“CSI: Miami”

Synopsis:

Horatio Caine (Caruso) leads a new team of forensic investigators in the South of Florida in this spin-off series to “C.S.I.”. Among his team are Calleigh Duquesne (Procter), a ballistics expert; Eric Delko (Rodriguez), an underwater recovery expert and Natalia Boa Vista (LaRue), a sexy lab guru.

Why We Watch:

After the success of “C.S.I.”, it wasn’t a really big shocker when 2 spin-offs came out: “CSI: Miami” and “CSI: NY”. What was a big shocker was that “CSI: Miami” was actually pretty good.

“NYPD Blue” star David Caruso returns to the small screen in his role as Horatio Caine – and his “eye for an eye” attitude is a far cry from “C.S.I.”’s Gil Grissom’s scientific approach. Horatio meets the killers head on. While Gil is largely hands-off towards suspects, Horatio isn’t afraid of roughing someone up a little to find the truth – or, as we saw in season 5 – taking justice into his own hands when things get too personal.

His team both keeps him in check and strives for justice with a fervor nearly equal to his – although much more reserved. True, each of them have let their emotions get the better of them at one point or another, but they usually manage to maintain a professional attitude despite what is thrown their way.

In the heat of Miami, the killers are a bit nastier and rougher than those seen in Vegas. While “C.S.I.” deals with characters like a peeping Tom who becomes obsessed with his victims or a killer that designs miniatures of his murder scenes, “CSI: Miami” is much flashier. Whether it’s a hijacking of brand new weapons or a killer with a vendetta to settle, the bad guys in Miami are much cockier and less hesitant to take on the entire squad.

This makes the lives of the squad much more dangerous – and the show itself a bit more exciting. If “C.S.I.” is the thinking man’s crime show, “CSI: Miami” is for the action fan.

And, after season 6 introduced a major complication in the form of Caine’s estranged son and ex-wife – not to mention a cliffhanger that left Caine himself hanging in the balance – season 7 has a good possibility of being the best season yet (and that’s despite the departure of a fave cast member in season 6)