Alternative title: what I’ve been up to so far this holiday period, part one.

For starters, I’ve been watching *a lot* of CSI: New York. Before any of you start some epic tirade about how it’s crap television and whatever, that’s cool, you’re totally entitled to your opinion. CSI: NY is somewhat of a guilty pleasure, but oh — what a pleasure it is.

Note that I don’t watch it for the crimes that are investigated. I’m not actually sure why I watch it — perhaps it’s a combination of the characters, crimes, and the science — but it makes for some good entertainment most of the time.

I *adore* the little snippets of character development here and there, too. Hawkes (played by Hill Harper) is the brilliant ME-turned-CSI that is impossible not to love, and Danny and Flack (Carmine Giovinazzo and Eddie Cahill, respectively) are both excellent characters who exude charm. It’s really, really good.

The crazy thing about CSI or any other long-running TV show is that it’s not all action, not all glamour, certainly not all of the time. You make your way through more than a few mind-numbingly boring episodes (by comparison), and then — boom! You’re hit with an episode where Danny is suddenly a hostage, and the lab is hit by people who just want their cocaine back. Mac rigs up some explosive which ends up blowing up half the lab, and it just keeps coming.

An episode where one of their own is found dead in a car.

An episode where Hawkes reveals a mistake he made.

An episode where one of their own is shot and killed, in one of the most explosive and action-packed (possibly my favourite) CSI:NY episodes of all time, which screws up Flack for quite a few episodes.

Most of these episodes I’m describing are mostly season episodes, yeah, but that’s just the thing — CSI: New York is good TV.