CSI: NY Starts Tonight

NY Magazine gets city coroner Jonathan Hayes to write about the latest CSI spinoff, CSI: NY, set in our great city. Now, Gothamist is predisposed to the reigning cop-and-lawyer show in town, Law & Order, especially since it actually shoots its episodes in NY, but we won't mind seeing CSI:NY in reruns or on Spike TV at some point. Gothamist did like Hayes's insights about being a coroner:

There�s a forensic saying that �there is only one honest witness to every murder��the victim. And we talk about the Five Questions: Who are you? How did you die? When did you die? Where did you die? Who killed you? But we don�t ask those questions out loud. Watching Khandi Alexander [of CSI Miami] caress and murmur to the bodies creeped me out, both for its bedroom-level sensuality and its tacit New Ageism. Aesthetic issues aside, that sort of sentimentality is just not an option if you�re going to stay sane doing this work.

CSI creator and producer Anthony Zuiker tells Hayes that "[The New York series] will be more desaturated, colder in winter, oppressive, muscular. Less gloss, less glamour," and from the commercials, the photography does have that slick Bruckheimer touch.

The Post's Adam Buckman is finding this third CSI "bloated": " After all, there comes a time in every viewer's life when he or she must ask him- or herself: How many pale and decomposing corpses with bruised throats do I need to see in a single lifetime?" The NY Times' Alessandra Stnaley compares CSI: NY and Law & Order, the big Wednesday night at 10PM showdown TV network execs are salivating over; she tries to explain that CSI is more male and L&O is more female, but this description is most fitting: "It comes down to two different tastes in diversion. Watching "Law & Order" is like doing needlepoint. "CSI,'' be it in Las Vegas, Miami or New York, is closer to playing a video game."

Are you a CSI fan?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on September 22, 2004 1:49 PM

Comments [rss]

Van Helen

I agree, whoever is doing the color-timing on this series needs to chill the fcku out.

The last surviving 'locked in' victim looked more fugged up in the hospital than when she was chained down in basement thanks to far too much desaturation. Cool your heels Mr. Telecine; it's just a Jerry Bruckheimer spin-off.

Why did 'locked in lady' blink twice for yes and then have a seizure when 'Mac' showed her a photo of the property owner when all along it was the Russian cab driver? What happened to that jerk?

It was sorta nice that Mac visited ground zero at the end of the show but he could have poured his deceased wife a coffee or brought her a memorial bagel or something.

Matts

Last night, after smoking one too many spliffs and a few too many pale cosmos I found myself watching CSI: NY. It was a horrible TV trainwreck. I will never, ever, ever watch that indulgent, masturbatory, nightmare piece of crap ever again. There are too many reasons to count. God, I need to get cable!

Jimbo

Ok, this show is just vomit inducing (close-up of a brain stroke?!). And if you needed triangualtion to tell you that that photo was in LIC, you're not a New Yorker. I Hope Green & Fontana catch this case, because CSI:NY is dead.

S.D.

Liked the Acting but the story was Seriosly lacking. Some of the Leaps in Logic were closer to great Leaps of Faith.

Being a NY series (Filmed in LA?!?!) I suppose the ending scenes were Mandatory, but it seemed a little stretched.

rachelleb

the river is always green. heh.

mister

I'm not digging these new L&O episodes. Quit ripping from the headlines and come up with something interesting.

Maybe I just don't like the way Wolf does social/political commentary.

Adam

What do you mean "too blue"? Like blue in that weird way that CSI: Miami is yellow? It's like they put some weird yellow filter on the lens for that show. Like it's all sunny and hot and hazy in Miami. Maybe every spinoff will get a color. CSI: Chicago can be green. Like the river on Saint Paddy's.

rachelleb

it's too blue, literally. the coroner is hot though

Adam

It's filmed in L.A.?! UGH. Not that I'd otherwise mind, but I was watching Pat O'Brien's "The Insider" last night (or was that "E.T."?) and Kankareniedeesss was all like, "New York City plays such a huge role in the show, it might even be the best character." Hmmph.

And Jonathan Hayes is supercool. He's an ME by day, but did you know he also does freelance food writing? He often does pieces for Martha Stewart Living, and he's fond of describing food in almost medical terms. One piece he wrote about pot roast featured a line that was like, "... the meat becomes succulently tender as the grizzle renders and decomposes over heat and time ... " Something like that. And I think his wife's name is Pepper! Oh, and he's English. So there's that accent thing. Very cool guy.

oliver

I WAS interested in possibly watching 'CSI:NY' for cool-ass Gary Sinise and the crazy-curly hotness of Melina Kanakakerakakikikaredes, but then I found out the show's filmed in LA (with only some exteriors shot in NY). NYC is a character in itself (see 'Law & Order'), so this is some bad casting.

One side question: Why is Sinise's character nicknamed "Mac" when his first name is Mack. Is there something I'm not getting? Is his first name pronounced "mak-kuh"?