Patricia Arquette chronicles a new medium

MAKE some noise – Patricia Arquette is the first female to helm a CSI franchise. Cast as Special Agent Avery Ryan in the third spin-off series, CSI

Cyber, she trades in her psychic crimesolving antics that made her a hit in

Medium (which ran for seven seasons and bagged her an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series) to helm a cyber crime-fighting unit.

Yes, CSI’s Catherine Willow’s (played by Marg Helgenberger) held down the fort after Gil Grissom – but that was more by default than design.

This time, the Oscar-winner for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for

Boyhood is a psychologist analysing the actions of the virtual criminal mind.

Through her successes and failures – a rite of passage for any actor – Arquette has dexterously manoeuvred herself into that elusive can-do-now-rong-realm. In other words, she is critic-proof. For now.

While she sits on her hard-earned pedestal of success, it is clear that she has reached a new summit in her career. And she is owning it.

Ryan’s ability to get into the mind of virtual fugitives is unimpeachable – but it is fuelled by a dark past. When she was in private practice, a ruthless hacker exposed the files of all her patients, prompting one of them to commit suicide.

In a press conference, Arquette confirmed how this series is poles apart from other procedural dramas: “You know, we have seen a cop with a gun for decades. And we have known murder for decades. But there are other kinds of crimes. It’s really different and this is the crime today. This is what criminals are doing and we, as a public, don’t even know what they are capable of. It’s pretty chilling, exciting and interesting.”

Unlike her other roles, which are anchored more in emotion, this one demands more cunning use of the mind. This new chapter for Arquette is exciting and insightful; more so as she gets her head around all that technical jargon in processing this digital new age… along with those criminals!