'ReCycling,' 'Snakes' & 'Cop Killer' Review Round-Up

With CBS airing three new CSI episodes over the past week, there was plenty of material for online reviewers to analyse. Here's what they had to say about the latest New York, original CSI and Miami outings:

• Entertainment Weekly's Ann Hodgman again was the only professional reviewer to look at CSI: New York. That also meant Hodgman was the only one to notice that "ReCycling" continued the recent NY trend of lightening up the show:

  The dog-show plot bears the heavy thumbprints of Best in Show all over it -- all the dog trainers are drastically over the top -- but a dog show is a great locale for a New York murder, and I continue to cheer on the writers for hauling this show up out of the gloom in which the season began. I just hope that next week Aiden says, ''Oh, by the way -- I adopted that dog whose owner was murdered.''

  For Hodgman's opinion of the bike messenger plot, check out her full review.

• A day later, Hodgman seemed a bit bemused by the main plot of the original CSI's "Snakes." "The last scene," she wrote, "is entirely in Spanish, with no translation. I guess I shouldn't mind that, since it's easy enough to follow the action and, anyway, we should all speak Spanish. But the total effect is so witch-doctor-ish and cryptic that you can't help wondering if the main point of the story is, ''Aren't other cultures weird?' Read on here.

• Fortunately for Hodgman and everyone else who doesn't speak Spanish, 'Sobell' at Television Without Pity provided a full translation of the Spanish song that's heard at the end of the episode... or rather, her own re-interpretation of it, written using TWoP's usual snarkiness. You can find it all in the full recap, in which Sobell also awards the episode a C+ grade.

• TV Guide's Rochell Thomas also tuned in for "Snakes." Here's what she wrote in her Watercooler review of the episode:

  All right. An undercover reporter messed with his favorite band, so Juanito killed her. Boy, Swimfan had nothing on this guy. He's stalker-fan super-loco. And, as if running her over with his truck wasn't bad enough, Juanito paid a witch doctor to cut off her head and work some Mexican mojo. That's cold. My question, though, is why did he have to wear a lock of her hair on his belt? And did he not think of the little children? The poor paperboy who found that reporter's head is going to be scarred for life. I'm just saying.

  For the original piece, click here.

• Returning to Entertainment Weekly again, Ann Hodgman also looked at Monday's "Cop Killer." Hodgman was pleased that the CSI: Miami writers focused on just one story for this episode, and amused that they seemed to have granted her request from last week to make the show "more peepee-oriented," by having the kidnapped ride-along wet his pants. "And most of all," Hodgman continued, "thanks to Horatio for making me believe that hardboiled Rebecca's evil lawyerin' tactics really bothered him. When he tries, David Caruso is the king of the mournful close-up. Maybe he should play Horatio without any dialogue at all." Click here to read the full article.

• Finally, if you haven't yet read them, our own Kristine Huntley's reviews of all three episodes airing last week are still available. Click on to read what she thought of "ReCycling," "Snakes" and "Cop Killer.".

With CSI mostly heading into reruns for the next few weeks, this will also be the last review round-up until the February sweeps. As always, if you know of any other sites publishing regular CSI reviews, or if you write any of your own, please let us know so we can link to them in the future!

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