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Upon arriving in New York, Lt. Caine meets and teams up with Det. Mac Taylor to solve a number of linked murders. As the investigation proceeds, we meet the members of Mac’s team, Det. Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes), Det. Third Grade Danny Messer (Carmine Gianvinzzo), Aiden Burn (Vanessa Ferlito), Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper), and N.Y.P.D. Homicide Det. Don Flack (Eddie Cahill). The team-up of Gary Sinise and David Caruso is the highlight of the episode; they have great chemistry and work very well off each other, even in moments when they don’t share the screen; i.e. phone calls, etc. It’s one of the best team-ups of talented actors I have seen on television lately, like a pseudo-Spiderman and the Hulk team-up. However, the story quickly dissolves into a standard cop-show, with the detectives doing equal work in catching the multiple murderers. At first I was upset, but then I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “It’s just television.” The stories were never the stars of the CSI-product, anyway. It’s the little things that count and CSI: New York does a fabulous job of giving weight to the smallest fiber, key, or lock of hair.
As season one progresses, some stores are enthralling, and some are only so-so, but that’s ok, because they’re all enjoyable. The audience is treated to a parade of drug dealers, serial killers, jealous sons and husbands, and the occasional crazy medical doctor. Not too much is said about the characters’ personal lives, but that’s understandable with the amount of forensic information being digested with each crime scene. The producers and actors say they are doing their best to incorporate more character points, and over time, they will. The only character that receives back-story early on is Det. Taylor. We are treated to a heavy back-story involving Mac’s wife, who died in the World Trade Center attacks. He is very sullen and withdrawn around his team members, but he confesses his pain to a brain dead coma victim, and we learn that he has held onto a beach ball that was inflated by his wife because it has her breath in it. It’s a touching moment, handled very nicely by Sinise. But the scene that follows, a slow, drawn-out moment at the present Ground Zero is heavy-handed and uncalled for within the show. It occurs so quickly in the life of the show that it seems like a ploy to tug at heartstrings.
The relationships between the characters are standard. Certain characters like each other and some dislike each other. There are possibilities for romance and for fights, jealousy and one-night stands; the endless possibilities of season one. There are the smart ass CSI detectives, the tough N.Y.P.D detectives, the strong women, the tired cops, and so on and so on. It’s a staple of the genre. It ...
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