CBS adds to the CSI franchise with new series CSI: Cyber, starring Patricia Arquette. The crime produceral is the first of the CSIs not tied down to a city —the team works for the FBI— and top-lined by a woman. The following are reviews from TV critics around the web, compiled by B&C.
“The scare tactics at the heart of Cyber lie in not knowing. While other CSIs center around gruesome acts of violence, Cyber instead relies on the idea that our carelessness and general ignorance about the technology we use will be our downfall, putting us all on a path to a death-by-ride-share serial killer.”
—Molly Eichel, A.V. Club
“After viewing the series, you might decide that paper and pencil, riding your bike everywhere and standing over your baby’s crib all night long is the way to go.”
—Amy Amatangelo, The Hollywood Reporter
“In the ways that matter, though, Cyber is pure CSI — a slick but wooden fantasy of middle-American paranoia in which aberrant criminals face off against hilariously competent crime solvers.”
—Mike Hale, New York Times
“CSI: Cyber is truly the Patricia Arquette show. The first CSI to be led by a woman, this latest incarnation is very 2015 while not trying any sort of genre or franchise overreach in what has obviously been a successful endeavor for CBS over most of the past 15 years.”
—Dominic Patten, Deadline
“Beyond Arquette, those slumming through the proceedings include Peter MacNicol as her boss, and James Van Der Beek as Agent Elijah Mundo (among the silliest character names in memory), who squanders the sense of cool he generated by spoofing his post-Dawson’s Creek image in sitcoms such as Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23.”
—Brian Lowry, Variety
