Where so many shows would take an episode like this and force you to suspend your disbelief as high as Mount Fuji, thank goodness that CSI takes a more realistic approach instead. Here, as always for the CSI Team, the devil is in the details...but that devil's been sent to plague newly-minted CSI Level One, Dr. Ray Langston (Laurence Fishburne).
Having the esteemed forensics professor and profiler step into the shoes of the departed and revered Gil Grissom without a hitch, would've been about as feasible as Carrot Top doing brain surgery. Fortunately, the writers opted to use Fishburne's considerable talents, to show us what a case of the first-day jitters would be like for a man like Langston, warts and all.
He's no idiot, of course, and realizes that as much as he wants to do well and impress his new colleagues, even with their sense of professionalism, it will take some time to bond with them and earn their trust and respect. Predictably, the toughest nuts for him to crack will be boorish trace analyst David Hodges (Wallace Langham) and fairly new team member Riley Adams (Lauren Lee Smith).
In a day stuffed with the usual cases that run the gamut from burglary, to an arson that turns into a homicide, to a domestic case where getting close to victims is something done at your own risk, Langston realizes that he has a lot more to learn than he thought, and that none of it was stuff that could be picked up in a lecture hall.
And we learn, with a blessed sigh of relief, why Fishburne was cast in this role. His character may not seem like a fitting replacement for Grissom fans at first blush, but when you're talking about being a fill-in for somebody else on a team, especially on the first day...who does?
Having the esteemed forensics professor and profiler step into the shoes of the departed and revered Gil Grissom without a hitch, would've been about as feasible as Carrot Top doing brain surgery. Fortunately, the writers opted to use Fishburne's considerable talents, to show us what a case of the first-day jitters would be like for a man like Langston, warts and all.
He's no idiot, of course, and realizes that as much as he wants to do well and impress his new colleagues, even with their sense of professionalism, it will take some time to bond with them and earn their trust and respect. Predictably, the toughest nuts for him to crack will be boorish trace analyst David Hodges (Wallace Langham) and fairly new team member Riley Adams (Lauren Lee Smith).
In a day stuffed with the usual cases that run the gamut from burglary, to an arson that turns into a homicide, to a domestic case where getting close to victims is something done at your own risk, Langston realizes that he has a lot more to learn than he thought, and that none of it was stuff that could be picked up in a lecture hall.
And we learn, with a blessed sigh of relief, why Fishburne was cast in this role. His character may not seem like a fitting replacement for Grissom fans at first blush, but when you're talking about being a fill-in for somebody else on a team, especially on the first day...who does?
