Series eight, episode 20: Backfire
A couple of weeks ago it was science fiction as Lt Horatio Caine and his team in the Miami-Dade Crime Scene Investigation unit probed a suspicious death connected to a space tourism flight.
Last night, we were taken into the realms of the supernatural.
Somehow, the CSIs are at a house blaze before the fire fighters (how did they know it was a crime scene?) and Calleigh Duquesne (Emily Procter) attempts to play the hero, trying to rescue a boy who, unfortunately, is already dead.
However, the boy is immediately a suspect due to some accelerant residue on his hands - much to the consternation of his ghost!
Long story short: it becomes apparent - Sixth Sense style - that Calleigh is on the ethereal plane too as she fights for life in hospital. Her ghostly wanderings with the victim's spirit help her to find a vital clue and the case is solved…
OK. I'll buy it. Entertaining and neatly done.
But, there are causes for concern with this show as it approaches the end of its eighth season.
There were things the audience used to be able to rely on: Horatio Caine (David Caruso) looking sideways at his interviewees and his dramatic donning and removal of his sunglasses and so on; CSIs investigating bloody crime scenes in their smartest clothes - no coveralls...
But what is really galling is the development with the theme tune and opening credits. The theme is The Who's blockbusting rocker Won't Get Fooled Again and in classic Miami it would always kick in with Roger Daltrey's scream of "Yeaaaaah!" at the end of the sequencer break, immediately after some pithy comment by Caine, such as: "In Miami, Mr Wolfe, we call it murder!"
But recently other characters have been uttering the final words of the prologue - often not very pithy at all. And this week, the sequencer break could be heard under the dialogue and there was some delay between the prologue's final words (not pithy) and Mr Daltrey's introduction.
Very disappointing.
