Sinise, an Emmy-winning character actor (George Wallace), has tough acts to follow in William Petersen and David Caruso, but he draws viewers to his character by giving him a low-key professionalism tinged with sadness.
But there's no doubt Sinise offers a perfect template for personal asides and emotional subtexts, murky detours that may occasionally cloud -- and liven up -- all that steamrolling, high-tech efficiency.
Gary Sinise has the requisite mien of a CSI investigator: pasty, sleep-deprived and grim, like Miami's David Caruso or Las Vegas' inimitable William Petersen.
The "CSI" franchise has finally come up with its first loser -- not in the ratings, mind you, or in people's reflex affections but up on the screen, where you have to stand on your head and wear red goggles to pretend that it's a good television show.
Introduced one of the major flaws of the series: the attempt to make us care about its characters' personal lives by giving them random snatches of "revealing" dialogue.
One of the things that gets me about this show, as it is with all of the CSI shows, is the cold, clinical efficiency with which the characters approach their jobs.
Sinise, a real movie star and the co-founder of Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theatre, is a fine actor, and so are they all, all fine actors. But none has much to do here -- the dialogue makes Dragnet seem positively chatty.
