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* SecretlyDying: Sid, most likely. Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma isn't *always* fatal, but he did tell Jo that his was pretty advanced. Jo knows, but he asked her not to tell anyone else yet.
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* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Mild case with Lucy Messer. There was a 6 month skip in the last ep of season 8,but WordOfGod stated she was being aged up another few months to a year. She should be about 4 and a half but Danny said she was 5 early in season 9.
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* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Mild case with Lucy Messer. There was a 6 month skip in the last ep of season 8,but WordOfGod stated she was being aged up another few months to a year. She should be about 4 or four and a half but Danny said she was 5 early in season 9.
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* SickSadSubcultureOfTheWeek
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* SubcultureOfTheWeek
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** In 'Nine Thirteen', the entire subplot is the group trying to figure out whether or not Lindsay is pregnant, though they never explicitly state it until the end. After she tells Danny in the last scene, the others are shown paying up their bets to each other. It's possible Mac may also have had one going with Christine, given how he calls her and then tells her he'll get evidence, but it's not clear for certain.
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** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses. And having survived all that, he was then [[spoiler: diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that may well kill him, as it's well advanced.
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** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses. And having survived all that, he was then [[spoiler: diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that may well kill him, as it's well advanced.]]
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** Jo: Forced out of the FBI after turning in a [[DirtyCop dirty agent]] that got a rape case she was working thrown out, attacked by the rapist after the victim's father tried to get him caught by framing him, and forced to shoot said rapist in self defense.
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** Jo: Forced out of the FBI after turning in a [[DirtyCop dirty agent]] that got a rape case she was working thrown out, attacked by the rapist after the victim's father tried to get him caught by framing him, and forced to shoot said rapist in self defense. Lost her sister to a drunk driver several years ago.
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* GlassShatteringSound: "Not What It Looks Like"-it's used to shatter glass counters in a jewelry shop during a robbery.
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* ManOnFire: Luke Blade during his magic trick and the guy he killed replicating the trick.
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** "Civilized Lies": This is either a shout-out or a hilarious coincidence: [[spoiler: A hood nicknamed "Mookie" wound up dying under the [[DominicDeegan Deegan]] expressway]]. Unfortunately I didn't notice a [[RuleOfThree third shout-out]] to confirm it, unless the PunnyName title counts.
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** "Civilized Lies": This is either a shout-out or a hilarious funny coincidence: [[spoiler: A hood nicknamed "Mookie" wound winds up dying under the [[DominicDeegan Deegan]] expressway]]. Unfortunately I didn't notice a [[RuleOfThree third shout-out]] to confirm it, unless the expressway]]. The PunnyName title counts.[[spoiler: a la "Fated Fatal" or "A Nimmel House"]] and [[spoiler: the main characters manipulating Mookie's accomplice with faked videos (Deegan is a manipulative ''seer''; the detectives manipulated the suspect's ''sight'')]] could also count.
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** "Civilized Lies": This is either a shout-out or a hilarious coincidence: [[spoiler: A hood nicknamed "Mookie" wound up dying under the [[DominicDeegan Deegan]] expressway]]. Unfortunately I didn't notice a [[RuleOfThree third shout-out]] to confirm it, unless the PunnyName title counts.
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Shallow Love Interest is being renamed and misuse and bitching purged
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* ShallowLoveInterest: Dr. Peyton Driscoll has hints of this. She had the potential to be a great character, as an ME she was obviously smart, but the writers ruined this by making her very first scene one of her in bed with Mac. Later on, it seemed virtually every scene with her had to be connected to Mac in some way.
** Some are arguing this about Christine. She's better liked than Peyton, but though she isn't a lab employee, some fans are complaining that it seems like every scene with her is Mac going to meet her at the restaurant-they wonder if she has anything else in her life and see her as a little too perfect for Mac. However, it's not as bad as Peyton.
** Some are arguing this about Christine. She's better liked than Peyton, but though she isn't a lab employee, some fans are complaining that it seems like every scene with her is Mac going to meet her at the restaurant-they wonder if she has anything else in her life and see her as a little too perfect for Mac. However, it's not as bad as Peyton.
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* InterserviceRivalry: NYPD vs NYFD in one episode. It involved the two sides playing each other in a hockey game. Fights naturally broke out.
** Regular detectives vs the lab team-Flack and Danny both admit at times that the pure detectives see the lab guys as nerds.
** Regular detectives vs the lab team-Flack and Danny both admit at times that the pure detectives see the lab guys as nerds.
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** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses. And having survived all that, he was then diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that may or may not kill him.
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** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses. And having survived all that, he was then [[spoiler: diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that may or may not well kill him.him, as it's well advanced.
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* DontYouDarePityMe: Mac is essentially reacting this way to the aftermath of being shot. He thinks it's his problem to get through, despite people starting to notice and one person saying he should at least tell his GF. Fortunately,he finally did.
* DysfunctionJunction: See DecectiveDetective for the list.
* DysfunctionJunction: See DecectiveDetective for the list.
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* DontYouDarePityMe: Mac is essentially reacting this way to the aftermath of being shot. He thinks it's his problem to get through, despite people starting to notice and one person saying he should at least tell his GF. Fortunately,he finally did.
* DysfunctionJunction: See DecectiveDetective for the list.did,though only when she was near to leaving him.
* DysfunctionJunction: See DecectiveDetective for the list.
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* DysfunctionJunction: See DecectiveDetective for the list.
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** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses.
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** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses. And having survived all that, he was then diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that may or may not kill him.
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* YouSeeImDying: [[spoiler:Sid]], to Jo.
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* YouSeeImDying: [[spoiler:Sid]], to Jo. The phrase isn't said verbatim, but it's what he's telling her all the same.
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* YouSeeImDying: Sid, to Jo.
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* YouSeeImDying: Sid, [[spoiler:Sid]], to Jo.
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* AnonymousBenefactor: Sid, who gave away much of his pillow patent fortune to the families of 10 victims whose cases had deeply touched him after discovering he was [[spoiler: most likely dying of cancer and wanted to ensure it went to do some good.]]
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* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: One episode had Danny and Stella investigating the death of a millionaire inside his mansion's panic room. Danny accidentally trips the room, locking himself inside without a forensics kit. While he's waiting to be rescued, he uses the items found in the room to finish processing the crime scene.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Danny addressing Stella as "Mrs. [=MacGyver=]" as she's walking him through said processing.
** A later episode has Mac and Stella stuck fighting robbers who are trying to steal the Lab's confiscated drugs. Thank god Mac can build a bomb and ''laser trip wires'' from the stuff found in the lab.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Danny addressing Stella as "Mrs. [=MacGyver=]" as she's walking him through said processing.
** A later episode has Mac and Stella stuck fighting robbers who are trying to steal the Lab's confiscated drugs. Thank god Mac can build a bomb and ''laser trip wires'' from the stuff found in the lab.
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* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Really laser-guided with Mac...he can't remember a lot of random stuff after being shot.
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* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Really laser-guided with Mac...he can't remember a lot of random stuff words for things after being shot.shot. It's a real condition called speech aphasia.
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* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: One episode had Danny and Stella investigating the death of a millionaire inside his mansion's panic room. Danny accidentally trips the room, locking himself inside without a forensics kit. While he's waiting to be rescued, he uses the items found in the room to finish processing the crime scene.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Danny addressing Stella as "Mrs. [=MacGyver=]" as she's walking him through said processing.
** A later episode has Mac and Stella stuck fighting robbers who are trying to steal the Lab's confiscated drugs. Thank god Mac can build a bomb and ''laser trip wires'' from the stuff found in the lab.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Danny addressing Stella as "Mrs. [=MacGyver=]" as she's walking him through said processing.
** A later episode has Mac and Stella stuck fighting robbers who are trying to steal the Lab's confiscated drugs. Thank god Mac can build a bomb and ''laser trip wires'' from the stuff found in the lab.
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** Mac: 9/11 widower, has been framed for murder, blown up once,seems to attract serial killers like flies to honey,shot nearly to death, his previous girlfriend left him with only a letter (though TheBusCameBack). Spent several months struggling to overcome speech aphasia related to his gunshot injury and nearly lost his girlfriend because he was too darn stubborn to let her in on what was happening.
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** Mac: 9/11 widower, has been framed for murder, blown up once,seems to attract serial killers like flies to honey,shot nearly to death, his previous girlfriend left him with only a letter (though TheBusCameBack). Spent several months struggling to overcome speech aphasia related to his gunshot injury and nearly lost his new girlfriend because he was too darn stubborn to let her in on what was happening.
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** Mac: 9/11 widower, has been framed for murder, blown up once,seems to attract serial killers like flies to honey,shot nearly to death, his previous girlfriend left him with only a letter (though TheBusCameBack).
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** Mac: 9/11 widower, has been framed for murder, blown up once,seems to attract serial killers like flies to honey,shot nearly to death, his previous girlfriend left him with only a letter (though TheBusCameBack). Spent several months struggling to overcome speech aphasia related to his gunshot injury and nearly lost his girlfriend because he was too darn stubborn to let her in on what was happening.
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* EasyAmnesia: Averted. Mac took several months of therapy to recover from his aphasia.
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* CatchPhrase: Danny has "Boom," and Adam [[LampshadeHanging knows he says "What up!" a lot.]]
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* CatchPhrase: Danny has "Boom," and Adam [[LampshadeHanging knows he says "Boom," a lot and Adam knows he says "What up!" a lot.]]
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* RememberThatYouTrustMe: Mac is ''horrible'' about letting people in, even Stella, his closest friend. This has come back to bite him in the ass more than once, including being a huge factor in the failure of his relationship with Peyton, and the huge disaster that resulted after he was implicated in a murder (see TakingYouWithMe). Stella calls him on it in the season six premier, when he's obsessing over [[spoiler: trying to figure out who opened fire on the team at the end of season five]] and acting as if he's the only one on the case. It does seem though that he's improving a bit by the time Christine starts romancing him. Then he slipped into it again with his aphasia condition in season 9. It took Christine several eps to break through to him.
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* RememberThatYouTrustMe: Mac is ''horrible'' about letting people in, even Stella, his closest friend. This has come back to bite him in the ass more than once, including being a huge factor in the failure of his relationship with Peyton, and the huge disaster that resulted after he was implicated in a murder (see TakingYouWithMe). Stella calls him on it in the season six premier, when he's obsessing over [[spoiler: trying to figure out who opened fire on the team at the end of season five]] and acting as if he's the only one on the case. It does He did seem though that he's to be improving a bit by the time Christine starts romancing him. Then him, but then he slipped into it again with his aphasia condition in season 9. Jo called him on it once, but he rebuffed her and had to apologize later. It took Christine several eps and very nearly walking away from him for him to break through finally get the message and open up to him.her. How much he'll open up to the rest of the team remains to be seen (and he's already nearly recovered so...)
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* LetOffByTheDetective: Stella with her foster sister in the ''ColdCase'' crossover, and several of the team in another ep involving a stalking victim who killed said stalker out of desperation.
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** The first victim in that episode was named Dr. Martin Browning. A combination of the names Martin (Marty) [=McFly=] and Dr. Emmett Brown from BackToTheFuture.
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** The fourth season Halloween episode involves a "zombie" whose cause of death is a [[ShaunOfTheDead cricket bat to the head.]]
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** The fourth season Halloween episode involves a "zombie" whose cause of death is a [[ShaunOfTheDead [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead cricket bat to the head.]]
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* DeadlyRoadTrip: One episode had the death of a tourist.
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http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/csiny.jpg
SpinOff from ''Series/CSIMiami'' itself [[SpinOff spun]] from ''Series/{{CSI}}'' (2004- present) set in New York City. The show's [[CharacterDevelopment character work]] is probably its strongest aspect, with multi-season arcs for several of the characters, particularly Mac, Danny, and Lindsay. The cast is full of [[DysfunctionJunction slightly messed up]] characters, all the way from Mac down to Adam. In fact, the coroner is probably the most well-adjusted person in the lab. In general this is handled well and doesn't devolve into {{Wangst}} territory.
----
!!This show contains examples of:
* AbsoluteCleavage
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer
* AbusiveParents: Adam. And the VictimOfTheWeek a time or two.
* ActorAllusion: In one episode the perp is an aspiring actor, and to catch him off-guard Mac pretends to be trying out for ''Literature/OfMiceAndMen''; Gary Sinise played George in the 1992 remake.
** Detective Mac Taylor shares last names with his most famous role, Lieutenant Dan Taylor of ForrestGump. Gary Sinise says he gave the character his last name in tribute to that character.
** Also, in "Playing with Matches" the QuipToBlack is "Houston, we have a problem." Referencing another movie Gary Sinise was in, {{Apollo 13}}. Although his character in that movie was not the one to say that line.
* AfterlifeAntechamber: It looks a lot like the lab.
* AloneWithThePsycho: Both Stella and Jo
* AlphaBitch: She [[spoiler: pretended to be homely girls' friends, doll them up, have her boyfriend have sex with them, rated the experience online, and give the girls a big necklace so everyone would know. The sister of her victims strangled her and then part of her house fell on her]]. Her name was [[TropeNamer Libby]].
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The ending theme for the Japanese version is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V9rl2mtKA0&feature=related "The First Day Without You"]] by Dreams Come True.
* AndAnotherThing: Detective Flack did this once. When he made to leave, the door gave him a Eureka Moment ? he realised that the victim's door had been locked from the outside, so whoever killed him must have had a key.
* AndIMustScream: "Blink."
* AndStarring: Eddie Cahill gets an "And", Hill Harper the "With".
* AssholeVictim: In ''Who's There?'', [[spoiler:the victim was purposefully destroying his family's company, liquidating every cent they had, destroying the future of his own daughter, just to spite his estranged wife.]]
* AuditThreat: Flack does this a fair bit.
* AuthorTract:Gary Sinise seems to have influenced Mac's dialogue about veteran-related issues now and then. 'Fight Night' is a noticeable example.
* BeardOfSorrow: Danny probably qualifies after the season 6 opener.
* TheBet: Danny and Lindsay in "Snow Day."
--> '''Danny:''' There's no way you're gonna make this shot, too, Montana.\\
'''Lindsay:''' A Benjamin says I do. ''(shoots the billiard in the hole)'' Now you owe me $100.
** Danny and Mac in "Fare Game". Danny bets Mac $5 that Lindsay won't eat the bug cuisine he brought back after a case involving it. Lindsay eats it and Danny has to pony up to Mac.
--->'''Lindsay''' Never bet against a country girl.
** Part of the second episode of season 8 was a betting pool about when Mac would return to the lab
* BewareTheNiceOnes: After Danny jokingly asks Lindsay how she'd get away with killing him and suggests that she used her forensic know-how to clean up the scene, she responds that she ''wouldn't'' clean up and claim that Danny was a DomesticAbuser. Her "performance" is kind of eerie, to say the least.
** Another time they're discussing what to do if the other dies: Danny wants a two-week long wake (first week for mourning, second week for partying) and Lindsay "jokingly" declares that she'll haunt him and any future girlfriends forever ''while eating all of his cannolis''.
* BigEater: Lindsay
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The car jacker's three daughters (blonde and brunette went into the family business, redhead went to law school).
* BolivianArmyCliffHanger
* BoobyTrap / DeathTrap: An inventor's house, designed to gruesomely off his enemies. Stella narrowly avoids getting skewered by one of the traps.
* TheBoxingEpisode
* BratsWithSlingshots
* BreakTheCutie: Danny and Flack have both gone through this; Danny's involved several fights with Mac, being implicated in the shooting of another officer, and having his brother put into a coma while trying to save him from (another) murder rap. Flack got blown up, had to participate in the investigation and arrest of his mentor, had problems with his sister, and [[spoiler: his gir lfriend died]]. Adam came pre-broken [[SadClown but hides it well most of the time]], but has also been held hostage and roughed up, among other things.
* BreastPlate: in some episodes, Stella wears a rather low-cut BulletProofVest, exposing part of her cleavage--and the heart area.
* BrokenPedestal: Mac, Danny, and Flack have ''all'' had former partners turn up again and turn out to be bad.
* BrooklynRage: Danny, at times. He's settled down a little since becoming a family man, but his short temper can still get him into trouble.
* BulletholeDoor: The third season finale featured a group of robbers breaking into the lab vault in this way. Done slightly more realistically than most of the examples of this trope, involving a .50BMG sniper rifle (i.e. a BFG) and taking most of the episode.
* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler: Peyton]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: Adam,except his dad no longer remembers abusing him.
* CarFu: Lindsay takes out a suspect with her Avalanche when he runs off. She doesn't kill him, though.
* CatchPhrase: Danny has "Boom," and Adam [[LampshadeHanging knows he says "What up!" a lot.]]
* ClearMyName: Danny (twice -- see BreakTheCutie), Hawkes, and Mac.
* ComatoseCanary: Subverted - it only ''looked'' like a ComatoseCanary.
* ComfortingTheWidow: Danny has sex with the mother of Ruben Sandoval, a kid who was accidentally shot during a robbery and died. Not exactly a widow, but a single mom- although it's close enough.
* CounterfeitCash: Central to the first season finale.
* CutHimselfShaving: Lampshaded when Mac finds blood on a suspect's cuff:
-->"Is this the point where I say I cut myself shaving?"
* {{Cyberspace}}: a 2007 episode took place half in ''SecondLife''
* DarkSecret: Often the motive for many of the crimes.
* DarkerAndEdgier / ShinyVsGritty: Initially, and especially compared to ''Series/CSIMiami'' (currently it's only slightly gorier then the ''Law & Orders'').
* DeadPersonConversation: Mac talks to Claire in 'Near Death'.
* DeathByFallingOver: It appeared that a main character kills another just by pushing them over, onto a rug. It even going so far as to have them arrested for the murder and even having them admit it. [[spoiler: Later, it's revealed that the victim was just fine and got up after the other character left, only to be killed by someone else immediately after, in a decidedly more fatal way.]]
* DeathInTheClouds: "Turbulence"
* [[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard in a Crime Lab]]: The third season finale.
* DefectiveDetective[=/=]DysfunctionJunction: Let's take it from the top, shall we?
** Mac: 9/11 widower, has been framed for murder, blown up once,seems to attract serial killers like flies to honey,shot nearly to death, his previous girlfriend left him with only a letter (though TheBusCameBack).
** Danny: Has been framed for murder ''twice''. The second time, his brother ended up in a coma while trying to clear Danny's name. He's gotten in trouble more than once for losing his temper with suspects, for a while he was suspected of shooting an undercover cop and it caused problems between him and Mac for almost a season. His neighbour's son got shot while Danny was looking after him. Was in a wheelchair from a motive-less shooting. Had his wallet (with ID, credit cards, and badge) stolen by Shane Casey. And then Shane Casey tried to kill him, fell to his death (not!),broke into his and Lindsay's apartment and theatened to kill their daughter, only stopped by Lindsay's shot. Later, he became a sergeant, only to have one of his rookies shoot the wrong man when two guys threatened the group, which had gone out for a drink.(One guy had a gun, but the rookie cop shot the other one.) On top of that, he was accused of having an affair because the same rookie was cozying up to him in a survelience camera tape. She then lied and said Danny told her to lie, nearly costing him his job, though he was cleared when Lindsay pressured the rookie to tell the truth.
** Stella: Orphan, with lingering if mostly well-hidden issues as a result. Had to shoot a stalker ex-boyfriend and had her apartment burnt out by next-door neighbor.
** Lindsay: Witnessed her friends' murder and has been dealing with the lingering trauma ever since. Married Danny who kept secrets from her and was in a wheelchair, and later became traumatized after killing Shane Casey in her own home. Had to listen to accusations Danny was cheating on her after the incident with Danny and his group of rookie cops, though it was untrue.
** Flack: Alcoholic sister, had to arrest his mentor for tampering with a crime scene, which caused problems between him and Mac and between him and the rest of the PD. Got blown up. [[spoiler: Girlfriend [[StuffedInTheFridge shot and killed]], leaving him mentally screwed up for at least the first part of season 6.]]
** Adam: Has hinted at past abuse (definitely psychological, possibly physical as well), and was held hostage and tortured so the criminals could get access to the lab. In the episode "The Party's Over," it's hinted that he may have OCD. His job also seems to be perennially in danger, first from budget cuts and then from one of the other lab techs. He also happened to be playing street hockey when a car bomb went off right next to him. His very secret shame is [[spoiler: he slept through 9/11. He made up for it by going to "The Pile" the next day, although depending on how long he was there he could now be susceptible to cancer]]. Additionally [[spoiler: his dad was/is an abusive jerkass who, thanks to Alzheimer's disease, doesn't remember the abuse or Adam (most of the time - he recognized Adam long enough to tell him what a disappointment he is and looked awfully shifty when Adam asked him about the abuse directly); he does, however, remember how much of an abusive jerkass ''his'' father was]]. Fortunately he has a very understanding girlfriend.
** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses.
** Sheldon: Lost a series of patients on the table, accused of murder, friend tried to bribe him to change evidence. Lost most of his savings in an insurance scam, resulting in him losing his home and having to sell a lot of his stuff until Mac offered him his spare room to give him time to get back on his feet. His sister was murdered, and his girlfriend left him some years back because she was raped and he ended up not being there like she needed. Got called for having marijuana in his system after his girlfriend was using it and spent time with him, causing him to breathe it in off her.
** Jo: Forced out of the FBI after turning in a [[DirtyCop dirty agent]] that got a rape case she was working thrown out, attacked by the rapist after the victim's father tried to get him caught by framing him, and forced to shoot said rapist in self defense.
* DefenestrateAndBerate: One episode opens with a jilted boyfriend throwing his ex-girlfriend's belongings out of the window at her and her new boyfriend. The last item is her pet dog. When the new boyfriend's legs are covered in blood, the viewer is led to believe that the dog has just splattered on the sidewalk. The camera then pulls back to show the boyfriend has safely caught the dog and the blood has come from a passing truck that was spreading salt on the icy street.
* DirtyCop: Repeatedly. Danny,Mac and Flack have all had former partners or mentors revealed as this.
* DisguisedHostageGambit: Snow Day.
* DontYouDarePityMe: Mac is essentially reacting this way to the aftermath of being shot. He thinks it's his problem to get through, despite people starting to notice and one person saying he should at least tell his GF. Fortunately,he finally did.
* EurekaMoment: Hawkes watches a Jennifer Lopez video during his lunch break. While admiring her, um, assets, he remembers they are insured, helping him figure out the case - it's an insurance scam.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: A hitman turns himself in and spills the beans on his client when said client switched targets from a man to a woman. This hitman doesn't do women.
** The would-be killer in "Unspoken". Lindsay saw him shooting at his intended target and was injured in the chaos. He came into her hospital room intending to dispose of her before she could identify him. But then, he saw the drawing her daughter, Lucy, had made and backed off, realizing she was a mother. It ties into what he later tells the detectives about never wanting to hurt a child. Lindsay dying would have hurt Lucy.
* ExecutiveMeddling: [[spoiler: Killing off Angell due to [[http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/what-the-keck/emmanuelle-vaugier-budget-cuts-killed-me-1111.html budget cuts]]]] Also probably the reason season 6 has dropped the TwoLinesNoWaiting format in favor of one case per episode only.
** Not quite executive meddling but [[spoiler: Melina Kanakaredes' departure in season 7 is due to a pay cut that CBS had to offer.]]
* FacePalm: At the end of "Oedipus Rex", when the Suicide Girls [[MsFanservice strut away]] and Danny realizes what he's lost out on by turning down one's offer for a date, you can see his arm rising toward his face. It's hard to credence that he's just waving goodbye, so this trope seems likely, even if it fades to black before we see it.
* FanBoy: Mac apparently idolizes RonaldReagan judging by the framed picture and "eight-hour documentary [he's] always watching".
* FanService: Certain features of Stella are on display a bit, Danny ends up [[ShirtlessScene shirtless or in a vest a lot]] and Lindsay [[WetSariScene once took a walk in the rain]].
** Also, Mac kicking ass while soaking wet in the season three finale.
*** Angell in Flack's button down shirt with a pair of handcuffs. This straight female troper will be in her bunk.
** The episode about the lingerie football league. Pretty much ''designed'' for the MaleGaze.
* AFatherToHisMen: Mac.
* FatalAttractor: Stella Bonasera
* FingerInTheMail: An episode dealt with the heir of a wealthy family who'd been abducted at a young age with his brother. When the family was slow with the ransom money, his brother's ear was cut off and sent to the family; later, the brother was killed. The surviving man kept the ear in a jar of preservative.
* FingerLickingPoison: In "Page Turner", the killer coats the pages of a book in thallium to poison his victims.
* {{Fingore}}: Danny getting his fingers stamped on and broken in the season three finale.
* FiveManBand:
** TheHero: Mac Taylor
** TheLancer: Danny Messer
** TheBigGuy: Don Flack
** TheSmartGuy and TheChick: Stella Bonasera and Lindsay Monroe/Messer trade these off frequently. (Now that Stella's gone, it's Jo and Lindsay)
** SixthRanger: Sheldon Hawkes
* FlashedBadgeHijack: Flack does it in the beginning of the episode "You Only Die Once"
* {{Flatline}}: Mac in "Near Death".
* {{Foreshadowing}}
** A few episodes after Lindsay's introduction and after impressing him with sports trivia, Danny jokingly remarks that he'll have to ask her to marry him if she keeps that up. Three seasons later...
** In the same vein, in a season one episode, Mac says something about how Danny could fall in love one day. Danny laughs it out, but then Lindsay shows up in the next season and...
* FosterKid: Stella
* FrameUp: Hawkes in "Raising Shane".
** Also the serial rapist from Jo's FBI past.
* FridayNightDeathSlot: Starting in season seven, ''CSI: NY'' aired Friday at 9pm Eastern. Season 9 was airing an hour earlier,at 8pm Eastern, then went back to its old 9pm Eastern slot after ''MadeInJersey'' got the ax.
* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: A cage fighter was so afraid of a stalker harming his family that when his friend, a homeless veteran, died after an accident he decided to set the body on fire and fake his death. The fighter is eventually found, but he burned the body so throughly that there's no proof the homeless vet ''wasn't'' murdered and the cops will be forced to charge him, although Mac would try to put in a good word (he also got the vet a military funeral).]]
* GoryDiscretionShot: 'Blood Out'. Kinda a requirement when the victim is being dismembered with a chainsaw.
* GratuitousItalian: For the Greek name of Stella Bonasera, whitch means Star Goodnight.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: Danny gets beaned with one while having a drink with his band of rookies.
* GPSEvidence: many times played straight, once subverted because an enemy of one of the investigators figured out that the team chased this sort of evidence.
* HappilyAdopted: Jo's daughter Ellie (Not to be confused with Ellie Brass from ''Series/{{CSI}}'')
* HappilyMarried : Danny and Lindsay
* HarmfulToMinors: As a teenager, Lindsay witnessed the murder of several friends. In season three, she is called to testify at the trial of their murderer.
* HeadTiltinglyKinky: "Bad Beat"
* HeroicBSOD: After seven episodes of teetering on the brink, Flack finally has one in "Cuckoo's Nest."
* HideYourPregnancy: When actress Anna Belknap, who plays Lindsay, became pregnant, they used the close-up method with varying success. The second time around, they wrote it into the storyline.
* HitboxDissonance: Came up as a plot point relevant to the motive in one episode. [[spoiler:An Xbox used in a ''GearsOfWar3'' tournament had been hacked to give one player a hitbox half the size it should have been, and everyone else a hitbox twice the normal size.]]
* {{Homage}}: The season three finale is clearly a ''Film/DieHard'' [[DieHardOnAnX homage]]. It is also [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome highly awesome]].
* HonorableMarriageProposal: Zigzagged. Danny wants to marry Lindsay after the pregnancy reveal, but she initially says no, only saying yes several episodes later when he does a surprise proposal.
* HouseFire: Stella's apartment.
* ICantFeelMyLegs: Danny, after he was shot in the back.
* IHaveThisFriend: Lindsay got pregnant, she used this in a spectacularly transparent attempt to ask Stella if she needed to worry about any of the chemicals in the lab affecting the baby.
* ImplausibleSynchrony: The 333 killer will time certain events to happen exactly at 3:33, and he can rest assured that Mac ''will'' be freaked out when he looks at his watch.
* InitialismTitle: Two initialisms for the price of one!
* InTheBack: Danny, in the season 5 finale, and Mac in the season 8 finale.
* ItIsNotYourTime: Mac, with Claire telling him so.
* ItsPersonal: Mac was in the Marine Corps; once a Marine, always a Marine, and he takes that very seriously.
** Also the reason why [[spoiler: Flack killed Angell's murderer in the Season 5 finale]]
** The reason why every member of the team is out for justice first after Aiden is killed,and then in the season 8 finale. She shot Mac, and when you do that, they all come after you. Luckily, they didn't kill her over it.
* JustOneLittleMistake: The only mistake the second killer in "Criminal Justice" makes is [[spoiler: he planted the evidence after Hawkes had sprayed for footprints at the scene, and the distribution of chemicals on the evidence alerts the team to the fact the evidence was planted after]]. Otherwise he nearly commits ThePerfectCrime. Which makes sense, because [[spoiler: he's a DA, and has fifteen years of experience with criminals and the crime lab to know how they work]]. Also a case of MurderTheHypotenuse.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Aiden Burn in season 2, and Angell at the end of season 5.]]
* KnightInSourArmor: Just about everyone.
* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: One episode had Danny and Stella investigating the death of a millionaire inside his mansion's panic room. Danny accidentally trips the room, locking himself inside without a forensics kit. While he's waiting to be rescued, he uses the items found in the room to finish processing the crime scene.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Danny addressing Stella as "Mrs. [=MacGyver=]" as she's walking him through said processing.
** A later episode has Mac and Stella stuck fighting robbers who are trying to steal the Lab's confiscated drugs. Thank god Mac can build a bomb and ''laser trip wires'' from the stuff found in the lab.
* LampshadeHanging: Sid knows he has a tendency to find weird things while doing autopsies.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Really laser-guided with Mac...he can't remember a lot of random stuff after being shot.
* LetMeAtHim: Danny, when he sees Mac with the guy initially suspected of killing Aiden (although it was really a recurring serial rapist/killer and not even him.) Mac warns Danny off, telling him they had to do it right.
* LoveConfession: Lindsay was the first,she told Danny in season four out of frustration after he slept with Rikki Sandoval. He eventually recriprocated and they're married now. Mac was the second,and his telling Christine was a big step for they guy who grieved for so long. It appears mutual.
* LukeYouAreMyFather: Slightly sideways example; the biological son of Mac's dead wife, who she gave up for adoption, comes looking for her. She died on 9/11, but he and Mac establish a sort of tenuous (Mac's not a people person) father-son relationship when Mac opens up and shares some memories of her.
* MadBomber: "Charge of this Post"
* MamaBear: Not a great idea to threaten Lindsay's husband and infant daughter.
* MarriedToTheJob: Mac, mainly. Stella too sometimes.
* MileHighClub
* MistakenForCheating: Danny. When one of his rookies shot an unarmed man rather than the gun carrier who confronted them,she deflected attention from herself by saying Danny was cheating with her and told her to lie. A video from the bar shows her cozying up to Danny and makes Internal Affairs more suspicious,though Danny denies it and insists she came on to him. Lindsay eventually pressures the rookie to admit the truth and clear Danny.
* MistakenForJunkie: Hawkes. His girlfriend was the actual user; he just inhaled marijuana residue from her while they were getting it on. But it showed up in his random NYPD-mandated drug test and Mac was anxious to know what was going on.
* MonsterClown: [[spoiler: He's just trying to protect himself from a hitman.]]
* MoodLighting: The show started out rather dark and gloomy. After taking a lot of flak (although not a lot of Flack) for it, the lights were turned up for the second series.
** Added to this is the harsh blue lighting used for the first season (used to make New York look slightly 'colder'), which was eventually found to be ''too'' cold and phased out for the second season.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: Sort of, with LampshadeHanging. When they find a victim wearing an "I ♥ NY" t-shirt, they immediately assume it's a tourist. They're right.
* MurderDotCom: Subverted.
* MutuallyFictional: To ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' (and ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' via CrossOver)
* MythArc: Shane Casey,or at least that ran several seasons on and off.
* NamesTheSame: A guy stalks and kills several people named Mac Taylor [[spoiler: the name being the only clue as to who killed his girlfriend in a hit-and-run]]; he very quickly realizes that Det. Taylor isn't the guy he's looking for.
* NearDeathExperience: Mac.
* NeverFoundTheBody (Or Even DNA): Mac's wife Claire along with hundreds of other real-life 9/11 victims [[spoiler: although the fall 2011 premier revealed she escaped her tower before it fell...]]
* NeverSuicide: Stella is very (bordering on insanely to the rest of the cast) certain that a young woman who had been searching for her missing twin brother for over a decade didn't kill herself [[spoiler: -- the fact that she shot herself in the ''stomach'' instead of her head or heart is a telling clue]].
* NewYorkCityCops
* NightSwimEqualsDeath: Too many episodes to list. It's usually signaled by finding the body floating in the swimming pool.
* NoDialogueEpisode: "Unspoken". Half the episode was backed by Green Day music and no speech.
* NoodleIncident: Christine asks Mac if he recalls a time during a vacation when they both got drunk. Mac doesn't want to talk about it.
* NotMyDriver: The MO of the "Cabbie Killer".
* NotThatKindofDoctor: Averted with Hawkes, who was an MD before changing careers.
* NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont: 'All Access'. Frankie doesn't know enough about guns to take the safety off when he tries to shoot Stella, giving her the chance to grab it, take off the safety, and shoot him as he continued to try attacking.
* OfficialCouple: Danny and Lindsay,first Mac and Peyton,now Mac and Christine.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: If I recall correctly, what really happened to the Never Suicide girl and her brother: dad killed bro and years later killed sis when she found out.]]
* OhCrap: The look on the face of [[spoiler: the rapist whose case ruined Jo's FBI career]] when he realizes [[spoiler: he left a bullet in the chamber of Jo's gun before tossing it back to her as a taunt]].
** Danny also does this in 'Food For Thought' when Lindsay's wanting a ton of food and Danny thinks she's pregnant again.
* OneOfOurOwn: [[spoiler: Stella shooting her boyfriend and Aiden's murder, two episodes apart.]]
** [[spoiler: Mac getting shot in the season 8 finale, though [[ItGetsBetter he got better.]] ]]
* OnlyBarelyRenewed: Getting season nine came down to it being cheaper to make than ''Series/CSIMiami'' and wanting it for a [[BigApplesauce New York]] themed night of programming.
* OrgyOfEvidence: In "Prey", the CSI team investigate a murder with a large amount of strange evidence; all of it designed to simulate eveidence encountered at early crime scenes.
* OrSoIHeard: Adam gives an in-detail explanation of what a "sploshing" party is before playing this trope hilariously straight. Adam [[RunningGag does this a lot]].
* TheOtherDarrin: A variation of sorts. Mac's wife Claire was played by the same actress during both of her onscreen appearances (the flashbacks of 'Indelible' and Mac's NearDeathExperience in 'Near Death'), but the pictures of Claire that Mac showed Reed in season 4 were of a different woman. Probably justified, as the show makers couldn't know then that they'd need someone to actually play her onscreen down the road.
* PaintballEpisode: "Consequences"
* ParanoiaFuel: In-universe (and probably real life) example in the form of [[StoryArc Cabbie Killer]].
* ParentalSexualitySquick: Evident with Ellie after she and a boy sneak into the apartment and Jo thinks there's a burglar and confronts them, the FBI agent-old friend right behind her.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: The core of both Luke Blade and Brooks in season 9.
* PercussivePickpocket: An episode has Mac catching a pickpocket (who manages to hide his stash before they grab him) just before running into the Victim of the Week. [[spoiler:They later find a security camera video of said pickpocket bumping into their suspect and realise that he stole a camera with vital evidence on it.]]
* PermaStubble: Danny seems to have settled into this after losing the BeardOfSorrow.
* PhraseCatcher: By fifth season, every other character has picked up Danny's "Boom!" Catchphrase.
* PillowPregnancy: The professional shoplifter in "Not What It Looks Like"
* PoliceBrutalityGambit: Subverted, a suspect slams his head into the table and says he'll sue. Mac cheerfully explains why his injuries could only be self inflicted and says he injured himself for nothing. The serial killer who [[spoiler: killed himself to frame Mac for murder]] is a much more extreme example.
* PregnantHostage
* PrisonEpisode: "Redemptio"
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Sid and Adam in season 5.
* PutOnABus: Peyton in the season four opener.
** [[spoiler: Stella]] in the season 7 opener.
* {{Pyromaniac}}: The season 9 premiere and second ep were centered on one of these.
* QuipToBlack: Usually Mac or Stella (now Jo) but everyone has their turn
* RagsToRiches: Sid. He wasn't exactly poor before, but he wasn't wealthy either. Now he's made a bundle on his pillow invention.
* RankUp: Danny, briefly.
* RealSongThemeTune: Like all the [=CSIs=], it uses a song by TheWho, in this case "Baba O'Riley".
** Unlike the other two shows in the franchise, this show has adopted a remixed version of the song (from the fourth season onwards).
* RearWindowWitness: "Point of View" pays homage to the ''RearWindow'' where Mac Taylor is severely injured during the pursuit of a suspect and is confined to his apartment, observing the neighbors. Mac witnesses a shady deal similar to L.B. Jeffries and his suspicion of his murderous neighbor.
* RememberThatYouTrustMe: Mac is ''horrible'' about letting people in, even Stella, his closest friend. This has come back to bite him in the ass more than once, including being a huge factor in the failure of his relationship with Peyton, and the huge disaster that resulted after he was implicated in a murder (see TakingYouWithMe). Stella calls him on it in the season six premier, when he's obsessing over [[spoiler: trying to figure out who opened fire on the team at the end of season five]] and acting as if he's the only one on the case. It does seem though that he's improving a bit by the time Christine starts romancing him. Then he slipped into it again with his aphasia condition in season 9. It took Christine several eps to break through to him.
* RiseFromYourGrave: The opening of "Boo".
* RoomFullOfCrazy: "Jamalot", "The Ride In". Mac turns his office into one while trying to figure out who's behind the shooting that happened at the end of season 5.
* RunForTheBorder: Season Five premiere had the perp try to escape to Canada before Mac caught up with him. Needless to say, he failed.
* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler: Mac's wife's son still bears the scars from the cabbie killer, which he hides with a scarf.]]
** Mac still has scars from being burned by a hot object after a bomb blast in Baghdad. Granted, we can't spot them when he's swimming in 'My Name Is Mac Taylor', but makeup is really hard to manage during a water scene, so it's justified.(although in the season 9 opener, they did manage to show his bullet wound scar from the season 8 finale in a shower scene) The scenes where he's shirtless in bed with Peyton, though...
* SerialKiller: Several. Mac seems to attract them somehow.
* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: In "Page Turner", the killer poisons his wife with thallium and then coats a book in the library where she works, knowing that others will be exposed to it. After another two people die, he launches a law suit against the city and the library.
* SeriesFauxnale: The format of the finales of seasons 7,8, and presumably 9 are this, because of the uncertainty over renewals now.
* SexEqualsDeath: It was blissful, unwed and not in the missionary position. Of course [[spoiler: Angell was going to die]].
* SexyCoatFlashing: Hawkes' girlfriend Camille does it at the end of "Food for Thought".
* SexyShirtSwitch: Not Stella or Lindsay, but the mother of Ruben Sandoval
** Also Angell with Flack's
* ShallowLoveInterest: Dr. Peyton Driscoll has hints of this. She had the potential to be a great character, as an ME she was obviously smart, but the writers ruined this by making her very first scene one of her in bed with Mac. Later on, it seemed virtually every scene with her had to be connected to Mac in some way.
** Some are arguing this about Christine. She's better liked than Peyton, but though she isn't a lab employee, some fans are complaining that it seems like every scene with her is Mac going to meet her at the restaurant-they wonder if she has anything else in her life and see her as a little too perfect for Mac. However, it's not as bad as Peyton.
* ShirtlessScene: Danny on occasions, Mac at least twice
* ShoppingCartAntics: In "Obsession", one of the murders centers around a race run using shopping carts and where it is customary to sabotage the other teams.
* ShoutOut: An episode involving "a time machine" had the TARDIS materialization sound effect in and a ''Series/DoctorWho'' reference.
** The fourth season Halloween episode involves a "zombie" whose cause of death is a [[ShaunOfTheDead cricket bat to the head.]]
** Several to ''Film/TheMatrix'' and ''{{Oz}}'' in an episode that featured Harold Perrineau as an inmate [[spoiler: who's spared from execution when a guard dies. He also killed Sheldon's sister a decade ago, although he wasn't on death row for her murder since it's officially unsolved]] who [[TheAtoner helps Sheldon escape]] when Edward Furlong's character sets off a prison riot (he even gets to say a variation of [[{{Terminator}} "Come with me if you want to live!"]]) while the rest of the Five Man Band uses computerized blueprints on a [[TechnologyPorn touchscreen table]] aid Sheldon.
** ''Possibly'' the overly-serious head of, essentially, [[Literature/{{Discworld}} the guild of New York clowns.]]
** That episode, which kicked off with a murder at a restaurant, included the line [[TheGodfather "Take the guns, leave the cannoli".]]
* ShowerOfAngst: Stella
* SiblingYinYang: The Carver siblings: The brother became Chief of Detectives (I think) while the sister [[spoiler: became an abusive, drug-addicted prostitute who was eventually murdered by her own son ''who got away with it'' since he was trying to save his younger siblings.]]
** FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling Flack and his party-girl sister; Messer and his gangster-ish brother.
* SickSadSubcultureOfTheWeek
* SinisterSubway
* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Mild case with Lucy Messer. There was a 6 month skip in the last ep of season 8,but WordOfGod stated she was being aged up another few months to a year. She should be about 4 and a half but Danny said she was 5 early in season 9.
* SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass: The arsonist does this in his cell with his glasses at the end of "Where There's Smoke".
* SpikedWheels: The team ran into such a car (using FrickinLaserBeams to evade the police), and JamesBond is explicitly referenced.
* StayInTheKitchen: Jo's ex-husband, while he loves her and their kids very much, would rather she be a stay-at-home-mom and they're both too stubborn to give in.
* StepfordSmiler: Detective Flack after [[spoiler: Angell's death]].
* TheStoic: Mac is the embodiment of this trope.
* StuffBlowingUp: Several times...the bomb in the season 3 finale, the season 9 premiere.
* StuffedInTheFridge: [[spoiler: Aiden]]
* SundialWaypoint: "Manhattanhenge"
* SympatheticCriminal: Two boys trying to pay the rent, who are themselves robbed by a much more conventional robber.
** [[spoiler: Carver's nephew, who killed his abusive mother when she started beating his younger siblings.]]
** [[spoiler: The guy who stole a clown's costume to kill the drug producer who sent a hitman after him. He even gave the clown his day's pay.]]
* TakingYouWithMe: When Mac corners a serial killer on a rooftop, the guy jumps off rather than go back to prison. But he does it in such a way that it looks like Mac pushed him, and since Mac didn't wait for backup, there's no one who can say that he didn't.
* TeamDad: Mostly Mac to Hawkes, including letting Hawkes stay at his place when Hawkes lost all his money to an insurance scam. Mac to Danny at times too.
* TenMinuteRetirement: Mac's retirement at the beginning of season eight. Danny's promotion to police sergeant (and thus away from the crime lab) also only lasts four episodes before he voluntarily demotes himself and goes back to being a detective.
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Aidan]] manages to make [[spoiler: her]] murder into one of these.
* TimeSkip: Six months in the end of the season 8 finale, to give Mac time to heal from being shot.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: With Mac after being shot, a really selective LaserGuidedAmnesia thing.
* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: first season, even worse than usual.
* ViewersAreMorons: Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING has to be explained to the viewer, especially during the autopsy scenes. While this is normal for a show about forensic science, the writers like to go a little to far to explain stuff that's common sense to even the average, non-CSI viewer.
* WhereTheyWere: "Oedipus Hex"
* WouldNotHurtAChild: The shooter in "Unspoken".
* WrittenInAbsence
** Lindsay was written out for a few episodes during Season three, so Anna Belknap could go on maternity leave.
** Done again in Season five, where Lindsay ended up pregnant with Danny's baby.
* YourFavorite: Flack tried to help a reporter sweet-talk Mac by telling her his favorite breakfast foods... except he was allergic to one, and abstaining from another.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: "Hung Out To Dry". The plot seems resolved, until Lindsay comes in and announces that Shane Casey escaped.
* ZeroGSpot: Not quite genuine Zero-G, but a couple in one episode got busted for public indecency because they were having sex while bungie-jumping. It's strongly implied that this is the female jumper's personal favorite kink.
----
SpinOff from ''Series/CSIMiami'' itself [[SpinOff spun]] from ''Series/{{CSI}}'' (2004- present) set in New York City. The show's [[CharacterDevelopment character work]] is probably its strongest aspect, with multi-season arcs for several of the characters, particularly Mac, Danny, and Lindsay. The cast is full of [[DysfunctionJunction slightly messed up]] characters, all the way from Mac down to Adam. In fact, the coroner is probably the most well-adjusted person in the lab. In general this is handled well and doesn't devolve into {{Wangst}} territory.
----
!!This show contains examples of:
* AbsoluteCleavage
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer
* AbusiveParents: Adam. And the VictimOfTheWeek a time or two.
* ActorAllusion: In one episode the perp is an aspiring actor, and to catch him off-guard Mac pretends to be trying out for ''Literature/OfMiceAndMen''; Gary Sinise played George in the 1992 remake.
** Detective Mac Taylor shares last names with his most famous role, Lieutenant Dan Taylor of ForrestGump. Gary Sinise says he gave the character his last name in tribute to that character.
** Also, in "Playing with Matches" the QuipToBlack is "Houston, we have a problem." Referencing another movie Gary Sinise was in, {{Apollo 13}}. Although his character in that movie was not the one to say that line.
* AfterlifeAntechamber: It looks a lot like the lab.
* AloneWithThePsycho: Both Stella and Jo
* AlphaBitch: She [[spoiler: pretended to be homely girls' friends, doll them up, have her boyfriend have sex with them, rated the experience online, and give the girls a big necklace so everyone would know. The sister of her victims strangled her and then part of her house fell on her]]. Her name was [[TropeNamer Libby]].
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The ending theme for the Japanese version is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V9rl2mtKA0&feature=related "The First Day Without You"]] by Dreams Come True.
* AndAnotherThing: Detective Flack did this once. When he made to leave, the door gave him a Eureka Moment ? he realised that the victim's door had been locked from the outside, so whoever killed him must have had a key.
* AndIMustScream: "Blink."
* AndStarring: Eddie Cahill gets an "And", Hill Harper the "With".
* AssholeVictim: In ''Who's There?'', [[spoiler:the victim was purposefully destroying his family's company, liquidating every cent they had, destroying the future of his own daughter, just to spite his estranged wife.]]
* AuditThreat: Flack does this a fair bit.
* AuthorTract:Gary Sinise seems to have influenced Mac's dialogue about veteran-related issues now and then. 'Fight Night' is a noticeable example.
* BeardOfSorrow: Danny probably qualifies after the season 6 opener.
* TheBet: Danny and Lindsay in "Snow Day."
--> '''Danny:''' There's no way you're gonna make this shot, too, Montana.\\
'''Lindsay:''' A Benjamin says I do. ''(shoots the billiard in the hole)'' Now you owe me $100.
** Danny and Mac in "Fare Game". Danny bets Mac $5 that Lindsay won't eat the bug cuisine he brought back after a case involving it. Lindsay eats it and Danny has to pony up to Mac.
--->'''Lindsay''' Never bet against a country girl.
** Part of the second episode of season 8 was a betting pool about when Mac would return to the lab
* BewareTheNiceOnes: After Danny jokingly asks Lindsay how she'd get away with killing him and suggests that she used her forensic know-how to clean up the scene, she responds that she ''wouldn't'' clean up and claim that Danny was a DomesticAbuser. Her "performance" is kind of eerie, to say the least.
** Another time they're discussing what to do if the other dies: Danny wants a two-week long wake (first week for mourning, second week for partying) and Lindsay "jokingly" declares that she'll haunt him and any future girlfriends forever ''while eating all of his cannolis''.
* BigEater: Lindsay
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The car jacker's three daughters (blonde and brunette went into the family business, redhead went to law school).
* BolivianArmyCliffHanger
* BoobyTrap / DeathTrap: An inventor's house, designed to gruesomely off his enemies. Stella narrowly avoids getting skewered by one of the traps.
* TheBoxingEpisode
* BratsWithSlingshots
* BreakTheCutie: Danny and Flack have both gone through this; Danny's involved several fights with Mac, being implicated in the shooting of another officer, and having his brother put into a coma while trying to save him from (another) murder rap. Flack got blown up, had to participate in the investigation and arrest of his mentor, had problems with his sister, and [[spoiler: his gir lfriend died]]. Adam came pre-broken [[SadClown but hides it well most of the time]], but has also been held hostage and roughed up, among other things.
* BreastPlate: in some episodes, Stella wears a rather low-cut BulletProofVest, exposing part of her cleavage--and the heart area.
* BrokenPedestal: Mac, Danny, and Flack have ''all'' had former partners turn up again and turn out to be bad.
* BrooklynRage: Danny, at times. He's settled down a little since becoming a family man, but his short temper can still get him into trouble.
* BulletholeDoor: The third season finale featured a group of robbers breaking into the lab vault in this way. Done slightly more realistically than most of the examples of this trope, involving a .50BMG sniper rifle (i.e. a BFG) and taking most of the episode.
* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler: Peyton]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: Adam,except his dad no longer remembers abusing him.
* CarFu: Lindsay takes out a suspect with her Avalanche when he runs off. She doesn't kill him, though.
* CatchPhrase: Danny has "Boom," and Adam [[LampshadeHanging knows he says "What up!" a lot.]]
* ClearMyName: Danny (twice -- see BreakTheCutie), Hawkes, and Mac.
* ComatoseCanary: Subverted - it only ''looked'' like a ComatoseCanary.
* ComfortingTheWidow: Danny has sex with the mother of Ruben Sandoval, a kid who was accidentally shot during a robbery and died. Not exactly a widow, but a single mom- although it's close enough.
* CounterfeitCash: Central to the first season finale.
* CutHimselfShaving: Lampshaded when Mac finds blood on a suspect's cuff:
-->"Is this the point where I say I cut myself shaving?"
* {{Cyberspace}}: a 2007 episode took place half in ''SecondLife''
* DarkSecret: Often the motive for many of the crimes.
* DarkerAndEdgier / ShinyVsGritty: Initially, and especially compared to ''Series/CSIMiami'' (currently it's only slightly gorier then the ''Law & Orders'').
* DeadPersonConversation: Mac talks to Claire in 'Near Death'.
* DeathByFallingOver: It appeared that a main character kills another just by pushing them over, onto a rug. It even going so far as to have them arrested for the murder and even having them admit it. [[spoiler: Later, it's revealed that the victim was just fine and got up after the other character left, only to be killed by someone else immediately after, in a decidedly more fatal way.]]
* DeathInTheClouds: "Turbulence"
* [[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard in a Crime Lab]]: The third season finale.
* DefectiveDetective[=/=]DysfunctionJunction: Let's take it from the top, shall we?
** Mac: 9/11 widower, has been framed for murder, blown up once,seems to attract serial killers like flies to honey,shot nearly to death, his previous girlfriend left him with only a letter (though TheBusCameBack).
** Danny: Has been framed for murder ''twice''. The second time, his brother ended up in a coma while trying to clear Danny's name. He's gotten in trouble more than once for losing his temper with suspects, for a while he was suspected of shooting an undercover cop and it caused problems between him and Mac for almost a season. His neighbour's son got shot while Danny was looking after him. Was in a wheelchair from a motive-less shooting. Had his wallet (with ID, credit cards, and badge) stolen by Shane Casey. And then Shane Casey tried to kill him, fell to his death (not!),broke into his and Lindsay's apartment and theatened to kill their daughter, only stopped by Lindsay's shot. Later, he became a sergeant, only to have one of his rookies shoot the wrong man when two guys threatened the group, which had gone out for a drink.(One guy had a gun, but the rookie cop shot the other one.) On top of that, he was accused of having an affair because the same rookie was cozying up to him in a survelience camera tape. She then lied and said Danny told her to lie, nearly costing him his job, though he was cleared when Lindsay pressured the rookie to tell the truth.
** Stella: Orphan, with lingering if mostly well-hidden issues as a result. Had to shoot a stalker ex-boyfriend and had her apartment burnt out by next-door neighbor.
** Lindsay: Witnessed her friends' murder and has been dealing with the lingering trauma ever since. Married Danny who kept secrets from her and was in a wheelchair, and later became traumatized after killing Shane Casey in her own home. Had to listen to accusations Danny was cheating on her after the incident with Danny and his group of rookie cops, though it was untrue.
** Flack: Alcoholic sister, had to arrest his mentor for tampering with a crime scene, which caused problems between him and Mac and between him and the rest of the PD. Got blown up. [[spoiler: Girlfriend [[StuffedInTheFridge shot and killed]], leaving him mentally screwed up for at least the first part of season 6.]]
** Adam: Has hinted at past abuse (definitely psychological, possibly physical as well), and was held hostage and tortured so the criminals could get access to the lab. In the episode "The Party's Over," it's hinted that he may have OCD. His job also seems to be perennially in danger, first from budget cuts and then from one of the other lab techs. He also happened to be playing street hockey when a car bomb went off right next to him. His very secret shame is [[spoiler: he slept through 9/11. He made up for it by going to "The Pile" the next day, although depending on how long he was there he could now be susceptible to cancer]]. Additionally [[spoiler: his dad was/is an abusive jerkass who, thanks to Alzheimer's disease, doesn't remember the abuse or Adam (most of the time - he recognized Adam long enough to tell him what a disappointment he is and looked awfully shifty when Adam asked him about the abuse directly); he does, however, remember how much of an abusive jerkass ''his'' father was]]. Fortunately he has a very understanding girlfriend.
** Sid: Changed careers for unknown reasons. Inhabits a "creepy place" with dead body trivia. The woman he treated like a daughter was murdered after her husband, a former colleague, had to be fired, murdered drug addicts, and turned out to have been stealing organs from corpses while he worked at the lab. And let's not forget having to go to the hospital: once for an allergic reaction, another for getting radiation poisoning while examining a body, and the exploding bullet to the face that would have blinded him if it weren't for his glasses.
** Sheldon: Lost a series of patients on the table, accused of murder, friend tried to bribe him to change evidence. Lost most of his savings in an insurance scam, resulting in him losing his home and having to sell a lot of his stuff until Mac offered him his spare room to give him time to get back on his feet. His sister was murdered, and his girlfriend left him some years back because she was raped and he ended up not being there like she needed. Got called for having marijuana in his system after his girlfriend was using it and spent time with him, causing him to breathe it in off her.
** Jo: Forced out of the FBI after turning in a [[DirtyCop dirty agent]] that got a rape case she was working thrown out, attacked by the rapist after the victim's father tried to get him caught by framing him, and forced to shoot said rapist in self defense.
* DefenestrateAndBerate: One episode opens with a jilted boyfriend throwing his ex-girlfriend's belongings out of the window at her and her new boyfriend. The last item is her pet dog. When the new boyfriend's legs are covered in blood, the viewer is led to believe that the dog has just splattered on the sidewalk. The camera then pulls back to show the boyfriend has safely caught the dog and the blood has come from a passing truck that was spreading salt on the icy street.
* DirtyCop: Repeatedly. Danny,Mac and Flack have all had former partners or mentors revealed as this.
* DisguisedHostageGambit: Snow Day.
* DontYouDarePityMe: Mac is essentially reacting this way to the aftermath of being shot. He thinks it's his problem to get through, despite people starting to notice and one person saying he should at least tell his GF. Fortunately,he finally did.
* EurekaMoment: Hawkes watches a Jennifer Lopez video during his lunch break. While admiring her, um, assets, he remembers they are insured, helping him figure out the case - it's an insurance scam.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: A hitman turns himself in and spills the beans on his client when said client switched targets from a man to a woman. This hitman doesn't do women.
** The would-be killer in "Unspoken". Lindsay saw him shooting at his intended target and was injured in the chaos. He came into her hospital room intending to dispose of her before she could identify him. But then, he saw the drawing her daughter, Lucy, had made and backed off, realizing she was a mother. It ties into what he later tells the detectives about never wanting to hurt a child. Lindsay dying would have hurt Lucy.
* ExecutiveMeddling: [[spoiler: Killing off Angell due to [[http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/what-the-keck/emmanuelle-vaugier-budget-cuts-killed-me-1111.html budget cuts]]]] Also probably the reason season 6 has dropped the TwoLinesNoWaiting format in favor of one case per episode only.
** Not quite executive meddling but [[spoiler: Melina Kanakaredes' departure in season 7 is due to a pay cut that CBS had to offer.]]
* FacePalm: At the end of "Oedipus Rex", when the Suicide Girls [[MsFanservice strut away]] and Danny realizes what he's lost out on by turning down one's offer for a date, you can see his arm rising toward his face. It's hard to credence that he's just waving goodbye, so this trope seems likely, even if it fades to black before we see it.
* FanBoy: Mac apparently idolizes RonaldReagan judging by the framed picture and "eight-hour documentary [he's] always watching".
* FanService: Certain features of Stella are on display a bit, Danny ends up [[ShirtlessScene shirtless or in a vest a lot]] and Lindsay [[WetSariScene once took a walk in the rain]].
** Also, Mac kicking ass while soaking wet in the season three finale.
*** Angell in Flack's button down shirt with a pair of handcuffs. This straight female troper will be in her bunk.
** The episode about the lingerie football league. Pretty much ''designed'' for the MaleGaze.
* AFatherToHisMen: Mac.
* FatalAttractor: Stella Bonasera
* FingerInTheMail: An episode dealt with the heir of a wealthy family who'd been abducted at a young age with his brother. When the family was slow with the ransom money, his brother's ear was cut off and sent to the family; later, the brother was killed. The surviving man kept the ear in a jar of preservative.
* FingerLickingPoison: In "Page Turner", the killer coats the pages of a book in thallium to poison his victims.
* {{Fingore}}: Danny getting his fingers stamped on and broken in the season three finale.
* FiveManBand:
** TheHero: Mac Taylor
** TheLancer: Danny Messer
** TheBigGuy: Don Flack
** TheSmartGuy and TheChick: Stella Bonasera and Lindsay Monroe/Messer trade these off frequently. (Now that Stella's gone, it's Jo and Lindsay)
** SixthRanger: Sheldon Hawkes
* FlashedBadgeHijack: Flack does it in the beginning of the episode "You Only Die Once"
* {{Flatline}}: Mac in "Near Death".
* {{Foreshadowing}}
** A few episodes after Lindsay's introduction and after impressing him with sports trivia, Danny jokingly remarks that he'll have to ask her to marry him if she keeps that up. Three seasons later...
** In the same vein, in a season one episode, Mac says something about how Danny could fall in love one day. Danny laughs it out, but then Lindsay shows up in the next season and...
* FosterKid: Stella
* FrameUp: Hawkes in "Raising Shane".
** Also the serial rapist from Jo's FBI past.
* FridayNightDeathSlot: Starting in season seven, ''CSI: NY'' aired Friday at 9pm Eastern. Season 9 was airing an hour earlier,at 8pm Eastern, then went back to its old 9pm Eastern slot after ''MadeInJersey'' got the ax.
* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: A cage fighter was so afraid of a stalker harming his family that when his friend, a homeless veteran, died after an accident he decided to set the body on fire and fake his death. The fighter is eventually found, but he burned the body so throughly that there's no proof the homeless vet ''wasn't'' murdered and the cops will be forced to charge him, although Mac would try to put in a good word (he also got the vet a military funeral).]]
* GoryDiscretionShot: 'Blood Out'. Kinda a requirement when the victim is being dismembered with a chainsaw.
* GratuitousItalian: For the Greek name of Stella Bonasera, whitch means Star Goodnight.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: Danny gets beaned with one while having a drink with his band of rookies.
* GPSEvidence: many times played straight, once subverted because an enemy of one of the investigators figured out that the team chased this sort of evidence.
* HappilyAdopted: Jo's daughter Ellie (Not to be confused with Ellie Brass from ''Series/{{CSI}}'')
* HappilyMarried : Danny and Lindsay
* HarmfulToMinors: As a teenager, Lindsay witnessed the murder of several friends. In season three, she is called to testify at the trial of their murderer.
* HeadTiltinglyKinky: "Bad Beat"
* HeroicBSOD: After seven episodes of teetering on the brink, Flack finally has one in "Cuckoo's Nest."
* HideYourPregnancy: When actress Anna Belknap, who plays Lindsay, became pregnant, they used the close-up method with varying success. The second time around, they wrote it into the storyline.
* HitboxDissonance: Came up as a plot point relevant to the motive in one episode. [[spoiler:An Xbox used in a ''GearsOfWar3'' tournament had been hacked to give one player a hitbox half the size it should have been, and everyone else a hitbox twice the normal size.]]
* {{Homage}}: The season three finale is clearly a ''Film/DieHard'' [[DieHardOnAnX homage]]. It is also [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome highly awesome]].
* HonorableMarriageProposal: Zigzagged. Danny wants to marry Lindsay after the pregnancy reveal, but she initially says no, only saying yes several episodes later when he does a surprise proposal.
* HouseFire: Stella's apartment.
* ICantFeelMyLegs: Danny, after he was shot in the back.
* IHaveThisFriend: Lindsay got pregnant, she used this in a spectacularly transparent attempt to ask Stella if she needed to worry about any of the chemicals in the lab affecting the baby.
* ImplausibleSynchrony: The 333 killer will time certain events to happen exactly at 3:33, and he can rest assured that Mac ''will'' be freaked out when he looks at his watch.
* InitialismTitle: Two initialisms for the price of one!
* InTheBack: Danny, in the season 5 finale, and Mac in the season 8 finale.
* ItIsNotYourTime: Mac, with Claire telling him so.
* ItsPersonal: Mac was in the Marine Corps; once a Marine, always a Marine, and he takes that very seriously.
** Also the reason why [[spoiler: Flack killed Angell's murderer in the Season 5 finale]]
** The reason why every member of the team is out for justice first after Aiden is killed,and then in the season 8 finale. She shot Mac, and when you do that, they all come after you. Luckily, they didn't kill her over it.
* JustOneLittleMistake: The only mistake the second killer in "Criminal Justice" makes is [[spoiler: he planted the evidence after Hawkes had sprayed for footprints at the scene, and the distribution of chemicals on the evidence alerts the team to the fact the evidence was planted after]]. Otherwise he nearly commits ThePerfectCrime. Which makes sense, because [[spoiler: he's a DA, and has fifteen years of experience with criminals and the crime lab to know how they work]]. Also a case of MurderTheHypotenuse.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Aiden Burn in season 2, and Angell at the end of season 5.]]
* KnightInSourArmor: Just about everyone.
* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: One episode had Danny and Stella investigating the death of a millionaire inside his mansion's panic room. Danny accidentally trips the room, locking himself inside without a forensics kit. While he's waiting to be rescued, he uses the items found in the room to finish processing the crime scene.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Danny addressing Stella as "Mrs. [=MacGyver=]" as she's walking him through said processing.
** A later episode has Mac and Stella stuck fighting robbers who are trying to steal the Lab's confiscated drugs. Thank god Mac can build a bomb and ''laser trip wires'' from the stuff found in the lab.
* LampshadeHanging: Sid knows he has a tendency to find weird things while doing autopsies.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Really laser-guided with Mac...he can't remember a lot of random stuff after being shot.
* LetMeAtHim: Danny, when he sees Mac with the guy initially suspected of killing Aiden (although it was really a recurring serial rapist/killer and not even him.) Mac warns Danny off, telling him they had to do it right.
* LoveConfession: Lindsay was the first,she told Danny in season four out of frustration after he slept with Rikki Sandoval. He eventually recriprocated and they're married now. Mac was the second,and his telling Christine was a big step for they guy who grieved for so long. It appears mutual.
* LukeYouAreMyFather: Slightly sideways example; the biological son of Mac's dead wife, who she gave up for adoption, comes looking for her. She died on 9/11, but he and Mac establish a sort of tenuous (Mac's not a people person) father-son relationship when Mac opens up and shares some memories of her.
* MadBomber: "Charge of this Post"
* MamaBear: Not a great idea to threaten Lindsay's husband and infant daughter.
* MarriedToTheJob: Mac, mainly. Stella too sometimes.
* MileHighClub
* MistakenForCheating: Danny. When one of his rookies shot an unarmed man rather than the gun carrier who confronted them,she deflected attention from herself by saying Danny was cheating with her and told her to lie. A video from the bar shows her cozying up to Danny and makes Internal Affairs more suspicious,though Danny denies it and insists she came on to him. Lindsay eventually pressures the rookie to admit the truth and clear Danny.
* MistakenForJunkie: Hawkes. His girlfriend was the actual user; he just inhaled marijuana residue from her while they were getting it on. But it showed up in his random NYPD-mandated drug test and Mac was anxious to know what was going on.
* MonsterClown: [[spoiler: He's just trying to protect himself from a hitman.]]
* MoodLighting: The show started out rather dark and gloomy. After taking a lot of flak (although not a lot of Flack) for it, the lights were turned up for the second series.
** Added to this is the harsh blue lighting used for the first season (used to make New York look slightly 'colder'), which was eventually found to be ''too'' cold and phased out for the second season.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: Sort of, with LampshadeHanging. When they find a victim wearing an "I ♥ NY" t-shirt, they immediately assume it's a tourist. They're right.
* MurderDotCom: Subverted.
* MutuallyFictional: To ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' (and ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' via CrossOver)
* MythArc: Shane Casey,or at least that ran several seasons on and off.
* NamesTheSame: A guy stalks and kills several people named Mac Taylor [[spoiler: the name being the only clue as to who killed his girlfriend in a hit-and-run]]; he very quickly realizes that Det. Taylor isn't the guy he's looking for.
* NearDeathExperience: Mac.
* NeverFoundTheBody (Or Even DNA): Mac's wife Claire along with hundreds of other real-life 9/11 victims [[spoiler: although the fall 2011 premier revealed she escaped her tower before it fell...]]
* NeverSuicide: Stella is very (bordering on insanely to the rest of the cast) certain that a young woman who had been searching for her missing twin brother for over a decade didn't kill herself [[spoiler: -- the fact that she shot herself in the ''stomach'' instead of her head or heart is a telling clue]].
* NewYorkCityCops
* NightSwimEqualsDeath: Too many episodes to list. It's usually signaled by finding the body floating in the swimming pool.
* NoDialogueEpisode: "Unspoken". Half the episode was backed by Green Day music and no speech.
* NoodleIncident: Christine asks Mac if he recalls a time during a vacation when they both got drunk. Mac doesn't want to talk about it.
* NotMyDriver: The MO of the "Cabbie Killer".
* NotThatKindofDoctor: Averted with Hawkes, who was an MD before changing careers.
* NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont: 'All Access'. Frankie doesn't know enough about guns to take the safety off when he tries to shoot Stella, giving her the chance to grab it, take off the safety, and shoot him as he continued to try attacking.
* OfficialCouple: Danny and Lindsay,first Mac and Peyton,now Mac and Christine.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: If I recall correctly, what really happened to the Never Suicide girl and her brother: dad killed bro and years later killed sis when she found out.]]
* OhCrap: The look on the face of [[spoiler: the rapist whose case ruined Jo's FBI career]] when he realizes [[spoiler: he left a bullet in the chamber of Jo's gun before tossing it back to her as a taunt]].
** Danny also does this in 'Food For Thought' when Lindsay's wanting a ton of food and Danny thinks she's pregnant again.
* OneOfOurOwn: [[spoiler: Stella shooting her boyfriend and Aiden's murder, two episodes apart.]]
** [[spoiler: Mac getting shot in the season 8 finale, though [[ItGetsBetter he got better.]] ]]
* OnlyBarelyRenewed: Getting season nine came down to it being cheaper to make than ''Series/CSIMiami'' and wanting it for a [[BigApplesauce New York]] themed night of programming.
* OrgyOfEvidence: In "Prey", the CSI team investigate a murder with a large amount of strange evidence; all of it designed to simulate eveidence encountered at early crime scenes.
* OrSoIHeard: Adam gives an in-detail explanation of what a "sploshing" party is before playing this trope hilariously straight. Adam [[RunningGag does this a lot]].
* TheOtherDarrin: A variation of sorts. Mac's wife Claire was played by the same actress during both of her onscreen appearances (the flashbacks of 'Indelible' and Mac's NearDeathExperience in 'Near Death'), but the pictures of Claire that Mac showed Reed in season 4 were of a different woman. Probably justified, as the show makers couldn't know then that they'd need someone to actually play her onscreen down the road.
* PaintballEpisode: "Consequences"
* ParanoiaFuel: In-universe (and probably real life) example in the form of [[StoryArc Cabbie Killer]].
* ParentalSexualitySquick: Evident with Ellie after she and a boy sneak into the apartment and Jo thinks there's a burglar and confronts them, the FBI agent-old friend right behind her.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: The core of both Luke Blade and Brooks in season 9.
* PercussivePickpocket: An episode has Mac catching a pickpocket (who manages to hide his stash before they grab him) just before running into the Victim of the Week. [[spoiler:They later find a security camera video of said pickpocket bumping into their suspect and realise that he stole a camera with vital evidence on it.]]
* PermaStubble: Danny seems to have settled into this after losing the BeardOfSorrow.
* PhraseCatcher: By fifth season, every other character has picked up Danny's "Boom!" Catchphrase.
* PillowPregnancy: The professional shoplifter in "Not What It Looks Like"
* PoliceBrutalityGambit: Subverted, a suspect slams his head into the table and says he'll sue. Mac cheerfully explains why his injuries could only be self inflicted and says he injured himself for nothing. The serial killer who [[spoiler: killed himself to frame Mac for murder]] is a much more extreme example.
* PregnantHostage
* PrisonEpisode: "Redemptio"
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Sid and Adam in season 5.
* PutOnABus: Peyton in the season four opener.
** [[spoiler: Stella]] in the season 7 opener.
* {{Pyromaniac}}: The season 9 premiere and second ep were centered on one of these.
* QuipToBlack: Usually Mac or Stella (now Jo) but everyone has their turn
* RagsToRiches: Sid. He wasn't exactly poor before, but he wasn't wealthy either. Now he's made a bundle on his pillow invention.
* RankUp: Danny, briefly.
* RealSongThemeTune: Like all the [=CSIs=], it uses a song by TheWho, in this case "Baba O'Riley".
** Unlike the other two shows in the franchise, this show has adopted a remixed version of the song (from the fourth season onwards).
* RearWindowWitness: "Point of View" pays homage to the ''RearWindow'' where Mac Taylor is severely injured during the pursuit of a suspect and is confined to his apartment, observing the neighbors. Mac witnesses a shady deal similar to L.B. Jeffries and his suspicion of his murderous neighbor.
* RememberThatYouTrustMe: Mac is ''horrible'' about letting people in, even Stella, his closest friend. This has come back to bite him in the ass more than once, including being a huge factor in the failure of his relationship with Peyton, and the huge disaster that resulted after he was implicated in a murder (see TakingYouWithMe). Stella calls him on it in the season six premier, when he's obsessing over [[spoiler: trying to figure out who opened fire on the team at the end of season five]] and acting as if he's the only one on the case. It does seem though that he's improving a bit by the time Christine starts romancing him. Then he slipped into it again with his aphasia condition in season 9. It took Christine several eps to break through to him.
* RiseFromYourGrave: The opening of "Boo".
* RoomFullOfCrazy: "Jamalot", "The Ride In". Mac turns his office into one while trying to figure out who's behind the shooting that happened at the end of season 5.
* RunForTheBorder: Season Five premiere had the perp try to escape to Canada before Mac caught up with him. Needless to say, he failed.
* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler: Mac's wife's son still bears the scars from the cabbie killer, which he hides with a scarf.]]
** Mac still has scars from being burned by a hot object after a bomb blast in Baghdad. Granted, we can't spot them when he's swimming in 'My Name Is Mac Taylor', but makeup is really hard to manage during a water scene, so it's justified.(although in the season 9 opener, they did manage to show his bullet wound scar from the season 8 finale in a shower scene) The scenes where he's shirtless in bed with Peyton, though...
* SerialKiller: Several. Mac seems to attract them somehow.
* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: In "Page Turner", the killer poisons his wife with thallium and then coats a book in the library where she works, knowing that others will be exposed to it. After another two people die, he launches a law suit against the city and the library.
* SeriesFauxnale: The format of the finales of seasons 7,8, and presumably 9 are this, because of the uncertainty over renewals now.
* SexEqualsDeath: It was blissful, unwed and not in the missionary position. Of course [[spoiler: Angell was going to die]].
* SexyCoatFlashing: Hawkes' girlfriend Camille does it at the end of "Food for Thought".
* SexyShirtSwitch: Not Stella or Lindsay, but the mother of Ruben Sandoval
** Also Angell with Flack's
* ShallowLoveInterest: Dr. Peyton Driscoll has hints of this. She had the potential to be a great character, as an ME she was obviously smart, but the writers ruined this by making her very first scene one of her in bed with Mac. Later on, it seemed virtually every scene with her had to be connected to Mac in some way.
** Some are arguing this about Christine. She's better liked than Peyton, but though she isn't a lab employee, some fans are complaining that it seems like every scene with her is Mac going to meet her at the restaurant-they wonder if she has anything else in her life and see her as a little too perfect for Mac. However, it's not as bad as Peyton.
* ShirtlessScene: Danny on occasions, Mac at least twice
* ShoppingCartAntics: In "Obsession", one of the murders centers around a race run using shopping carts and where it is customary to sabotage the other teams.
* ShoutOut: An episode involving "a time machine" had the TARDIS materialization sound effect in and a ''Series/DoctorWho'' reference.
** The fourth season Halloween episode involves a "zombie" whose cause of death is a [[ShaunOfTheDead cricket bat to the head.]]
** Several to ''Film/TheMatrix'' and ''{{Oz}}'' in an episode that featured Harold Perrineau as an inmate [[spoiler: who's spared from execution when a guard dies. He also killed Sheldon's sister a decade ago, although he wasn't on death row for her murder since it's officially unsolved]] who [[TheAtoner helps Sheldon escape]] when Edward Furlong's character sets off a prison riot (he even gets to say a variation of [[{{Terminator}} "Come with me if you want to live!"]]) while the rest of the Five Man Band uses computerized blueprints on a [[TechnologyPorn touchscreen table]] aid Sheldon.
** ''Possibly'' the overly-serious head of, essentially, [[Literature/{{Discworld}} the guild of New York clowns.]]
** That episode, which kicked off with a murder at a restaurant, included the line [[TheGodfather "Take the guns, leave the cannoli".]]
* ShowerOfAngst: Stella
* SiblingYinYang: The Carver siblings: The brother became Chief of Detectives (I think) while the sister [[spoiler: became an abusive, drug-addicted prostitute who was eventually murdered by her own son ''who got away with it'' since he was trying to save his younger siblings.]]
** FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling Flack and his party-girl sister; Messer and his gangster-ish brother.
* SickSadSubcultureOfTheWeek
* SinisterSubway
* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Mild case with Lucy Messer. There was a 6 month skip in the last ep of season 8,but WordOfGod stated she was being aged up another few months to a year. She should be about 4 and a half but Danny said she was 5 early in season 9.
* SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass: The arsonist does this in his cell with his glasses at the end of "Where There's Smoke".
* SpikedWheels: The team ran into such a car (using FrickinLaserBeams to evade the police), and JamesBond is explicitly referenced.
* StayInTheKitchen: Jo's ex-husband, while he loves her and their kids very much, would rather she be a stay-at-home-mom and they're both too stubborn to give in.
* StepfordSmiler: Detective Flack after [[spoiler: Angell's death]].
* TheStoic: Mac is the embodiment of this trope.
* StuffBlowingUp: Several times...the bomb in the season 3 finale, the season 9 premiere.
* StuffedInTheFridge: [[spoiler: Aiden]]
* SundialWaypoint: "Manhattanhenge"
* SympatheticCriminal: Two boys trying to pay the rent, who are themselves robbed by a much more conventional robber.
** [[spoiler: Carver's nephew, who killed his abusive mother when she started beating his younger siblings.]]
** [[spoiler: The guy who stole a clown's costume to kill the drug producer who sent a hitman after him. He even gave the clown his day's pay.]]
* TakingYouWithMe: When Mac corners a serial killer on a rooftop, the guy jumps off rather than go back to prison. But he does it in such a way that it looks like Mac pushed him, and since Mac didn't wait for backup, there's no one who can say that he didn't.
* TeamDad: Mostly Mac to Hawkes, including letting Hawkes stay at his place when Hawkes lost all his money to an insurance scam. Mac to Danny at times too.
* TenMinuteRetirement: Mac's retirement at the beginning of season eight. Danny's promotion to police sergeant (and thus away from the crime lab) also only lasts four episodes before he voluntarily demotes himself and goes back to being a detective.
* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Aidan]] manages to make [[spoiler: her]] murder into one of these.
* TimeSkip: Six months in the end of the season 8 finale, to give Mac time to heal from being shot.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: With Mac after being shot, a really selective LaserGuidedAmnesia thing.
* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: first season, even worse than usual.
* ViewersAreMorons: Everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING has to be explained to the viewer, especially during the autopsy scenes. While this is normal for a show about forensic science, the writers like to go a little to far to explain stuff that's common sense to even the average, non-CSI viewer.
* WhereTheyWere: "Oedipus Hex"
* WouldNotHurtAChild: The shooter in "Unspoken".
* WrittenInAbsence
** Lindsay was written out for a few episodes during Season three, so Anna Belknap could go on maternity leave.
** Done again in Season five, where Lindsay ended up pregnant with Danny's baby.
* YourFavorite: Flack tried to help a reporter sweet-talk Mac by telling her his favorite breakfast foods... except he was allergic to one, and abstaining from another.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: "Hung Out To Dry". The plot seems resolved, until Lindsay comes in and announces that Shane Casey escaped.
* ZeroGSpot: Not quite genuine Zero-G, but a couple in one episode got busted for public indecency because they were having sex while bungie-jumping. It's strongly implied that this is the female jumper's personal favorite kink.
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