Sun 21 Jan 2007
Is being a CSI in NY more criminal?
Posted by The TubeTalker under Crime Based , CSI , CSI: NY , Television Series[4] Comments
Ok, don’t get me wrong on the title, there. I just have to say out of all three CSI’s (and countless knock-offs)… Is it me or does the CSI team in CSI:NY have the most shady backgrounds of them all?
Let’s start with the most obvious bad boy on the team… Danny Messer (played by Carmine Giovinazzo) grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, he was a gang banger and all-out bad boy with his brother leading the trail. His choices eventually lead him to the right side of the law.
Then we get into the greek Stella Bonasera (AKA Melina Kanakaredes). She shoots and kills her abusive nut-job boyfriend and comes back to work like it is all in a days grind. Ughh.
The sweet girl from Montana, Lindsay Monroe (played by Anna Belknap), is found to have a horrible dark past. She was the sole survivor of a horrific event. Ok I guess.
And just to round it out, our Dr. Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper) has to be framed for robbery and murder just for fun from a Psycho `Terminator` Kid (no more hints on who that actor is, you have to use the clue in this sentence).
Mac Taylor is the only one who really hasn’t had the darkness follow him around, the fact that his wife died in the WTC on 9/11 (which was openly exposed early in the show) doesn’t count. He has a secret fling with the M.E. (Claire Forlani)… but it is all up and up. I guess his moral compass and solid foundation has to stay strong before the rest of his team just cracks and forms a gang or something.
Don’t get me wrong, all the CSI’s have questionable backgrounds in all the shows, they just collectively seem to have the darkest, or farthest reaching ‘thin line’ story backs.
(Yea, Yea for Vegas we have Kathrine (stripper), and Miami’s Delco (dope) and more…)
Just my two cents… since almost every episode of NY bears a bit more of someone’s soul.
I love the show, I love the stories, just a bit of a “Hey… I want to relate to their humanity, but don’t push me too far”…
CSI_Fiona said,
January 22, 2007 at 1:31 pm
First: It’s Delko not Delco and Catherine not Kathrine. Get it right.
Second: I think you are talking rubbish. Danny only ran with the Tanglewood Boys for one night, and tried to break them up once he realized what they were doing. Stella was perfectly in her rights to kill Frankie, who would have killed her anyway. Mac’s allowed a life isn’t he? It sounded to me like you were saying something against the fact that he was having a relationship with Peyton. Are you saying something against strippers?? Ever heard the phrase “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover?” Eric was not bying that pot for himself, but his sister who was ill with cancer.
The TubeTalker said,
January 22, 2007 at 2:05 pm
OK, one thing you will get from me is some bad spelling. That is a huge problem for me… so yes the names were off a bit.
Now… All I am saying is that the team at CSI:NY (believe me I LOVE the show) seems to have the darkest pasts and experiences… compared to the other CSI teams.
I noted that they all have pasts (C-atherine and Del-k-o as examples). It is just as a whole team, NY seems to have the most shady character stories… add up the other teams (as a whole).
And PS… I am not judging ‘strippers’ I dont know where you got that from. The point of this entry was simply that these people are gun carrying cops and they can’t all have crazy backstories, doesn’t any one of them just have a plain jane boring background (like Miami and LV have some undeveloped character backstories that, if revealed, may throw this observation out)
I have seen every episode of every season of each of the three series’.
Amanda said,
January 22, 2007 at 3:48 pm
The point of giving the characters such backgrounds is to see where they get the motivation to do what they do.
If you do watch all three shows you’ll realise that every character has some sort of ‘crazy backstory. Calleigh, on Miami has an alcoholic father. Sara, on LV has parental issues among other things. It’s what make these characters who they are and what gives the shows the extra umph.
As for NY having the the ‘most shady backgrounds’, I don’t see it. Yes they all have a little something.
Danny and Tanglewood, which as CSi_Fiona mentioned, was a one time thing.
Sheldon’s whole debackle, was one psycho trying to prove a point. It was no where near having anything to do with who Hawkes’ is. He chose him because he had involvement in his brothers case.
Stella only defended herself. Her being back so quick, is probably her way of moving on. Not everyone likes to dwell on what happened. She chose to push it back and move forward, maybe it wasn’t her best idea since, we saw how she reacted in ‘Open and Shut.’
Lindsay having something from her past, only helps us understand her character and why she is who she is.
If the characters would only have a ‘plain jane background’ whould you be interested in the show as much. Don’t get me wrong, I love this show, but only the science can get to be too much. The character development is there to make the show more appealling.
All the CSI characters have there little something. Wether CSI: NY is the is more criminal, I don’t agree.
The TubeTalker said,
January 22, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Amanda, much better put. I guess when I watch NY I think their backstories are the darkest, thats all. Don’t get me wrong character development is huge, but I want to believe these people all ended up here, in LV, the backstories really feel more human (more reasonable). This is just my feeling when watching. I can’t connect with the NY team as much as the LV and Miami teams… don’t stop developing characters, but like i mention in my post on ‘Cold Case’… they really keep the stories seperate from the characters in a really good way… the newbies and one-off watchers don’t have to know who anyone is to feel good about the episode and the long-termers can relate to the character building in the background.
I am not trying to offend anyone, please don’t think I am bashing anything. You both have great points… and I think NY has some of the most creative cases. Just don’t let the strength of the backstories detract from the effectiveness of the team CSI franchise. They need to build the stories slower or a bit more subtly (I mean how many seasons has it taken to get us to where we are in LV?)
Please don’t think I am bashing the show, just telling you what I see when I am comparing it… remember, I watch over 2 dozen hours of primetime TV a week, I am looking at it from television character development in general. Too much story can be as bad as the ‘plain janes’… I think NY has to mix it up a bit. Thats all.