Critics: 'CSI: NY' Must Set Itself Apart From Predecessors

CSI: NY, the much-anticipated second spinoff of the very successful CSI franchise on CBS, earned cautiously favorable reviews in major media outlets for its debut last night. A recurrent theme was the need for the series to differentiate itself from its predecessors and from its competition in the timeslot, NBC's venerable Law & Order, though both lead actors received largely positive notices.

• Barry Garron of The Hollywood Reporter (via Yahoo!) expressed "sheer admiration for how well the production team has mastered the various elements that have made this franchise a ratings winner", yet worries that the concept is being spread too thin and whether there is really enough audience demand for "close-ups of eyeballs, contusions and intercranial bleeding." Lead actor Gary Sinise "is capable of greater expression with his face than many actors can muster with a Shakespearean soliloquy", but Garron found no more character moments in this pilot than in a typical episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, though he did say this series was up to the franchise's "usual standards of deliciously grisly crimes."

• Variety's Michael Speier (also via Yahoo!) wrote that the new show "plays out exactly the way auds will expect it to, while, truth be told, bringing up the possibility that enough's enough," for he observed no evolution from the previous series in CSI: NY. "Whenever Manhattan is involved, there needs to be something special -- at the very least, germane -- yet this seg could have taken place anywhere," he noted, arguing that the city itself should play a role in the drama. Speier was relatively unimpressed with other aspects, calling the initial crime "easily solved", Sinise "lackluster" and the rest of cast little more than "hunky". He called for stronger plotlines and personalities.

• In the city where the series is set, The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley found the show had things in common with its rival Law & Order as well as with previous CSI series. She also found it very masculine in its focus and in the way the main characters express themselves, saying that Sinise "takes...martyrdom further" than the self-righteous character played by David Caruso on CSI: Miami.

• MSNBC's Paige Newman hoped that this new series would focus more on the interaction between the investigators and detectives and how their methodologies differ, because she found the new series somewhat redundant:

  A franchise show is a lot like a popular restaurant chain. There’s comfort in knowing that what you’ll get will be familiar and palatable. But nobody wants to eat at the Olive Garden every night, so what if you could make the Olive Garden in New York feel slightly different from the one in Las Vegas?

  She said that while the Law and Order shows changed the focus in the spinoffs, CSI has largely changed the scenery, and not all that effectively in this case as it was fairly evident that most of the scenes were not shot in New York.

• Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle liked the dark atmosphere, calling the series "beautifully shot" and saying that post-9/11 New York "is like another important cast member." Goodman felt that this series could have launched the franchise and improves on the formula.

• However, over at The Boston Globe, reviewer Matthew Gilbert described CSI:NY as having an atmosphere of "urban gloom...turning the viewer into a prisoner of its tedious, cold colors", which he found as heavy as Sinise's performance. Co-star Melina Kanakaredes "is reduced to the role of fretting anxiously...a tiresome collection of curls and compassion", he added, so although he was impressed with the "very cool science" with "plenty of grisly cadaver examination", Gilbert ultimately preferred the earlier franchise.

• Chicago claims Sinise as its own, since he co-founded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company there. The Chicago Tribune's Sid Smith focused on his performance, saying that Sinise "comes with an air of danger and malevolence that gives an edge to his crime-fighting" and his character is "clearly grappling with inner demons." The emotional subtext, claimed Smith, livens up the "steamrolling, high-tech efficiency" of the franchise.

• USA Today's Bill Keveney noted that CSI: NY "promises to delve deeper into its characters' psyches than the previous incarnations of the forensic franchise." The two main characters have a somewhat strained relationship they are working to repair, and the actors told him that this personal background drew them to the series as much as the crime-solving formula.

• "The 'CSI' trademark is being so liberally applied now that this new entry comes across now and then as self-parody," wrote Tom Shales of The Washington Post. While he admired Sinise's understated performance, he found Kanakaredes difficult to hear. Though he did not see the promised character development in this installment of the franchise, Shales said he hoped that it was coming:

  After all, a viewer can look at just so many microscopic blood droplets and poop particles before freaking out and running off in search of SpongeBob SquarePants or some other blessedly merry prankster.

  CSI: NY will broadcast regularly Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. on CBS.

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