Forty-Two: I haven't seen the New York version, and the original Vegas one isn't so bad. They've poked fun at the opening formula a few times -- once Grissom delivered his stinger, and the intro started playing, then another character interrupts with a completely banal line (like, "Hey, wanna go to lunch?"), and the intro music stopped. Little things like that show that they're not taking the show too seriously.

But I watched the Miami one once -- my god, it was awful. Caruso delivers every line with the same overly dramatic emphasis that he gives the stinger. And I saw him take off his sunglasses dramatically about ten times in the episode I saw. It's a really shiatty show.

Exactly. Vegas is aware of itself to the point where it never quite feels old, even in its ninth season. The formula of the overall show is predictable now, but they add enough new stuff to keep fans from going "OH THAT GUY DID IT DUH" and turning it off.

But Miami is always the same. Horatio does the dramatic sunglasses, he forms an emotional bond with a surviving victim, he promises "I'll get this guy", the blond chick talks with a southern accent but never really does anything, and then Horatio ends up shooting someone in a dramatic scene. I've only seen like... ten episodes of Miami, but they've all been like that.

For some reason, I assumed that deer hearts would be bigger than human hearts. But I'm thinking of a horse-sized animal, and I guess deer are really closer to human size. Bearing that in mind, I can sort of see how this could happen.

/Though CSI taught me that there's a two-second test to determine human vs. animal blood. :P