‘New York’ Has ‘More Personal Stories To Tell’

As CSI: New York prepares to air its season premiere tonight, September 23, executive producer Pam Veasey described the personal storylines that will show up during season six. (Spoilers after the jump.)

New York has been around since 2004, but Veasey said the current cast will be sticking around–at least for the time being. “[W]e really wanted everyone to come back this year,” she said. However, the possibility exists that an actor will eventually leave the show. “We are prepared for when it happens but we’re not preparing scripts for it,” she explained. “We’ll deal with it when it happens but what we like is that we’re sort of in our stride.”

“In the last few years our cast has really come together, we’re telling more personal stories because the audience is familiar with them and we’ve liked how they’ve grown,” Veasey continued. “We didn’t feel like we were finished so we didn’t want anyone to leave. We have a lot more personal stories to tell inside some really great twisty-turny topical crime stories.”

The show will immediately delve into personal storylines as season six gets underway. The shootout that ended season five will have repercussions for every member of the New York team. Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) and Lindsay Monroe (Anna Belknap) got married and had a child last season, and this year they “are facing a real challenge in their marriage. They’re going to face that challenge and continue to grow as a couple and as working parents with Danny’s big life-changing experience.”

Don Flack (Eddie Cahill) will have to deal with the loss of his girlfriend, fellow detective Jessica Angell (Emmanuelle Vaugier), who was killed in the season five finale. “[H]e was beginning a relationship with someone he really cared about and he is challenged with doing your job and having a passion for it when you feel like there was an injustice in the world and he’s not so much in love with the cop work and he starts dealing with that loss,” Veasey shared.

“With Hill Harper, who plays Sheldon [Hawkes], we wanted to reflect some of the things that are going on in the world and Hill Harper will be a victim of a Madoff-like financial situation where he loses everything,” she continued. “We thought most people think it won’t happen to them. When you sit down and plan your retirement and you wake up and you don’t have it anymore where do you start again and what outlet to do you have and what do you change?”

Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes) is “faced with letting go”, Veasey explained. “She’s doing what comes to mind for her best interest,” the executive producer added. “She’s the opposite of Sheldon, who was planning his retirement and she’s more about living today and taking chances and risks and you’ll see things like that. You don’t really expect that from her but she’ll be pretty aggressive in her own life not just as a CSI investigator.”

As for leading man Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise), “he has got to be stronger than his usual self,” Veasey revealed. “Usually he’s strong in his leadership in the answers of right and wrong in terms of crime fighting. He is the moral foundation of investigating a crime and putting someone away but when it comes to seeing everyone around you all feeling and changing and having reactions to loss and losses of all kind. Mac has got to be the emotional foundation, leader and he’s the guy they can all go to and he’s connected with each of them on all these different levels. It’s going to be a really fun, emotional year.”