Review: "CSI: Miami"
Bottom line: In time, Fishburne should make Langston a memorable character. But how much longer?
When/Where: Monday night at 10 on CBS/2
Fishburne's grim trip to all the 'CSIs'
Photo credit: CBS | Laurence Fishburne as Langston looks for evidence on a car that may have been used in a prostitution ring on "CSI."
Young women have been forced into prostitution on "CSI: Miami" and . . . a PG warning for the rest of this review . . . their body organs are being harvested. Limbs and other body parts have been turning up around the country, as this grisly trade hopscotches from Las Vegas to the East Coast. Ray Langston (Laurence Fishburne) heads to Miami, where he hooks up with Horatio Caine (David Caruso) and then to New York, for a meet and greet with Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise). It all ends up in Las Vegas, where the body snatcher is nailed.
WHAT FISHBURNE SAYS: In a pretaped interview bouncing around the Internet, Fishburne says, "I think the audience will be able to connect with Dr. Ray Langston in a much more meaningful [way] at the end of all this than perhaps they've been able to do since my character arrived on the show."
MY TAKE: So there you have it - this is all just a gimmick to relaunch this troubled character. (No review copies were made available.) You just knew there had to be a reason beyond numbers, which are quite good for this durable franchise, though with just 12 million viewers this season, "CSI" has plummeted so far from the glory days (when 25 million viewers was considered just ho hum) that alarms have gone off - loudly - at CBS.
What gives with Ray Langston, anyway? Well, you may have noticed that the old prof is a bit humorless. He has a well-cloaked sense of fun - can't even bring himself to toss off a clever quip when he stands over a blood-spattered stiff. When Langston arrives at the crime scene, it's as if the IRS has turned up for an audit. There's no mystery here, and certainly no Lady Heather. Too new to become cynical, too smart to be a hack, too nice to be interesting, Langston's just there - competent and dull.
REASON TO WATCH TV history, of sorts, begins with a three-way crossover, linking "CSI: Miami," "CSI: NY" on Wednesday and ending up Thursday back in Vegas with the original "CSI."
