Created by
Anthony E. Zuiker, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a
smart and intriguing television series. The first season began
in October 2000 and has since become the highest-rated TV drama
for three consecutive years. In its third season on CBS, CSI
appears never to run out of crime. Now let’s take a look at the
first season when all the crimes started to occur and the CSI
team began investigating.
The CSI
division of the Las Vegas Crime Lab consists of Gil Grissom
(William Peterson), Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger),
Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan), Nick Stokes (George Eads), and
Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox). Supporting players are, among others,
Captain Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle), Dr. David Robbins (Robert
David Hall), and CSI shift rival Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda).
Each
episode starts off with a new crime for the CSI’s to solve.
Following Pete Townsend’s “Who Are You” intro, most episodes
divide into three crime acts—the CSI break up into groups of
three and solve cases interchangeably. The show is pretty
methodical in terms of montages. Basically, one or two montages
begin each time the CSI retreat to the lab to research their
findings. These montages, composed by John M. Keane, work well
on the superficial level, but undermine and glamorize the hours
and hours of work it actually takes for real CSI to crank out
the solutions. There’s nothing wrong with this creative
practice, but I think it is worth mentioning. The show’s episode
template works expertly and holds the interest of the viewer
until the final minute. It is the nature and human interest of
CSI that makes the show so appealing and successful.
CSI
brings a lot of quality to the table and each episode stands
well on its own. With quite a bit of shock value, but that
depends on the individual, the first season consists of 23
episodes. While most of them are stand-alone, there are a few
recurring characters and subplots that make the show more than
worthwhile. A few of the subplots include Willows’ role as a
mother, the relationship between the CSI team, and Grissom’s
fascination with one particular killer who stages suicides.
The show’s
writing team consists of Creator Anthony E. Zuiker, Executive
Story editor Josh Berman, Ann Donahue, and Producer Carol
Mendelsohn. Their episodic originality and forensic research
transcends perfectly. I find CSI rather addicting now
after having watched the first 11 episodes in four days. The
reason behind this addiction and the show’s ultimate success is
because viewers have strong feelings about crime/death and want
to be intrigued at the same time. Anthony E. Zuiker figured this
out way before I did and capitalized on it.
Listed
below are all 23 episodes with short comments for the one's I
have seen, which run a
total of approximately 17 hours and 5 minutes at circa 45 minutes
per episode.
Disc 1:
Pilot
– Very character-oriented; pulls you in; great, daring ending.
Cool
Change
– A great follow-up, promotes Grissom and introduces Jorja Fox.
Crate and
Burial
– Third time’s the charm; consistent.
Pledging
Mr. Johnson
– A cruel crime; very good episode.
Disc 2:
Friends
and Lovers
– Another very good episode.
Who Are
You?
– Answers the question well.
Blood
Drops
– Labeled as the best episode; very good.
Anonymous
– A subplot continuation; very good.
Disc 3:
Unfriendly
Skies
– Straightforward and intriguing.
Sex, Lies
and Larvae
– Pretty decent.
I-15
Murders
– Pretty clever.
Fahrenheit
932 - Sophisticated; very good.
Disc 4:
Boom
- A great story; makes for a great episode.
To Halve
and To Hold - Not too exciting; decent.
Table
Stakes - Not too exciting either; decent.
Too Tough
to Die
Disc 5:
Face Lift
$35K OBO
Gentle
Gentle
Sounds of
Silence
Disc 6:
Justice is
Served
Evaluation
Day
Strip
Strangler
Special Features
9.5
out of 10
The Video
All TV
shows are presented in fullscreen and CSI is no exception. While
it depends on the quality of your TV set, Paramount Home Video’s
video transfer is decent. The picture looks crisp in some
instances and is usually very
color detailed. However, I noticed quite a lot of
grainy spots throughout each episode. This is the evidence
Paramount could have cleared up a little better.
8
out of 10
The Audio
Advertised
as Dolby Digital, the English stereo track sounds like a regular
TV program. In fact, I needed to turn up the volume (a bit) more
than usual to really experience the show and understand the
dialogue. This isn’t a problem per se, but I’ll get to the
actual deficiency of this DVD set in the next paragraph. In
addition to the English track, the DVD features a well-produced
Spanish Stereo track for all 23 episodes.
8 out of 10
The Extras
No
subtitles? This is my first complaint. Paramount’s concurring TV
DVD set release is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 1
and it featured subtitles for every episode. The CBS program
provides captions when the show is on TV, but for some odd (and
irritating) reason this DVD does not.
The DVD
set packaging mirrors the one of DS9. It’s quite
effective and for six discs is rather slim. The discs are inside
a plastic folding case and six plastic layers are stacked on top
of each other holding one disc each. The back flap of the
plastic folding case lists all the episodes in order of
appearance. The DVD cover art is pretty good and consists of a
lot of green.
Each DVD
loads to the partially animated main menu of a computer
laboratory. The only two options available are episode selection
and set up. My second complaint is that there is no menu for
scene selections. Granted, each episode is broken down into six
chapters, but you can’t select them from a menu. Chapter
selection is a “must” nowadays and it’s a mystery why this set
does not include it.
Special Features (on disc 6):
Featurette: CSI - The
People Lie... But The Evidence Never Does
Character Profiles
Who Are You Music
Video
3 out of 10
Overall
There is
nothing else to say other than CSI is definitely worth
buying. With 23 classy and quality-orientated episodes, an above
average video transfer, a decent audio transfer, and a nice
behind-the-scenes feature, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
is a show worth every dollar and minute. However, the overall
rating is one point shy of a perfect ten because of the
abundance of subtitles and chapter selections.
