I love CSI, but enough is enough.
The show's brilliance comes from down-playing the main characters and up-playing the cases. Watching the human condition playing itself out is more interesting than what they flaunted in this episode- well pretty much the beginning of season seven on; almost complete and undivided attention to torturing the CSI team.
They've been doing this on and off since the very first episode, ever since Warrick left a newbie at a scene- letting her get shot and killed. It continued when Catherine's ex was accused of rape and was later killed, not to mention her father is a wealthy S.O.B. from the days of the Vegas mobs. Nick has a long list of issues in being a victim, including having a murderous stalker and being buried alive. There's more, but I'm sure most fans already know.
These were done in manageable doses. It gave the impression that the job is dangerous but the focus always went back to solving other cases. 'A Bullet Runs Through It' is a great example. It brought some realism to the story about how a community reacts to a shoot out and how law-enforcement is effected by the death of a fellow office. This put enough attention on the CSI/police team to give it power, but ultimately the story was on the events of the shoot-out.
Now it just feels like an attempt to grab ratings. These characters are starting to spend more time being victimized than actually solving other crimes. And now they are adding the likes of Danny Bonaduce and Kevin Federline to the list. Where are the good actors who you could actually believe? Since when does being a 3rd rate reality 'star' get you a starring role on CSI? Go back to the way things were. Focus on the crimes, not the people solving them.