C.S.I. is an acclaimed, edgy, fast-paced drama series about a passionate team of forensic investigators who work the graveyard shift at the Las Vegas Criminalistics Bureau. Their job - to find the missing pieces at the scene that will help to solve the crime and vindicate those who often cannot speak for themselves - the victims. Between the hidden clues and the buried motives lies the trail to the truth because people lie... but the evidence never does...

Sin City’s sharpest criminologists return to crack their most complex cases yet, as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Complete Season 11 is released on DVD. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the format is still going strong and that, if anything, the stories are more impressive than usual. This collection contains 22 episodes spread over six discs.

There are two main story arcs this season. The first follows the team on the heels of a bomb maker (which is spread over two episodes over the course of the season), while the second follows Raymond Langston obsession with bringing serial killer Nate Haskell to justice for his crimes.

Highlights this season (although to be honest there isn't a single dull episode) include:

Blood Moon when a man's decapitated body is found with his head nearby on a pole, the investigation soon leads to a nearby convention which sees the attendees split between werewolves and vampire followers, some of whom take the roleplay a little too far.

Sqweegel sees the team on the trail of a forensic-proof serial killer who dresses from head to toe in a latex body suit and appears to chose his victims at random. The character is taken for CSI creator Anthony Zuiker's first Level 26 novel and is brought to life by contortionists Daniel Browning Smith.

Cold Blooded follows the crime lab as they investigate the death of a man who appears to have a large bite mark - a mark that no living creature could possible make. Another case sees a woman desperate to find the remains of her daughter who was killed years before by a man who is serving time for the murder. The bite mark storyline is interesting as it allows the team to investigate the Walking with Dinosaurs touring show.

A Kiss Before Frying sees the discovery of body of a man who has seriously burns to his face and head. On processing the scene, the crime lab soon discover the man isn't dead. As more bodies start to appear, the victims having been tortured in a similar fashion, the race is on to track down the killer/s. Meanwhile Greg starts to date a school teacher (played by Dita Von Tees). The episode opens and closes like a classic Film Noir.

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead travels as far into the realms as sci-fi as CSI has ever done. A body gets up and walks off the morgue table and the CSI team have to track it down as well as another corpse that seems to be up and walking around. The evidence leads them to the work of a brilliant, but discredited, scientist who was looking into the ability to reanimate dead matter. But his work, while groundbreaking, was never completed.

Hitting for the Cycle is a fun episode which sees the CSIs betting on who will complete the rare instance of a complete cycle (a murder, accident, suicide and natural death all hitting the crime lab on the same shift). It doesn't happen very often, so the race is on to see who will be the one to have a natural death to investigate.

The final three episodes of this season see the Ray and Nate game of cat and mouse finally come to a head. Spread over three episodes, this makes for intense viewing. Although the victor is clear at the start of the final episode, it's how everything is dealt with afterwards that makes for compulsive viewing.

Extras on this collection are also impressive, as though they've been lovingly crafted by a hardcore fan of the series. There's no filler rubbish here and the features that focus on particular episodes actually focus on the most interesting episodes of the season. In fact the only slight moan I had is that you should watch all of the episodes and then go back and watch the extras (not watch disc one and then watch the extras on that disc before moving on to disc two) because there are some major spoilers included in the extras.

Disc one contains Getting Personal: Season 11 of CSI (28 min, 11 sec look at all of the main characters and the focus of this season); and Las Vegas Headliners (22 min, 21 sec look at the famous guest stars in this collection, including Justin Bieber, Phyllis Frelich, Marlee Matlin, Carrot Top, Dita Von Teese, Elliott Gould and Ann-Margret).

Disc two: Something Twisted This Way Comes (9 min, 20 sec is a behind the scenes look on the episode Sqweegel); Cold-Blooded Killers (9 min, 25 sec goes behind the scenes on the episode Cold Blooded); and an audio commentary for House of Hoarders.

Disc three contains two deleted scenes: one for the episode Fracked (1 min, 19 sec); and another for Man Up (1 min, 12 sec). It's obvious why both were cut from the final episodes. The first is a little too cheesy, while the second isn't necessary to further the episode - it just goes over things already covered.

Disc four includes Dita Von Tees Burlesque Performance (3 min, 49 sec extended and edited cut of Tees's dance from the episode with the reaction shot cut and longer cuts of her performance added).

Disc five: Intelligent Design: Creating Aeron's Legion (7 min, 05 sec look at the design of the game at the centre of the episode Hitting for the Cycle); and An Underground Perspective (7 min, 26 sec which looks at the set for the underground irrigation tunnel in the episode Fracked).

It's impressive just how much better the writing is this season. CSI fans are being spoilt.

9

Amber Leigh