Random 24 Feb 2005 02:08 pm
Why I like CSI Las Vegas
Or, why I don’t like CSI Miami and New York.
Simple reason: Grissom. The original CSI is a show for geeks, with geek characters. Grissom (William Petersen) is the alpha geek: he loves his job, loves his insects, and would love them even if he didn’t need them for his job. And he seems to be mildly autistic, which is a major geek feature. And the other characters are not too far behind: Greg (Eric Szmanda, the DNA lab guy), Nick (George Eads) and Sara (Jorja Fox) are major geeks as well. Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) and Warrick (Gary Dourdan) are not so much, but that’s ok; the others make up for them. And apparently Will Wheaton is going to be in one of the episodes, and he’s nothing if not a geek at heart.
CSI Miami, by comparison, is not even in the same league. The boss, Horatio (David Caruso), is not a geek: he’s a cowboy in the wrong state. And, let’s face it, Miami is not a particularly geeky city. As for CSI New York, having watched only the pilot, I can’t really say much; but Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) is no geek. He’s waaay too emotional even for a policeman (”no one sleeps in NY until we catch this killer”, “you should be put to death, no trial”). Even those cool tricks with face-recognition software and wireless fingerprint-matching don’t make this a cool show. And what’s with the CSIs going to the crime scenes by themselves? Didn’t they watch the first episode of the original CSI?
So, just one CSI a week is fine with me. The Miami and NY versions should have other names; they’re not the same type of show.
on 12 Apr 2005 at 10:30 am 1.Leila said …
Gary Sinise’s character is a former Marine; from what I’ve heard, the actor is also a freaking republican, total conservative, I lost all the respect I had for him.
David Caruso is a total canastrão. And my husband hates that blond chick from the Miami show. I like that new character though, a young cute geeky guy.
I’m not a huge CSI Vegas fan either. From all those detective dramas, my favorite right now is Without a Trace. I like the actors and most of the characters, plus there’s still a chance that the missing person will still be alive.
on 02 Aug 2005 at 3:12 pm 2.Nadia said …
I love CSI Vegas and I am a geek. I actually did an internship in forensic anthropology and I just love watching my guys put goo into test-tubes each week. I love the show so much I have purchased the episodes on DVD and watch the re-runs twice every night. My favorite character is Dr. Robbins — I like Grissom, but Robbins has heart and while the only character with a physical challenge is a true adult that is married and has children. This is a great show with a great cast.
on 24 Dec 2005 at 10:15 am 3.Coffin said …
It’s good people are expressing their opions. I would agree in saying CSI Las Vegas would definatly have to be my favorite out of the series. Although I haven’t taken much time to watch the opposing CSIs I think I can say that I like the characters the most in this one. The connections between the characters, the realtionships have so much though put into them, they change at times whether they grow stronger or weaken, or turn into something else entirely. The characters themselves are all so complex. Grissom, or the alpha geek as you described is a very complex character, and I don’t think that anyone really has him all figured out yet, whether it’s the fans or the other characters themselves. They have complicated pasts that seem to keep expanding and actually involve themselves with the character’s personalities. Like Sara Sidle for example, she is often deeply affected by cases that deal with domestic violence. She is so affected by them because she experienced that in her own childhood, that indicates thinking on the writes behaf. It also involes your opion of the characters, some characters people can relate to, other seem to have people merely after them because of the attraction they have to a certain person, an actor, or the attraction of two characters to each other. Whether you’re in favour of the ‘Grissom and Sara realtionship’ or anyother characters realtionships with eachother or not it keeps people watching in hope of seeing the couples get together. The cases seem to be as complicated as the characters. They have so much thought put into them, some of them with an outragous and bizzare quiality that keeps you watching. But most of all, I like the fact that it keeps you thinking, trying to figure out who the murder is, who the theif is, whether it was an accident, a suicide, or the characters. Also, Vegas seems to have a certain quality that the others lacks, the atmosphere.
Most of hese qualities I’ve mentioned can be found in all of these CSIs it’s just in your opion whether it’s done better in one than the other. But the viewers on’t lie when they say that they like CSI Las Vegas better than CSI Newyork or CSI Maiami. Oh, and the defintion of autictic is as fallows: A psychiatric disorder of childhood characterized by marked deficits in communication and social interaction, preoccupation with fantasy, language impairment, and abnormal behavior, such as repetitive acts and excessive attachment to certain objects. It is usually associated with intellectual impairment. So yes, I guess it could apply to him.
Coming from a geek as you can tell I agree that Vegas is the suprior CSI.