The SmarK TV Rant for CSI New York: Season 1, Episode 1
“Blink”
– Originally aired September 22, 2004
Well, that was a downer.
Always advocating beating the horse until it’s dead, TV’s fascination with self-replication continues with the second spinoff in the CSI franchise, as we move from the lights of Vegas and the sunshine of Miami to the dark and scary place that is New York City.
In the driver’s seat this time around is Gary Sinise, best known as Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump, and now playing the more serious and brooding role of Mack Taylor, a New York detective who leads the CSI team. His wife was killed in the 9/11 attacks, and he’s just not a very fun guy. Neither are any of the other people on this show, judging by the premiere episode. Whereas the original is a dark show interlaced with humor and Miami is a brighter show without the humor, this is a dark show with no humor, and it is, if nothing else, a marked change from the rest of the franchise.
The cast is comprised largely of unknowns and a couple of weird choices (Eddie Cahill as a hard-boiled NYPD detective?) and unfortunately the first episode didn’t present much opportunity to get to know anyone in the immediate family of the show, besides main character Mack Taylor. Understandable, since he’s the star, but obviously the strength of the other shows lies in the ensemble casts, so hopefully they’ll flesh that out in the future.
The Setup
As with most episodes of CSI, the police find a body in the park, and someone’s been a very bad person. Marks on the body indicate death by asphyxiation, and that the poor woman has been a dead for a few days. No other clues about identity or motive are forthcoming.
The Investigation
When the husband turns into a dead end, Taylor is quickly shocked to discover another body, with similar death wounds, in a garbage scow on the river. A camera found near the body reveals some clues about her identity, including a neat trick involving triangulation using buildings in the background of the photos, and leads them to a run-down rental property, where they find a THIRD body. It’s seemingly the latest victim of a very disturbed serial killer, left for dead in the middle of whatever he was planning for her. In this case, it involves having her bound to the bed with opera music blaring in the background. She’s still alive, but can only communicate by blinking, which is tenuous testimony at best. When she dies, they’re left with nothing, but one more trip to the crime scene yields their suspect, and he gives up the info pretty easily.
The Good
– As noted, this show has a VERY distinctive tone and pacing to it. Slow and depressing all the way. For those looking for something different out of the CSI franchise, this would probably fit the bill.
– Gary Sinise plays dark and tormented very well.
– It uses Baba O’Reilly as the Who song of choice, one of my favorites, albeit one that has nothing to do with police investigations.
The Not-So-Good
– The script felt like a giant deleted scene from Se7en or something. Geez, lighten up, guys.
– Most of the supporting cast seems pretty generic and uninspired, character-wise.
– Catching the bad guy didn’t really involve any tremendous leaps of science like in the other shows, it was more like an episode of Star Trek, where one thing doesn’t work so you fire some techno-babbled laser at it and find a better clue. It just ended up playing out like a “body of the week” whodunit, rather than an inside look at the world of forensics, like the original CSI does.
