"Beautiful people doing high-tech crime work? Might be a series in that."
— Stewart Lytle Leaning on the Fourth Wall in the CSI episode "Two and A Half Deaths".
Welcome to the United States of America, but not quite as you know it. In this world, forensic investigators have cool gadgets, look gorgeous and are allowed to conduct entire criminal investigations on their own. Crimes are solved far quicker than in your world, with snazzy flashbacks and re-enactments. Did we mention that lab work is done to funky music, with Real Song Theme Tunes by The Who?
May you die in a interesting way and leave a beautiful (or horribly mangled, whichever works) corpse.
The Shows:
- CSI (2000-2015, 2021-Current)note
- CSI: Miami (2002-2012)
- CSI: NY (2004-2013)
- CSI: Cyber (2015-2016)
- Without a Trace (2002-2009)
- Cold Case (2003-2010)
The Comic Books:
- CSI:
- Thicker Than Blood by Jeff Mariotte and Gabriel Rodriguez (July 2003)
- Serial #1-5 by Max Allan Collins and Gabriel Rodriguez (2003)
- Bad Rap #1-5 by Max Allan Collins and Gabriel Rodriguez (2003)
- Demon House #1-5 by Max Allan Collins and Gabriel Rodriguez (2004)
- Dominos #1-5 by Kris Oprisko and Gabriel Rodriguez (2004)
- Secret Identity #1-5 by Steven Grant and Gabriel Rodriguez (2005)
- Dying in the Gutters #1-5 by Steven Grant and Stephen Mooney (2006)
- Miami:
- Smoking Gun by Jeff Mariotte and Jose Aviles (October 2003)
- Thou Shalt Not... by Kris Oprisko and Renato Guedes (April 2004)
- Blood/Money by Kris Oprisko and Renato Guedes (September 2004)
- NY:
- Bloody Murder #1-5 by Max Allan Collins and J.K. Woodward (2005)
The Novels:
- CSI:
- Double Dealer by Max Allan Collins (November 2001)
- Sin City by Max Allan Collins (October 2002)
- Cold Burn by Max Allan Collins (April 2003)
- Body of Evidence by Max Allan Collins (November 2003)
- Grave Matters by Max Allan Collins (October 2004)
- Binding Ties by Max Allan Collins (April 2005)
- Killing Game by Max Allan Collins (November 2005)
- Snake Eyes by Max Allan Collins (September 2006)
- In Extremis by Ken Goddard (October 2007)
- Bad Rap by Max Allan Collins (March 2008)
- Nevada Rose by Jerome Preisler (June 2008)
- Headhunter by Greg Cox (October 2008)
- Brass In Pocket by Jeff Mariotte (August 2009)
- The Killing Jar by Donn Cortez (November 2009)
- Blood Quantum by Jeff Mariotte (February 2010)
- Dark Sundays by Donn Cortez (May 2010)
- Skin Deep by Jerome Preisler (August 2010)
- Shock Treatment by Greg Cox (November 2010)
- The Burning Season by Jeff Mariotte (June 2011)
- Miami:
- Florida Getaway by Max Allan Collins (August 2003)
- Heat Wave by Max Allan Collins (July 2004)
- Cult Following by Donn Cortez (December 2005)
- Riptide by Donn Cortez (July 2006)
- Harm for the Holidays: Misgivings by Donn Cortez (November 2006)
- Harm for the Holidays: Heart Attack by Donn Cortez (January 2007)
- Cut and Run by Donn Cortez (March 2008)
- Right to Die by Jeff Mariotte (September 2008)
- NY:
- Dead of Winter by Stuart M. Kaminsky (August 2005)
- Blood on the Sun by Stuart M. Kaminsky (March 2006)
- Deluge by Stuart M. Kaminsky (May 2007)
- Four Walls by Keith R.A. DeCandido (May 2008)
The Video Games:
- CSI:
- Crime Scene Investigation (2003; Mac, PC, Xbox)
- Dark Motives (2004; Nintendo DS, PC)
- 3 Dimensions of Murder (2006; PC, PlayStation 2)
- Hard Evidence (2007; Mac, PC, Wii, Xbox 360)
- Deadly Intent (2009; Nintendo DS, PC, Wii, Xbox 360)
- Fatal Conspiracy (2010; PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)
- Unsolved (2010; Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi)
- Crime City (2010; Facebook)
- Hidden Crimes (2014; Android, Facebook, iOS)
- Miami:
- Miami (2004; iOS, PC)
- Heat Wave (2012; Facebook)
- New York:
- The Game (2008; PC)
Other:
- CSI: Intern at Your Own Risk (August 2009) - A one-off Tokyopop manga by Sekou Hamilton and Steven Cummings
- The Level 26 trilogy of "Digi-Novels:"
- Dark Origins (2009)
- Dark Prophecy (2010)
- Dark Revelations (2011)
- No Statute Of Limitations (2012-2014) - A Russian Foreign Remake of Cold Case
- Cold Case: Door of Truth (2016-2021) - A Japanese Foreign Remake of Cold Case
The Verse contains examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Way too many to count. The simple fact that most cases take a few days at best to be solved is a blatant example of this.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Gender-flipped with Gil Grissom/D.B. Russell, Mac Taylor, and Horatio Caine.
- Fair Cop: Virtually every cop character who's a regular qualifies. There's probably someone there for everyone's taste.
- Forensic Phlebotinum: All three have Facial Recognition Software, Identification by Dental Records, Writing Indentation Clues, and Left-Handed Killers to name a few:
- Vegas has Hodges' sensitive nose. Catherine even asks him to sniff the carpet at one particular crime scene. He's also seen sniffing the wine barrel in evidence during episode 13.13, 'In Vino Veritas.'
- There's a Condensation Clue in NY's episode 9.04, 'Unspoken.'
- Intercontinuity Crossover: With Two and a Half Men.
- No Badge? No Problem!:
- The original CSI gets Flanderized into this in parodies but it's not as prevalent as it's made out to be. While the CSIs tend to do things that the police would be the ones to do in real life (like interviewing suspects or capturing them, though the latter tends to happen only when someone they plan to just speak to runs away), Grissom often reminds civilians he isn't a cop, and at one point was told to leave the scene by Brass when it became apparent that a suspect was still there.
- Averted for the most part in the spinoffs, as the characters actually are full-fledged cops or FBI agents. However one CSI: NY episode had Mac do a technical one of these when he follows his stalker to Chicago, and tries to throw his badge to get into the Tribune building. Chicago PD had to remind him that badges only work in their jurisdiction and he had no power in Chicago.
- Quip to Black: Practically every episode of the big three.
- White Male Lead:The three original series all had White Male Leads for most or all of their time on the air.
- CSI started out with white male lead William Petersen, went into an aversion phase with African-American Laurence Fishburne having top billing, and ended up with white male Ted Danson in the lead.
- CSI: Miami: White male David Caruso held the lead role as Catholic Horatio Caine for the whole series.
- CSI: NY: White male Gary Sinise portrayed lead investigator Mac Taylor, a Catholic former Marine, during the entire run.
- X-Ray of Pain: Commonly used to show how a victim might have been injured or killed as a result of the crime.
