This Is The Correct Order In Which To Watch The CSI Franchise

In the world of "CSI," even the viewers are a kind of private investigator. Part of the fun of watching a mystery unfold is trying to figure it out yourself along the way. And if you, an unassuming gumshoe with a love for good TV, want to investigate the "CSI" franchise, then you have quite the large undertaking ahead of you. After all, to date, there are over 800 episodes that one must watch if they are committed to the idea of consuming the entirety of the modern mystery franchise. This number includes the original "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" series and its respective spin-offs like "CSI: Miami," "CSI: New York," and "CSI: Cyber," as well as the sequel series, "CSI: Vegas."

Of course, to watch all of these series in an efficient manner takes a bit of strategy. One could, obviously, pick their favorite series and just roll with it, but that technically isn't the most correct order in which to watch the "CSI" franchise. Generally speaking, the "correct" order to watch any franchise is in release order, in which case one will have to bounce from series to series, as they often overlap.

If you're watching the "CSI" franchise in release order, then you have a pretty obvious starting point. The first season of the original "Crime Scene Investigation" series, which came out in 2000, will serve as the beginning of your journey. From there, according to the watch guide on the blog It's A Stampede, you'll need to progress through Season 2 before jumping your very first ship into "CSI: Miami." From here on, your "CSI: Miami" viewing should always be one season behind the original "CSI."

This pattern should continue for another two seasons of each series until you finish "CSI: Miami" Season 3, and start "CSI: New York." With this new addition, "CSI: New York" should always be two seasons behind "Miami." Thankfully, things become a whole lot simpler once you finish "Miami" and "New York," which are ten and nine seasons long, respectively. After that, there are simply three more seasons of the original "CSI" series before you can watch all two seasons of "CSI: Cyber" and start the first (and so far only) season of "CSI: Vegas."

With this basic outline, you should be able to enjoy the entirety of "CSI" relatively problem-free. Most episodes of the series are self-contained, meaning you don't need context from the events of "Miami" to get what's going on in "New York," at least for the most part. Crossovers do occur at times, but they are rare enough that one can identify them and modify their watchlist accordingly.