When the boards are down, you find yourself searching elsewhere...
STORY LINE: The CSI crew follow up on the death of a transsexual, LOLA, and discover an underground world of desperately unhappy people and unscrupulous doctors only to willing to prey on them...
[LOLA] Late 20s to early 30s, a stunning woman with a trace of male features, Lola's an exotic dancer at the Tropicana, who's about to be married to a nice guy, Aaron Laner, when she's discovered murdered in her car on the side of the road. As the facts surrounding Lola's murder are discovered, it's revealed that Lola is a transsexual who had inhabited a sad underground existence before her change and engagement to the unsuspecting Aaron gave her a shot at normalcy. However, upset because she still hadn't healed from her latest surgery, Lola is determined to get the goods on the unlicensed surgeon who did her surgery, and her determination costs her her life.
[MIMOSA] She is mid 20s to early 30s. A gorgeous showgirl. A woman with a trace of male features.
[MERCEDES] A tough chick (preferably Hispanic) with the body of a woman but the face of a man, a denizen of a transvestite hustler bar, she's initially very hostile/aggressive towards Nick and Grissom, but she drops the hustler schtick when she hears they're looking for the butcher operating on transgenders who are turned down by mainstream surgeons. Articulate and angry, Mercedes tells them, "We're not the monsters, trust me," and gives them a name to go after.
[PINK HEADPIECE] Late 20s to early 30s. A man who looks like a woman, this dancer at the Tropicana wearing a pink headpiece talks with Brass and Catherine about Lola. Like the others, she's unfazed by anyone getting surgery of any kind--plastic, transgender, whatever.
[PURPLE HEADPIECE] Late 20s to early 30s. This female dancer in a purple headpiece backstage at the Tropicana talks with Brass and Catherine about Lola. Like the other dancers, she's unfazed by the sex change operations of some of her colleagues.
[BEV] 40s to 50s. A woman who used to be a man. One of Dr. Bower's first successful transgender patients, she's now an instructor at Dr. Bower's lifestyle class for his transitional gender reassignment patients. At a class observed by Grissom and Catherine, she gives some tips on watching out for that tell-tale knuckle hair.
[DINA] This MTF (male to female) gender reassignment patient sits with her fiance, Ed, in therapy. She wonders what to do about their Baptist church, where their pastor doesn't know about her sex change.
[IRV] This angry pre-surgical man in Dr. Lavelle's therapy class rips off his wig, revealing male pattern baldness, a shocking contrast to his stylish plucked eyebrows, sweetheart lips and ample bosom. He's near tears as he complains about his difficult process.
[RASPY TRANNY] This raspy-voiced transsexual/transgender with the body of a woman but the fact of a man at a dive for tranny hustlers has a face that's collapsed into monstrous, asymmetrical bulges due to street level botox injections. He/she claims it gives you good cheekbones, but nothing lasts forever.
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It's surprising that when you've prepared yourself that something will suck, you actually like it a lot more than you ever thought you would, or can at least accept it. Of course, this doesn't always hold true - nothing will ever remove the icky feeling caused by the sight of that Connor/Cordy scene, but it's been generally accurate with me.
I didn't hate S5 of the West Wing as much as others appear to. Sure, some things were pretty bad, the dialogue can be lacking, and you spend some time wondering if there'll be some inexplicable helicopter crash or a tank rolling down the street because that's just something Wells would do, but I generally liked it. It's certainly not at the same quality of the earlier seasons, but I wasn't expecting it to be. Maybe when you start with such low expectations, you find yourself surprised. Or maybe I'm just too forgiving, which might be the case, as I was even okay with that WaT scene.