History Series / CSI

** Subverted in "Grave Danger Part 1" when [spoiler:Nick's ]] kidnapper has Grissom bring the money to a remote location as per usual for the trope. He isn't after the money, [[spoiler:instead he blows himself up.]] He does this so that CSI and the police know how painful and frustrating it is to have enough money and STILL not be able to help the person they care about.

* {{Homage}}: "Blood Moon"'s opening opts for [[Series/TrueBlood sex and violence]] rather than [[Literature/{{Twilight}} sparkly]] vampires and werewolves.

** "[[Series/TrueBlood Blood]] [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Moon]]"'s ColdOpening looks and sounds a lot like ''Series/TrueBlood'''s opening titles.

* DownerEnding: "Alter Boys", "Homebodies", "Fracked", and of course "For Gedda". Really, any episode where they [[NotProven can't prove the suspect did anything wrong]] could be considered this.

* WrongGenreSavvy: In "Boom," security guard Dominic is quick to use his expertise in bomb-making (he even blows some up himself in his spare time) to aid the team in the investigation of a bomb at an office building. At least, that's what Dominic ''thinks'' is happening. In truth, between his knowledge and his quirky behavior, the team considers him the prime suspect and Dominic goes along, even drawing how the bomb must have been set up, oblivious to how he's implicating himself. When a public defender tries to end a talk, Dominic just brushes her off as "they're being good to me." The team, meanwhile, come to the idea that Dominic is actually playing a twisted game of openly confessing without evidence to play them.
** It gets to the point where, after a conversation Dominic clearly doesn't realize is actually an interrogation, Grissom openly says he can't tell if the guy is a mastermind playing them or "just crazy."
** The answer comes when [[spoiler:Dominic dies stopping a bomb from going off in a school and the team realize he really was a hero trying to help them out.]]

 * HumanHeadOnTheWall: "Leapin' Lizards". They find a [[http://image.wikifoundry.com/image/1/BRBc6qP0nhHKmsaEfcQPJw31340/GW331H186 missing woman's head mounted on the wall]] like a trophy animal. She was murdered by UFO believers who were convinced she was a [[LizardFolk Reptilian queen]].

* WhiteMaleLead: The series began with white male lead Creator/WilliamPetersen, went into an aversion phase with African-American Creator/LaurenceFishburne having top billing, and ended up with white male Creator/TedDanson in the lead.

** Grissom also gave Catherine's abusive ex-husband an OhCrap moment when said ex tried to bully Catherine.
** In fact, Grissom tends to go PapaWolf whenever his team are at risk of harm, for all he usually comes across as emotionally distant.
** D.B. now. Do not mess with his family.

** Some of the fathers involved in the cases qualify.

** "Gum Drops" was originally going to have Gil Grissom thinking a missing child was still alive. When a death in the family took Creator/WilliamPetersen out of town, Nick Stokes became the lead investigator on the case.
*** Given what Nick himself had [[BuriedAlive been through]] and how he could empathize with her plight, this change was probably an improvement.

* MurderByProxy: In one episode, Catherine Willows realizes that a young girl did, in fact, murder her step-mother, and not the woman's husband as she'd previously thought. However, she also realizes that the girl's father manipulated events so that his daughter would discover her step-mother's infidelity to him and take action. Catherine can't prove that he did anything illegal, but she can prove that his daughter committed the murder, and tells him he'll have to live with the consequence of the girl going to prison.

* VideoArcade: In one episode, the team question a man while his young son plays a video game in a hotel's arcade. Saying they won't believe him about his whereabouts, he interrupts his son's game and tells him to the the investigators where he was. The boy gripes to his dad for costing him "a man," but tells the [=CSIs=] what they need to know. The dad then tells the boy they'll go to Circus Circus instead because they have better games there.

* HumanHeadOnTheWall: "Leapin' Lizards". They find a [[http://image.wikifoundry.com/image/1/BRBc6qP0nhHKmsaEfcQPJw31340/GW331H186 missing woman's head mounted on the wall]] like a trophy animal. She was murdered by UFO believers who were convinced she was a [[LizardFolk Reptilian queen]].

** The post-"Fannysmackin'" arc regarding Greg's AccidentalMurder of Demitrius James in the defense of a man he and a mob were beating up has Sanders trying to defend himself in court and, overall, what looked like an open-and-shut case (Greg saw the crowd, he tried to scare them off with his car, James tried to attack instead, he hit him with the car because he couldn't brake in time, it's all clear) turns into a circus of accusing Greg of alleged PoliceBrutality, racism and even the possibility of having been a DrunkDriver during the act (thus ending with the James family forming IrrationalHatred for cops in general and Greg in specific) because of a jackass juror that wishes "all of the facts being brought to light" and won't vote until he hears them (even interrupting testimonies to question the witnesses).