CSI: Miami

Between David Caruso and Emily Proctor, I don't know if I've suffered through a show of such bad acting that didn't understand it was bad. William Shatner, for example, knows who he is and how he comes off and plays it up; Keanu Reeves similarly comes off as if he knows he's just a prop. Not these two. I don't mind the original show (my wife is an addict), but not this one. Caruso delivers his sickening moralizing, Proctor makes Lindsay Lohan seem emotive, and there's this MTV-style perp walk at the end of the show. I root for the perps. None of them are guilty of wooden acting. I also don't get how Caruso gets away with his bad acting while Proctor is lauded. If she is trying to make a character who is colder than Mr. Spock and with whom I cannot sympathize, she's succeeding.

I don't really see the purpose of this show other then trying to make more money. The main CSI show is great and has interesting characters. But there is nothing that this show does that the main show doesn't do better and has far better characters. Just because the show is set in Miami we're supposed to tune into basically the same show with inferior actors and less interesting story lines? I don't think so buddy. And it seems like a majority of the CSI Miami characters are cast only upon what they look like.

It's just like how you make a copy of a key, the copy never works quite as good as the original. Same thing applies here.

I'm gonna get creamed with e-mails from fans of the original CSI show, but I can't help it. In my opinion, CSI: Miami is superior to the original and a good foundation for (the also superior) CSI:NY.

Don't get me wrong, the original is the original, but the fact that the real Miami/Dade CSI's are cops first allows this show to explode in gunfire at any moment...and place our lead, David Caruso, at the center of the action. Now I want to make something clear: Almost 15 years ago I saw some of Caruso's early work and I was trying to figure out what all the fuss was about. What makes THIS guy a sex symbol (on NYPD Blue)? Then, just as fast as he becomes a major star, he exits Blue, makes two movies that bombed (the really good "Kiss Of Death" and the laughable "Jade") and he's suddenly poison. It was after seeing Caruso in Kiss of Death and a previous film, The King of New York" that I realized we were missing one of the last REAL tough guys.

CSI: Miami has brought him back. Caruso spearheads this show with a vengeance. Sure his line readings have their own stilted rhythm, but he did the same thing on NYPD Blue and people loved him then. Caruso with a gun in his hand looks more natural than anything else I have seen on TV (and my favorite show is The Shield).

CSI: Miami is action packed. The stories are seedier. The cinematography is unmatched by any other show. Go watch the DVDs. Tune in Monday nights. I swear, you'll be a convert.

Then go watch Gary Sinise give the performance of his life in CSI:NY. You'll be glad you did.

One person ruins this show: David Caruso. All he does is pose. They should make it into a drinking game. Every time he strikes a pose, take a shot. Of course, people have died from alcohol poisoning. This would only add to the statistics. All the other characters have depth. He just gets this look on his face and 'strikes a pose'. Watch him turn sideways and look over his shoulder. Wow!! OOOhhh, he figured out something. Time for him to take off his sunglasses. I challenge any of you to find an episode where he isn't positioned sideways looking over his shoulder and where he takes off his sunglasses. Quit posing and pretend like you know how to act!!!!

And, how come he has to figure everything out? The other shows let the other characters show some brains. How 'bout letting the other CSI Vogue characters have a little spotlight?

Out of the all the CSI shows, this one is my least favourite. While the Miami locations are absolutely amazing(probably the most beautiful visually of the CSI shows in fact) and the music very cool, I find this show slack in pace and badly acted. Sorry to those who like this show, but as honesty is the best policy I will come out with it and say I don't really like this show, and I will try to explain why without trying to upset anyone. The pacing in almost every episode is quite pedestrian and there are times when it gets slower and slower and slower. Then there is the writing, Caine's moralising grates for me quite quickly, and the writing in general lacks the intelligence of Crime Scene Investigation and New York. The story lines aren't as well thought out either, they start off promisingly but some of them have cardboard or clichéd characters and then the episode either ends abruptly or has an ending that doesn't make sense. And I find the acting very wooden, the worst offender being David Caruso, sunglasses and all, as Horatio Caine. His dialogue is bad enough, but with Caruso reciting it constantly in a monotonic drawl it makes the character increasingly unlikeable. Overall, it looks wonderful and has great music, but it doesn't work. 3/10 Bethany Cox