Television gets old and new

So there is a bunch of news in the world of television. There is an old friend returning and a current favorite departing.

The first item I noticed deals with the loss of a current favorite. I really enjoy CSI, the original. The character of William Petersen is that something extra you don’t often see on any program. He’s unabashedly intelligent, loyal, dedicated, and relatively issue free. In current television and a media that’s obsessed with the quirks of every personality, real or imagined, you really don’t see this.

But after soo many years, Gil Grissom will be leaving CSI for good. And I believe the series will end shortly thereafter.

Face it, Gil makes the show go round. Unlike other programs like Law & Order, or E.R., where every character is replaceable CSI is driven from the top down. [Note that in E.R. the loss of several actors – George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle – the ratings have diminished with each exit. This show should have ended the day that Wyle left as his character was the central theme that made it make all sense. Since his departure I know none that watch it. A similar statement can be made about Jerry Orbauch and his Lenny Briscoe character.] The show can survive the loss of most any other character, and has, but Grissom is the glue that keeps it together.

So I think this next season will be the end of this program. What a shame.

But the timing could be worse. 2 or 3 years ago such an impending thought might have meant that yet another reality program would be hitting the airwaves (I think the only thing left was to watch celebrities and ordinary attention deprived adults make coffee). Alas that trend if finally dying, none to soon either. So the void needs something big to fill it.

That honor will likely go to Michael J. Fox. He is returning to the small screen. But not in a series. Still the fact that less competition will exist and quality acting will be available was not missed on Dennis Leary. He convinced Fox to join him in his hit show Rescue Me.

If you have not seen the drama, then you aren’t watching FX Network, and I can’t imagine why not. Rescue Me is hard to describe. It’s the life of a fire station, particularly the Dennis Leary lead. His life is enough of a mess to make Perez Hilton look normal, and Britney Spears sane. But it is written honestly and with intelligence. It has moments to challenge your views, and make you laugh. It’s almost real, and that’s where the pleasure is.

Michael J Fox will add to this. He is playing a man in a wheelchair, which plays on his known illness. He is the love interest of the overly jealous and easily prone to violent outburst Leary’s estranged wife. If you want to see drama imagine the reactions of a man who saves lives on a regular basis, is jealous, is violent, who occasionally speaks with dead people, as he hits a man in a wheelchair. It’s a low act and he will be fighting with himself over that, as Fox plays the moment with a performance that we rarely get to see.

Or at least that’s what I’m expecting. We shall see.