What CSI Fans Still Don't Understand About The Show After Rewatching The Series
Originally debuting in 2000, "CSI" has remained one of the most popular crime dramas of the century, even getting a recent revival thanks to "CSI: Vegas." A large part of the crime procedural's appeal is that the stories are generally easy to understand. Many episodes largely involve the team investigating grisly murders and crimes over 45 minutes — and usually discovering the truth in the process. Other episodes experimented with showing the personal lives of the investigators or even depicting the team dealing with more diabolical villains for multiple installments, like the Dick & Jane Killer (Bill Irwin).
The show also built up the relationships and stakes between the core cast of characters over 15 seasons, including Supervisor Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan). By the time series finale "Immortality" aired in 2015, fans of "CSI" were happy to get narrative payoffs for the CSI team members, though were still sad the show was finally over.
However, revisiting beloved media can sometimes be awkward if standards have changed around them over the years. For instance, one aspect of the early "CSI" seasons now feels downright strange to fans of the show.
Redditors felt that Sara was inappropriate with Gil Grissom
On rewatching early episodes of "CSI," original poster u/happycharm noticed a lot of things in the show that they didn't understand as a child. The Redditor also pointed out on the r/csi subreddit that upon rewatching the series, they picked up on several negative traits in the character of Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), a forensic scientist on the team — and Gil's main love interest.
First, Sara repeatedly pursues Gil Grissom in Season 2, only for him to continuously reject her advances; that doesn't deter her, however. She also strokes his face in one episode, claiming it's to get some dust off of him, but Gil is clearly not interested in the unwanted contact. Later on in the thread, the OP added more insight, describing how Sara's behavior on the show is consistently "unprofessional, entitled, demanding special treatment, etc."
Others, however, pointed out how Gil is just as flirtatious with Sara early on. u/rewritethefinallines observed that "Grissom has been flirty and hot and cold with Sara during the entire beginning of the series." Arguably, both characters cross professional boundaries because of their mutual and passionate personal interest in each other.