‘Twas the night before NECON

An era is coming to an end. William Petersen is leaving C.S.I. sometime during the upcoming season. Apparently Sara, Lady Heather and the miniature killer will all be appearing before his departure, and he has agreed to return from time to time for guest appearances and will continue to executive produce the show, but it’s going to change the tone of the show. He was the curmudgeonly, snarky, level-headed voice of the show, which gave it more gravitas and depth than the spin-offs. There will be someone coming in to replace him, but he’s got big shoes to fill, whoever he is.

I caught up with the season premiere of The Closer last night. The pyromaniac is seriously one creepy dude, especially with all his puns and jests. House warming gift, indeed. I also watched Sunday’s In Plain Sight. I’m really glad that they are scaling back Lesley Ann Warren’s role as Mary’s mother—she didn’t even appear in this episode. This one was a good take on what people are actually giving up when they go into protection. I think they’re finally finding the show’s groove. Less humor, more story.

Two episodes into Big Brother 10 and the scheming and plotting is already at warp speed. I loved the turnabout last night. The eight-member coalition who confronted the HoH may be one of the biggest alliances in the program’s history. The marine sure didn’t like being backed into a corner, but he apparently realized that his position was untenable because the odds were that one of the eight would be HoH next week. They did a brilliant job of blindsiding the “player.” He says he still has options, but that sounded like bluster to me.

I’m off to NECON tomorrow morning. My Storytellers Unplugged essay will appear tomorrow while I am on the way to the airport, thanks to the magic of delayed posting on Blogger.

Last night, I did a pen-and-paper edit of a short story I’ve been working on for a few weeks, then one more on-screen edit before I sent it off this morning. It was only 2300 words long, but I feel like I’ve written 10,000 words since I started it, what with all the changing around and rewording. It’s one of those long-shot markets, but aren’t they all?