Change Your Image
lnzbyl
Reviews
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Fracked (2010)
You Know An Episode Is Bad When...
...you're bored watching it within the first 10 minutes.
I was only marginally interested in this episode during that time and, unfortunately, nothing happened to boost my interest.
What DID happen was that I was "treated" to a 45-minute diatribe on the dangers of the practice of fracking, a controversial method of extracting oil and natural gas from the ground.
Is there anything worse than TV writers who feel the need to "educate" viewers? As usual in such situations, this episode is heavy-handed and preachy. What's worse, though, is that even the episode is slow-moving and as dull as dishwater.
The writers of this particular episode managed to waste 45 minutes of my time with this tripe. Safe to say that it will be the first and last time that this episode will waste any more of my time. I will definitely be skipping it on my next CSI go-round.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Long Ball (2010)
Not A Bad Episode, But...
...a serious contender for the most boring one.
This episode certainly was not meant to be taken seriously, but I still had to ask why practically the entire group was working on the case. A golfer is found dead in a golf course and the next 30-plus minutes is taken up running through a set of usual suspects (ex-wife, ex-wife's sister, disgruntled son, former professional colleague now disgraced caddy for the son).
Nothing of note really occurs during the episode, and each particle of information is delivered with the same amount of excitement one can derive from watching paint dry or, for that matter, watching a game of professional golf.
The "aha" moment of the episode revolves around an urban legend in golf. One gets the sense that one or more of the writers came across this urban legend and said "wouldn't that make a great CSI episode?" If only one or more of the other wrong had said "no, it would not."
If only...if only...
The X Files: Hungry (1999)
About as substantial as a fast food meal...
This is one of the lesser episodes of the X-Files. The series seems to have been treading water since the production moved to California from Canada (perhaps partly because of creator Chris Carter's desire to have the series run for only five seasons until he was talked into continuing it by the Fox network. Perhaps because of this, it seems like the writers' ideas are often more "miss" than "hit" after the fifth season.
Vince Gilligan is no doubt a talented writer, but watching this ep and waiting for it to end is akin the ordering something basic from a fast food restaurant and then waiting 45 minutes to get your food. Any point the episode might have had to begin with soon gets lost as this very lightly plotted episode slowly plods its end to the end.
This is one of the few times I was actually glad the antagonist died at the climax of the episode.
NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Enemy Combatant (2016)
Bishop Is Woman, Hear Her Bore
While this episode does not qualify for one of the worst episodes of NCIS, it certainly makes the grade for being one of the most boring episodes of the series as well as being one of the most badly written.
For starters, the set up the leads to Bishop going to Gitmo is a riff off the first season ep in which the entire team went there. In both episodes, the team was alerted to the threat after a vehicle went off a road in front of non-involved witnesses. Not exactly original.
But where the episode falters even more is with Bishop's involvement to the proceedings. About half way through viewing the episode, I began to realize that not only did I not care about what was occurring, I didn't care about what any of it had to do with Bishop.
Bishop was a very likable character in the beginning, but now she seems more annoying than anything else. Her statement about bemoaning that an innocent man was imprisoned in Gitmo sounded more like the writer of the episode desperately trying to convey something meaningful and emotional, and failing miserably at both things in the attempt.
Basically, this is the type of episode where you wish you could somehow turn back time roughly 42 minutes so not only would you get that time back but you could have the chance to avoid watching such a boring, banal episode in the first place.