I've never watched CSI...

Can't help you much, Erix. I only saw a few episodes in their early years.

 

They are mostly standalones. Pretty repetitive in my opinion. Las Vegas  is the flagship show. Followed by Miami and Las Vegas. William Peterson recently left the Las Vegas show 1-2 years ago and was replaced by Laurence Fishburn.

From the little bit of CSI I've seen, I can't recall any real differences between episodes, and I can't image there are any rewards to watching every single one. The mythology seems pretty hermetically sealed, with only brief nods to continuity - I do recall William Petersen's slow-burn being put to good use during a couple of longer arcs.

 

I would seek out the episodes directed by the big guns - I know guys like Friedkin and Tarantino have done an episode or two.

 

Also, as I understand it, CSI Miami is the wacky one, and CSI NY is the boring one? Y/N?

Watch The Killing on AMC.  CSI is crap and a waste of time.

 

Why would you want to start now?

Do whatever you have to do to see the Furry Convention episode of the original CSI

 

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0534691/ Written by Jerry Stahl!

 

Also the ones with Melinda Clarke as the dominatrix Lady Heather are great.

 

Edited by Cameron Hughes - 4/8/11 at 11:34pm

Ugh... IMO the only decent/watchable CSI show is CSI:NY. It tries to be more grounded in reality. CSI (the original) quickly became a parody of itself. CSI:Miami is just bizarre with no connection to our reality or logic.

 

My wife used to be a huge CSI fan, from the beginning. So I watched with her. These days she can only stand CSI:NY - sometimes.

CSI (Vegas) is pretty much my guilty pleasure.  I started watching it because of Petersen.  But I enjoy it.  It's a pretty fun, silly, kinda trashy show. Though I did tune out after Petersen left.  Caught a few episodes after Fishburne joined and they were pretty awful, even by CSI standards (though no fault of ol' Larry)

 

 

If I were you'd I'd start with the first season of the original and go from there.

A&E airs a lot of CSI:Miami.  I watch it while I'm working out sometimes, and it is hilariously wacky.  Caruso is straight out of a bad 80s flick, the cinematography is heavily saturated, the crimes are bizarre...and I LOVE it.  Is it a good show?  Heeeeeeell no, but if you want to kill time, there's worse things to watch.  As far as which one is the best, I'd go with NY.  The original bores me to tears.

From the few episodes of CSI: Miami that I've seen I'm pretty certain it's a comedy. I can't watch CSI: NY since Sinise's depressed mug makes me suicidal. And I think CSI: Las Vegas should be classified as sci-fi by now. Their tech is at least half a century more advanced than what we have today.

Fact: No matter how insane CSI gets, it's subtle and nuanced compared to Criminal Minds.

 

I find that extremely troubling.

It is?

Criminal Minds features an episode where Frankie Muniz plays a comic book artist turned vigilante serial killer, who murders street gang members with dual sabers, while bathed in Sin City inspired Black and White cinematography.

 

And this episode like every other in the series sticks to it's humorless guns, and never mentions how fucking absurd this sounds.

CSI proper made for perfectly fine television for about four or five years ... and then severe repetition set in. (Cameron's right, though -- the furry episode is a must.) I never even made it to when Peterson left the show.

 

CSI: MIAMI was a hoot for a while. I'm not sure if you call what David Caruso does "acting," but there's no doubt it can be entertaining as hell. For a season or two, I was enjoying it more than the original. And then, just like its progenitor, it got old.

 

I tried CSI: NY in year one and was quickly bored out of my mind.

 

The show isn't great, but the cast is just really fun to watch, and some of the gore they get away with for primetime is just plain unbelievable. This season, Fishburne finally found his footing, and thankfully lost some weight. Really miss Petersen and Duran though.

I've never watched the spin-offs.

Hmm.

Erix, maybe you're watching the wrong show.

 

Caruso CSI:Miami one-liners.  I don't get how the characters (not the actors) take him seriously.  All of them are relatively normal folks, and Horatio is just...out there.

I...I don't understand. You're actually planning on spending some 640 hours on TV shows that you've never seen an episode of? That's like 320 films or who knows how many books. You could spend that time on actual honest-to-goodness quality pieces of art, entertaining and enlightening. Now I'm not judging or anything, I know spend a lot of time doing worthless crap, but I want to try and understand your thought process here.

 

 

Sure, I mean that's only sensible, to quit if you get bored. But I just don't understand the planning of it. Why of all things CSI?

To be honest, If its interesting Network shows you want. You could try Fringe. Or there are a few Cult Gems like The Middleman or Better Like Ted.

 

But have fun with CSI, Erix. The Lady Heather episodes with Melinda Clarke are worth a look. She and Grissom have nice chemistry.

how do those people solve any crimes when they never turn the lights on?

Watch CSI Las Vegas if you like the mystery and science working together. Spike shows reruns.

 

Watch CSI Miami if you like BADASSERY. It's more of a COP show with bits of science to support it's loosely connected evidence to the crime. It's hilarious and awesome at the same time. LOTS of kidnappings. They don't have a problem killing off main characters and making them bad guys too.

 

Watch CSI New York if you are acompletely boring individual.

 

 

How many times in CSI New York do they drop a line about Gary Sinise being a Marine? It's like that's the entire schtick of the character.

I think you should watch CSI Miami first.

I absolutely hate CSI NY. CSI and CSI Miami are two of my favorite shows though.