David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. Is Jorja Fox pulling a McLean Stevenson?
… or just a David Caruso?
Fox, of course, leaves “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” on her own volition in tonight’s episode, and her writers rather magnanimously allow her to go out a heroine. (Other actors’ departures were far more messy affairs: When George Dzundza opted out of “Law & Order,” legend has it, a call was put out for the fattest body double imaginable to serve as his character’s corpse to explain his departure; when Rick Schroeder jumped ship from “NYPD Blue,” his character was found wrapped in a cheap carpet in a garbage dump.)
But Fox, feeling the siren call of the creative muse, decided, as they say, to pursue “other opportunities.” And so tonight, fans bid adieu to Sara Sidle, but not before she breaks one last case.
Otherwise, it’s business as usual at “CSI:” Lurid, sexy murder; adorably imprecise understanding as to precisely how The Internets work (or, wildly convenient story turns); plot twists both unlikely and utterly predictable. Here, a scantily clad co-ed plummets from her eighth-story dorm room to her death; her boyfriend was exonerated for murder in the past, due to the machinations of his precociously brilliant but quite likely crazy younger sister.
Sex sex sex. Kill kill kill. TV episode TV episode TV episode. You know the drill.
Anyway, ours is not to wonder why. McLean Stevenson seemed a wonderfully lovable guy on “M*A*S*H,” but once he left that show, his career never recovered. David Caruso literally walked away from a similar career-defining role in “NYPD Blue;” he resurrected his profile only in a gig in which he invites (and participates in) self-parody.
Fox’s Sara scarcely popped as much as either of those characters. Maybe that means she’s not in danger of typecasting and has a creatively enriching career ahead of her; maybe it means no one will ever remember in the future. But weep not for Jorja Fox: “CSI’s” already in syndication, so even if she never lands another acting gig, she’s set for life.
- “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation:” 9 tonight, CBS (Channel 2).