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23 October 2006
Why so many people don't like David Caruso?→[More:]
I had *such* a crush on him when he was on NYPD Blue. But he got all prima-donna about leaving the show, if I remember correctly, and then never lived up to his own hype. So that was his downfall for me.
Do people not like him? I don't really know one way or another, and I don't know anything about him. Maybe it's the MacLean Stevenson syndrome, where someone gets too big for their britches and leaves the show that made them a star?
I like Shelley Long and MacLean Stevenson. Can't stand Caruso, though. Every now and then the mister and I will jazz up a mundane statement by saying it Caruso-style. A Caruso impression is basically a Shatner impression only slower, softer and without the hand motions.
I must say, however, that the promos for this week's CSI:M have reinforced my lifelong goal of walking away from an explosion in slow motion while putting my sunglasses on. Someday. Someday.
He quit TV to be a movie star and did crap like Jade and Kiss of Death (Kiss of Deathdid have Nicholas Cage bench-pressing a stripper, so that's a plus).
Cal: Be David Caruso in "Jade."
Andy Stitzer: Oh, ok, I know exactly what you're talking about.
He was good in supporting roles in First Blood and An Officer and a Gentleman, but isn't a good leading man for the movies.
Very silly as the leader of the Shamrock Gang on Hill Street Blues.
was he in Hudson Hawk? I don't remember, thankfully
giovanni: it's problematic to act opposite Franz, giovanni -- I love Franz, but he's a textbook case of the scene-chewing overactor, he wipes the floor with everybody else
Do people not like him?
well, the South Park jokes and (after he left NYPD Blue and during the Michael Hayes year) the Letterman/Leno/etc jokes... I agree with occhiblu that he looked like a asshole primadonna when he left the show, but that's his personality -- I really think that he's an excellent (TV) actor. he's probably too subtle for cinema, he needs several episodes to build a character's personalites
think about Sinise in CSI NY -- until the episode when he's talking to the braindead lady in the hospital and tells her about the beach ball he cannot throw away you don't really understand him
I think Caruso is perfect for a TV show like that, he just lacks the immediate, scene-stealing charisma of successful film actors
I don't like David Caruso. He's a total ham, and I can't take him seriously at all. He's like the real-life version of everyone's caricature of William Shatner.
the real-life version of everyone's caricature of William Shatner
I'm a foreigner, so would you please elaborate on that point? it's interesting -- I hear many Americans doing the Caruso/Shatner comparison, I don't really get it -- they look and act quite differently (I mean, Shatner in the lawyer show is clearly making fun of himself, Caruso in CSI is acting straight, not against his persona)
Because he is a horrible actor. He had some class on NYPD Blue, but since then he has become a caricature of himself. He simply plays one character. David Caruso plays David Caruso. It might just be that Lt. Horatio Caine is truly one of the most predictably written characters on television, but scriptwriters cannot be held responsible for how he treats his lines, week after week.
Any episode will feature Horatio whipping off his sunglasses, then telling his subordinates what to do as if they were all just forensic administrative assistants. At least once, these orders will be barked into a walkie-talkie. If he does take on an activity as his own, it will be a Mary Sue gimmick that serves only to look cool.
And heaven help any new character introduced in the opening scene as a close, personal friend of Caine. Seconds after a glad-handed parting of the ways and a promise to catch up later, that character will be dead. This means, of course, that this will be a very special episode of CSI: Miami, because this time ... it's personal.
Unless, of course, this week's victim has a small child, usually a daughter. In those scenarios, Horatio becomes obsessively protective uncle that will do anything to see that this child's parent's killers are brought to justice. Why? Because this time ... it's personal. Again.
And really, nothing beats original recipe CSI. Give me the quirks and intricacies of William Peterson's Gil Grissom anyday. And Grissom is written to work with his team. He gets his hands dirty. Maybe it shouldn't take a better actor to portray a respectable leader, but in this case ... it does.
Because he looks a boiled and peeled shrimp and he can't act. Except in "Kiss of Death" (Barbette Schroeder version with Nick Cage) where for some reason he gets the sad sack loser thing right for most of the film.
Petersen has a team of actually interesting, perfectly-cast actors (and characters) to act opposite to. Caruso doesn't.
CSI Vegas is a team show (to the extent that now the Helgenberger drama is getting tiresome), CSI Miami isn't -- the supporting cast is badly written and horribly cast.
matteo, I think it's the tone of voice that makes Shatner and Caruso sound similar. They both sound like they're growling while whispering, with a very flat tone that's supposed to sound authoritative.
Keifer Sutherland does it too, sometimes, but only sometimes, and we he does it it's sexy and rugged and yes, authoritative. Caruso seems to do it all the time, so it just ends up sounding silly.
the quirks and intricacies of William Peterson's Gil Grissom anyday
a fetish for bugs and a thing for BDSM ladies? I consider that a weak part of the show, like, let's see what the hell he keeps in his fridge / what strange scientifict fact he quotes this time.
and this from a HUGE fan of Petersen in To Live and Die in L.A., a forgotten masterpiece
Keifer Sutherland does it too, sometimes
it's true, you're right, now that you mention that. I hate 24 though
You know, it strikes me that the vocal cadence I've got in my head for Caruso actually matches most of the dubbed-into-Italian action/drama movies I've seen.
matches most of the dubbed-into-Italian action/drama movies I've seen
ha! it's ironic, because -- as opposed to his real voice -- the Italian actor who dubbed him (pretty well) in NYPD Blue had a much warmer, different voice than Caruso's own
I've never watched a dubbed episode of CSI MIami though, so I really cannot judge that
;)
No one ever remembers that he made Swirlee. The plot outline? "A city dwelling man with a giant ice cream cone for a head tries to commit suicide by melting in a warm bath." How's that for suck? And he didn't even play the icecream cone guy, he was his roommate.
Ooooh, I can't stand him either, but in that car crash kinda way that means I do occasionally watch an episode of CSI: Miami just to see how it should NEVER be done. I find him incredibly hammy. Him and Drake Hogestyn should hold annual hamming contests. (I mean, c'mon, look at the picture they used for DH! This guy can't even take a sip of water without doing some "smell the fart" acting with his friggin' eyebrows!)
Just for kicks here's David's wiki page. See how he's too cool to face us for the picture? If you watch CSI, you can see him making point after point while standing 3/4 facing his conversation partner. He's too cool to even look at you! He has to look at the sunglasses he's holding! Plus, he always notices EVERYTHING before anyone else can.
Um, anyway...yeah, I am not a fan. Although I liked him in Mad Dog & Glory.
and this from a HUGE fan of Petersen in To Live and Die in L.A., a forgotten masterpiece
somebody once wrote of Petersen, "he's the type of guy who could piss on his own mother's grave and you'd still kind of like him." That dosen't come through with Grissom but it did in Long Gone, the really good baseball flick he did with (sigh) Virginia Madsen.
ethylene -- that's a very reasonable point, but the entire CSI franchise con only exist in a "we take ourselves seriously" sense. it walks constantly on a high wire, parody is half an inch away already
Um, because he's got one facial expression and it looks like constipation. Oh yeah, and I get the sense that he takes himself way, way, way too seriously.
I, too, loved Caruso in NYPD Blue, but then he seemed to get, as they say in the East End of London, right up his own arse.
Have any of you read 'Death by Hollywood' by Stephen Bochco (creator of NYPD Blue)? From an online review:
What gives Bochco's quirky story a bit more lift than it would have had if somebody else had written it is the fact that he knows Hollywood so thoroughly. Just when you think he's telling you tales not even a leprechaun might have experienced, he goes and tells you one that seems hideously familiar. For instance, when he tells you the story of one Daniel Deveaux, a pompous and demanding actor who wants to negotiate himself into a mega-bucks movie career after becoming a mini-rage in the first season of a hit TV show, you might want to start thinking Bochco's really telling you what happened between him and David Caruso, the original star of "N.Y.P.D. Blue," who broke his contract in a similar manner back in 1994.
I hear many Americans doing the Caruso/Shatner comparison, I don't really get it
As... others have... said, it's be... cause he... speaks in a... way... that's similar to... a cari... ca... ture of Sha... tner. Also, he's as a big cheesy ham who always acts like a ***LEADING MAN***.
Also, he... IS... the fiber... king.
And CSIM is everything that's wrong with your average dipshit cop show and nothing that's right about CSILV. CSILV can sort of take itself seriously. CSIM taking itself seriously is like taking your fourth-level paladin named Boromir seriously.
I ran into him once on the street -- he's terribly handsome in person, too, and walks a bit funny just like Warrick (it's not an act). he looks more barrel-chested than on TV. he was with a very pretty lady who was also about two feet shorter than he is
re: Helgenberger. I agree, it's a tragedy. finally on big time TV a character of a kickass woman who's smarter than her smart boss, and Hollywood pressure on over-40 women leads her to disfigure herself with ill-advised plastic surgery
I understand the urge, he's very handsome. but he's a big dude, bring a stun gun or a baseball bat. and frankly, the lady with him didn't look like she would share him willingly
:)
I disliked caruso for the first 10-ish episodes of CSI Miami. I hated the orange hair, the pale skin, the omnipresent sunglasses, the whispers and pauses, and the aloofness. But he grew on me, and now I LOVE him! He totally owns it.
Peterson in Vegas is a loafish, ham-eating nerd, but his supporting team always keeps me watching.
Adversely, I love Mark Harmon (for CSI Navy), but I can't watch it because I LOATHE his crew, especially that goth girl. She can go eat the ham with Peterson.
NYPD Blue was never as good post-Caruso. It was still better than a lot of TV, but I never liked good ol' Bob that well. It was a bit better at times after they killed him off.
I like CSI Miami. It's just a fun show. I kinda like actors that seem to have only one mode though. I like James Spader really well and I think he always plays James Spader. The original CSI is really good sometimes and part of the time it bores me. Never have watched NY.
There's a biopic filming about Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott and Dourdan is playing the lead. I really can't think of a better choice. I wonder who'll play Gary Moore, Scott Gorham, Brian Robertson and the rest of the Lizzy axe-slingers....
Now, see, scala di seta, I like the goth girl on NCIS. I think she's quirky, different, and knows her stuff. Caruso never did it for me. And does he never look anyone in the eye?
Gary Dourdan is far and away the sexiest man in any of those shows. Those eyes!!!
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