ffutures: (CS!1)
ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2006-07-25 09:21 am

TV review

Can't resist quoting this CSI Miami review snippet:

The storyline is typically convoluted and engaging, and the episode has the requisite number of sharp one-liners, but CSI: Miami increasingly looks like a glossy 1980s pop promo. And why at certain points in the story do the cast start walking in slow motion?

Pretty much sums up CSI Miami - all style and no substance. Original CSI is still pretty good, CSI NY isn't bad, why is Miami so awful? Could it possibly be the cast?

[identity profile] kit-hartford.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 08:54 am (UTC)(link)
I thought that was just me. I really like "classic" CSI but after half a dozen episodes of Miami I despised the show, yet friends of mine raved about it. The mix of characters and their interactions in the Vegas version is great - in Miami they're just cookie-cutter archetypes with no chemistry. Give me nerdy, flawed Gil Grissom vs Horatio "aren't I cool" Caine any day.

I've yet to see CSI: NY though.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 09:43 am (UTC)(link)
NY isn't as good as Vegas but you can just about believe that the cast have lives off-screen. It's got a slightly gritty feel that Miami always seems to lack, I suspect because it's competing with other New York series such as Law and Order and can't sell on gloss alone.

[identity profile] elfbiter.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 09:06 am (UTC)(link)
I agree with that; Caruso overacts (why he turns his head in weird manner half time time?) and all the other characters look plastic and artificial. Has the director seen too much Miami Vice?

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
Is there such a thing as too little Miami Vice? I think I saw one episode.

Caruso overacts

[identity profile] heliograph.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 01:27 pm (UTC)(link)
He was great in Hudson Hawk!

Re: Caruso overacts

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd forgotten that - who was he in Hudson Hawk?

Re: Caruso overacts

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
OK, IMDB says Kit Kat - but I really can't remember who that was; one of the villain's goons?

[identity profile] booster17.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 09:32 am (UTC)(link)
Deja vu - I just read that review five minutes ago.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 09:45 am (UTC)(link)
There comes a point in most people's day when they have to decide if there is actually going to be anything worth watching on TV. I usually wait for the evening, but since I'm off work this week I did it a little early.

[identity profile] booster17.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 09:52 am (UTC)(link)
In my case, it was more a case of scanning and deciding that yes, tonight was a good night to stop off at my friends house on the way back from work.

[identity profile] secondsilk.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 10:21 am (UTC)(link)
I've always prefered the original to the others.
I love CSI Miami for all those reasons, though. And I do collect tacky souvenirs.

I like Emily Procter, and it's just so much fun. I've only watched two episodes in the last year, but I enjoyed noticing everything H takes off or puts on his sunglasses. I find CSI New York too weird, and I don't like the woman.

In Germany the adds for Miami say "It's only genuine with the sunglasses."

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
Tastes differ - but H seems far more judgemental than any of the other CSI people, and that's something you don't want to see in someone who is supposed to work strictly according to the evidence.

[identity profile] secondsilk.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 10:52 am (UTC)(link)
He is, yes, much more involved than Grissom. And he makes promises. Nothing like 'I will find the guy,' but he's very intense and personal.
I've never been good about following the clues myself. I watch for his corny pronouncements.
ext_27865: (TWOP_jennymalfoy)

[identity profile] uninvitedcat.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 11:20 am (UTC)(link)
CSI Miami was good for one thing - generating hysterically funny TWOP reviews!

[identity profile] cobrabay.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Television Without Pity, http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.html
It's a site for web forums about TV programmes, plus episode and season recaps. Reasonable signal to noise ratio, but US-centric, so discussions have usually moved on by the time an episode is shown in the UK.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks - yes, that's a site I think I'll be seeing more of...
ext_27865: (Default)

[identity profile] uninvitedcat.livejournal.com 2006-07-28 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
It's usually worth a giggle! (And apologies for the delay on responding - damned office blocking web-based e-mail systems mutter mutter grr grr).

[identity profile] cobrabay.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the TWOP notes for CSI Miami,
Although Horatio Caine may be God's red-headed stepchild and the Greater Miami-Dade area's personal crusader for justice, He's also a supercilious blowhard who made damn near every scene on every show irritating. After one season, we'd had enough, hadn't we?
I gave up on CSI Miami early in Season 2, still enjoying Vegas & NY.

[identity profile] dsample.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, it does have Emily Procter playing Calleigh Duquesne, but I prefered her as Ainsley Hayes on The West Wing.

(Hmmm... I CSI/West Wing crossover with Calleigh Duquesne, Sara Sidle, Ainsley Hayes and Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano.)

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-07-25 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
There are a couple of stories with Ainsley and Calleigh related on the big West Wing archive

http://westwingstories.com/

[identity profile] saranjeuhal.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
Unfortunately there's a lot of US TV that's following the CSI:Miami model these days, but luckily its on a lot of the channels I don't watch. The bad thing is that it's the stuff that seems to keep the masses appeased, and so will continue to air.

CSI: Miami

[identity profile] notoriousbkc.livejournal.com 2006-07-26 04:08 am (UTC)(link)
While watching last nights episode (I know, I'm addicted... I'm looking for a 12-step program though) I noticed that at one point they trace a computer connection over the internet. The number in the first octet of the address they eventually discover: 384. Nearly wet myself laughing.