CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

I felt so bad for this little girl. That she has to go through painful procedures because she was the perfect match for here brother who has cancer. The brother said no more making her give him bone marrow. HE made his parents promise that if he relapsed they wouldnt make her and they promised. But then his liver or kidneys were failing and they were going to make her donate. So they brother killed her and the whole family hid it so it would look like she was kidnapped. They also made it so they would think it was this child rapeist.

This episode was really good. It reminds me a shocking amount of the book “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult. The book is about a thirteen year old girl named Ana who was born into a family in which she had an older sister suffering from Leukemia. In the beginning of the book Ana goes to a lawyer on her quest for medical emancipation. She wants the ability to decide if she gives up her kidney to her sister Kate. She has an extraneous older sibling as well, a brother named Jess. I wonder if either story was an inspiration to the other, but I’m not sure. The book was tragic and it’s hard to read it without wanting to cry.

This episode truly did remind people why CSI was the number one show; it was packed with a lot of sorted themes and a lot of things that will keep any viewer thinking for a long time after they walk away. One of the finer episodes ever made.

It's also heartrending by the end. A family with one son who's been suffering with leukaemia, one daughter who's gone off the rails and another daughter who they brought into the world to be a bone marrow and blood donor for the son. The young daughter is abducted and suspicion falls on a local paedophile, played with a mixture of menace and relish by D B Woodside.



As usual, though, the truth is more convoluted, especially when the daughter is found dead.



Meanwhile Catherine finds that Lindsey is trying to hitchhike. Lindsey is becoming the terrible teen (yes she's only just 12, but the promise is there!) Actually the writing for the scene between the two, when Catherine asks her what's next and she replies 'stripper?' is very good, if a little out of the blue in terms of how their relationship has been up to now.



Similarly the scene between Catherine and the mother of the dead daughter is also quite explosive, with the mother delivering some home truths abour Catherine's own parental qualities.



The mother herself is acted really well and it's very difficult to decide whether she's an angel or a monster - all sides of the arguments are made and one wonders how one would react in a similar situation.



The ending, in a church, is painful to watch. I thought it was a little far fetched in that there had to be another way around the problem, but Grissom and the young guy have some good lines and the acting is impeccable.

The overall concept of this episode- a young girl conceived, born and essentially "strip-mined" in order to save the life of someone who didn't even want to be saved- is sickening. But "Harvest" is saved from turning into a piece of sewage though a couple of factors.



First of all, the performance of DB Woodside is exceptionally good. It takes an incredible amount of acting skill to portray a Registered Sex Offender while generating sympathy from an audience, and yet-somehow- Mr. Woodside managed to pull it off with aplomb.



Secondly, this episode serves to introduce Mia, Greg's new replacement, who will grow as a character as the series progresses.



"Harvest" is a good example of what makes "CSI" great.

The case of a missing 13 year old girl turns into a murder when her body is found a few days later. First it looks like a kidnapping by a sex offender but ends with a bizarre twist.



Also, Greg finds a replacement for the lab - Mia, and now he can finally start his training as a CSI in the field.



And Lindsay, Cathrine's daughter, who is acting like a brat, is caught hitch-hiking.

I enjoyed the show for not knowing who the murder was going to be. The team handled this one well. I honestly thought it was the parents who killed the little girl. But to have a child to keep the older son living. I could never put my child through that much pain. Grissom was awesome in this episode..He took the shirt in the face well...

I didn't know quite what to say to this episode or after it ended. The sterotypes and implications of this episode only reinforced the negativities of how we judge people without even getting to know them. But since this is CSI, they'll always try to prove otherwise.



While I thought the episode was a good one, there were some very annoying parts, like the African American admitting to being sick in the head. At least they portrayed him as a smart person, as opposed to making him just a raging maniac.



Again, they solved the crime no matter how puzzling, giving it a finality that's always necessary. Seeing how everyone works together is always a perk.

This episode was a pretty twisty one with an amazing turn by Melissa Leo, who I had last seen as Kay Ballard on Homicide: Life On The Streets, gave an insightful, hard performance as the mother of three children: one who needs transplants, one who was born to provide those transplants, and one who goes along with her mother's plans.



The examination of why some children are brought into this world is given the current funhouse-mirror exam, but it is a fair conjecture because not only is it one step away from cloning for body parts, but it a potentially very abusable thing, using a small child to keep another alive.



Catherine's defensiveness over her mothering skills was not as insightful as I think it was meant to be. We've seen Catherine worry about her girl, yet over the last two seasons, Catherine has been all about the booty call or lining something up after hours. there has been no on-screen balance to be seen. So when we get to Weeping Willows later in the season, there is no sympathy for Catherine's predicament.



The scenes with Grissom and the brother are quiet, exposition I didn't mind too much, and another reason for Griss to distance from religion. But it's a great William Peterson kid scene; he is very good around child actors. Mr. Petersen makes it look easy and natural.



The red herring, wearing the unnerving shape of DB Woodside, was great for the Menacing Black Cliche, but I enjoy seeing Mr. Woodside even in roles that don't seem overtly challenging.



Not awful, but plenty to think about after the credits roll, nonetheless. Plus? Grissom! Recommended.