Amen to MBGrissom, first off.
So,
1) More NY related material. They set the series in NY for a reason, and sometimes the stories feel that, but for the substitution of a name, they could be happening anywhere.
2) Enough with persecution-based story-lines already. Everybody's been screwed over or attacked in some way. Please tell me the writers might be able to fashion ways to get to know the characters further and still give them meaty things to do without having to continually resort to thumbscrews.
3) More Sid. He's great. More Adam, and, I say, more Peyton. I like Peyton. (I like seeing Mac allowed to be human and have emotion other than anger and shouting at people). Reed? Okay, if handled well, and in small doses. Flack? I must have missed previous references to Flack's dad altogether; sounds interesting tho. Louie? Well, see notes on Messer.
4) Hey, Stella, Hawkes, Flack - do you guys have any hobbies or anything? Do you do anything outside the office? Will someone please give these people more life and depth? Flack, how's your scar doing? And, how come you're so now perpetually pissed off at the guy that saved your life? Can't they give you something more to do? I'd hate to see you recede into a cop type and that's it...
5) Less miserable Messer. More old-school Messer. He had a a bit of back story - so, what happened? Less D/L - apologies, but I just never felt they had enough edge to make that flirtation fun or believable or anything but really contrived.
6) Montana? Well, I thought she was an interesting element in the group initially; dunno what happened, but somthing ain't working too well there.
7) More of the spirit and crackle that was brought by the likes of Aiden and Det. Angell. Our gang look like they're all burning out. Give them back some verve and life.
So, overall, just less contrived/forced linear plot-lines. Change up the style of story-telling. Vegas had some really innovative approaches on some episodes. It was fun to know that it wasn't going to be formulaic every week.
Also, plotlines to get to know characters more don't have to be at the expense of the whole CSI slant of the show and solving crimes.
Use NYC more. Let these great people live and breathe in the city, love it, hate it, work there, play there, take it for granted, run away from it, run home to it, rediscover it, cope with it, deal with it, and with all the millions of people in it. Then write and tell us all about it. There's got to be lots of great stories just begging to be told about these people in the context of their environment.
And, damn it all, I'm gonna have to wait all summer for that to happen... Love the show, please keep it coming, and keep the standards high.