REVIEW | Dazzling visuals set pace for TV procedurals, making departure of Fox or anyone else secondary

Jorja Fox fans surely will be bummed when “CSI” returns with a new episode tonight. Fox left the show a few weeks ago, and she took away her character, Sara Sidle. But don’t expect “CSI” to suffer much because, duh, the true star of America’s No. 1 drama is its sci-fi special effects.

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And Fox - who was named the 80th sexiest woman in the world by Stuff magazine in 2003 - was great in her best moments. But she too was just a cog in the wheel of an ensemble show that (like “Law & Order”) barely notices its detectives have personal lives, including Sara’s long affair with Grissom.

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This expensive style is taken for granted, since it’s changed the style of the TV procedural. But it’s really quite extraordinary. Several weeks ago, a guy was decapitated while racing a go-cart behind an 18-wheeler on a road. But you didn’t see the decapitation.

Instead, the scene opened with a head in a helmet bouncing down the road, as the camera perspective swirled around it and the “Blue Danube” waltz toyed to the rhythm of the bounces.

This was played neither for drama nor for comedy. It was just a dash of commercial art, a form of art that at top form, like this, defends the capitalization of art.

Where “CSI” goes dumb is in the easy confessions cops get out of criminals. And the personal stories of detectives are too rare to give the show much depth.

That said, Sara’s departure brought about a sweet scene where Fox portrayed quiet despair. When she finally split the Las Vegas cop shop, Fox commanded long and lovely little scenes for Sara to just be, to just sit, to deteriorate on camera.

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