CSI- Season Premiere - is Sarah Dead?

The end of the last season left us all wondering if Sarah Sidle, played by Jorja Fox, would be the final victim of the miniature killer. After a long wait, which has left many a CSI fan cursing the writers of the show, we were plunged right back into the action with the team scrambling for answers in the hope they would find Sarah.

CSI has become a phenomenon, sparking spin off series such as CSI:NY and CSI:Miami, as well as CSI inspired books such as Vivi Anna's Blood Secrets, from Nocturne - a book that successfully crosses a paranormal storyline with a CSI team. Vivi freely admits that her vampire hero is Gil Grissom as a three hundred year old vampire with washboard abs - oh my.

By the way, Vivi's books are well worth picking up if you like your CSI spiced with something very dark, and with plenty of paranormal spice. Her second book has recently been released with Nocturne, but as I haven't had the chance to sit down and read it I don't know if it follows the CSI theme or not.

So, has the CSI team of writers managed to hold onto their audience? Or was the show a wash out, let down that left the fans walking away, shaking their heads in disgust.

Silly question. With the winning team of actors, script writers and directors they'd have to mess up big time in order to leave the fans disappointed.

The team pull out all the stops in an effort to find Sarah. The hunt made all the more poignant by the building romance between Sarah and Gil. A romance that has been successfully down played giving the fans just enough to hold on to without turning the series into a romance. Connections between a team that has been together this long were bound to build and the feelings Sarah has had for Gil have been obvious for several seasons. Hinted at from the episode where Sarah sat with Gil watching a dead pig slowly decompose as part of an experiment.

Now Gil and the team must focus their thoughts on finding Sarah before it's too late, rather than let their emotions take control. In a situation like this the loss of control could easily mean a clue being overlooked. Science and heart work hand in hand on many an episode, but as Gil has said in previous episodes, they have to look at the facts and not allow themselves to be drawn into the emotions the crimes evoke.

So does Sarah survive?

It's an emotional rollercoaster of an episode and though she's found alive, her survival isn't assured...but in a skillful turn of events as Sarah struggles to open her eyes in the medical evacuation helicopter, the first thing she focuses on is Gil's name on his jacket.

It's this combination of science, heart, plot lines, skillful actors and dramatic hooks that have proven to be the driving force behind the success that is CSI. No wonder it's inspired so many spin offs and dedicated fans. And it's safe to say that the season opener, as the rain pours down on the trapped Sarah, doesn't disappoint. I'll be looking forward to watching the rest of the season and can only hope that CSI continues to go from strength to strength.