The American series CSI: New York is a spin-off of the highly successful series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, located in the metropolis of New York, however, like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, it is mostly filmed in Los Angeles.

After the first spin-off, CSI: Miami, was already successfully shown on television, the CBS and producer Jerry Bruckheimer decided to release a second branch of the CSI series. The metropolis serves as location for the new forensic scientists and detectives from the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), which solve crimes and convict perpetrators through their work.

As a visual difference to the other two CSI series, the first season of CSI: New York was a bit darker, which was not a widely accepted feature by the audience. Therefore, the whole atmosphere for the second season was redesigned.

Like in any film being shot in or about New York City, CSI: NY also features references to the attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. The reference here is through Detective Mac Taylor, the head of the laboratory. He lost his beloved wife that day. In the official pilot episode the viewer sees him at the hospital sitting at his wife’s bedside.

Later, he looks through the cabinets in their apartment and finds a yellow beach ball, and he is naturally infested with memories. The scene in this episode where Mac Taylor is driven to the hospital by a taxi directly to Ground Zero, where he stands sad and lost at bards in thought, looking at the huge building site located behind hole, is depicted very emotionally.

The motto “people can lie”, does not apply to the New York CSI team as well as for the other two series. The work of the staff of CSI concerns murders and suicides, as well as robberies and violent crime and the search for truth is everyday work for the investigators.

Because they know that the investigation of a case may often depend on a small thing, one can speak of almost an obsession for detail when it comes to the work of the investigators. What often is in the foreground of the elucidated cases is not a spectacular event, but the personalities of both the victim and the criminal.

Likewise, the audience also shares the personal and professional issues in the lives of the protagonists. Whether it is the death of Taylor's wife, the pregnancy of Lindsay Monroe, and the private and financial problems of Dr. Sheldon Hawkes or the fear of Danny Messer being forever confined to a wheelchair after a serious gunshot wound - the audience is there and cares.

In their crime scene investigations, investigators always use a flashlight in all CSI series, regardless of time of day or lighting. The viewer wonders every time why the crime scene investigators need a flashlight in bright sunshine or in a home and not just turn on the light.

Considering the fact that the crime scene investigators often look for small things such as a hair, a tiny patch of colour or the like, a bright flashlight enhances their ability to recognize even the tiniest traces.

Without the use of such a light source, such details might be overlooked. For this reason, Calleigh Duquesne is also angry with his colleague, Tim Speedle because he has borrowed her flashlight and later put back. She is not angry because he had to borrow the lamp, but that he returned it without recharging.

In addition to Scott Wolf, Julia Ormond and Rumer Willis, Nelly Furtado, Maroon 5 and the hip-hop singer Nelly and John McEnroe guest starred in the series.

Members of the CSI Team in New York

Mac Taylor

Stella Bonasera

Danny Messer

Lindsay Monroe

Dr. Sheldon Hawkes

Aiden Burn

Donald Flack