CSI: Cyber

Arquette is a cool presence onscreen and brings understated conviction to a character whose powers­ of observation border on superhuman.

CSI: Cyber is perfectly serviceable television, with nothing distracting--David Caruso dramatically interrupting his own cheesy ripostes to don his sunglasses, say--to take you out of the story, but not a whole lot to keep you breathless for another.

On CSI: Cyber, Ryan and her team act very swiftly, oftentimes preposterously so. Computer graphics whiz and buzz. And then, just like that, another suspect is chased down and vetted by Ryan, who seemingly needs nothing more than a burp or a twitch to determine who the bad guys are and who they are not.

Fans of “CSI” shows will likely warm up to this latest franchise extension and viewers of more character-driven, less preposterous drama will ignore it like they have past “CSI” shows.

It’s no surprise that the series doesn’t really give Arquette any opportunity to demonstrate the acting chops that garnered her an Academy Award or the warmth and likability she radiated for seven seasons on Medium. Van Der Beek and MacNichol also are capable of much more than simply spouting exposition.

I hope [Arquette’s] getting paid a heckuva lot for striding through this new hour of televisual malware.

This train wreck of a show often plays like a parody of bad crime drama that one would see within a Seth Rogen comedy, for example.