CSI: New York Season 5 - Part 1   Starring: Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, Carmine Giovinazzo, Anna Belknap, Hill Harper and Eddie Cahill Momentum Pictures RRP: £34.99 MP917D Certificate: 15 Available 10 August 2009

Set in the city that never sleeps, CSI: New York is a spin-off from the hugely popular CSI series. Following on from Vegas and Miami, this CSI has a distinct New York City flavour and style. Dealing with a city with a three hundred year history and eight million residents is a whole different ball game...

Season Five - Part One of CSI: New York establishes a few plot threads which are weaved in and out of the episodes. The first one revolves around Stella after she is attacked while on a case - she later discovers that the assailant works at the Greek consulate. There's also an ongoing romance in the team which leads to a pregnancy. And finally Mac gets himself a female stalker.

The series opens by resolving the cliffhanger that left the show hanging at the end of season four. I was a little disappointed to be honest with the conclusion to this story. It felt a little too much like the writers couldn't really be bothered to do anything interesting with what could have been a potentially interesting plot thread.

Highlights in this collection include:

Page Turner: This was interesting, if for no other reason than there is a very subtle homage to Ghostbusters thrown in (the scene in the library where the Geiger counter goes crazy and a member of the team says: "I've got something").

Turbulence: An episode that was originally the idea of Gary Sinise. Mac is on a plane when he is alerted to the fact that a dead man, who appears to be a federal air marshall, is found in the toilet. The plane has to be diverted back to New York and Mac has to work out who the murderer is before all his suspects walk. This is more interesting than most as there are a number of suspects who pop up for a short scene (usually a sure sign that they are the murderer) as red herrings.

The Cost of Living: This episode opens with an Indiana Jones-esque archeologist looking for treasure in a deserted underground train station. This is also the episode in which Stella is attacked and starts off the Greek connection story arc.

The Box: This episode opens with a scene that looks like Danny is being interviewed by someone official - as though he has been arrested for something. Then as the story progresses, every now and then we cut back to Danny who is remembering more about the events that are unfolding. It's a great little hook to keep you guessing what has happened to Danny. The ending was quite surprising, and rather sweet, too.

Forbidden Fruit: The focus of this episode is the miracle fruit (synsepalum dulcificum) - which momentarily alters your taste buds. The story has a great opening, with officers on patrol catching a guy trying to drag a dead woman from his car. When he sees the police, he panics and climbs a fence. He slips and ends up killing himself by becoming impaled on a spike.

It's a shame that there were no extras on these discs, but still, you do get 12 quality episodes.

8

Amber Leigh