YMMV / CSI: Cyber

• Bile Fascination: When the show premiered, it got a fair amount of press (and recap blogs) focused on its... poor understanding of computer science.
• Complete Monster: "Python" & "Python's Revenge": Python, real name Dante Wilkerson, is one of the world's most wanted hackers. A figure born with reptilian skin, he would run a website where he sells faulty guns and drugs in the hope of creating anarchy. When cornered by the authorities, he would brutally torture and kill any agents sent against him. He would also hack various government agencies and release the information to criminals. Becoming obsessed with Agent Avery Ryan, he would kidnap, torture and even, just to mess with her, would give drugs to Avery's friend. About to be captured, he threatened to use his tech skills to overdose the friend if they don’t solve his riddles, but later attempts to kill her anyway. After failing, he tracks Avery down and kills the agents guarding her in the sick hope that if she kills him, she would become just like him. Python mixes cold sociopathy and vindictiveness and stands out as one of the most wicked of the franchise has ever produced.
• Genius Bonus: There are moments where, among technobabble, the show will get something technical correct but even explain it in an illustrative, comprehensible way. This often serves to make the stuff they get wrong all the more maddening. For example their explanation of how a Kinect works (projecting a grid of infrared dots across the room and tracking how it sees them to detect user movements) is correct. This is followed by them saying that a Wiimote-like motion controller has a GPS (And using said GPS to find the remote across town)... which is wrong (motion controls use Bluetooth for connectivity, a gyroscope for movement detection, and an infrared camera). In "Fire Code", the villain has a code that can cause printers to burst into flames. In real life, there's an obscure, semi-obsolete error message in Unix and Linux systems, lp0 on Fire (more commonly known as Printer on Fire).
• Moral Event Horizon: In "Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes", a sociology professor purposely inflames racial tensions in a town, solely to get revenge on his racist cop brother.
• Paranoia Fuel: The series exploits the New Media Are Evil trope for all it's worth, leading this article to criticize what the author calls the show's "ridiculous scare tactics".
  • The first season's Opening Narration has Avery explaining how she was once hacked and it caused someone to die, before following with a whispered "It can happen to you" for maximum paranoia.
• So Bad, It's Good: A number of people seem to be watching the show simply because they find the over-the-top scares and simplistic depictions of cyber-crime and technological terms to be hilariously cheesy.
• So Okay, It's Average: Then there are those who unironically like the show in spite of its technical errors, but don't feel it quite matches up to the other CSI series.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In "Selfie 2.0", the characters travel to New York City to catch a fugitive. Somehow, Mac Taylor doesn't get involved. Granted, Gary Sinise was probably busy shooting his Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders pilot, but still....
  • They also travel to Miami. One of the characters (Who is the father of the culprit) is even a Miami police officer. Yet not a cameo from CSI: Miami in sight.

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