My new Spot-on piece is up and it’s all about Sin City. This is a convenient time to register a complaint.
Why is it that as good as CSI is, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY suck?
I’m not a big fan or anything, but I’ve seen each show a few times and it seems readily apparent to me. Miami is all about Lieutenant Horatio Caine whipping off his mirrored sunglasses; NY is about bad New York accents.
This 2003 article in the Las Vegas Mercury notes that CSI creator and executive producer Anthony Zuiker is a hometown boy.
“Putting it in Las Vegas was always my first choice,” says Zuiker. “People did try to talk me out of it. ‘Could you try this show in New York? Chicago? Does it have to be Las Vegas?’ My answer was always yes. Why would it be Las Vegas? Because I know the town.”
“The first thing they asked me when I pitched the pilot was, ‘Could you write 100 episodes?’” Zuiker says. “The answer, of course, had to be yes. The reason why is because I’ve been here for 32 1/2 years. I grew up in town, went to Woodbury Junior High, to Chaparral High School [class of 1986], because we used to play crapless craps at Caesars or hang out at the Golden Nugget for $2 steaks and go to Odyssey Records. When you know the town that well, you can very easily bring a freshness and newness to television in terms of Vegas because you know all the ins and outs.”
I was in Vegas last week and a cable executive grabbed his girlfriend by the throat and a guy was killed by a bomb in a casino parking garage. Events like these make CSI look like a model of searing realism. More importantly — based on limited viewing — the original CSI seems better acted and more low key. CSI seems less prone than its offspring to zooming in on forensic evidence with all the ZIP, BANG and POW of a cartoon.
Compare CSI: Miami to Miami Vice, which also wasn’t realistic, but had more style and a better sense of place. Contrast CSI: NY to Law & Order; L&O is filmed in the Big Apple and it shows. You don’t see car chases and people running around ridiculously. The stories are drawn from the headlines, but usually aren’t overdone. I recall a recent CSI: NY with a couple shot by a bow and arrow from another rooftop.
Favorite Las Vegas TV show? The quickly canceled Lucky on FX, created by brothers Robb and Mark Cullen, who were former Vegas residents. Only 13 episodes, but I’d buy the DVD.
Tags: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY