February 07, 2005
Darkness Falls on Gotham: CSI:ny
Boy, it sure is dark in New York City. Everything's so grey...all the buildings are so damp...no one has proper beds...what an awful place it must be to live in...
Come on!
I've never been to NY, but I know that the sun does shine! It can't possibly be any grayer than Glasgow...trust me..
So, what's with this darkness? Who's idea was it to turn CSI into a Tim Burton film?
Horatio, in Miami, finds a body, and it's sunny! Despite the fact that Florida has rainfall every 5 minutes during summertime. (That might be a slight exaggeration).
Are the CSI people just playing on the stereotypes of the area? It never rains in CSI: Miami and CSI:NY is just one perpetual black hole...
And...back to our show now...
Gary Sinise is the newest leader of his CSI team, and wowee! Me likey Gary Sinisey. He has the stoney look of Horatio (David Caruso) and none of the playfulness of Grissom (William Peterson). So, why do we like him so much?
Becuase he's Gary Sinise, that's why.
Ok, so obviously, I think Gary Sinise is great. But the rest of the show...
eh.
There's not as much science, not as much picking up on trace evidence, not as much lab work, and as I mentioned earlier, not enough light.
I don't know any of the other CSI's on the team...nor does it seem like the producers want me to get to know them. They are simply little background stick figures. They're just there to do the work that we dont want to see Gary Sinise doing becuase it's boring.
I know it's just the first episode and, believe me, I'll give all the episodes their due attention...but so far, as if you couldn't tell, I'm not terribly impressed.
Of course, this first episode is mainly about Gary Sinise's character (whose name escapes me), and giving a bit of background on him. However, I don't necessarily agree that this is the right track for the pilot. We need to get to know the characters without actually knowing them first. Then we'll have the chance to ask, 'What's this guy's story?' and then the show can give its answer.
So...at last count we had not enough Team CSI, too much info about Sinise, and not enough light.
Am I leaving anything out?
Oh yes...I have to mention that even the pathologist sleeps in a damp dark corner.
Really. Flood lamps. I refuse to believe that all CSI departments in NYC are in gothic poorly light, very cold, cement buildings. If they are, then this helps explain why NYC has one of the largest unsolved murder case statistics.
Please make it like a hospital. Please make it warm. Please make it a place I'd like to hang out in with my uber-geek science buddies.
Or at least put some colour in there somewhere!
Ok, so this is one halo for gary, one halo for being a CSI spinoff and 4 pitchforks for lack of light, colour, Team CSI, and for not collecting trace evidence, as per the CSI handbook/manual thingy.
