Sinise is a terrific choice for lead Detective Mac Taylor. His acting skills in the television medium are unparallel. He is an Oscar-nominee, a prince of the theatre, a terrific actor all around. In recent years, he’s played a lot of heavy characters, with a lot on their shoulders; it’s no different here. Det. Taylor carries the weight of the city on his shoulders and in his gut. He rarely sleeps, always works, and goes that little distance further to make a personal connection with each case – this is, of course, what drains him. That’s his job; he is the lead, both in terms of character and detective. But he lacks a certain wit and charm to sustain him throughout the entire season. The weight of his character becomes tedious and overbearing. This is, in most part, due to the writing. The writers have decided to make him that kind of New York cop. But it’s been done so many times before that it can be hard to swallow at times. How depressed and overworked can one detective be? Where’s the freshness or humor of Fox Mulder, of The X-Files, or Lenny Briscoe, of the original Law and Order, or Carl Kolchak, of The Night Stalker? There’s none of that here. This is pure, unadulterated drama. Let’s hope he lightens up a bit as seasons progress because I truly enjoy watching him.

The other actors are serviceable, and I use that word in no disrespect to the actors and actresses. They are held in check by the scripts, not given their proper chances to break out or flesh out their characters to a great extent. It’s unfortunate, but it comes with the territory of an hour-long police drama. It took years and years to learn about the characters on Law and Order, and even on that show, it’s all peripheral to the cases at hand.

There are three standout stars of CSI: New York. They are the Production / Set Designers, the Cinematographers, and the Makeup Artists; in short, everyone who contributes to the details of what is seen on screen. After all, CSI is all about the details. Everyone who works on the crew deserves praise for their work designing and decorating the sets and for the makeup work on the victims. A fingerprint or missing contact can mean innocent or guilty and this show gives proper attention to each detail. In the extra features, the producers discuss the lengths they are going to for absolute realism on the New York set, especially regarding the forensic science. The zoom-in animation of the first two series has been abandoned and replaced by actual, real-life zoom-ins. They are, apparently, developing technology so that animation never needs to be used again to show a drop of blood or piece of hair.