The Incomplete Gamer

Fans of sitcoms and procedural crime drama were treated this week to a cross over double act with a difference featuring CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (8:30pm, Sunday 29th June, Channel Nine) and Two and a Half Men (Tuesday, 8:30pm, 1 July, Channel Nine).

So was this stunt TV or was it an an original cross over concept that breathed fresh life into two tired television genres? Today The Incomplete Gamer stopped writing about Tivo long enough to pick up the peanut remote and find out for ourselves.

What makes this crossing over concept original was that (mercifully) none of the characters of either show actually crossed over. As easy as it might have been to send Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) to Vegas on a date with a stripper, it was the writers instead who crossed over.

First out of the blocks on Sunday was CSI. The episode titled “Two and a Half Deaths” was written by the creators of Two and a Half Men, Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn.

This time around the CSI Team are investigating the death of Annabelle, a diva sitcom star played by Katey Sagal. With the possible exception of the rubber chicken Grisham delicately extracts from Annabelle’s mouth, there are only a few subtle clues that this isn’t your average CSI episode. A network suit strolling the corridors of the CSI labs remarks “Beautiful people doing high tech police work. There might be a series in this” Later, when discussing the sitcom ‘Two and a Half Men’ a member of Annabelle’s writing staff remarks, “I’d rather sleep with Annabelle than write that crap.”

Behind the scenes of the cross over episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,

If you were none the wiser, there is really nothing distinguishing in the writing or the direction to single this episode out as being unique or special. It does pass muster as a decent CSI episode and as such is a credit to the creative adaptability of the Two and a Half Men creators, Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn.

The second part of the crossover, the Two and a Half Men episode called “Fish in a Drawer,” screened Tuesday night. Written by CSI writers Sarah Goldfinger and Evan Dunsky and based on a story by CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn an
d Naren Shankar, this episode revolves around the mysterious death at the home of Charlie Harper, played by Charlie Sheen.

From the minute the opening CSI theme music plays “Who…Are You..Men Men.., Men Men,” it’s clear that the CSI crew have pulled out all stops to milk the CSI crossover concept for all its worth. Unlike the CSI episode, there is no mistaking this episode. All the CSI trademarks are on display front and centre; the flash backs (the dead butterflies and the clown on the bed were our favourites), the forensics, the interrogations, the CSI visual conventions (the cgi microscopic camera work. But throughout, the humour remains classic Two and a Half Men. When checking Charlie’s bedroom for semen using the ultra violet light, one of the Crime Scene Investigators remarks, “It’s like a Jackson Pollack painting.”

Hit or miss. For once a TV network managed to deliver a cross over concept that wasn’t corny. The Networks deal the crossover card at ratings time and as a rule these special episodes result in a positive ratings spike. Yet ratings aside, at best they leave us disappointed and at worst cringing in their wake. Even when TV shows are set in the same city, it is rare that they ever share a similar tone, those shadings of light and dark that make each shows universe both unique and believable. Which is why, for the most part when your favourite TV character stumbles onto the set of that ‘other show’ the jarring and sense of displacement is so great that you, the viewer are unable to suspend your disbelief.

For our money, The Two and a Half Men episode is our pick of the two. The CSI episode just doesn’t shine as brightly. Perhaps because CSI is already adept at weaving the occasionally humorous element into it’s stories, perhaps we’re getting tired of procedural crime dramas, or perhaps, Quentin Tarantino simply raised the bar too high when he directed the CSI episode Grave Digger in 2005.