It was the year 2000 when a new investigative procedural changed the history of TV series forever. CSI – Crime Scene Investigation first aired on CBS. One show revolutionary who manages to capture the attention of a large portion of the public, offering them a way of doing investigations that had never been seen on TV and many new very interesting detectives. Interesting and fascinating in its own show death and violence on screen without being unseemly and too explicit but also technically advanced in explaining laboratory procedures and experiments aimed at verifying the assumptions of its detectives, the first and original version of CSI set at Las Vegas it was an epochal success and quickly became an unmissable product that kept it going for thirteen exciting seasons. But, as we well know, the brand did not limit itself to this and churned out four spin-off: Miami, New York, Cyber and the recent revival Vegasnot to mention tons of video games and the like.
Se CSI: Crime Scene Investigation can be considered the founding stone of all this successful franchise, the question that many enthusiasts have always asked themselves is: What is the best CSI spin-off? For what reason? To answer this question we have tried to reorder them from the “worst” to the best so as to bring out their strengths and weaknesses.
Without further ado, here’s our ranking of every CSI spin-off!
4) CSI: Cyber
Let’s start from this assumption: the very fact that CSI: Cyber only lasted for a couple of seasons, net of the very long-lived colleagues, should in itself constitute an alarm bell about the totality of its production. In fact, it is a series which, dealing so thoroughly with technology, ends up betraying what had always been the scientific focus that was the soul of CSI and which, on the other hand, fails to be interesting enough to allow us to overlook this lack. Not even the help given by the character of D.B Russell at Ted Danson who had helmed the last few seasons of the original series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation manages to save the doctor’s team Avery Ryan (Particia Arquette): the dynamism of the mother series, the sequences in the laboratory and at the coroner typical of CSI are in fact resized in favor of much more static scenes, in which the viewer must limit himself to watching the protagonists progress in the investigations thanks to the softwarefixed screens and other solutions that are undoubtedly not very attractive.
A series that has not been able to hold a candle to the shows that preceded it!
3) CSI: Vegas
When, in the midst ofera of reboots, remakes and relaunch of historical brands, there was the announcement of a revival of the historic first version of CSI, it goes without saying that the fans of the series went into a frenzy. In CSI: Vegasin fact, the two fans favourite Grissom and Sarah (and later also Catherine) return to resolve a serious internal scientific crisis that threatens to release a very high number of murderers, in a short first season made up of 10 episodes designed to make it adapt to modern times and a second that returns to the more famous twenty-episode format. Thinking of seeing two of the most loved faces of the procedural on the screen smacked of a miracle, but even this was not enough to raise the show at the level of the parent series. What results is indeed a relaunch averagely appreciated by both the public and the criticswhich however, by its very nature, seems out of time and which has now lost that incredible charm given by the effect CSI which had captured the public so much at the time of the mother series and the first ones spin-off.
An enjoyable experiment which, however, seems to have already exhausted what it initially wanted to communicate.
2) CSI: New York
In second place in our ranking we find CSI: New York (who, however, plays quietly with the first classified), the third spin-off Of CSI set in the Big Apple. His strengths? Fantastic settings urban and an interesting and close-knit team led in an excellent way by Mac Taylor of the talented Gary Sinisea former Marine with an orderly temperament and an unwavering sense of duty and his sidekick Stella Bonasera. While it resumes nocturnal settings and goes to investigate the criminal dynamics of New York, between Mafia and gang fights, this spin-off ben develops the links between the protagonists and adequately explores the background of the various characters. It is, in fact, a series that well refers to the atmospheres of the first CSIgoing on to tell brilliant and interesting cases, but which, on the other hand, in the long run, risks falling back into repetitiveness, demonstrating how even the most tested formula can lead to a progressive decline in interest, a decline which at a certain point led series to end, after some changes in the fixed cast, in the ninth season, already finished ten years ago.
1) CSI: Miami
The answer to the question: “Why exactly in Miami the gold medal”? He has a name and a surname: Horatio Caine, played by the fantastic David Caruso, with thick, tawny hair and the iconic dark glasses. Seriously, if CSI: Miami gets the highest place on the podium is not only for the presence of this wonderful detective with his perfect aim (which has decimated thousands of criminals) and great charisma. CSI: Miamiin fact, while not reaching the heights of the mother series, it manages to propose a transposition of the original formula inside a considerably different context. In fact, this aspect creates a great variety both as regards the protagonist scientific team and for the daytime scenarios of the sunny metropolis at the center of the story, between corruption, drug trafficking and less oppressive atmospheres than in the mother series. Action and forensic analysis alternate with great balance and pave the way for long-term subplots that intertwine with the lives of the protagonists. 10 seasons capable of entertaining and giving captivating and always new cases.
