Thanks to March Madness and other programming, there hadn’t been a new CSI episode in more than a month. Fortunately that changed last night as viewers were treated to “Empty Eyes”, which was episode number 7×18. I was a bit surprised to see a parental advisory disclaimer at the start and wondered what exactly was in store for us. Here’s what happened on the show.

The entire team is called upon to process a grisly crime scene were multiple murders were committed. The location was a house formerly occupied by six Vegas showgirls, all of whom were found bound and gagged, with their throats slit. Well, that was the reason for the parental advisory: they showed the horrible gashes and all the blood. Yuck.

Sara is in one of the rooms looking for evidence when she hears a noise under the bed. She goes to look and it turns out that one of the dancers is still alive — but barely. Sara immediately tries to find out what happened, but the girl can only give fragmentary answers that make no sense at the time.

Most of the episode deals with evidence collection rather than tracking down possible suspects because the team can’t find any leads to work with. Finally, they get a break when a man is attacked outside a bar in the same neighborhood as the victims’ house. The new victim has his throat cut in a similar (but non-fatal) fashion and a nearby knife turns out to be the same used on the previous victims.

But while Sara is processing the latest victim, she notices that his fingerprints are similar to the ones found all over the original crime scene: they were calloused and didn’t have distinct ridges. It’s then that she realizes this man is the killer. Brass gets a confession out of the guy, and that’s that.

My Reaction: I thought “Empty Eyes” started out well enough. It’s been a long time since CSI dealt with a mass murder scene like this, so it was good to see a different type of case come along. But the lack of suspects and suspect interviews ultimately made the show boring to watch. It wasn’t any fun not being able to make guesses as to who committed the crime, so I started losing interest towards the end.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some great scenes in last night’s show. For example, I really liked the way Warrick went back to his old neighborhood to personally tell that woman that her granddaughter was one of the victims. I also thought it was nice that the writers mentioned Greg’s civil lawsuit again — I always give extra points for continuity. But overall, the pacing of the episode was uneven and I have to say I didn’t like it very much.

Another original episode will air next week, so I hope CSI comes back with something better.

I used to watch ER back when it was part of NBC’s “Must-See TV” lineup on Thursday nights. I stopped watching back in Season 4 (or thereabouts), but couldn’t remember what made me stop. At any rate, I’ve of course heard bits and pieces of news about the show over the years, most of it having to do with the various comings and goings of the different cast members. For example, I heard that Eriq La Salle left, then I heard that Anthony Edwards’s character was killed off (at his request), and finally that Noah Wyle left.

I’ve always meant to go back and watch Season 8 to see what happened to Dr. Mark Greene, but couldn’t bring myself to watch all 22 eps. So finally, I decided to just watch the final eight installments of the season, thinking that those would be enough to bring me up to speed with what was going on with Dr. Greene.

As soon as I turned ER on again, I was hooked. I loved seeing all the familiar faces (Dr. Weaver, Dr. Lewis, Carter, Dr. Greene, Jerry, Dr. Romano, the nurses) along with plenty of new ones. The writing was excellent and the episodes were compelling. Then, I suddenly remembered why I stopped watching ER: it’s not because the show went downhill after so many years on the air. It’s because I can’t stand all the blood and gore! ER totally makes me feel so fragile and mortal, and I end up worrying about the various ailments and accidents that might befall me on any given day. No thanks.

Anyway, I was right about eight episodes being enough to bring me up to speed with Dr. Greene. 8×15 starts out with Mark in NY to receive another diagnosis from a specialist who informs him that his inoperable brain tumor is indeed back. From there, we see Mark first try various therapies and treatments, and then finally accept his fate. He decides that he doesn’t want to spend his limited time hooked up to machines and whatnot; he’d rather have two good months of real living instead of four months of agony.

So he goes to Hawaii with his daughter, and is later joined by Alex (his wife) and his other daughter. He shows Rachel where he grew up, teaches her to surf, and tries to give her some advice before he dies.

We first receive news of Mark’s actual death in episode 8×20, called “The Letter”, when Carter reads a faxed letter from Hawaii. My initial reaction was, “WTH? Dr. Greene dies off screen??? What kind of departure is that?” But then the next episode, called “The Beach,” showed what happens to Mark after he leaves the ER for the last time and tells Carter that he needs to set the tone now, and that’s when we see all the Hawaii stuff.

Let me tell you, those episodes were very well done, and I thought the writers actually did Anthony Edwards/Mark Greene some justice. It seems a little silly to say this, but it was incredibly sad to watch that great TV character slowly die. Even after not watching the show on a regular basis in more than a decade, I was still hugely affected by the stories I saw.

Man, I tell ya, if I could take the blood and guts, I’d definitely start renting more of these ER DVDs!