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Set in the city that never sleeps, CSI: New York is the latest
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...
The
second half of the first season of CSI: New York (CSI:
NY) concludes what is a remarkably impressive first season.
Infinitely better than the rather dull CSI: Miami,
CSI: NY is at least of equal standing to the original
CSI show, and in some areas it's even better. Arguably
the one thing that CSI: NY does better than the original
show is show a more light-hearted side to the characters.
The constant banter between Danny Messer and Aiden Burn is
amusing and Hill Harper, is wonderfully believable as Dr Sheldon
Hawkes. Hawkes is a much under used character (although all
the signs are that he will play a much bigger role in the
future).
There
is also tension bubbling under the surface. Danny's past threatens
to catch up with him and the conflict between Danny and Mac
is played at just the right level. Actually, the character
of Danny (wonderfully played by Carmine Giovinazzo) is one
of the CSI franchises most believable characters. He
can be a pain in the neck one minute and a comedian the next.
This is a much more fleshed out character than we normally
get in US dramas.
This
box set starts off on the right foot with Tanglewood.
The investigation of a suburban kid found beaten to death
in the snowy woods of Van Cortland Park leads the CSI:
NY team to Tanglewood, home to a group of teenagers gangsters.
On the other side of town, Danny and Aiden investigate a tangle
of another sort when a woman from an Asian massage parlour
is found dead in a mysterious hit and run.
Highlights
of this collection include:
Blood,
Sweat and Tears: When the body of a teenage boy is found
crammed into a 2' x 2' x 2' box buried in the sand at Coney
Island the evidence leads the CSI team to the City Circus.
While this episode is easy to work out, there's still plenty
of great scenes. And any CSI episode with an elephant
in it has to be a winner.
Hush:
This episode starts with a robbery on the driver of an 18-wheeler
truck. But when the tuck is examined by the authorities, a
quantity of blood is found oozing out from underneath the
truck's load. When the container is lifted off the truck the
squashed remains of half a man are discovered. Meanwhile elsewhere
in the city a nude woman is discovered. Danny and Aiden follow
the evidence, which leads them into Manhattan's seedy world
of sexual fetishism. This episode also also has this series'
worst crime - a terrible Irish accent that is second only
to Dick Van Dyke's "Cock-er-knee" accent in Marry
Poppins. Also I had a slight problem with this episode.
The murderer attempts to run Mac down at the end of this episode.
Now, Mac hadn't framed him or really suspected him until he
gave himself away by trying to kill the detective.
On
the Job: When an armed suspect is uncovered at a secured
crime scene, Danny's routine investigation quickly becomes
a foot pursuit into the subway of New York City. When the
suspect opens fire at Danny, he fires back and kills the man.
It soon becomes apparent that Danny didn't shoot his suspect,
but an armed undercover cop who was also in the subway. When
Danny's account of events don't fit with other eye witness
accounts, or the evidence, his job is on the line. This episode
adds to Mac and Danny's strained working relationship. Again
Danny ignores Mac and ends up regretting it.
The
Closer: When the investigation of a vehicular homicide
victim collides with a Boston baseball fan found dead in a
New York parking lot, Detective Stella Bonasera discovers
both victims had one thing in common: New York's pro ball
team. This is the second episode in this collection directed
by Emilio Estevez (better known for starring in The Breakfast
Club in the '80s). The b-plot to this episode stars Michael
Clarke Duncan (of Sin City and The Green Mile
fame) as Quinn Sullivan, a man imprisoned for a murder he
claims he didn't commit. While behind bars, he rings Mac on
a regular basis to ask him to re-examine the evidence that
convicted him. Could it be that the Mac's original evidence,
in this case, wrongly convicted an innocent man?
I
also had a nit-pick for this episode. When the woman who is
hit by a truck at the start of this episode is brought into
the CSI lab we are told that her work colleagues filed a missing
persons report when she didn't show up for work that day.
Is that normal procedure in New York? Surely they would just
have assumed she was too ill to come into work or had had
an emergency. Even if she was just off ill, and rang in sick,
the chance of a message being passed onto her boss immediately
is pretty slim.
What
You See is What You Get: When a casual breakfast turns
into a shoot-out, Mac must put the pieces of the crime back
together. He follows the evidence to a federal informant with
a "get-out-of-jail-free" card. In order to bring
him down, Mac and Stella must crack a counterfeit ring and
render the informant useless to the feds. This episode also
has something of a love interest for Mac.
Extras
include audio commentary on Tanglewood; The World's
Largest Crime Scene (9 min featurette on why the show is set
in New York and what makes the city so different to other
cities in America); The Cast Examine the Characters
(15 min featurette); The Zoo Year (a 9.5 min featurette that
looks at how the first season stories have featured a variety
of animals; and a 9 min CSI: NY Set Tour.
To
be fair, there are no duff episodes in this collection - just
good and great ones. In all honesty this is on a par with
the original CSI series. CSI: NY is leaps and
bounds ahead of the one man show that is CSI: Miami
and I'm looking forward to seeing how the characters grow
in Season Two.
Amber
Leigh
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