CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV Series) Two and a Half Deaths (2008) User Reviews

jumping the shark - in style?

[Locomotiva1 · 6/10 · 6 February 2010]

A zany episode - The premise was not that good: the usual parody of TV in TV. A sit-com actress and the usual band of poor mistreated screenwriters, the dumb husband, the lawyer ready to cool off drugs and alcohol abuse. Some "breaking news", the usual stuff.

The CSI Boys went to Hollywood - a tour in Burbanks - and "Brass" pointed out that the series "Jumped the shark" - Fonzie, You Know?

But, if you got the mood, you got an inside joke every other line.

"David", the coroner assistant, pushed "Grissom" to give the famous "Grissom's One Liner" that closed the first part of almost every episode in 8 seasons.

The Hollywood executive wandered in the lab and mumbled "wow, we can make a show of it" - "Grissom" with an Emmy in hand (CSI got 3 nomination, none win) up to the very end, when the murderer explained how to write a script for a crime episode.

Some jokes were a bit low-brow - "Hodges" and the Tampax, for example.

But, in all, this is the episode where CSI jumped the shark - ninth season is ahead with a new cast. So, if they had to jump, they jumped in style.

They Take a Break

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 22 February 2021]

This episode serves no purpose other than to give the characters a shot at silliness. The gang is called to the Burbank studios. A nasty comic actress is at the center. She is cruel, viciously so, to all around her. They fear her because their paychecks depend on her show. One day she is found, her skull cracked, a pool of blood under her head. As the folks investigate, they find so much baggage and so many vapid characters, it's hard to sort them out. Ultimately, they are just made to look ridiculous. I did like the "Chinatown" line at the end.

Better as comedy than a mystery

[xbatgirl-30029 · 8/10 · 31 January 2024]

Between the dueling trivia items about whether this show is partly based on Roseanne or Cybil Shepherd, I vote Roseanne. 100%. On the one hand you have a rando claim that Chuck Lorre had "issues" with Cybil. On the other hand, you've got a star who was supposed to be (at one time) America's lovable sweetheart, who was really a nightmare behind the scenes (believe it or not, there actually was a time when most fans saw Roseanne that way) and who went on to have a whole lot of plastic surgery and abuse a lot of substances. She started dating a guy a from Iowa (just like in this episode) who had a massive coke problem who then she made a producer and writer. There's also the infamous writers room on Roseanne which was like a revolving door, especially in the early years when Lorre worked there. There was even a quick joke about how spiritual Roseanne/Annabelle liked to portray herself in the media. There's way too many parallels to claim this is supposed to be Cybil Shepherd instead. I'm sure Lorre, like any writer, pulled from his lifetime of experience in Hollywood, plus his imagination, to add to the characters, but come on. Though I will say I don't know what issues Roseanne may have had with her female costars, especially Laurie Metcalf who won multiple Emmys for playing Jackie, and who Lorre later cast as Sheldon Cooper's mom. But Cybill did notoriously had an issue with Christine Baranski being considered funnier than her and getting accolades on her show as well.

There are so many other jokes in this make it really fun - like when Diedrich Bader told Grissom to be careful with the Emmy. "Is that what this is?" Petersen was nominated 3 times, as producer, but never won. Or the quick cameo of Lorre's Two and a Half men cast. Or Annabelle making Natasha feel her up. But what made me most happy is that it never turned out that Annabelle and Natasha ended up switched. I think on so many other shows, it would have turned out that Annabelle killed Natasha, then made it look like she herself was dead then she left town, only to have someone else knock her off later. It's such a cliche and I'm glad this episode didn't do that.

The ending though was a bit of a letdown. I mean it is also a cliche for detectives to confront a suspect with just a theory and little evidence, only for the killer to immediately confess to everything. But Rachel Harris' speech about Uncle Guiseppe went too far to be funny. Hanging a lantern on the lack of details or motivation didn't make up for the lack of details and motivation. Maybe Harris just wasn't funny enough in the part? Because the scene was somewhat saved when Stephen Tobolowsky showed up and then Brass said his line about Burbank. Can't win them all in the end.

Funny Crossover

[magus-4 · 9/10 · 1 May 2009]

Unlike the other reviewers who rated this show with just one star I would give it 8. The 9 is just to compensate the other ratings. You shouldn't judge this as a regular CSI episode. It's a parody. The odd one out. Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn created 'Two and a half men' and they switched writers. They helped each other to create a CSI-oriented 'Two and a half men' episode (season five, epis.17 "Fish in a drawer"), and a 'Two and a half men' oriented CSI episode. I think the experiment succeeded very well. I'm a fan of both shows and there are very funny references. The actors succeed wonderfully in being caricatures of themselves. And I happen to think that being able to mock yourself is the highest level of intelligence. If you get that, you'll enjoy this show. If not...sorry, your loss.

One of the FUNNIEST

[sloppy_tuna · 9/10 · 14 November 2019]

This is one of the funniest CSI episodes I've ever had the pleasure to watch :) If you haven't seen it watch it-and then watch it a second time. You'll laugh out loud twice. So many gems in this episode, from the brilliant writing to the Chuck Lorre sitcom nods, to the tampon scene between Wendy and Hodges, to Brass using the phrase "jumped the shark", not to mention the self depreciating humor, comedic dialogue(nearly every Diedrich Bader facial expression & line delivery legit made me laugh), KATEY SAGAL & DIEDRICH BADER (easily a reason in and of itself to watch) and ALL the other guest stars, this is just one of those must see episodes and I genuinely pity any fan of CSI (and Katey & Diedrich) who hasn't seen this one... (double the pity for those who watched and couldn't appreciate the awesomeness of this episode)

Just what's needed at this point in the series.

[akicork · 9/10 · 1 June 2020]

I think the people scoring this three or one are missing the point. This is the Television Serial industry in full self-mockery mode. And I think they do it very well - I particularly liked the line about the writers getting one complete improbability per episode. For me, the light-heartedness of this episode is beautifully placed to counterbalance the darkness of the next few scripts.

In A Word: Embarrassing

[ccthemovieman-1 · 1/10 · 30 January 2009]

Wow, what can you say about an episode like this? I could say a lot, but I think I'll keep it pretty short: this was an embarrassment to watch.

Don't these writers and actors have any dignity? This is the kind of perverted humor that is so over-baked that it isn't funny; it's like "Blades of Glory" or "The Love Guru." It's just one sleazy joke after another. Hey, I love dark humor but not ten sex jokes every minute, especially on a crime show.

Everyone on this episode but Warrick, I think, had some wise-guy remark about everything in here. Sex jokes are okay but come on, man - is this HBO with all this stuff? After last year's great season with "The Miniature Killer," I had hoped the CSI Las Vegas show and turned the corner from the gutter and gotten classy again. Wrong. Maybe this is why Jorja Fox, Gary Dourdan and William Petersen have all left the show.

CSI "Jumps the shark" & even admits it

[Austin392hemi · 1/10 · 19 September 2008]

This episode was an attempt for CSI to poke fun at itself and try and get in some "hollywood humor" too. IMHO, it was a miserable failure. Everyone seemed uncomfortably with the sappy crappy jokes. It was painful to watch. Jim Brass even makes a reference to Fonzie and "jumping the shark" which is not even a veiled attempt to convey William Petersen's true feelings about his own CSI show (as if I really know that). No wonder he is leaving. The guys who write for Sheen's Two and a Half Men wrote this episode. They should stick to sitcoms. Reversing a gritty drama to an hour long sitcom doesn't work. Even sans the horrible puns this was not an episode for someone who loves the heart of the show. Watch Reno 911 or Murder She Wrote. You'll be better entertained and still keep your respect for the CSI folks.

Another Silly Episode

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 29 March 2023]

In Las Vegas, the unstable actress Annabelle Fundt of the sitcom Annabelle, is with cast and crew shooting an episode. She mistreats producers, writers and cast, showing no respect for them. When she is found dead in her hotel room with a plastic chicken inside her throat, the CSIs investigate the crime scene. But there are many suspects and most of them have traveled to Los Angeles. Out of the blue, Grissom and Brass are summoned to Las Angeles since Anabelle's stand-in and double and prime suspect was mysteriously killed by a car while shooting the show.

"Two and a Half Deaths" is another silly episode of "CSI", with an unconclusive story. The characters are annoying, including the victim, and the humor does not work. The conclusion, with the suspects making fun to Grissom and Brass, and then with Annabelle's boyfriend cutting his neck, is totally unfunny. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Two and a Half Deaths"

Crime drama swaps writers with sitcom, gets garbage in & garbage out.

[dracsgamez · 1/10 · 25 December 2015]

An hour long crime drama decides to swap writers with a 30-minute sitcom('CSI' & 'Two and a Half Men'). The show starts out fairly normal, but once the rubber chicken shows up, things begin to slide into sitcom disaster. The jokes just keep coming, all the way up to the end when Grissom and Brass confront their suspect - the supporting actress to the murdered star(obvious? Nah). After being confronted, she lays out how everything happened as if it was a T.V. show made in Hollywood(with all the twisted back-scene extras), with the story becoming more and more ridiculous. Grissom had NO evidence, and Brass had nothing to support confronting the actress - so, WHY did they? Because it's a stupid writer cross-over episode, that's why!!! Complete and total failure as a crime show, a drama, and whatever it tried to be - it's not worth the time to watch.

CRAP BUT ....

[rms125a · 3/10 · 18 May 2019]

Not one of the better episodes but to blame one poor episode for the departures of Jorja Fox, Gary Dourdan and William Petersen seems a bit of an overreaction, especially as Fox returned and Dourdan's departure was rather involuntary, if I remember correctly.

Scraping the CSI barrel

[neil_davison-354-77074 · 1/10 · 23 March 2022]

Seriously what's with series 7 and 8 comedic episodes? Have the writers simply ran out of anything to do with actual Crime Scene investigating. It's an absolute crying shame they have sunk this low.

CSI NY and CSI Miami never needed to do this which is why they were a much better series.