Spin-Off from CSI: Miami itself spun from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2004- 2013) set in New York City. The show's character work is probably its strongest aspect, with multi-season arcs for several of the characters, particularly Mac, Danny, and Lindsay. The cast is full of slightly messed up characters, all the way from Mac down to Adam. In fact, the coroner is probably the most well-adjusted person in the lab. In general this is handled well and doesn't devolve into Wangst territory.
Aborted Arc: Peyton's single episode return in the end of the sixth season was hyped as the beginning of a love triangle. The season would have ended with Mac trying to choose between the feelings he still had for Peyton and the early-stage relationship he was beginning with Aubrey. Who he picked would have been revealed in the beginning of season seven. However, Claire Forliani got a part on Camelot and couldn't return for more episodes, plus Melina Kanakaredes decided to leave the series, pushing the writers to put aside that plot to focus on the newly-arrived Jo.
Accent Relapse: 'Yarzheit'- man pretending to be Jewish is revealed to be a German former Hitler Youth soldier. Even after 64 years of pretending to be a non-practicing Polish Jew, marrying a Jewish woman, and raising an Orthodox Jewish son, he reverts to his German accent when his crime is revealed.
Actor Allusion: In one episode the perp is an aspiring actor, and to catch him off-guard Mac pretends to be trying out for Of Mice and Men; Gary Sinise played George in the 1992 remake.
Detective Mac Taylor shares last names with his most famous role, Lieutenant Dan Taylor of Forrest Gump. Gary Sinise says he gave the character his last name in tribute to that character.
The character's first name, by the way, is after Gary's son, McCanna, whose nickname is Mac.
Also, in "Playing with Matches" the Quip to Black is "Houston, we have a problem." Referencing another movie Gary Sinise was in, Apollo 13. Although his character in that movie was not the one to say that line.
Mac playing bass in the jazz band is based on Gary Sinise and his Lt.Dan Band, though they're more a rock band. Some of the band members actually played members of the jazz band.
Carmine Giovinazzo's backstory of having to give up an aspiring baseball career was incorporated into the backstory of his character, Danny Messer.
Mac helping with the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance in 'Indelible' in season 8 was based on Gary Sinise's real life help with the project.
Alpha Bitch: She pretended to be homely girls' friends, doll them up, have her boyfriend have sex with them, rated the experience online, and give the girls a big necklace so everyone would know. The sister of her victims strangled her and then part of her house fell on her. Her name was Libby.
Amicable Exes: Jo and Russ. Although he didn't like Jo being a career woman, they're still friendly and even have some UST in the ep he appeared in.
And Another Thing: Detective Flack did this once. When he made to leave, the door gave him a Eureka Moment ? he realised that the victim's door had been locked from the outside, so whoever killed him must have had a key.
And Starring: Eddie Cahill gets an "And", Hill Harper the "With".
Anonymous Benefactor: Sid, who gave away much of his pillow patent fortune to the families of 10 victims whose cases had deeply touched him after discovering he was most likely dying of cancer and wanted to ensure it went to do some good.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign: There are some odd choices for character names from time to time, like that one girl named Risa Calaveras ("Laugh Skulls" in Spanish).
The Egyptian suspects in 'Seth and Apep'. An Egyptian viewer posted on another site that their names weren't Egyptian at all, but another Arabic-speaking area
Asshole Victim: In Who's There?, the victim was purposefully destroying his family's company, liquidating every cent they had, destroying the future of his own daughter, just to spite his estranged wife.
Danny: There's no way you're gonna make this shot, too, Montana. Lindsay: A Benjamin says I do. (shoots the billiard in the hole) Now you owe me $100.
Danny and Mac in "Fare Game". Danny bets Mac $5 that Lindsay won't eat the bug cuisine he brought back after a case involving it. Lindsay eats it and Danny has to pony up to Mac.
Lindsay Never bet against a country girl.
Part of the second episode of season 8 was a betting pool about when Mac would return to the lab
In 'Nine Thirteen', the entire subplot is the group trying to figure out whether or not Lindsay is pregnant, though they never explicitly state it until the end. After she tells Danny in the last scene, the others are shown paying up their bets to each other. And then Mac appears to have had one going with Christine as well.
It's extremely likely that they had a bet going, since he said that she owed him ten bucks before he relents and agrees to get evidence.
Beware the Nice Ones: After Danny jokingly asks Lindsay how she'd get away with killing him and suggests that she used her forensic know-how to clean up the scene, she responds that she wouldn't clean up and claim that Danny was a Domestic Abuser. Her "performance" is kind of eerie, to say the least.
Another time they're discussing what to do if the other dies: Danny wants a two-week long wake (first week for mourning, second week for partying) and Lindsay "jokingly" declares that she'll haunt him and any future girlfriends forever while eating all of his cannolis.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The car jacker's three daughters (blonde and brunette went into the family business, redhead went to law school)
Blood Brothers: Stella and her foster sister. The foster sister still had some of Stella's blood in a necklace vial, which led to it getting found at a PA crime scene during the Cold Case crossover.
Body In A Breadbox: Probably the most prone to this of all the CS Is, because bodies found in generic NY alleys would get pretty dull after a few weeks.
Booby Trap / Death Trap: An inventor's house, designed to gruesomely off his enemies. Stella narrowly avoids getting skewered by one of the traps
Bound and Gagged: Christine while she was being held captive in 'Seth and Apep'
Break the Cutie: Danny and Flack have both gone through this; Danny's involved several fights with Mac, being implicated in the shooting of another officer, and having his brother put into a coma while trying to save him from (another) murder rap. Flack got blown up, had to participate in the investigation and arrest of his mentor, had problems with his sister, and his gir lfriend died. Adam came pre-broken but hides it well most of the time, but has also been held hostage and roughed up, among other things.
Breast Plate: in some episodes, Stella wears a rather low-cut Bullet Proof Vest, exposing part of her cleavage—and the heart area.
Broken Pedestal: Mac, Danny, and Flack have all had former partners turn up again and turn out to be bad.
Brooklyn Rage: Danny, at times. He's settled down a little since becoming a family man, but his short temper can still get him into trouble.
Bullethole Door: The third season finale featured a group of robbers breaking into the lab vault in this way. Done slightly more realistically than most of the examples of this trope, involving a .50BMG sniper rifle (i.e. a BFG) and taking most of the episode.
Bus Crash: Aiden's death was a combination of this and Stuffed in the Fridge. Everyone expected a case of The Bus Came Back when the episode and Vanessa Ferlito's guest appearance were announced, but the character only appeared alive in flashback. She was found in a burned out car,dead and charred.
The Can Kicked Him: The guy who got locked in a high tech public toilet and drowned when its self cleaning feature kicked in.
Circling Vultures: All three branches of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise have used the spot-the-vultures technique of finding human remains. Even New York, for a body on a rooftop.
Comforting the Widow: Danny has sex with the mother of Ruben Sandoval, a kid who was accidentally shot during a robbery and died. Not exactly a widow, but a single mom- although it's close enough.
Cross Over: With the other CSIs, first with CSI: Miami pursuing a suspect wanted in both states,when a kidnapped girl was taken cross country and more recently when Mac's girlfriend was kidnapped by her shady employee's loan shark and the girl who impersonated her in Las Vegas was killed trying to rob a jewelry store.
Also with Cold Case. Stella's foster sister killed someone in PA, and due to their Blood Brother thing, the necklace she still had with some of Stella's blood caused one of the Cold Case guys to come investigate it in NY. Ended up with Let Off by the Detective, when Stella found that her friend had killed a man who'd been molesting her.
Cry into Chest: Lindsay,with Danny at the end of 'Not What It Looks Like'
Christine, when Mac rescues her in 'Seth and Apep'.
Death By Falling Over: It appeared that a main character kills another just by pushing them over, onto a rug. It even going so far as to have them arrested for the murder and even having them admit it. Later, it's revealed that the victim was just fine and got up after the other character left, only to be killed by someone else immediately after, in a decidedly more fatal way.
Mac: 9/11 widower, has been framed for murder, blown up once,seems to attract serial killers like flies to honey,shot nearly to death, his previous girlfriend left him with only a letter (though The Bus Came Back). Spent several months struggling to overcome speech aphasia related to his gunshot injury and nearly lost his new girlfriend because he was too darn stubborn to let her in on what was happening. Then,said girlfriend was abducted and nearly killed before Mac found her.
Danny: Has been framed for murder twice. The second time, his brother ended up in a coma while trying to clear Danny's name. He's gotten in trouble more than once for losing his temper with suspects, for a while he was suspected of shooting an undercover cop and it caused problems between him and Mac for almost a season. His neighbour's son got shot while Danny was looking after him. Was in a wheelchair from a motive-less shooting. Had his wallet (with ID, credit cards, and badge) stolen by Shane Casey. And then Shane Casey tried to kill him, fell to his death (not!),broke into his and Lindsay's apartment and theatened to kill their daughter, only stopped by Lindsay's shot. Later, he became a sergeant, only to have one of his rookies shoot the wrong man when two guys threatened the group, which had gone out for a drink.(One guy had a gun, but the rookie cop shot the other one.) On top of that, he was accused of having an affair because the same rookie was cozying up to him in a survelience camera tape. She then lied and said Danny told her to lie, nearly costing him his job, though he was cleared when Lindsay pressured the rookie to tell the truth.
Stella: Orphan, with lingering if mostly well-hidden issues as a result. Had to shoot a stalker ex-boyfriend and had her apartment burnt out by next-door neighbor.
Lindsay: Witnessed her friends' murder and has been dealing with the lingering trauma ever since. Married Danny who kept secrets from her and was in a wheelchair, and later became traumatized after killing Shane Casey in her own home. Had to listen to accusations Danny was cheating on her after the incident with Danny and his group of rookie cops, though it was untrue.
Flack: Alcoholic sister, had to arrest his mentor for tampering with a crime scene, which caused problems between him and Mac and between him and the rest of the PD. Got blown up. Girlfriend shot and killed, leaving him mentally screwed up for at least the first part of season 6.
Adam: Has hinted at past abuse (definitely psychological, possibly physical as well), and was held hostage and tortured so the criminals could get access to the lab. In the episode "The Party's Over," it's hinted that he may have OCD. His job also seems to be perennially in danger, first from budget cuts and then from one of the other lab techs. He also happened to be playing street hockey when a car bomb went off right next to him. His very secret shame is he slept through 9/11. He made up for it by going to "The Pile" the next day, although depending on how long he was there he could now be susceptible to cancer. Additionally his dad was/is an abusive jerkass who, thanks to Alzheimer's disease, doesn't remember the abuse or Adam (most of the time - he recognized Adam long enough to tell him what a disappointment he is and looked awfully shifty when Adam asked him about the abuse directly); he does, however, remember how much of an abusive jerkass his father was. Fortunately he has a very understanding girlfriend.
Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses. And having survived all that, he was then diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that may well kill him, as it's well advanced.
Sheldon: Lost a series of patients on the table, accused of murder, friend tried to bribe him to change evidence. Lost most of his savings in an insurance scam, resulting in him losing his home and having to sell a lot of his stuff until Mac offered him his spare room to give him time to get back on his feet. His sister was murdered, and his girlfriend left him some years back because she was raped and he ended up not being there like she needed. Got called for having marijuana in his system after his girlfriend was using it and spent time with him, causing him to breathe it in off her.
Jo: Forced out of the FBI after turning in a dirty agent that got a rape case she was working thrown out, attacked by the rapist after the victim's father tried to get him caught by framing him, and forced to shoot said rapist in self defense. Lost her sister to a drunk driver several years ago.
Defenestrate and Berate: One episode opens with a jilted boyfriend throwing his ex-girlfriend's belongings out of the window at her and her new boyfriend. The last item is her pet dog. When the new boyfriend's legs are covered in blood, the viewer is led to believe that the dog has just splattered on the sidewalk. The camera then pulls back to show the boyfriend has safely caught the dog and the blood has come from a passing truck that was spreading salt on the icy street.
Dirty Cop: Repeatedly. Danny,Mac and Flack have all had former partners or mentors revealed as this.
Don't Call Me Sir: Mac. Danny plays a joke on his future wife,Lindsay,on her first day on the job,telling her to call Mac "Sir". Mac tells her to stop after a couple timed,and she realizes Danny tricked her.
Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Mac is essentially reacting this way to the aftermath of being shot. He thinks it's his problem to get through, despite people starting to notice and one person saying he should at least tell his GF. Fortunately,he finally did,though only when she was near to leaving him.
Easy Amnesia: Averted. Mac took several months of therapy to recover from his aphasia.
Eureka Moment: Hawkes watches a Jennifer Lopez video during his lunch break. While admiring her, um, assets, he remembers they are insured, helping him figure out the case - it's an insurance scam.
Even Evil Has Standards: A hitman turns himself in and spills the beans on his client when said client switched targets from a man to a woman. This hitman doesn't do women.
The would-be killer in "Unspoken". Lindsay saw him shooting at his intended target and was injured in the chaos. He came into her hospital room intending to dispose of her before she could identify him. But then, he saw the drawing her daughter, Lucy, had made and backed off, realizing she was a mother. It ties into what he later tells the detectives about never wanting to hurt a child. Lindsay dying would have hurt Lucy.
Not quite executive meddling but Melina Kanakaredes' departure in season 7 is due to a pay cut that CBS had to offer.
Face Palm: At the end of "Oedipus Rex", when the Suicide Girls strut away and Danny realizes what he's lost out on by turning down one's offer for a date, you can see his arm rising toward his face. It's hard to credence that he's just waving goodbye, so this trope seems likely, even if it fades to black before we see it.
False Roulette: Mac does this to one of Christine's kidnappers as he tries to force the guy to talk in 'Seth and Apep'.
Fanboy: Mac apparently idolizes Ronald Reagan judging by the framed picture and "eight-hour documentary [he's] always watching".
Fan Disservice: The one time we see Flack without a shirt, he's got a whopping great hole in his chest where he was seriously injured in an explosion.
Finger in the Mail: An episode dealt with the heir of a wealthy family who'd been abducted at a young age with his brother. When the family was slow with the ransom money, his brother's ear was cut off and sent to the family; later, the brother was killed. The surviving man kept the ear in a jar of preservative.
Mac gets a tongue in the mail from Christine's kidnappers in 'Seth and Apep'. It isn't hers, but it did freak him for a while.
Finger Licking Poison: In "Page Turner", the killer coats the pages of a book in thallium to poison his victims.
Fingore: Danny getting his fingers stamped on and broken in the season three finale.
A few episodes after Lindsay's introduction and after impressing him with sports trivia, Danny jokingly remarks that he'll have to ask her to marry him if she keeps that up. Three seasons later...
In the same vein, in a season one episode, Mac says something about how Danny could fall in love one day. Danny laughs it out, but then Lindsay shows up in the next season and...
Friday Night Death Slot: Starting in season seven, CSI: NY aired Friday at 9pm Eastern. Season 9 was airing an hour earlier,at 8pm Eastern, then went back to its old 9pm Eastern slot after Made In Jersey got the ax.
Glass-Shattering Sound: "Not What It Looks Like"-it's used to shatter glass counters in a jewelry shop during a robbery.
Gone Horribly Right: A cage fighter was so afraid of a stalker harming his family that when his friend, a homeless veteran, died after an accident he decided to set the body on fire and fake his death. The fighter is eventually found, but he burned the body so throughly that there's no proof the homeless vet wasn't murdered and the cops will be forced to charge him, although Mac would try to put in a good word (he also got the vet a military funeral).
Gory Discretion Shot: 'Blood Out'. Kinda a requirement when the victim is being dismembered with a chainsaw.
Gratuitous Italian: For the Greek name of Stella Bonasera, whitch means Star Goodnight.
Grievous Bottley Harm: Danny gets beaned with one while having a drink with his band of rookies.
GPS Evidence: many times played straight, once subverted because an enemy of one of the investigators figured out that the team chased this sort of evidence.
Mac and Christine will be joining them now. If the show manages another season,it will have the most married team members with 3.
Harmful to Minors: As a teenager, Lindsay witnessed the murder of several friends. In season three, she is called to testify at the trial of their murderer.
Heroic BSOD: After seven episodes of teetering on the brink, Flack finally has one in "Cuckoo's Nest."
Hide Your Pregnancy: When actress Anna Belknap, who plays Lindsay, became pregnant, they used the close-up method with varying success. The second time around, they wrote it into the storyline.
Hitbox Dissonance: Came up as a plot point relevant to the motive in one episode. An Xbox used in a Gears Of War 3 tournament had been hacked to give one player a hitbox half the size it should have been, and everyone else a hitbox twice the normal size.
Hollywood Healing: Although it takes Danny several episodes to learn to walk again in season six, he still goes from wheelchair to cane and then to walking unaided and even running a little too fast, (like, two episodes)with only one instance of complaining that his back hurt.
Perhaps a more mild form with Mac...it is possible to recover from aphasia over a couple of months, but it still moved somewhat quickly. Not so fast as to make it impossible to believe, but a little bit. And, in real life, it can still re-surface when the person is angry or afraid...and Mac seemed fine the whole time he was worried about Christine in the crossover.
If You Die I Call Your Stuff: Danny, to Mac, in 'Slieght Out of Hand', jokingly. Mac was testing coolant gel used by stunt performers during burn scenes.
Mac: What other job allows you to set your boss on fire? Going once, going twice...
Danny: Sold, but if you go up in flames, I get your office?
I Have This Friend: Lindsay got pregnant, she used this in a spectacularly transparent attempt to ask Stella if she needed to worry about any of the chemicals in the lab affecting the baby.
I Have Your Girlfriend Christine's kidnappers make her call Mac and talk to him, then they talk, in 'Seth and Apep'.
Implausible Synchrony: The 333 killer will time certain events to happen exactly at 3:33, and he can rest assured that Mac will be freaked out when he looks at his watch.
It's Personal: Mac was in the Marine Corps; once a Marine, always a Marine, and he takes that very seriously.
Also the reason why Flack killed Angell's murderer in the Season 5 finale
The reason why every member of the team is out for justice first after Aiden is killed,and then in the season 8 finale. She shot Mac, and when you do that, they all come after you. Luckily, they didn't kill her over it.
If you kidnap Mac's girlfriend,it gets personal real fast. (''Seth and Apep')
Just One Little Mistake: The only mistake the second killer in "Criminal Justice" makes is he planted the evidence after Hawkes had sprayed for footprints at the scene, and the distribution of chemicals on the evidence alerts the team to the fact the evidence was planted after. Otherwise he nearly commits The Perfect Crime. Which makes sense, because he's a DA, and has fifteen years of experience with criminals and the crime lab to know how they work. Also a case of Murder the Hypotenuse.
Lampshade Hanging: Sid knows he has a tendency to find weird things while doing autopsies.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Really laser-guided with Mac...he can't remember a lot of random words for things after being shot. It's a real condition called speech aphasia.
Last Minute Baby Naming: After Lucy is born, Danny and Lindsay don't agree on one right way, leaving fans until the next season to find out whether it was Lydia or Lucy. (Lucy).
Lawman Gone Bad: Mac discovers that his first partner became one of these. Having stolen a large amount of money from a crime scene (he was nearing retirement and didn't think he was being paid enough) and murdered the girlfriend of the guy who has a vendetta against him and Mac (he doesn't know, then doesn't care Mac wasn't responsible).
Let Me at Him!: Danny, when he sees Mac with the guy initially suspected of killing Aiden (although it was really a recurring serial rapist/killer and not even him.) Mac warns Danny off, telling him they had to do it right.
Let Off by the Detective: Stella with her foster sister in the Cold Case crossover, and several of the team in another ep involving a stalking victim who killed said stalker out of desperation.
Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: One episode had Danny and Stella investigating the death of a millionaire inside his mansion's panic room. Danny accidentally trips the room, locking himself inside without a forensics kit. While he's waiting to be rescued, he uses the items found in the room to finish processing the crime scene.
Lampshaded by Danny addressing Stella as "Mrs. MacGyver" as she's walking him through said processing.
A later episode has Mac and Stella stuck fighting robbers who are trying to steal the Lab's confiscated drugs. Thank god Mac can build a bomb and laser trip wires from the stuff found in the lab.
Love Confession: Lindsay was the first,she told Danny in season four out of frustration after he slept with Rikki Sandoval. He eventually reciprocated and they're married now. Mac was the second,and his telling Christine was a big step for they guy who grieved for so long. It appears mutual.
Luke, You Are My Father: Slightly sideways example; the biological son of Mac's dead wife, who she gave up for adoption, comes looking for her. She died on 9/11, but he and Mac establish a sort of tenuous (Mac's not a people person) father-son relationship when Mac opens up and shares some memories of her.
Mama Bear: Not a great idea to threaten Lindsay's husband and infant daughter.
Man on Fire: Luke Blade during his magic trick and the guy he killed replicating the trick.
Married to the Job: Mac, mainly,for most of the series. Re-connecting with and eventually (presumably, given the proposal)marrying Christine pulled him out of it. Stella too sometimes.
Mistaken for Cheating: Danny. When one of his rookies shot an unarmed man rather than the gun carrier who confronted them,she deflected attention from herself by saying Danny was cheating with her and told her to lie. A video from the bar shows her cozying up to Danny and makes Internal Affairs more suspicious,though Danny denies it and insists she came on to him. Lindsay eventually pressures the rookie to admit the truth and clear Danny.
The Ugly Guy in the Ugly Guy, Hot Wife couple in "Blood Actually". His wife, who was intensely in love with him, thought he was cheating so she gave her diabetic husband regular chocolates disguised as sugar-free ones and replaced his insulin with sugar water. Turns out the "other woman" was a travel agent he was using to plan their 15th anniversary dream vacation.
Mistaken for Junkie: Hawkes. His girlfriend was the actual user; he just inhaled marijuana residue from her while they were getting it on. But it showed up in his random NYPD-mandated drug test and Mac was anxious to know what was going on.
Money To Throw Away: In "Brooklyn 'Til I Die", a man tosses handfuls of high value gambling chips into the crowd to create a distraction to allow him to escape the casino. This turns out to be part of a role-playing game.
Monster Clown: He's just trying to protect himself from a hitman.
Mood Lighting: The show started out rather dark and gloomy. After taking a lot of flak (although not a lot of Flack) for it, the lights were turned up for the second series.
Added to this is the harsh blue lighting used for the first season (used to make New York look slightly 'colder'), which was eventually found to be too cold and phased out for the second season.
Never Found the Body (Or Even DNA): Mac's wife Claire along with hundreds of other real-life 9/11 victims although the fall 2011 premiere revealed she escaped her tower before it fell...
Never Suicide: Stella is very (bordering on insanely to the rest of the cast) certain that a young woman who had been searching for her missing twin brother for over a decade didn't kill herself — the fact that she shot herself in the stomach instead of her head or heart is a telling clue.
Night Swim Equals Death: Too many episodes to list. It's usually signaled by finding the body floating in the swimming pool.
No Dialogue Episode: "Unspoken". Half the episode was backed by Green Day music and no speech.
No Name Given: Mac, whose full name has never been said,at least onscreen. (Mac can be a name in itself, though Gary Sinise and an early script said otherwise (see Actor Allusion))
Noodle Incident: Christine asks Mac if he recalls a time during a vacation when they both got drunk. Mac doesn't want to talk about it.
Not With the Safety On, You Won't: 'All Access'. Frankie doesn't know enough about guns to take the safety off when he tries to shoot Stella, giving her the chance to grab it, take off the safety, and shoot him as he continued to try attacking.
Official Couple: Danny and Lindsay,first Mac and Peyton,now Mac and Christine.
Offing the Offspring: If I recall correctly, what really happened to the Never Suicide girl and her brother: dad killed bro and years later killed sis when she found out.
Oh Crap: The look on the face of the rapist whose case ruined Jo's FBI career when he realizes he left a bullet in the chamber of Jo's gun before tossing it back to her as a taunt.
Danny also does this in 'Food For Thought' when Lindsay's wanting a ton of food and Danny thinks she's pregnant again.
One of Our Own: Stella shooting her boyfriend and Aiden's murder, two episodes apart.
Mac getting shot in the season 8 finale, though he got better.
Only Barely Renewed: Getting season nine came down to it being cheaper to make than CSI: Miami and wanting it for a New York themed night of programming.
Orgy of Evidence: In "Prey", the CSI team investigate a murder with a large amount of strange evidence; all of it designed to simulate eveidence encountered at early crime scenes.
Or So I Heard: Adam gives an in-detail explanation of what a "sploshing" party is before playing this trope hilariously straight. Adam does this a lot.
The Other Darrin: A variation of sorts. Mac's wife Claire was played by the same actress during both of her onscreen appearances (the flashbacks of 'Indelible' and Mac's Near Death Experience in 'Near Death'), but the pictures of Claire that Mac showed Reed in season 4 were of a different woman. Probably justified, as the show makers couldn't know then that they'd need someone to actually play her onscreen down the road.
Parental Sexuality Squick: Evident with Ellie after she and a boy sneak into the apartment and Jo thinks there's a burglar and confronts them, the FBI agent-old friend right behind her.
Percussive Pickpocket: An episode has Mac catching a pickpocket (who manages to hide his stash before they grab him) just before running into the Victim of the Week. They later find a security camera video of said pickpocket bumping into their suspect and realise that he stole a camera with vital evidence on it.
Phrase Catcher: By fifth season, every other character has picked up Danny's "Boom!" Catchphrase.
Pillow Pregnancy: The professional shoplifter in "Not What It Looks Like"
Police Brutality Gambit: Subverted, a suspect slams his head into the table and says he'll sue. Mac cheerfully explains why his injuries could only be self inflicted and says he injured himself for nothing. The serial killer who killed himself to frame Mac for murder is a much more extreme example.
Pyromaniac: The season 9 premiere and second ep were centered on one of these.
Quip to Black: Usually Mac or Stella (now Jo) but everyone has their turn
Rags to Riches: Sid. He wasn't exactly poor before, but he wasn't wealthy either. Now he's made a bundle on his pillow invention.
Rank Up: Danny, briefly. He took the sergeant's exam and passed, and was assigned to train a group of rookies. Unfortunately, when he took them out for a drink after hours, they were attacked by two men, one of whom was armed. Danny was knocked out, and later found that one of the rookies had shot the unarmed man, rather than the one with the gun. She got scared and tried to cover by saying Danny was having an affair with her and told her to lie. Lindsay eventually pressured her to tell the truth, and Danny was cleared of any wrongdoing, but decided not to keep the job. He didn't like the long hours away from his family and never felt really at home with the rookies like he did with the team at the lab.
Ransacked Room: The fake Christine's room in Las Vegas. Also has popped up in a few other episodes.
Unlike the other two shows in the franchise, this show has adopted a remixed version of the song (from the fourth season onwards).
Rear Window Witness: "Point of View" pays homage to the Rear Window where Mac Taylor is severely injured during the pursuit of a suspect and is confined to his apartment, observing the neighbors. Mac witnesses a shady deal similar to L.B. Jeffries and his suspicion of his murderous neighbor.
Remember the New Guy: The character of Detective Flack did not appear in the 'MIA-NYC Nonstop' pilot because he was not conceived until after the episode aired. 'Blink' seems to have picked up like he was always there, though. It might be possible for Mac to have just been working without Flack in the pilot, but that never seems to happen on any other case.
Remember That You Trust Me: Mac is horrible about letting people in, even Stella, his closest friend. This has come back to bite him in the ass more than once, including being a huge factor in the failure of his relationship with Peyton, and the huge disaster that resulted after he was implicated in a murder (see Taking You with Me). Stella calls him on it in the season six premier, when he's obsessing over trying to figure out who opened fire on the team at the end of season five and acting as if he's the only one on the case. He did seem to be improving a bit by the time Christine starts romancing him, but then he slipped into it again with his aphasia condition in season 9. Jo called him on it once, but he rebuffed her and had to apologize later. It took Christine several eps and very nearly walking away from him for him to finally get the message and open up to her. How much he'll open up to the rest of the team remains to be seen (and he's already nearly recovered so...)
Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Mac goes dangerously close to the edge when Christine is taken. At least one guy gets shot, and Mac appears to play Russian Roulette with another-though it's later revealed he only pretended to put the bullet in the revolver.
Room Full of Crazy: "Jamalot", "The Ride In". Mac turns his office into one while trying to figure out who's behind the shooting that happened at the end of season 5.
Run For The Border: Season Five premiere had the perp try to escape to Canada before Mac caught up with him. Needless to say, he failed.
Scars Are Forever: Mac's wife's son still bears the scars from the cabbie killer, which he hides with a scarf.
Mac still has scars from being burned by a hot object after a bomb blast in Baghdad. Granted, we can't spot them when he's swimming in 'My Name Is Mac Taylor', but makeup is really hard to manage during a water scene, so it's justified.(although in the season 9 opener, they did manage to show his bullet wound scar from the season 8 finale in a shower scene) The scenes where he's shirtless in bed with Peyton, though...
Second Episode Introduction: Flack. His character wasn't conceived until after the pilot on CSI: Miami and made his first appearance in 'Blink', the first actual ep.
Secretly Dying: Sid, most likely. Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma isn't *always* fatal, but he did tell Jo that his was pretty advanced. Jo knows, but he asked her not to tell anyone else yet.
Serial Killer: Several. Mac seems to attract them somehow.
Serial Killings Specific Target: In "Page Turner", the killer poisons his wife with thallium and then coats a book in the library where she works, knowing that others will be exposed to it. After another two people die, he launches a law suit against the city and the library.
Series Continuity Error: Danny was said to be from a family of cops, but episodes like 'Tanglewood' and 'Run Silent Run Deep' cast doubt on that. The producers tried to retcon by saying it was extended family, but many still don't buy it.
Mac tells the victim in 'Blink' that he used to sit with his wife in the hospital as he was sitting with her. This indicates a probable intent to have Claire found near death after the towers fell and then have died of her injuries later. In season 4, though, he tells Reed her body was never found.
The novel with Mac visiting Claire's grave and the one where he recalls not being able to contact Claire on 9/11 published before the respective revelations (of the body never being found and the fact that they did have a cell phone conversation, albeit one that was cut off in the middle) and novels aren't usually canon anyway, so it's easily excused.
Stella tells a suspect in 'Until Death Do Us Part' that she lived at Saint Basil's Orphanage until age
18, but in season 4, there was a big plot about her and a girl she shared a foster home with.
Stella could have in and out of foster homes when she was a child, always going back to the same Orphanage. In that case, it'd be easier just to say, "I grew up in an Orphange".
Adam had a brother but now he's an only child.
Christine's brother,Stan,had a different name in one ep.
Series Fauxnale: The format of the finales of seasons 7,8,and 9 are this, because of the uncertainty over renewals.
Sex Equals Death: It was blissful, unwed and not in the missionary position. Of course Angell was going to die.
Sexy Coat Flashing: Hawkes' girlfriend Camille does it at the end of "Food for Thought".
Sexy Shirt Switch: Not Stella or Lindsay, but the mother of Ruben Sandoval
Shopping Cart Antics: In "Obsession", one of the murders centers around a race run using shopping carts and where it is customary to sabotage the other teams.
Shotgun Wedding: Zigzagged. Danny wants to marry Lindsay after the pregnancy reveal, but she initially says no, only saying yes several episodes later when he does a surprise proposal.
Shout Out: An episode involving "a time machine" had the TARDIS materialization sound effect in and a Doctor Who reference.
The first victim in that episode was named Dr. Martin Browning. A combination of the names Martin (Marty) McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future.
The fourth season Halloween episode involves a "zombie" whose cause of death is a cricket bat to the head.
Several to The Matrix and Oz in an episode that featured Harold Perrineau as an inmate who's spared from execution when a guard dies. He also killed Sheldon's sister a decade ago, although he wasn't on death row for her murder since it's officially unsolved who helps Sheldon escape when Edward Furlong's character sets off a prison riot (he even gets to say a variation of "Come with me if you want to live!") while the rest of the Five Man Band uses computerized blueprints on a touchscreen table aid Sheldon.
"Civilized Lies": This is either a shout-out or a funny coincidence: A hood nicknamed "Mookie" winds up dying under the Deegan expressway. The Punny Name title a la "Fated Fatal" or "A Nimmel House" and the main characters manipulating Mookie's accomplice with faked videos (Deegan is a manipulative seer; the detectives manipulated the suspect's sight) could also count.
"Blood Actually", a set of three short stories, to Love Actually and Valentine's Day, but unlike the films there's no connections between the characters (unless Sid autopsying the three victims counts).
Sibling Yin-Yang: The Carver siblings: The brother became Chief of Detectives (I think) while the sister became an abusive, drug-addicted prostitute who was eventually murdered by her own son who got away with it since he was trying to save his younger siblings.
Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Mild case with Lucy Messer. There was a 6 month skip in the last ep of season 8,but Word Of God stated she was being aged up another few months to a year. She should be about 4 or four and a half but Danny said she was 5 early in season 9.
Solar Powered Magnifying Glass: The arsonist does this in his cell with his glasses at the end of "Where There's Smoke".
Stay in the Kitchen: Jo's ex-husband, while he loves her and their kids very much, would rather she be a stay-at-home-mom and they're both too stubborn to give in.
Sympathetic Criminal: Two boys trying to pay the rent, who are themselves robbed by a much more conventional robber.
Carver's nephew, who killed his abusive mother when she started beating his younger siblings.
The guy who stole a clown's costume to kill the drug producer who sent a hitman after him. He even gave the clown his day's pay.
Taking the Bullet: Danny, for Lindsay in 'Pay Up'. Danny was closest to the bar's window anyway, but it's clear the shooting starts and chaos erupts that he throws himself on top of Lindsay to protect her.
Taking You with Me: When Mac corners a serial killer on a rooftop, the guy jumps off rather than go back to prison. But he does it in such a way that it looks like Mac pushed him, and since Mac didn't wait for backup, there's no one who can say that he didn't.
The Taxi: It was used as a killing device by its driver.
Team Dad: Mostly Mac to Hawkes, including letting Hawkes stay at his place when Hawkes lost all his money to an insurance scam. Mac to Danny at times too.
10-Minute Retirement: Mac's retirement at the beginning of season eight. Danny's promotion to police sergeant (and thus away from the crime lab) also only lasts four episodes before he voluntarily demotes himself and goes back to being a detective.
Thanatos Gambit: Aiden manages to make her murder into one of these.
That One Case: DJ Pratt, who was finally caught due to his having killed Aiden.
And the kidnapped boy in 'Exit Strategy', Mac had been working that one since his early days as a detective.
That's an Order: Mac plays into the bomber's delusion that he's a Marine in 'Charge of This Post', taking on the role of a superior officer to get him to secure the BFG he's holding.
The Inspector Is Coming: The episode with Quinn. The lab stays accredited, but Lindsay is warned not to let Danny distract her into leaving evidence unattended again. And Quinn flirts with Mac a bit, reminding him about the time before Claire died that they kissed at a party. Mac can't deny liking it, but is firm about loving Claire and that he wouldn't have done anything further. Quinn seemed to possibly hope she might strike up something with him again, but he isn't interested.
Time Skip: Six months in the end of the season 8 finale, to give Mac time to heal from being shot.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The second of the three Valentine's Day stories in "Blood Actally" featured this kind of couple, although from the hot wife's perspective she was the lucky one to find such a great guy which made her husband's "betrayal" that much worse; unfortunately the only thing he was guilty of was acting suspicious in front of his apparently insecure wife while planning their surprise dream vacation.
Viewers Are Morons: Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING has to be explained to the viewer, especially during the autopsy scenes. While this is normal for a show about forensic science, the writers like to go a little to far to explain stuff that's common sense to even the average, non-CSI viewer.
Wait Here: Mac tells Danny this in 'Point of No Return', after Danny reveals he forgot his bulletproof vest. Danny obeys at first, then ends up chasing the suspect anyway when he runs outside and into another area. The result is Danny trying to survive a shootout until the others can catch up.
We Have to Get the Bullet Out: Averted in a variation. In 'Officer Blue', Mac needed the bullet lodged in the horse to help make his case, but he knew the animal wasn't likely to survive. Fortunately, he did manage to stall the surgery long enough that the horse did make it.
Widowed At The Wedding: "Until Death Do Us Part". The first bride dies from a formaldehyde laced dress that she didn't know was taken off a corpse. Later, Mac has to stop a groom from suffering the same fate from his tux.
Lindsay was written out for a few episodes during Season three, so Anna Belknap could go on maternity leave.
Done again in Season five, where Lindsay ended up pregnant with Danny's baby.
You See, I'm Dying: Sid, to Jo. The phrase isn't said verbatim, but it's what he's telling her all the same.
Your Favorite: Flack tried to help a reporter sweet-talk Mac by telling her his favorite breakfast foods... except he was allergic to one, and abstaining from another.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: "Hung Out To Dry". The plot seems resolved, until Lindsay comes in and announces that Shane Casey escaped.
Zero-G Spot: Not quite genuine Zero-G, but a couple in one episode got busted for public indecency because they were having sex while bungie-jumping. It's strongly implied that this is the female jumper's personal favorite kink.
Spin-Off from CSI: Miami itself spun from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2004- 2013) set in New York City. The show's character work is probably its strongest aspect, with multi-season arcs for several of the characters, particularly Mac, Danny, and Lindsay. The cast is full of slightly messed up characters, all the way from Mac down to Adam. In fact, the coroner is probably the most well-adjusted person in the lab. In general this is handled well and doesn't devolve into Wangst territory.
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