"Laurence" Fishburne-Dud or Dude?

there's only one snooki

I just saw LF in the one-man play Thurgood (Marshall) - really fine performance, both entertaining and educational

Here's hoping he'll be good on CSI.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, December 2, 2008 9:07 PM (5 years ago)

i've been watching csi all the way through, mostly just for research and to have something to watch, it's kind of not that good, but it has some small tv craft to it and it gradually gets more watchable several seasons in - and once william petersen (who was doing quite well with pretty mediocre writing) leaves and they slot fishburne in, there's like this real step up in quality! which is weird for a tv show. his presence is just different, he has more of a touch. and after his 'hannibal' role it's noticeable that he's actually in character as the doctor-professor-newbie csi, kind of reserved, modest, waiting for other people to take the lead so he can learn from them. even in the way he listens to witnesses, his reaction shots etc.

i don't know if they changed staff or made some different production decisions - seems like there's a lot less of the blatant soundtracked-lab-montage filler than there had been - but there's definitely a shift in the tone/perspective because fishburne's character replaces petersen's, but not as the new head of the lab, so suddenly the focal character's status as focal is more tangible since most of the other stuff is only adjusted slightly to make up for grissom's departure. i wonder how often that happens in long-running tv production.

he's been great on hannibal!