CSI: Miami (A&E, CBS)

Like CSI: NY, CSI: MIAMI is an offshoot of the original, Las Vegas-set CSI. As in that series, the action here follows the city's crime scene investigators as they attempt to solve crimes using forensic evidence. The team employs science and technology -- as well as good training and smarts -- to unpeel layers and sort out scenarios until they reveal the truth. Unlike the largely nighttime setting of the original CSI, CSI: Miami plays out in the daylight, with sweeping views of gorgeous blue ocean and busty, bikini-clad women on the beach. Like CSI's Gil Grissom (William Petersen), CSI: Miami team leader Horatio Caine (NYPD Blue's David Caruso) is an intense, wise, and solemn man.

Staying consistent with the CSI franchise, the crimes the Miami team investigates can be gruesome and scary, and are not recommended fare for younger viewers. Many of the crimes involve women and sometimes children as well. The action largely follows the investigation -- rather than focusing on playing out the crime on the screen -- but viewers still see dead bodies, tortured victims, and violent crimes occurring in cinematic flashbacks.

While CSI: Miami has its avid followers, unlike the original CSI's Grissom, Horatio doesn't compel the same attention and affection. And the rest of the team seems less of an integrated whole than a bunch of independent characters -- some more interesting than others.