Led by forensic entomologist Gil Grissom (William Petersen), the graveyard shift of the Las Vegas Police Department’s Crime Scene Investigation division--which includes Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), Nick Stokes (George Eads), Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), and Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan)--works cases that range from a missing painting to an airline passenger who died in midflight to a jogger who was apparently attacked by a large dog with a working knowledge of internal medicine.

With the evidence trails growing colder by the second--and their rivals on the dayshift competing to see who can close the most cases--the team uses science to discover irrefutable evidence and bring criminals to justice.

CRITIQUE

Don’t ask me how I managed to do so, but until this package arrived for review I had gone more than eight years without seeing a single episode of this series (haven’t seen any of the spinoffs, either). I wish I had, though. It’s a little odd to be talking about the first year of a series that’s currently wrapping up its ninth season; I can’t imagine that too many (if any) people out there are just now beginning to wonder what the big deal is. More importantly, not having seen an episode meant I had to sit through all twenty-three installments from the first season in a compressed amount of time; by the time it was all said and done, I was ready for a padded cell.

Like most shows (even the best ones), CSI gets off to a somewhat shaky start. It doesn’t do a very good job establishing its main characters, instead focusing on the procedural aspects right off the bat. The characters are fleshed out to a degree over the course of the season, but early on they’re little more than stock players. And even when the characters are given some time to grow, they’re stuck with situations and plot devices that are recycled (gambling problems, vengeful ex-husbands, childhood traumas).

Repetition is also a problem. As is usually the case with any show of this type, CSI comes dangerously close to becoming, to put it bluntly, the same damned thing over and over again. Most episodes feature three concurrent mysteries, with the team splitting up to tackle them simultaneously; each case is solved in what seems like an unnaturally expedient manner, the bad guys are apprehended, and then the whole process starts all over again with the next installment.

In fact, that’s one of the reasons I generally avoid series such as this; in my mind, it doesn’t take long for this sort of here-we-go-again plotting to get old (insert puzzled query about why so many people enjoy House here). And while I understand that an hour-long format (or forty-five minutes, which is roughly what each episode runs sans commercials) isn’t exactly conducive to complex mysteries, I still prefer procedural stories in which the herrings are a little redder (some of the solutions here are obvious very early on) and it takes more than fifteen minutes for any individual storyline to be resolved.

Besides, there are only so many stories under the sun, and when you cram three of them into one package, it’s only a matter of time before you’re out of ideas.

There are times when an episode will break the mold and give itself over to one story, and I found myself enjoying these more. (One such episode features a very young Dakota Fanning. Matter of fact, she looks so young I couldn’t help but wonder if she went straight from the maternity ward to the audition.)

There’s a tradeoff as to the pacing of these episodes, as the three-liners necessitate more cuts and therefore seem must faster, but I still enjoy the more methodical, involved nature of the single-liners. There’s also an ongoing subplot in which the team tracks a killer who murders his victims in staged-suicide settings; this guy is sort of the flipside of Grissom, and while that’s a storytelling device as old as storytelling itself, watching him screw with everyone is still quite entertaining.

And “quite entertaining” is a good way to describe this season as a whole. There are a few clunkers, but there are also some great episodes; the rest are solid, which averages out to good overall. About all you can ask for from a network television series is to be suitably entertained and distracted for thirty minutes or an hour, and CSI delivers in that regard.

It’s slick, speedy, high-gloss visual storytelling (executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s fingerprints are, no pun intended, all over it), a good way to sit back and kill some time. I have no doubt that more than a little of the science and technology employed is more than a little dubious, but it sounds good and it’s cool to see it being used.

Furthermore, the cast is appealing and likeable, especially Petersen (although Helgenberger gives him a run for his money, but we won’t go into that). Gil Grissom is more than a little reminiscent of Will Graham, the character Petersen played in Michael Mann’s criminally underrated Manhunter (the hell with Red Dragon), but the creepy edge that characterized Graham has been smoothed down to an intriguing eccentricity. It’s nice to see a character this smart portrayed as something other than a one-note, self-centered egotistical ass (insert another puzzled query about House here), and that fact that he’s as likely to quote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as he is some obscure medical text makes him all the more likeable.

Regarding the Director’s Cut version of the Pilot episode; except for some rough language and a few seconds of footage that would have given the FCC a coronary, there’s no real difference between the Director’s Cut and the broadcast version.

THE VIDEO

The 1.78:1/1080i transfers--encoded with VC-1 and spread across five 50GB discs--look very good. While no one is going to mistake the series for a megabudget feature film, it’s obvious quite a bit of change is spent on each episode.

Contrast runs hot, which has a tendency to exaggerate the already grainy visuals, and colors are often oversaturated. Thankfully, blacks don’t suffer, and the image is nicely detailed. Moiré can be a problem at times; the Vegas landscape and architecture jitter in the quick pans and aerial shots that kick off most episodes.

Note: This is the first time these episodes have been released to disc in a widescreen format; the episodes on the original 2003 DVD release were presented in a 4x3 ratio, which is puzzling, as it’s obvious the series was shot 1.78:1.

THE AUDIO

The original stereo audio elements have been remixed and encoded into a series of DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 tracks. The first half of the season doesn’t benefit much from the surround mixes; discrete effects are sparse and not very convincing.

But there comes a point--which likely coincides with the show’s moved Friday to Thursday, at which time it became a monster hit and saw an increase in its budget--where the sound design makes a huge leap forward, opening up and utilizing the rear soundstage in a more natural way; surround action becomes both more plentiful and better integrated, and ambience becomes more enveloping.

Dialogue sounds good, and the effects that are employed in the show’s signature recreation scenes have an over-the-top quality that’s amusing.

Spanish Dolby Digital Stereo tracks are also included. English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The Director’s Cut version of the pilot features a commentary by director Danny Cannon. It’s an okay track, with Cannon (who’s also one of the show’s producers), going through the motions of detailing the work involved in achieving the show’s influential style.   

With one exception, the following video-based extras are presented in standard definition video:

CSI: People Lie...But the Evidence Never Does (20 minutes) is a standard behind-the-scenes featurette originally created for the DVD release of the first season.

CSI Season On: Rediscovering the Evidence (27 minutes, HD) acts as a retrospective of sorts, with the show’s principals looking back on the first season and discussing the series’ success, influence, and evolution.   

Deleted scenes/outtakes are included for a handful of episodes. These are all inconsequential bits, trimmed simply to allow the episodes to fit into their hour-long timeslot. 

The original network promo spots are also included (one for each episode, running about thirty seconds apiece).

Also included is a gag reel (4 minutes), which is about average as these things go.

The discs also allow access to some BD-Live content, although at press time it has yet to go active. (Note: We will update this section once content availability is confirmed.)

FINAL THOUGHTS

This first season of CSI is spotty at times, but still provides a solid foundation for the series. I don’t know if I’m ready to call myself a fan, but I am beginning to understand why several million people plant their butts in front of their televisions every Thursday night. You can count me in when Season Two hits Blu-ray, but I hope I have more than two weeks to watch it.