Now that the CBS series "CSI: Miami" has been canceled, it's time to take a look back and see if what might have motivated the network to cancel this particular part of the franchise, the first in the popular "CSI" franchise to meet its end. What could have made the network decide to cancel this very glitzy and exciting show?
To start, the series seems to have become almost too colorful and violent for its own good. Unlike the flagship series, the men and women of this particular Miami group are not scientists with an interest in pursuing knowledge, but simply police for whom justice is the ultimate end, thus justifying (usually) whatever means are at their disposal. As a result, its plots tended to get somewhat repetitive, and it sometimes got caught up in the hype and the glitz of its own perception of itself with a result that felt very heavy and clunky at times. Of course, this is not at all the image a crime show wants to cultivate.
At the same time, however, it is important to recognize that, unlike its parent series, it really doesn't analyze too closely the moral ambiguities that are so often characteristic of the cases solved by the CSIs in Miami. The morality here is usually very cut and dry, with the sides of good and evil clearly demarcated and easily understood. While this certainly makes for easy watching, and while it allows the audience to shy away from asking any of the tough questions, it also makes for rather stale viewing after several seasons of such simple moralizing.
Finally, there is the very simple fact that, for all intents and purposes, "CSI: Miami" had, quite simply, run its course. If the long-running NBC series "Law and Order" has taught us anything, it's that even the most well-written and engaging series can't last forever, and in its last few seasons, "CSI: Miami" was certainly not one of those. One can only till the same ground so many times before the yield stops becoming lucrative enough to make it worth saving, and this seems to be exactly what happened to "CSI: Miami."
Will fans miss this color-saturated show with dazzling visuals and engaging characters? Certainly. For all of its staleness in recent seasons, there was still a great deal to enjoy, at least on a visceral level, about this action-packed entry in the franchise. Now that it's gone, however, it may leave more room for the remaining entries to continue growing, or it may indeed be the sign that the crime drama, so long a staple of the CBS network slate, may be reaching its expiration date.
