CSI: Miami

I'm gonna get creamed with e-mails from fans of the original CSI show, but I can't help it. In my opinion, CSI: Miami is superior to the original and a good foundation for (the also superior) CSI:NY.

Don't get me wrong, the original is the original, but the fact that the real Miami/Dade CSI's are cops first allows this show to explode in gunfire at any moment...and place our lead, David Caruso, at the center of the action. Now I want to make something clear: Almost 15 years ago I saw some of Caruso's early work and I was trying to figure out what all the fuss was about. What makes THIS guy a sex symbol (on NYPD Blue)? Then, just as fast as he becomes a major star, he exits Blue, makes two movies that bombed (the really good "Kiss Of Death" and the laughable "Jade") and he's suddenly poison. It was after seeing Caruso in Kiss of Death and a previous film, The King of New York" that I realized we were missing one of the last REAL tough guys.

CSI: Miami has brought him back. Caruso spearheads this show with a vengeance. Sure his line readings have their own stilted rhythm, but he did the same thing on NYPD Blue and people loved him then. Caruso with a gun in his hand looks more natural than anything else I have seen on TV (and my favorite show is The Shield).

CSI: Miami is action packed. The stories are seedier. The cinematography is unmatched by any other show. Go watch the DVDs. Tune in Monday nights. I swear, you'll be a convert.

Then go watch Gary Sinise give the performance of his life in CSI:NY. You'll be glad you did.

CSI: Miami is a fun show to watch, like the original CSI:. But the chemistry in the original isn't quite there.

Grissom, in CSI:, is interesting, deep, and can easily be believed to be as smart as he is. But Horatio in CSI: Miami seems a bit more flat, and his bright moments seem cheesy and scripted.

Other characters don't seem to grow in CSI: Miami, while there's clear changes in their CSI: counterparts. Also, the side stories are more interesting in CSI: than in CSI: Miami.

So, while I'll watch CSI: Miami, it's not growing on me like how the original did.

Between David Caruso and Emily Proctor, I don't know if I've suffered through a show of such bad acting that didn't understand it was bad. William Shatner, for example, knows who he is and how he comes off and plays it up; Keanu Reeves similarly comes off as if he knows he's just a prop. Not these two. I don't mind the original show (my wife is an addict), but not this one. Caruso delivers his sickening moralizing, Proctor makes Lindsay Lohan seem emotive, and there's this MTV-style perp walk at the end of the show. I root for the perps. None of them are guilty of wooden acting. I also don't get how Caruso gets away with his bad acting while Proctor is lauded. If she is trying to make a character who is colder than Mr. Spock and with whom I cannot sympathize, she's succeeding.

I quite agree with those who say that CSI Miami is the best of the three series in the franchise. Not for anything other than it is more entertaining. It has beautiful cinematography, and beautiful people are sprinkled throughout as eye candy. What sets the show apart from the other two is that CSI Miami doesn't attempt to take itself very seriously (hence the negative comments of many others who do try to take the show seriously), and if you as the viewer do the same, you will probably enjoy watching it.

If on the other hand, you start looking for 'reality' and for inconsistencies, you will find plenty: - CSI's do not wonder about shooting people and catching criminals; they are essentially lab rats. - David Caruso's character and his famous one-liners are preposterous (but are intended as such) - CSI's and ME's do not wonder around crime scenes dressed as models and wearing 6 inch stilettos - Crimes take months to solve, results take weeks to obtain, not everything is solved in one day etc., etc...

I for one, decided to turn my brain off, poor myself a beer and enjoy the show!

Good Googly Moogly, I HAD to comment on this show. It is like one of those accidents on the side of the road you don't want to look at because everyone is doing it and causing traffic to slow down to a crawl, and yet you do hoping you see a dead body or something! I don't know what is worse, the writing or the acting....honestly it is a tie. the original CSI: LV, OK, I got it....it was corny, yet still mildly entertaining, but this....wow. There are a lot of pretty people plastered on a day-glo and pastel, sun-drenched background, but after that what is there? I don't claim to be an expert or anything, but I am 99.9% certain crime scene investigators do NOT interrogate suspects and witnesses, chase down and arrest the bad guys, and I think the forensic science aspect of it is amazing, but these local police departments seem to have better equipment than NASA! I am sorry, I had to finally vent and I doubt anyone actually reads this but I must know I am not alone in my complete hatred for this show, yet sick perverted need to watch it....almost like I want the aneurysm to take me as I scream at the T.V. ....my behavior is as idiotic as the show, I need closure ....thanks for listening