CSI Franchise

Anybody watch any of the shows? Which ones? I do CSI and CSI NY...I liked the first couple of Miami seasons, but couldn't stay with it after Speed died.

I hear that it's The Lawrence Fishburne Show now?

What's up with Vegas? I tuned it the other day and for some reason Arthur Frobisher was friends with Catherine? o_O

Was. Now it's The Ted Danson Show, (yeah the Arthur Frobisher thing...or Sam Malone) and he's a lot better on it than Fishburne was. I wasn't sure how I'd like him, but I can live with DB if Grissom isn't coming back. Fishburne stayed two seasons, and then left...the storyline had Cath becomingn supervisor after Grissom left and then getting demoted thanks to The Ray Langston Show. Cue Russell coming in.

edited 19th Dec '11 9:24:18 PM by chicagomel

Hmm, I thought that Danson was a regular on some cable series?

I wouldn't be surprised if the producers banked on Fishburne carrying the show, and overworked him until he left in disgust. These cast changes are depressingly reminiscent of Criminal Intent, too.

He's on both now,apparently. And yeah, they are kinda sad. CSI NY and Miami are fairly stable, except for Sela Ward coming into CSI NY a year or so back, and I barely keep up with anything Miami, but I can say neither are going near CSI's level of changes.

edited 20th Dec '11 10:59:31 AM by chicagomel

I enjoy the first CSI. Miami can burn in hell. And NY is just meh.

Vegas I can enjoy since most of the characters are fun. And yeah, Ted Danson fits so well with the cast. Better than Fishburne did.

edited 20th Dec '11 7:02:05 PM by Ghilz

I'm not feeling Russel. He talks like that earnest, dottering professor of photography you had in college. It could be that Danson's just phoning it in, or it could be the writing (they keep mentioning he's from Seattle for a reason).

Beyond the fact that he's simply too old not to have retired by now, Russel isn't a leader so much as a next door neighbor who offers advice through a picket fence.

The squad is still a body without a head.

Ehh, it's probably time to mothball Vegas. I remember this show being on the bleeding edge of movie-style cinematography and writing. Now its main gimmicks has been co-opted by Dexter, and the twists are so obvious that it makes me embarrassed for the show.

edited 9th Jan '12 10:15:02 AM by johnnyfog

I still like Vegas, but do think it has gone down hill a bit.

NY is okay, but I don't watch it regularly.

Miami I can't stand. The few times I've watched it the plots were ridiculous and everything was so gratuitously orange it made my head hurt. The other two shows have an noticeable blue/green tinge to them, but it's nowhere near as bad.

I don't mind Miami. I haven't tried watching NY yet.

The tinting does kind of bug me. The first CSI was never tinted, so the tinting in the spinoffs seems a little goofy to me.

They film both in LA. Without the filter, everyone would notice this.

I've always been impressed by, despite other faults, the ability of each spin off to not really have anything I can easily point out as a fundamental difference in the show but still to come off as distinct in flavour in the franchise. The original CSI is CSI: What happens in Vegas with sex, greed, gangsters, some more sex, sexual fetishes and sex generating episodes plots, then you have CSI: Miami Vice and CSI: Post 9/11 Depression.

And they are aware of it, I think. Half of what makes CSI: Miami look like it is set in Miami (aside from the filter) is the use of Michael Mann-ish sweeping pan of boats and harbours and the same total disregard for filming anything above a woman's shoulders that I find in Burn Notice.

Anyway, I reckon the show has jumped the shark already but even with declining ratings, they probably make a gazillion dollars from international syndication and dvd sales from each season so it will lurch on.

Figured it was time to revive the thread with all the stuff that's been happening!

CSI Cyber is out and midway through its first season. I find it ridiculous but endearing in its ridiculousness. It's got everything you'd expect from a CSI show: Just enough accuracy in the scientific stuff they are saying you end up knowing someone had to do some research, while at other times cutting corners and exagerating in ways that makes you believe no one could be this ignorant. Of course there's the CSI judgement/fear mongering "It could happen to you!" or the team musing over the show's version of Uber and how unsafe it is compared to good old taxis!. And of course complex CGI shots to make hacking and computers look way more awesome since the show can't do the regular CSI's gory kill cams.

The original CSI is finally getting cancelled after 15 years, but they'll get a 2 hour TV movie as a finale, with Grissom confirmed to appear. Ted Danson's D.B. Russell is confirmed to join as a regular on Cyber and Peter MacNichol isn't returning.

edited 14th May '15 12:28:57 AM by Ghilz

You know, I knew the original was on borrowed time after they dropped 3 original cast members in a season and a half, maybe less.

I mean Miami and New York dropped cast members first (Speed and Aiden), but it was just the one and took a while before anyone else left or was added. Sara left season 8, then they killed Warrick at the end of the same season, then Grissom left almost literally right after.

Then the original members left or were fired (who the hell thought it was a good idea to drop Paul Guifoyle? Though in hindsight it wouldn't have mattered either way since it's cancelled now). I stopped watching after the end of season 8 or so (apparently William Peterson really did carry the show), But I kept up with cast changes, and now that at the end of this season, Sara, Greg Sanders and maybe the coroner were the only original cast members left.

Still, I'm glad their bringing (mostly) everyone back for the series finale.

"Borrowed time" being over a third of its total run. :P

I think "Shambling zombie corpse" is at this point more accurate.

Nothing against Patricia Arquette, Oscar winner and all that. But it seems that apart from Grissom, the CSI franchise has boring leads.

I find the rest of the cast to be good - based on what they got to work with, but it's true she's amazingly bland.

I'm not sure if that's her fault, or the writing's fault.

And Horatio Caine is anything but bland XD. That man is some Shatner-quality glazed ham XD

No he isn't "glazed ham". Shatner is ham because he overacted. When was the last time you saw David Caruso overact? Or act at all? His character is cartoony but only in the way they tried to make him "cool" and a God-Mode Sue. Hamming it up was about the only thing he didn't. Instead playing this... almost surreal character who doesn't look at people he talks to and can't display an emotion or energy to save his life. I get what you mean, but hammy isn't the word because all he did was mumble and look bored. It's like he tapped into the bizarro version of a Large Ham and somehow ended up every bit as ridiculous.

Had the final episode revealed that Horatio Caine is an alien or robot trying to pass for human and failing, all I would've done is nodded and said the show finally made sense.

edited 17th May '15 12:05:59 PM by Ghilz

It occurs to me that their last cop show with a female lead was Cold Case.

CBS likes the old school John Wayne leads. I'm sure he was meant to be played straight. Caruso had other ideas.

Not originally. The first three or four seasons were fairly basic. I actually preferred it that way, and stopped watching sometime after Speedle died. Not related to his death, mind you, it just happened to coincide.

edited 17th May '15 12:42:36 PM by johnnyfog

Well the actors have gone on record saying they treated the show like a comic book that's filmed instead of drawn. That does explain some of Caruso's.... Horatio-ism, like people not looking at one another when talking (Common in a lot of comic books).

edited 17th May '15 12:41:30 PM by Ghilz

Why is Peter leaving CSI Cyber? Not enjoy the show? Bad experience on set? Personal reasons?

The original CSI.... not surprised it's getting canceled, but the fact that it's cancellation kinda blew by me shows just how stale the show had gotten. I didn't even know Nick was even gone.

The 2-hour series finale, I'm looking forward to, if only to see Grissom again.

Considering his character is a literal idiot (The head of the Cyber Division who doesn't know shit about computers) and exists solely to propagate CSI:Cyber's New Media Are Evil message, I'd leave too.

I think Elijah on CSI Cyber has super powers. Dude manages to break a car window while underwater by pistol whipping it. (Making the window break into splinters no less). While outside the car swimming and without anything to brace against. And in another episode, he manages to clear the 8 feet-ish distance between himself and the edge of a rooftop fast enough to catch a perp who had jumped off the ledge.

I expect a season 2 reveal where we learn Elijah's a cyborg built by Krumitz.

edited 19th May '15 5:26:43 PM by CobraPrime

Re: "Considering his character is a literal idiot (The head of the Cyber Division who doesn't know shit about computers) and exists solely to propagate CSI:Cyber's New Media Are Evil message, I'd leave too."

That is a problem I had with Peter's character as well, but to be really honest, that sort of thing happens constantly in real life. Someone is put in charge of something they don't know squat about..... and get paid more.

After looking at some articles it appears it was the producers' decision to let Peter go, for the above reason, and have Arquette's character be the person in charge.

Ted Danson joining the team is interesting, but I think this may have to do with CSI's initial writing team having plans for the character, and not being able to go through with it due to the sudden cancellation.

Personally I wish CSI: Cyber would do a cross-over episode next season. They go to Miami, run into Horatio... go to New York, run into Danny and Lindsay...

edited 19th May '15 8:32:30 PM by Brandon