CBS’s successful CSI franchise gets transplanted to the Big Apple. Cases involving sewer rats as witnesses, a victim whose head was slammed in a pizzeria oven, and murders of commodities traders, and–of course–a Red Sox fan. CSI: NY is a bleaker, grimmer version of its Las Vegas and Miami cousins. The team is made up of a pleasantly New Yawk but indistinct cast of characters. The teams leader Detective Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise), is a former Marine from Chicago. Mac is a veteran of the NYPD who lost his wife on 9/11, and as such must work to rebuild his personal life while supervising his team. He is organized, efficient, dedicated, and very proper in his management style. His second in command for the first 6 seasons is Detective Stella Bonasera (Melina Kanakaredes), Stella is half-Greek, half-Italian, and entirely New York City. She helped Mac through the impact of his wife’s death and has been by his side ever since. She is a savvy investigator, yet she often speaks before she thinks. Stella leaves New York to head a crime lab in New Orleans and is replaced by Detective Jo Danville (Sela Ward). Jo is a former FBI criminalist and an experienced psychological profiler. She and Mac quickly form a strong friendship and an even stronger working rapport. Jo is still haunted by her ousting from the FBI after blowing the whistle on improper lab procedure, so she works to regain her professional reputation. Joining them is younger CSIs Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo), Aiden Burn (Vanessa Ferlito, season 1-2), Aiden’s replacement Lindsay Monroe (Anna Belknap) and medical examiner turned CSI Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper). Rounding out the cast is the teams legal muscle Homicide Detective Don Flack (Eddie Cahill), Medical Examiner Sid Hammerback, M.D. (Robert Joy) and lab technician Adam Ross (A.J. Buckley).