FuglyStick

A search didn't turn up this topic, so I started a thread...

At the moment, there are two juggernauts in the police drama franchise arena, the CSI franchise and the Law & Order franchise. Which franchise is the best?

Myself, I can't hardly stand the CSI franchise. The writing is cutesy and soapy melodrama, and the acting is canned. The Law & Order franchise is a much better franchise IMO; Hargitay and Meloni of SVU are some of the best actors in any police drama as far as I'm concerned. Criminal Intent is easily the weakest of the franchise, and I think it's still vastly superior to any of the CSI offerings.

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Plan9

Law & Order sucks me in every time.

CSI is fake tech and glam-glam garbage.

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pig

Well, its unanimous. I sort of liked CSI in the first few seasons, but L&O has the formula down. Read the newspapers, pick out compelling stories, write similar mock-up plots and show how it *might* look from the inside. CSI tapped into the sensationalist vibe, but the problem is that they have to out do themselves...so it got ridiculous. It hurts me a little for Morpheus to be the new Gil Grisom, and it hurts me that I know these characters off the top of my head. Still, the original L&O was great, they always have hot assistant DAs, and while I agree that Criminal Intent doesn't captivate me as much, its really not that bad if you watch it.

You forgot Monk. Which I also really enjoy.

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Plan9

I'd rather have an angry badger fight its way out of my rectum than watch Monk.

"Obsessive-compulsive detective?" Get real. That shit is ludicrous and selective.

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Stare At The Sun

You want a real cop drama? Watch

No other show comes close. Most shows solve their cases in one or *maybe* two episodes.

The Wire takes you on a five season journey to take down one drug ring in Baltimore. They explore every angle, and above all else, its both gritty, and realistic.

Watch the first season, and you'll be hooked.

Plan9

But... HBO is for rich people.

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FuglyStick

Monk has more in common with Murder She Wrote than a police drama.

And The Wire wasn't included because it wasn't in the same arena as CSI or Law & Order--franchise, network TV, etc.

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Stare At The Sun

And torrents of HBO shows are for poor people.

pig

Fuck You All!!! I still like it, regardless. The taxi guy from Wings is the neurotic detective with the sort-of-hot sidekick. He's upset that Trudy died...what is there to get you bastards?

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FuglyStick

Hey, I like Tony Shaloub, I think he's a fine actor.

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ratbastid

I'm the voice of dissent. I like CSI a lot. The only one I watch is the original. And I think Larry Fishburne is tearing it UP this season. It's an amazing cast, and the style is unmatchable by almost anything else on TV.

By comparison, L&O looks boring. It may be the more accurate police procedural, but it's a snoozefest, the characters are totally one dimensional, and it's just completely no fun at all. It's the only show on TV where nobody EVER SMILES. I don't need to watch Detective Stabler scowl for an hour, you know? I'm enjoying Goldblum, but it's because of the huge departure in style he is. Sometimes, though? I put L&O on as background noise to nap to.

Plan9

Excellent dissent.

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CinnamonGirl

I like the Law & Order theme song better... does that count for anything? I'd also watch occasionally back when Jerry Orbach was still on, 'cause he was awesome.

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Xerxys

I voted the last one because I think you guys are pussies ... you want real soap you have to watch it on soapnet young and the restless style.

paddyjoe

I still miss Lenny.

He had the best wise-cracks.....

SecretMethod70

Hehe, I taught myself how to play the L&O theme song on the saxophone in 5th grade.

I like L&O much more than CSI, but in both cases I can only ever stand to watch the original series. The other Law & Order series don't approach being as craptacular as CSI:Miami, but there's just something about them that doesn't grab me the way the original does.

Even the original Law & Order isn't as good as it once was. I don't remember it always being so blatantly "ripped from the headlines" and exaggerated. I used to love Law & Order, now I barely ever watch it.

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Plan9

+1.

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Daniel_

I liked CSI in the start, but as the science got sillier and sillier, I got annoyed by it, and now I don't think I've watched an episode of any franchise since the first Fishburne ep, and I didn't watch the second one.

I don't follow L&O, but I've never seen one that annoyed me, so I voted L&O.

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Jetée

I only watch(ed) the OG Law & Order, with Lennie, Ed, Prosecutor McCoy, and his lovely bevy of assistant DAs (such as Harmon, Parisse, Hennessy, De La Garza, etc.). But, as it is with me, I rarely join into the popularity of a show until it's syndicated on another network, so I didn't realize I liked Law & Order until after a decade into its run. I never was all that into the spinoffs, such as the SVU or the Criminal Intent, they never lived up to the formula of the first; I also am not going to get into CSI and all the different cities they decided to base a series around. It just doesn't interest me.

If anything, there's alot more shtick in Law & Order than most people realize. The last 30 seconds of nearly every episode always has some kind of zinger or inside-joke, even when it seems highly unwarranted (due to the subjet matter of the other 40 minutes of the preceding plotline). It's a staple.

Did I mention that Sam Waterston is the man?

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FuglyStick

That motherfucker is stealin' all my womminz

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Reese

I voted CSI.
I used to really like L&O SVU but it just started to get really disturbing so I stopped watching it.

It's hard to say which CSI is my favorite. Vegas used to be great but with everyone leaving the show I've kind of lost interest. Miami has had it's moments. Speedle getting owned by his dirty gun jamming was great TV. I'm kind of learning toward CSI: NY this season though. It's more down to earth and grittier than CSI Miami. I agree about the fake tech. It's gets silly sometimes.

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Lasereth

Both are god awful. The acting is bad in both of them but CSI is definitely worse.

If you want to watch truly great police dramas, watch Dexter or The Shield. Dexter isn't technically a police drama but it's heavily police oriented. The Shield is about as realistic as it gets if you want a police drama.

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dippin

The older L&O shows are great. Lenny was the man. The problem is that, while still miles ahead of CSI, they seem to be incorporating a lot more elements from the competing shows that I really dislike.

I really dislike it when they try to be a CSI light, especially SVU with the medical examiner and the crime scene technicians becoming more involved. The whole "these three specs of dirt tell us that the perp is male, caucasian, 6'3, 200 lbs, has a italian last name and the following social security number" thing pisses me off. Similarly, I hate it when they try to get cute and make up false legal controversies, like the episode where someone was really arguing that "rage is like a virus" and other nonsense debates.

And finally, I ended up hating Vincent Donofrio's character in CI as he became Monk light, but in what was supposed to be a serious show. There was an episode where he cracked a case by identifying what type of ceiling tiles were being used in a construction by looking at a nail on the floor, what type of typewriter someone used by looking at a tape, and, most incredibly, he learned that an English suspect spoke Mandarin by hearing him speak English, and then from hearing the man say the name of a Chinese restaurant he was able to pinpoint the exact city in Asia the guy had lived in...

CSflim

This is the only correct answer to the poll's question.

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Punk.of.Ages

CSI is just one bad pun after another...

The only Law & Order I like is SVU. The newer ones suck, but the old ones are good enough for me to watch over and over.

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FuglyStick

Maybe I should put it in bold--FRANCHISE

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