CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Difference between revisions

* [[Actor Allusion]]: In a throwaway line A/V tech Archie mentions that he was going home to watch a variety of surfer movies. The list includes Local Boys, which is a film his actor starred in.

** Grissom informs Sara that he loves baseball when she tries to call him out on not liking sports. As any common male reared in the North Side of Chicago tends to be, Petersen is a life-long fan of the Chicago Cubs, usually stopping by Wrigley every season to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", and narrated a documentary about the team.

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: [[Serial Killer|Nate Haskel]] despite the numerous women he's killed and raped has fairly large group of women obsessed with him, even he acknowledges that he's a chick magnet making him an in-universe [[Draco in Leather Pants]]. His harem even go so far as to {{spoiler|breaking him out of prison after stabbing Langston and after being found guilty for all his past murders}}.

* [[All Psychology Is Freudian]]:

* [[Applied Phlebotinum]]

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Nate Haskell, the Dick and Jane Killer.

* [[Autopsy Snack Time]]: Given a [[Take That]] when Doc Robbins irately says of a long retired coroner (who missed something in the original autopsy of someone who was to be exhumed) that he "held a scalpel in one hand and a hot dog in the other."

* [[Bait And Switch Answer]]: One suspect suffered from a string of incredibly bad luck; after he was caught, he related the incident to one where he got his daughter a puppy, and later backed out of the driveway. The investigator expects him to say he killed the puppy. He replies, [[Crosses the Line Twice|"No, I ran over my daughter. Ten years later, and she still walks funny."]] Another investigator listening in barely stifles her laughter.

* [[Black Blood]] / [[Alien Blood]]: In Season Eight's ''The Theory of Everything'', a number of dead people wound up with ''avocado-green blood''.

* [[Black Comedy]]: Pretty much a given in a show about police officers and CSIs dealing with death on a daily basis.

** Male leads: Las Vegas has [[Cool Old Guy|white-haired]] Grissom and DB; [[CSI New York|brunette Mac]] and [[CSI: Miami|redhead Horatio]].

* [[Blood Is the New Black]]: "Bad to the Bone", a particularly nasty murderer is caught almost immediately when he casually walks into a diner to wash his hands after beating a man to death.

** David Berman as David Phillips, the assistant coroner (and baseball trivia expert).

* [[Dark Secret]]: Often the motive for many of the crimes.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Count on one (or more) of the cast members making an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]] right after the discovery of the body and just before the opening credits

* [[Death in The Clouds]]: ''Unfriendly Skies''

** "Trends With Benefits" seemed like it was heading this way {{spoiler|The rapist professor's victim didn't want to press charges and the other students he had sex with consented}} but somehow {{spoiler|word gets out and the professor is suspended}}.

* [[Dying Dream]]: {{spoiler|Working Stiffs: "I knew it wouldn't work..."}}

* [[Embarrassing First Name]]: 'Diebenkorn' Russell, aka D.B.

* [[Education Through Pyrotechnics]]: Complete with [[Myth Busters|Adam and Jamie]] looking on in one episode.

** The 12 years-old in "Go to Hell" is even worse.

** The young killer in "Unusual Suspects" and "Goodbye And Goodluck".

* [[Enhance Button]]: They once used a reflection in a young girl's eye in a photo to get an image of a location of where the picture was taking at (a boat).

** A particularly [[Egregious]] example happened when they showed off a 3D crime scene scanner. Such a device does actually exist, using a laser to create a 3D image of an area, but they then used the computer to ''lift the body off the bed to look at the stains on the sheets underneath it''. It's the equivalent of taking an ordinary photographic image and being able to "strip away" the skin and muscles to get an image of not just the structure of the person's bones, but what ''color'' they are.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Grissom used to hold fellow entomologist Dr. Mark Thayer in high esteem, and they even co-authored a scientific paper once. Since then, however, Dr. Thayer has become what Grissom describes as a "hired gun", selling his services to the highest bidder. When Thayer's testimony for the defense threatens to derail a high-profile murder trial, the D.A.'s office asks Grissom to try and refute Thayer's findings. Grissom eventually discovers that {{spoiler|Thayer deliberately doctored the evidence to get the results he wanted to present, which would have given the jury cause for reasonable doubt.}} After Grissom explains his findings on the stand and destroys Thayer's testimony, an enraged Thayer comes up to him and accuses him of attacking his integrity. As they're arguing, the D.A. comes up to them and {{spoiler|orders Thayer's arrest on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.}}

** To a lesser extent, Gil's counterpart on Day Shift, Conrad Ecklie. He tended to choose the "convenient" answer rather than the correct one and was more interested in advancing his career than finding justice.

* [[Eyes Are Unbreakable]]

* [[Fair Cop]]: Yowza! [[Action Girl|Sofia Curtis]], Vartann, [[Black Dude Dies First|Lockwood]], [[Hot Chick in A Badass Suit|Sofia Curtis]], that lady cop Nick dated for a second in Season 1, [[Fake American|Sofia Curtis]]

* [[The Gambling Addict]]: Warrick

* [[Game of Nerds]]: Grissom is a baseball fan

* [[Gorn]]: The [[Fan Nickname|TMI-cam]]

* [[GPS Evidence]]: Often. As an example: in the season five finale, ''Grave Danger'', Grissom, Entomologist Extraordinaire, determines Nick's location from the ants in his box, since fire ants can only be found in nurseries in Nevada, which means that the soil... you can figure out the rest.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: {{spoiler|Warrick}}, complete with [[Personal Effects Reveal]] and [[Meaningful Funeral]]. Holly Gibbs.

* [[Killer Rabbit]]: Can we ever look at cornmeal the same way?

* [[The Lab Rat]]: Greg Sanders, whose nickname at [[Television Without Pity]] inspired this entry's title. [[Promotion to Opening Titles|He has, however, now become a CSI in his own right.]]

** Later seasons have made more use of the other lab rats - David Hodges (Trace), Archie Johnson (Audiovisual) Mandy (Fingerprints) and Wendy Simms (DNA). The show has given them two [[Lower Deck Episode|Lower Deck Episodes]] with the appropriately-entitled ''Lab Rats'' and the hilarious "You Kill Me".

* [[The Murder After]]: Warrick and a stripper who is found dead in his car.

* [[Murder.Com]]: ''Grave Danger''

* [[My Card]]: The investigators will often give a witness their card and say "call me if you remember anything."

* [[Myth Arc]]:

* [[Necro Cam]]: Done multiple times in every episode.

** The show is also notable for its gory body-dives, in which the camera flies around inside somebody's body (often tracing the path of a murder weapon), accompanied by all sorts of icky Foley noises. This is commonly [[Fan Nickname|referred to]] as [[Too Much Information|TMI]] Cam.

* [[Never Suicide]]: Subverted in one episode where an investor shoots himself at a party. It originally looks like a staged suicide since he's still holding the gun, which usually doesn't happen as the muscles relax after death.

** Another variation: The villain of an early story-arc staged identical suicides of men who were born on his father's birthday, the same date as and manner in which his father was murdered - up to and including a faked recorded suicide note. He did all this to prove his father's murder wasn't a suicide. This was eventually subverted as Millander, who it turns out was born on the same day as his father (and Grissom, incidentally), killed himself in the same way he had killed the other men.

** For the "other cops" part, subverted quite impressively by part-time ''Miami'' character Aaron Jessop, who apparently had the observational and mental skills to be a CSI himself. {{spoiler|Pity he tripped a booby trap and got blown up.}}

* [[Once Per Episode]]: DB will mention his wife. Or call her. Or both.

* [[Orifice Invasion]] / [[Orifice Evacuation]] / [[Chest Burster]]: Rats seem to like getting inside corpses in this show.

* [[The Other Darrin]]: Ellie Brass, who was played by two different actresses in 'Ellie' and 'Hollywood Brass' plus 'Bang Bang'. Also Lindsey Willows, but hers is probably a bit more justified since she was a child and growing up fast and the earlier actresses may not have been available.

* [[Revolving Door Casting]]: Seems to slowly be heading towards this with the original cast gradually leaving the show and replacements being brought in over time.

* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]:

** "After the Show", an almost word for word retelling of the [http://articles.latimes.com/1996-12-17/news/mn-9958_1_linda-sobek Linda Sobek] murder, and specially notable for having been co-written by Elizabeth Devine, a former CSI involved in the original case who is now a consultant to the show.

* [[Run for The Border]]

* [[Running Gag]]: Mentioned by name by Hodges in 'You Kill Me'

* [[Serial Killer]]: The Miniature Killer, Doctor Jekyll, the Blue Paint Killer.

** Season 1 alone had three: Paul Milander, the I-15 Killer and the Strip Strangler.

** [[Big Bad|Doctor Jekyll]], when finally caught after a season-long killing spree, was in the process of murdering the true object of his rage- {{spoiler|his own father.}} Played with in that every victim was connected to the main target, friends and acquaintances that they admired, so every murder was designed to make them suffer before they died, as well as giving Jekyll a chance to take out his frustrations on somebody.

* [[Serious Business]]: Off the top of my head: the [[Furry Fandom]], Scrabble, eating contests, and vampires vs. werewolves [[LARP|LARPing]].

{{quote| '''Catherine to Grissom:''' (while helping the latter put on a tie) "You need a woman."}}

** Grissom, when Catherine returns from Miami in which she helped investigate a case there, "I missed your tush".

** There have also been hints towards possible Nick and Sara - [[Word of God]] states that Sara's phonecall at the end of ''You've Got Male'' was originally intended to be to Nick, and they have had moments of reciprocated flirting. Likewise, Catherine and Warrick, to the point where Catherine is upset to learn of Warrick's marriage and even outright comments on losing the dream.

** Grissom and Heather could also fall under this as it is never outright confirmed that anything happened between them. Heavily implied, yes, but always in a way that, taking Grissom as being Grissom, could have a perfectly innocent explanation.

* [[Shipper On Deck]]: DB seems to ship Morgan/Greg, seeing as how he's called Greg her boyfriend on at least one occasion.

* [[Shot to The Heart]]: Doc Robbins does this in one episode, where a guy revives on his table.

** In an earlier episode, Savage and Hyneman make a cameo observing such an experiment.

*** Actually - it was an experiment conducted by Nick, involving a taser and the flammability of pepper spray.

** In another episode, a missing woman is found with a [[Serial Killer]] at a place called [[Half Life|Black Mesa]].

** Hodges cat is called [[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Kobayashi Maru]]

** The 2009 season opens with an extended [[Bullet Time]] extravaganza, complete with [[The Matrix|Morpheus kicking an "Agent" through a window]].

** "[[True Blood|Blood]] [[Twilight (Literature)|Moon]]"'s [[Cold Opening]] looks and sounds a lot like ''[[True Blood]]'''s opening titles.

{{quote| '''Reporter''': Do you know what "fracking" is? (it's [http://gaslandthemovie.com/ explained here], which appears to be the episode's inspiration)<br />

'''Langston''': Sounds like a sci-fi expletive. }}

** Catherine Willows could be considered this, as she is a former stripper. She hasn't been killed, but constantly faces people and places from her dubious past.

** Likewise, Grissom's one-time potential love interest Lady Heather could be considered this as she was an intelligent but intense woman who ran an S&M club. She, however, was not the delicate flower in need of nurturing but more of a velvet glove and iron fist in one.

* [[The Spock]]: Grissom

* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: Dr. Raymond Langston (played by Laurence Fishburne) replaces Grissom in Season 9, though not in terms of position. Riley takes Sara's place.

** Ray Zig Zags the trope. Being the new guy, he's not the [[Team Dad]] that Grissom was, but does take over Grissom's role of the older, sheltered, quiet, intellectual guy.

* [[Television Geography]]: The frequent presence of lush greenery and vegetation, and moderately frequent rain, in desert Las Vegas on ''[[CSI]]'' ([[California Doubling|filming in LA]], also a desert but heavily watered) is often a source of amused derision by show fans. Also, Geoff Duncan has written two articles on the geographical inaccuracy of two outside jobs, one in [http://www.teevee.org/archive/weblog/2003/11/10/102730.html "Jackpot"] and another in [http://www.teevee.org/archive/weblog/2004/09/24/095909.html the 2004 season premiere].

* [[Themed Aliases]]: In "Living Legend", the killer uses aliases that the names of movie serial killers: Michael Myers, Pamela Voorhess and F. Krueger.

** A man who was punched in the back of the head in a bar fight, who later died of a brain hemorrhage in the bath.

** A boy who was {{spoiler|stabbed trying to prevent his little brother from murdering their mother's boyfriend}} tries to walk home, but collapses and dies... right under the tires of a cab. The cabbie then {{spoiler|gets [[Vigilante Execution|beaten to death by a mob]] who thinks he ran the boy down and was about to drive off, when he was actually going for his radio}}.

* [[Tonight Someone Dies]]

* [[True Love Is Boring]]: Grissom and Sidle. After years of UST, their separation just comes somewhat out of left field.

{{quote| '''Hodges:''' Trust me, I'm an expert.}}

** And then [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Wendy kicks his ass]].