Okay, Aaron liked it. That helps, because his review gave me some perspective:

CSI:NY brings a new element to the table – Psychological Thriller.

Okay, if that’s what it’s aiming for, great.

Let’s go back a bit though, back to the pilot review that was launched from CSI: Miami:

Okay, the show’s over, and you know what? I’m really not thrilled. The characters were subdued, the fancy tricks were getting old and the plot was hard to follow. Oh, and what was with the forced one-line conversations? “Miss moppet got him hard” “Yeah, he likes his tricks with a candle stick” “One word” “Blow” “Yeah”.

…

I think a large part of my distaste stems from the fact that picking New York seems like such a copout. They can play to all the stereo types, say “ahh… New York” 20 times and just ride the wave.

I’ll also ignore the fact that the other CSI’s weren’t in New York for a reason: New York has been overdone for crime stuff.

So, how was the show? It was a hell of a lot better than the pilot. The forced lines weren’t there. There wasn’t a single “only in New York” type line either.

That said, I don’t feel it stayed true to CSI or to crime dramas in general and, as a series opener, I felt it was too much too soon. At least for me.

CSI (and L&O to a lesser extent) both value one thing above all else: the chain of evidence. No conclusion is allowed unless there is evidence to support it. No premise is allowed unless the evidence leads you there. And no hunch can be followed without some kind of evidence to back it up.

So, what happens? Girls are murdered. They follow the evidence to the primary location of the murders. The only evidence they find there is some semen. They eventually tie the semen to one of the girls’ uncles. He’s a mad scientist. But they can’t prove he did anything to the girls, and he doesn’t admit to it. The episode ends.

So… They found the bad guy (probably). He’s never lead away to jail. And even if he was there isn’t enough to convict him anyways because his semen is only in the house (he was renting) and not in or on any of the girls.

Grr…

Aaron says this isn’t about the legal aspect so much as the Psychological aspect. I can buy that. I didn’t like the show because of it, but maybe if I watch next week I can do so with a more open mind. It was better than the pilot. But it really didn’t feel like either of the other CSI’s.

I’m willing to give it a second shot, but only because the other two are so good.