Poke!

Evidence in another murder leads to a 12-year-old forensics genius who attended Harvard and helped her brother beat a previous murder rap by manufacturing evidence. Stab!

It’s a tribute to the show’s feature film-level production values that such storytelling whoppers go down so easily. Tonight’s episode opens with a shot peeking inside several levels of a busy college dorm, rushing through a window to capture a girl plunging to her death in a fatal fall.

Since this is one of the most popular shows on TV, I know fans have already come to terms with the show’s biggest disconnect; that people who gather evidence at crime scenes are also shown interviewing suspects and solving crimes on their own. Like, um, detectives.

Still, as an occasional viewer, it feels odd watching Fox’s Sidle do so much: matching wits with her tween nemesis in a showdown which seems increasingly absurd, mostly because the characters take it so seriously. Drenched in shadow and creative camera angles, the visuals spark drama the text can’t match, especially when the villain seems better suited to a bit part on a Disney Channel comedy.

Considering that she recently survived a serial killer’s attack, we’re hardly surprised that an increasingly distant Sidle decides to walk away from the CSI unit to pull her life together.

Fans tried sending CBS everything from airplane banners to cash-filled envelopes to stop it. And the  actress’ departure is open-ended enough to allow a return – presuming the Hollywood writers’ strike and Fox’s problems with CBS are resolved – which may leave diehard supporters feeling a little victorious.

This casual viewer mostly felt disappointed. In the same way Sidle slips out of the CSI unit with little fanfare, producers eased Fox out of their rotation with an uninspired episode which most makes you happy this downer of a character is out the door.

I know I’m a newcomer to this party. But even I figure Sara deserved better. 

Comments

[LockBull]

Eric, I'm glad it's you and not me who has to sit through TV shows like that. My viewing habits are not the best, but my ability to suspend disbelief doesn't allow me to sit through prime time TV for more than 10 minutes. Every once in a while I can turn my logic off to watch a movie (the "Bourne Ultimatium" comes to mind) but it's hard.

[Brian Lupiani]

Like LockBull, I'm not going to say my taste in TV is anything to brag about. But I've never gotten the appeal of CSI. I've tried watching it a few times, partly to see what the fuss was about and partly to see Ms Fox and Ms Helgenberger (sp?). I couldn't make it through 10 minutes, because every time someone found any evidence they'd do a little speech describing what the evidence told them and how they knew it, like "this thread has a left-hand weave - a trademark of the Sarducci Fabric Company of Hoboken during the 1960s."

I guess whatever they said might be important for exposition but it seemed so ridiculous that they'd tell each other all this crap - and that no one else would give them a dope slap and say "I know that, smartass! I taught you that!"

Anyway, if they bring Ms Fox back to the show, maybe she could portray Sara Sidle's twin cousin, Susie Sashay.

Sorry.

[kweller]

With all due respect the whole point of watching a TV show is to turn off your own logical mind and enjoy the fact that you dont have to be logical. Sometimes to relax you have to shut down. Sara and Grissom romance is what keeps a lot of veiwers coming back each week. It is a night time soap opra, the romance keeps you hooked. A lot of peoople can relate to their situation,being involved with a co-work or wanting to get involved with one and holding yourself back in fear of how it would affect others. Not to mention they come up with a new way for someone to get killed each week. Taking Sara off just brakes up the flow of the show, they need to bring her back.