While CSI: Vegas season 1 was able to get away with telling one long story instead of numerous episodic plots, season 2 should take care to avoid this strategy. Airing in 2021, CSI: Vegas landed in the tricky position of not quite being a sequel while also not being a full-blown reboot. CSI: Vegas brought new characters to the established world of the CSI franchise, like a reboot, but also brought back fan-favorites Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom and focused mostly on their story, like a sequel series.
The confusion surrounding what the series was extended to the CSI: Vegas title change, a seemingly superfluous detail (since the original series was also set in Las Vegas). This title change clarified that CSI: Vegas would follow new characters who existed in the same world as the original series, but the goal was soon confused further. After all, CSI: Vegas season 1 mostly centered on Sara and Gil investigating a killer who was after them despite introducing the promised new cast members.
Luckily, it sounds like CSI: Vegas season 2 will avoid this issue. By dropping Gil and Sara and focusing more on the procedural format with a new villain every week, CSI: Vegas season 2 could recapture the feel of the original series. In this regard, however, comments made by the CSI: Vegas showrunners might be concerning for viewers. According to showrunner Jason Tracey in a TVInsider interview, that serial killer who viewers barely got a glimpse of in the season 1 finale will play a major role in season 2. Per Tracey, “we’re excited to hopefully roll out a whole new serialized mystery that won’t be necessarily quite as all-encompassing and every episode as this season’s serialized story, but there’s a lot of twists and turns ahead.”
Why CSI: Vegas Can’t Tell Only One Story
With only ten episodes and both Gil and Sara back, CSI: Vegas season 1 could afford to tell one story for its entire runtime since the show functioned almost like a miniseries. However, CSI: Vegas season 2 has a longer season that hopes to bring back the procedural feel of the original series, meaning that the outing can’t focus every episode on one case that dominates the season’s storyline. Tracey’s comments do imply that the showrunner is aware that this could be an issue, with him specifying that the main villain of the season’s story will not end up encompassing every episode.
Still, these are concerning insights for CSI: Vegas, particularly when the presence of Sara and Gil was instrumental in getting viewers to care about the overarching story of season 1. Since many viewers loved Sara and Gil, they cared whether the characters were killed off and thus were willing to follow an otherwise overlong and somewhat predictable storyline with only one villainous killer at its center. Despite the return of CSI’s Catherine Willows in CSI: Vegas season 2, viewers are unlikely to offer the same patient approach to a lone CSI veteran and new characters they are naturally not as concerned about. As such, CSI: Vegas season 2 must ensure that it has plenty of killer of the week episodes to balance out the season’s overarching storyline.