The Ever-Declining Danny: Hot Or Not?

MrsGiovinazzo

MrsGiovinazzo

CSI Level Three
Are you losing your Danny lust? Recent discussion in a couple threads, as well as talking with a few diehard fans, makes me feel I’m not alone in suddenly noticing the blueness of Flack’s eyes or how charmingly dorky Adam can be. The reason I’m noticing these things is that I’m bored and my eye is wandering.

Once upon a time, Danny was one of the best-written characters on television. Up there with 24’s Jack Bauer and Entourage’s Ari Gold. Danny was larger-than-life. He was unique, compelling, multi-dimensional and not too hard to look at.

I loved the drama. Everything elicited a passionate reaction from Danny. Even the small stuff. The smell of fish, for instance. And heaven help a murderer. Danny took that sort of offense almost personally. But last night, not even a man killing his brother and standing by in the hospital watching him die could stir a fire under Danny’s ass.

I’d suggest that the utterly chemistry-free romance Danny is pursuing has zapped the passion right out of him, but it’s more than that. The character I loved was chipped away bit by bit all season long. I’m not even sure where rock bottom is. I thought it might be watching him stand on the street begging a woman who stood him up to grab a slice of pizza. But now I’m not so sure. Perhaps last night’s emotionless scene with the murderer in the hospital was rock bottom. Perhaps not. Maybe he’ll fall further.

The theory is that Danny matured this season. I disagree. Danny was castrated this season and completely re-written into a dull, one-dimension character who falls flat much of the time. Sure, there are occasional light moments where a beautifully delivered line makes me laugh, but for the most part, Danny is gone.

Allow me to confess a couple examples of how last season my Danny lust is. First, I’m in the process of moving and am cleaning out a lot of things. I had a fat stack of every magazine Carmine has ever been in. Yes, including ones I had to obtain by calling the magazine and ordering directly from them because the publication isn’t available in my area. Guess what? I threw out the whole stack. :eek: Second, someone recently posted a few pictures in the Locker Room thread and you want to know what came to mind when I clicked on one? “Wow, he’s all beek!” :lol:

Those examples are kind of harsh and not meaningfully directed at Carmine, as opposed to the fictional character of Danny. Carmine is a fantastic actor who does his best with the role. The problem is that the role has gone to shit. Hence, through no fault of Carmine’s, my crush is gone.

How do the rest of you feel? Is Danny still doing it for you? Are you still feeling you need to change your panties by the end of the teaser, or do you have a new tv boyfriend?
 
I think he's always going to be my TV boyfriend whilst CSI:NY is around and whilst he's still a character on the show. I just think I only notice him in a scene to say how hot he is rather than saying how talented or how much he made the scene.

I was watching some season 2 episodes yesterday and in Bad Beat and Daning With the Fishes Danny really shone. In Bad Beat he was so scary in the interrogation and was actually threatening towards the suspect. In DWTF Danny vowed to turn up in court and fight for the deceased guy.
In the new season bar HOTD and RS, Danny has drifted into the background and become a shawdow of his former character!
This frightens me slightly, if TPTB dont shape up, Danny's going to ship and with the lack of material he's been given this season, bar a pathetic love story, maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing!
 
Adam is a cutie, his scenes are always good in one way or another, I look forward to seeing him in an episode, and a lot of the time he or Sid provide the episode's highlight for me--oh, wait, this is a thread about Danny.

Danny is still a cutie...

Er, yeah, that's probably it. The few glimpses that we've gotten of the 'Old' Danny this season give me hope, but then the overwhelming doses of 'Prozac' Danny we get dash that hope against the rocks. :(

Carmine is a great actor, and at this point I can't tell if part of it is him or if it's all the writing...
 
Faylinn said:
at this point I can't tell if part of it is him or if it's all the writing...
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It is hard to tell. While I feel the blame for the direction the character has taken this season lies with the writers, there is one area where Danny falls short and I do believe that perhaps Carmine could have done a better job. The suck-ass D/L romance. It lacks anything resembling chemistry. I realize that, as in real life, chemistry can't be faked. But shouldn't a really good actor be able to use a little creative visualization to substitute the image of someone they are excited about? I feel like I don't believe in that pairing because Carmine doesn't believe in it and simply isn't selling it.
 
I haven't watched much of season 1 and only some of season 2. What I remember from those seasons is that Danny was interesting. He was intense, funny, sweet, unpredictable. The only thing I thought last night while I was watching Danny was; "wow, he's turning into Columbo." The voice, the hunched shoulders, the slidey movement with his hands - he's starting to channel Peter Falk. If I want to watch Columbo, I'll take the original please. And having the original Danny back would be nice. He's becoming a caricature.
 
macpeyfan said:
I haven't watched much of season 1 and only some of season 2. What I remember from those seasons is that Danny was interesting. He was intense, funny, sweet, unpredictable. The only thing I thought last night while I was watching Danny was; "wow, he's turning into Columbo." The voice, the hunched shoulders, the slidey movement with his hands - he's starting to channel Peter Falk. If I want to watch Columbo, I'll take the original please. And having the original Danny back would be nice. He's becoming a caricature.
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I read that and almost choked to death on my root beer. :D I've thought there were Columbo elements to Danny since S2, less exaggerated than Peter Falk, but it's there. It's actually one of the things I found interesting about the portrayal - was it conscious or did it just happen? I didn't notice it more in the last episode than any other, though. If it does start to become more noticeable to more people, this will definitely be a bad thing.

As far as interest in Danny, it's still there for me, but definitely not as much. I started watching CSI: NY in S2 because of Eddie Cahill, to be honest. I know that the rest of the cast are excellent actors, but I showed up for Eddie - I can't even remember how many times I've seen "Miracle." Shallow, yes. I continued to watch it for two reasons, the great cases and the great ensemble cast. However, there was one cast member and one character that definitely stood out to me and they were Carmine and Danny. In the beginning I never really paid attention to who the actor was; I just really loved the Danny character. It made me start to pay attention to the actor, which led me here. I would still choose Danny as my favorite character on the show, but it's more out of hope that some of what I noticed in the beginning will return.

Danny maturing should be a natural progression for the character, and it just hasn't been. Like Mrs. G and others have said before, he comes off as neutered. For some reason, on CSI: NY, Danny maturing means Danny being more subdued. And I can't even explain the whole Lindsay debacle. I agree that good actors should be able to convince the audience of chemistry. But seeing how the writers have botched the whole storyline and both the writers and the actress have botched the Lindsay character as a whole, I have a hard time conceding some of the fault lies with Carmine. I could be dead wrong, but I'm not at that point yet.

As for Danny's reaction to the murderous brother, I liked how that played out. I felt from Carmine's acting that Danny wanted to be just completely pissed and go off on him. But because of the relationship and history with Louie he was able to show some compassion. I saw Danny as conflicted about both the case and Louie, and he was able to mostly keep his composure. I definitely didn't see it as a low point. I saw it as a true sign of maturation, both in how he handled the criminal and the way he seemed conflicted.

I'm afraid the low point will come when Danny and Lindsay become lovers. Once that happens, I fear all the character development will revolve around that. But I think I’ll hold out hope for a while yet that the character and the portrayal will once again be as enjoyable as it was when they made me go and find out who that Carmine guy is. :)
 
I think the best word to describe how I feel at this point is, "Meh."

1. Whoever said Danny's been 'neutered', that's the perfect word to describe what's happened to him. I think what pisses people off so much about this is that this character neutering was done in order to accommodate a new character with whom he has no romantic chemistry whatsoever. How can the TPTB expect people to accept the relationship when it's shoved down our throats like we're idiots, and when it's overwhelming everything else about the show? I mean, poor Hawkes. He's literally disappeared off the face of the earth. I'm now wondering whether he's just one of Mac's imaginary friends the guy adopted from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends or something.

2. Expanding on the character neutering, the whole, "Love changes people!" plot is the most abused and cliched plot in every Mills & Boon romance novel in the universe. The idea that love automatically changes a person into a wholly different, 'better' person is utter BS. That ain't love, honey. That's you forcing your expectations of what you want the other person to be on him / her. And it irks me terribly this cliche plot is what the TPTB have used as a cop-out reason for the whole Danny/Lindsay fiasco. TPTB, it is possible to keep them in character and write them in a relationship, ya know. Why the hell did Danny's character development have to be sacrificed for it? What a waste of great effort and dedication to his role on Carmine's part.

3. About the issue being Carmine's problem or the writers' problem ... I'm thinking nobody's really that happy with how things have gone. (Apart from Mr. Zuiker, it seems. :p) Everything seemed rushed and not very thought out from the moment Lindsay joined the team. It just deteriorated with time rather than improve, which is ... not a good thing. I know I'm not the only one who notices Carmine's subtle body language whenever any D/L scene takes place. All I'm going to say about that is, his face and eyes say a lot about how he feels about the situation, whether or not he's unconsciously showing it. He deserves much, much material to work with than this Mills & Boon travesty.

4. But, like most of you guys, I'm still hoping for improvement by season four. The season finale seems to hold massive potential for Danny's character in exciting ways, and if, IF the TPTB makes the mistake of letting D/L undermine everything that happens in the episode (again) ... well, that's just sad beyond words. They might as well rename the show, 'The CSI & the Cow Whisperer' with other cast members who show up once in a while as fodder.
 
I didn't like Danny that much in the first season...he just isn't a convincing scientist. He was the 'bad boy', and if I ever see a guy like that in my science lectures, well, I would also see a pig fly by. I don't like those types of guys, they don't impress me. I look for intelligence, something first season Danny did not seem to have.
 
^^ In season 1, I believed Danny to be a rough-around-the-edges guy with a lot of intelligence. He didn't always use it, and his intuition sucked sometimes, but he was by no means unintelligent. Not every scientist is Adam, the socially awkward guy who just seems to belong in a lab coat--Danny was different, and that was so much of the appeal.

The changes that were made to the character starting in season two squashed so much of the uniqueness that he had, his 'bad boy' side, if you will--but he didn't suddenly become more intelligent or more capable of being a scientist. :rolleyes:
 
Danny in 1st season was uninteresting - at least for me. and his character improved in 2nd season a lot. IMHO he became more then just some hot bad boy. he became a friend and a brother and an investigator and in the 3rd season we - or at least I, have finally seen the man. not the man he could be but the man he already is.

I enjoy him this way much more then the short tempered boy he was back then
 
he became a friend and a brother
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Danny and Aiden, as well as Danny and Flack, were established to have good friendships in season one--but there just wasn't much of that in the first place, so it was more subtle.

For seasons 2 and 3, however--I don't know about everyone else, but I think the best moments of Danny being a friend, as well as his moments as a brother, were glimpses of the 'old' Danny.

In "RSRD," which is really all we've seen of Danny as a brother aside from the few moments in the "Shane Casey" arc, Danny was emotional and all those good things I like about the character. Going to Mac about the DNA was an example of good maturation for the character, in contrast to the stuff that just seems watered down. *shrug*

As for the 'friend' part--In "Heroes," when Danny was upset about Aiden and wanting to beat up the owner of the car without even having proof that he was the murderer, we got the 'old' Danny--volatile and high-energy and easily-hurt. An episode like "Raising Shane" showed us Danny being friends with Hawkes in a truly 'old Danny' fashion--mouthing off to his superiors because he's agitated, bending the rules to talk to the witness, etc.

Now, let's contrast this to the kind of thing that myself and others don't like from seasons 2 and 3. What about when Stella had her ordeal in "All Access"--Danny seemed totally unconcerned, which is unlike him. Where was the friendship then? Is it that he couldn't be upset because Lindsay was or something? :rolleyes: And in "Charge of This Post," how good of a friend was he when he left the hospital while Flack's prognosis was still unknown ("cautious optimism" wouldn't be enough to get me to leave my friend, thank you)?

he became...an investigator
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He was always an investigator, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I enjoy him this way much more then the short tempered boy he was back then
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I enjoy him now when the writers actually acknowledge the person that he's always been rather than pushing it aside or suppressing it. It's not about completely discarding the changes that have been made since season 1--it's about keeping him consistant and uniquely Danny while still furthering his character. And I'm not convinced that they've done that so far.
 
Oh dear. This isn't good is it? I've been thinking about my reaction to all this and have come to an awful conclusion. Yes Danny still rocks my boat big time but it is because of the way he looks and not because of his character which is bad, very bad.

Danny in series one and two was much, much more than a pretty face. He was a strong, well-defined character beautifully played by a talented actor. And what have we got now? A bland, unremarkable character whose attraction rests on his good looks. I think the ultimate low - believe it or not - would have to be the shirtless scene with Hawkes. How dumb was that? It completely summarises what Danny has become, the show's token pin-up boy and nothing else.

I too hold out hope that things will get better, they would be lunatics to ruin such a strong character but hell, who knows what's going on in their minds. The idea of Danny and Lindsay in bed together just makes me want to retch...
 
OK, I have to admit I've never been a Carmine/Danny fan per say, but Danny is one of my favourite characters in the show and the franchise as a whole.

I've watched the show from season 1 and instantly liked him. As a viewer I always felt Danny was us/me.

The gut instinct (although as Faylinn has said it was usually appalling and that hasn't changed, after all in HOTD he reckons Shane Casey is normal!) he always wanted to follow was human, Danny was hot headed and emotional, he took everything personally and you felt he really felt for all the victims. He had to grow up a lot towards the end of Season 1 and the new slightly more mature Danny entered in Season 2. He was still hot-headed, but he had grown up somewhat, as mentioned above, him telling Mac about the DNA on the cigarette butt in RS,RD was a sign of the lesson he had learnt in OTJ in season 1. He'd learnt to trust the system and his colleagues. That’s character progression. He wasn't so quick to jump to conclusions in Season 2 as he seemed to in Season 1.
His interrogation skills picked up in Season 2, as mentioned on other threads, Danny’s interrogation in DWF(?) was pretty intense and he really went for it.

Now Season 3... hmmm... don't get me wrong i like season 3 mainly because I am an Eddie/Flack fan. I feel that Flack has been given some great stuff this season and I have a good mate who is a BIG Messer fan, even she is getting excited about Flack scenes, I'm not sure he even registered on her Radar (apart from his humour) in the seasons before!

This season i don't feel Danny has matured, I feel like he has disappeared. All the characters have matured/ grown/ been given depth - whether we like the story line that accompanies it or not - and I feel the show has matured with it. Season 3 got a little darker again. But Danny .... Danny, well what can i say, i don't feel as in touch with the character as i did. He seems to spend the whole time focusing on Lindsey. As Faylinn mentioned above in CoTP he leaves his supposedly good friend (who may I point out has been the numerous times for him) lying in a hospital bed attached to various machines, who hasn't got his family around him! (that’s something to post on another thread though) to take a girl who suffered a slight cut to the head. PLEASE! The Danny of season 1 and most of Season 2 would have been angry, upset and wanting to help (or at least I thought so). The guy 4 episodes before has had his brother put into a Coma, one of best mates attacked and burned to death, are we to believe the guy who has stood by him through all that his been through (include the Minahs shooting in that) isn't worth his emotion? I think the writers/TPTB, really failed the character there. I expected more from Danny in that episode and was sorely disappointed, his friend’s life was hanging in the balance and he really didn't seem too bothered. In season 3 Flack has had some tough moments, where has Danny been? Mooning over Lindsey probably!

I agree with MichelleK HOTD and RS seem to be the only episodes that we see the Danny of old, more matured, look at how he talks to Shane in both episodes, he doesn't fly off the deep end. He try’s to show some sympathy/pity to the messed up kid, because he "understands" the brother thing. I liked that, he got his point across without resorting to Drama queen antics but there was still so much emotion there.

But in too many episodes this season he has fallen in to the background and whilst this allows other character to come forward and be counted, it means we have lost out on a unique character.

Regarding his relationship with Lindsey. There is no chemistry there, and i agree with all who have said some of the blame there lies with Carmine himself. I have to say there have been plenty of screen couples who can't stand each other off screen. If they can do it, then I'm sorry to say Carmine and Anna should be able to create some. On a personal not they need to drop the relationship, or at least push it into the background. I'm not a fan of relationships in this kind of show. If i wanted Boy meets girl and falls in love I'll watch pretty woman or Hollyoaks (British teen soap), i love the chemistry certain characters have on the show and I like the episode where this is explored but the Danny/Lindsey relationship... Sorry but I'm not buying it! Here in the UK we haven't seen much of it yet, but I'm not looking forward to it, and like a mate of mine I'm dreading some of those episodes already -that is not good!

I feel that Carmine/Danny has been sold short this season and made into a supporting romantic actor. And who ever said they felt "meh" summed it up, I agree!!!

I agree Twinkletoes , he has become the pin up boy, the token totty. He used to be so much more! its a crying shame!

Anyway I had to say my piece, I think I just reiterated how a lot of you already feel, but I needed to get it off my chest.
 
It scares me that I've been checking out Adam and Flack more lately, when I really used to tune in for Danny. I've always liked the both of them, but I've just enjoyed their scenes way more lately. And really, it's all because Danny just isn't doing it for me anymore. It's more than just the looks, it's everything to do with the personality of both the actor and the character. I'm 100% turned off on both.

Maybe it's wrong of me to say I'm turned off by the personality of the actor. Why? Because I don't really know him, but I know enough to come to the conclusion that he's a skeez, and I will not elaborate any further there, so please don't ask. In turn, the way I feel about an actor, totally influences the feelings I have toward the character. I can't bring myself to separate the two, even if they're totally different from one another. And when my favorite character's dynamic goes south, along with the actor, I just can't invest anything more into them.

I'll continue with the rest of the season, just because I'm interested to know what'll happen, but I really can't guarantee anything for the next. Something fantabulous will have to be promised to me to continue on.
 
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