CSI: Vegas Showrunner Jason Tracey Wraps Up Season 1 and Teases What's Ahead if There's a Season 2
William Petersen as Dr. Gil Grissom and Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle
Finally! It’s been a crazy season on CSI: Vegas with the evidence seeming to pile up on the charges that David Hodges (Wallace Langham) was guilty of manufacturing false evidence on several of the cases he worked on when he was a CSI. And every time it looked as if Gil (William Petersen) and Sara (Jorja Fox) had found some proof of his innocence, the case took another twist or turn that seemingly cemented his guilt.
But tonight, Anson Wix (Jamie McShane) went one step too far when he had Hodges kidnapped and he forced him to post a video online declaring his guilt. It was really the nail in his coffin, so that Wix ended up heading to prison for life instead of Hodges.
“Ultimately, we wanted the stakes of the season to be embodied physically in Hodges,” executive producer/showrunner Jason Tracey told Parade.com. “Because the integrity of the lab’s called into question— and that’s a fascinating intellectual exercise, but for an audience you want a person to root for and Hodges became that central figure.”
By rescuing Hodges from his captors while he was still alive, it allowed the former CSI to credibly testify to Wix’s devious plot, so the jig was up for the lawyer, who had decided to frame Hodges in order to make money by retrying the cases with the “false” evidence and by suing the state of Nevada for boatloads of cash.
“[The finale] turned on molecular science, and it turned on the kinds of evidence and clues that we have come to expect from CSI,” Tracey continued. “And then, hopefully, the physical embodiment of the season, undefined, that’s the hammer that’s going to come down on Wix in court.”
Wallace Langham as David Hodges
Parade.com had the opportunity to speak with Tracey about the CBS reboot, how the writing staff developed all the gyrations that took us through the season, and the introduction of the new team of criminalistics along with original cast members Petersen and Fox.
There were all these zigzags that took us through the season. Did you have experts helping you with the different science aspects of it?
So many talented storytellers, experts and consultants worked on this thing. We had a great writing staff. From earliest days, even before we had a writing staff, I had a conversation going with my old writing partner, Craig O’Neill, who came on and was an executive producer and my No. 2 on this and helped lead the room.
And we had two incredible consultants. We had Ellen Lansden, who was our legal consultant, and helped guide, or shape, or at least put guardrails up if we were getting anything wrong about the legal jeopardy that the lab was in.
And then day to day, Daniel Holstein was both an advisor and consultant on the scripts. He also came in and taught the cast every bit of technical wizardry that you ever see on the screen. He’s kind of a legend and one of the guys that does the job in real life that Gil Grissom was based on.
And then just to have Anthony Zuiker, Jonathan Littman and KristieAnne Reed in the trenches with me day to day. They knew everything about how this franchise works and it’s such a Swiss watch that I don’t think we could have figured it all out if we didn’t have all those big brains on this thing.
In my opinion, the reason that we believed that Hodges was innocent is because of Sara Sidle. She’s the truth teller of this whole thing. What did it mean to have Jorja Fox and William Petersen for the season?
Both of them, they’re legends and it’s everything. We wanted to start there. From earliest days when we were considering how to bring the show back, it was, “OK, great, but wouldn’t we love to have Grissom and Sara?” They had sailed off into the sunset. It was pretty fitting and final. As a happy ending that was thorough. So, we needed a launch pad that would pull them in. Fortunately, both of them were very on board from the concept on.
What tremendous, talented actors. They were generous with a whole new crew of folks around them. Teaching the cast, centering them in on how to play these criminalists: From a technical standpoint with the science, to how do you don the gloves and use the tweezers, all the way through to the emotional core truth of what these people’s lives are like being around death but also being scientists and having a detachment. When does it get to you? When do you take it personally? They were outstanding exemplars of what the show’s ethos is, but also just like the day-to-day grind of making a TV show in Santa Clarita when it’s 105 degrees. They were great.
You left us with a new serial murder case at the end. Does that mean there’s a season 2?
It’s certainly a big old open door. We’re waiting on some news from CBS. Our fingers are crossed. Should we be so lucky, there’s a big story behind that tiny little glimpse that you got that we’re waiting to tell.
William Petersen as Dr. Gil Grissom
The one thing that wasn’t wrapped up, unless I missed it, Gil has a medical issue. I don’t think it was resolved. If there is a season 2, will that play out? Or maybe that’s a reason that he wouldn’t come back.
Gil has a chronic condition, mal de débarquement. Sometimes it actually wears off in a couple of days, but he was dealing with something that’s probably going to be chronic and be something that he lives with and can manage. It’s not something that’s debilitating. It doesn’t necessarily get worse. Certainly not fatal. But it is something that impacts your feeling of balance.
It was more than a metaphor this season. It was also something that was an impediment for him doing the work. And it’s something that people who spend a whole lot of time and lives on boats sometimes are afflicted with.
And so, there was no wrap up to it because for a lot of people that suffer from that condition, there is no final resolution to it. It’s something they can manage. We sort of hint at that through his discussion of how he can manage his cortisol levels and stress. And it will impact his choices on a going forward basis as it does anybody who has that condition, how do you cope?
The one loose end for me was when Gil and Sara found the thread in the demolished car that was from the yarn that Wix’s sister was using. Is she going to go to jail, too?
Well, she’s only guilty of making a scarf. But, certainly, she knew what her brother was up to. Frequently in real life, family members are not charged. There’s no real expectation that they turn in and snitch on their family members. Maybe it’s just too easy to deny. But she’s a fantastic actress and a fun character. I wouldn’t necessarily rule out a continuation of that tale.
Since the parents in the Detroit school shooting were arrested, if they go to jail, then it may be that families do start being arrested.
You never know. They had a minor on their hands. I don’t know if she’d have the same expectation. And, certainly, plausible deniability, she could pretend she didn’t know. Those are interesting questions, and when you’ve got a bunch of talented actors, I look at loose ends as nothing but storytelling opportunities.
Matt Lauria as Josh Folsom, Paula Newsome as Maxine Roby, and Mandeep Dhillon as Allie Rajan
This is a big if, but if there is a second season could it just be the new cast? We’re introduced to them, and they could carry the show.
Anything’s possible, and for as long as I get to be involved in this thing, I have a big open door to the folks that have meant so much to the franchise. I’ll be making new invitations to other returning folks. But we’re excited to tell new stories and we’ve got a tremendous, great new cast that I think is really invested in digging in and furthering these characters. We’ll have a mix, I think, a blend of returning and new going forward. But exactly what that cast is will be up to the cast themselves and our friends and partners at the studio network.
There have been a lot of technical advances since the original show went off the air, and you used a lot of the new science for season 1. But did you learn of something that you want to use that you haven’t had a chance to use yet?
So many things. And I’m not going to spoil any of them in case people get too active on Wikipedia. But I will tell you, fortunately the science that the criminalists use to solve crime is advancing every day. Even if I had exhausted it, there’d be new stuff just between seasons 1 and 2. But the truth is, the list is long and our research team is really, really good. We’ve got new friends at the actual real crime lab in Las Vegas and way more stories to tell.
Have you heard from criminalists? What are they saying about what the show means to them? Or how maybe it’s helped raise funds to get them the kind of equipment that we see on the show that I know so many labs do not have?
I don’t know how it impacts their ability to raise funds. I can say that the original series, and I don’t know that we are aware of what the impact of a new chapter might be in time, hopefully, it’ll continue to inspire folks to think about this really noble profession. But I know that the original did change in a good way people’s interest in this. There was a huge flood of new applicants and new interest in doing this job.
Daniel Holstein, the advisor that I mentioned, is now a professor at UNLV and talks about how it’s rare to find somebody in a criminalists program at a university that wasn’t in some way inspired by the original franchise. I think a lot more women got involved in it. The gender breakdown of who does this job has changed over the last 25 years. I think the show probably has something to do with that as well. So, fingers crossed that it’ll continue to have anything like the original impact did.
The key from the whole show is “follow the evidence.” It reinforces that we need to believe in science.
I would say just to further that sentiment, it was a privilege to write a bunch of characters that were committed to science less as this body of knowledge that you have to trust, and maybe it’s all in a book, but more that it’s a practice and it’s a method. It’s a rigorous thought process that you can bring to the world when you don’t understand the answer, and it’s an approach. I think that’s something that can sometimes get missed in the conversation that goes on around science and doubt in the era of social media that we’re in. To know that there’s a rigorous process and a method behind what these people do, that’s really what makes them heroes.
If you missed season 1 of CSI: Vegas when it aired on CBS, you can find it on Paramount+.
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