It's official. My world has ground to a screeching halt today with this news - CBS has cancelled CSI: Miami after ten seasons. This, coupled with the cancellation of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition after nearly ten years and the cancellation of the incredible upstart The Finder after only one season, as well as the conclusions of House and Chuck, make this the worst year ever for me, TV-wise.
Miami was the show that made me become addicted to the CSI franchise. As I channel-flipped one day in eighth grade when I was home sick from school, I recognized actor Rex Linn who had played a minor role in one of my favourite movies, Cheaper by the Dozen. I continued watching that episode and when Jonathan Togo showed up, I became more interested - the guy is so cute! I watched the whole thing and was immediately hooked. This was back before I understood what 'seasons' and 'primetime TV' were - I would just watch what was on. So, I began watching 2 rerun episodes on A&E every night, and when I had seen most of the episodes (they were on Season 4 at that time) I began watching the show every week as it aired. It was on at 10 o'clock Sunday nights (well past my bedtime) so I would record it on our VCR and watch it when I got home the next day.
Eventually I had seen all the older episodes, and it was driving me nuts that I would have to wait a whole week to see a new one, so I began watching the original Las Vegas version. (This series, by the way, is still continuing - soon beginning its 13th season, and is going strong due to the new additions of Elisabeth Shue and Ted Danson.) But I would always proclaim Miami as my favourite, and even though I'm not entirely sure why (I mean, they don't have Greg!), it may just be because I watched it first, and in that sense, it was 'the original' for me. I've never really caught on to CSI: NY - I've caught a few episodes now and then, and of course, there are the crossover episodes - but maybe I'll start watching that one now. It got renewed again, despite the fact that Miami was two seasons older and therefore more well-established. Miami had a more favourable timeslot, too - NY was on on Fridays for two seasons now, isn't that supposed to be the 'kiss of death'?
Anyways, this news has hit me hard. Melodramatic person that I am, I may wear a black armband in mourning for a while. I find it only fitting that, when I found out, I was wearing the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas) shirt that my dad brought me back from a business trip to Las Vegas last week. As with most of my favourite TV shows, I will refuse to watch the final episode. I was not going to watch it until I knew the show's fate - as this is a show known for its cliffhanger season finales - and now I never will. I have not seen the final episode of Chuck, or Pushing Daisies, and I saw the Friends one once, by accident (I cried so hard) and now that I own the series on DVD I do not plan to watch it. Same with That 70s Show. The only series finale I have ever liked was that of the Canadian comedy Corner Gas, because it tied things up nicely and told the viewers what happened afterward to all the characters - an epilogue, of sorts. I've always thought that long-running shows should be given a season (or even half of one) to tie up loose ends and give viewers a sense of closure. This is what Chuck, Friends, That 70s Show and House all did (or are doing now), but since CSI: Miami was cancelled after the end of a season, it will never get that chance.
I hope my generation can look back on this show with fondness and actually remember it, as opposed to the shows that were huge hits initially then slowly fizzled out until they eventually disappeared from the public eye altogether. In the name of Horatio Caine - the 60-something-year-old redhaired man who single-handedly stopped terrorist bombings, rescued kidnapped children, pretended to die in the name of solving a case, and changed the way the world will look at sunglasses forever - they deserved to go out with a bang.
YEEEAAAAAAAaaaaaa.....
