|
Chronicling the work of the Miami-Dade crime investigators,
CSI: Miami is set against the sun, fun and tropics of the
Florida tourist haven. Leading the team is Horatio Caine,
an ex-bomb squad detective who is no stranger to confrontations
with criminals and the underworld...
For
some reason we seem to have missed the release of Season
2 - Part 2 and I don't know what happened there, but
Season 3 is a vast improvement over earlier releases.
Although, the first episode (Lost Son) seemed to suggest
that everything was going to be as naff as usual. David Caruso's
character takes a bit of a back seat for quite a lot of these
episodes - and that is a very good thing. I never wanted to
punch a man in his smug little carrot topped head - until
I started watching CSI: Miami. Cain is the most patronising,
sad individual that I've ever seen in a TV show. He never
admits he's wrong and more often than not he can solve the
crime by simply looking at some ridiculous piece of evidence.
But
by far Caine's worst crime (no pun intended) is the fact that
after two seconds in a room with a suspect he is practically
accusing them of murder. And, when he is occasionally in the
wrong, does he ever apologise? Does he 'eckers like! This
is made all the more infuriating in the very first episode
of this release.
Lost
Son starts with a boat hitting a bridge and causing a
huge hole to appear. Actually the hole in the bridge is nothing
in comparison to the holes in the plot for this episode. Here's
a quick run down of some of the annoying scenes. Firstly,
within two seconds of interviewing a Judo instructor, Caine
believes he is covering for someone. Why? Because he claims
that a certain make of car was parked outside his Judo class
and Caine measures the tyre treads that are there and they
are not the size of that car. Firstly, why has he got an encyclopaedic
knowledge of tyre spreads? And secondly, there could have
been dozens of cars in that space since the kidnapping. Then
there is the issue of Caine's reasoning when they find the
car that is dumped in the river. He finds a blonde hair in
the boot and immediately states it's the kids. And then he
sees some footprints in the mud (which if he was doing a thorough
job he would have spotted before) and ascertains that the
kid was struggling against his kidnappers. Again, those footprints
could have belonged to anyone. But no, Caine is correct.
As
I mentioned before Caine never apologises for his wild accusations,
but what really had me spitting teeth was the poor woman who
Cain attacks wrongly in this episode. If that wasn't bad enough,
she ends up apologising to Caine for his loss - something
that had nothing to do with her.
Now,
it could be that the writers wanted to reflect real life.
Come on, hands up how many of us hate our bosses and think
that we could do a better job than them? [Easy! You are on
very rocky ground here Ms Leigh- Ed]. Maybe the producers
are trying to create a similar idea with this show.
SPOILER
ALERT! - SKIP THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW
ANY MAJOR PLOT DEVELOPMENTS
I'm
only going to mention this the once, because I don't generally
enjoy giving away major plot developments, but I think everyone
knows that Tim Speedle is killed in the opening episode of
Season 3, but what on earth where they thinking of?
This has to be about the lamest way to write someone out of
a show and to add insult to injury the moving scene towards
the end, when we are supposed to have time to reflect on Speedle's
character, Caine waltzes in and tries to make it all about
him! I nearly punched the TV screen in anger!
Right,
whinge over. To be fair, the majority of episodes in this
collection are of a fairly high standard, especially when
Caine is absent. Highlights include:
Pro
Per - A drive-by shooting, Miami-style, leaves a ten year-old
boy orphaned and puts Yelina in the line of fire when Horatio
places the boy in her care. The interplay in this episode
between Calleigh and Eric made me realise how the rest of
the actors do work as a team. It's only when Caine walks in
and does his pantomime acting that everything turns sour.
This episode also has a great couple of scenes with a suspect
who insists on defending himself - and quite well too.
Under
the Influence - A woman is pushed under a moving bus and
both her boyfriend and his stalker ex-girlfriend are suspected
of her murder. Meanwhile Calleigh's father's latest bender
might make him a hit-and-run killer. This episode sees the
introduction to the show of Ryan Wolfe who replaces Speedle
as well as the reappearance of Calleigh's alcoholic father.
This episode also made me appreciate how Alexx Woods is one
of the best characters in this show.
Hell
Night - A jury field trip to the scene of a murder flips
the legal tables when the defendant ends up dead and the twelve
jurors become the prime suspects. While the main story is
great, the b-plot is also pretty interesting - as it revolves
around Yelina's son (who is also Caine's nephew). The boy
has gotten in with the wrong crowd and ends up being involved
in the accidental death of a tramp, when a joke backfires.
Crime
Wave - Miami Beach is evacuated by an approaching tsunami,
but the CSI team remains after discovering a bank robbery
plot while investigating a seemingly random murder. This episode
was written before the tsunami that swept across the Indian
Ocean on 26 December 2004. The bank heist is well handled
and ends up being much more than it at first appears.
Speed
Kills - A "Speed Dating" night for Miami singles
turns deadly for one South Beach stud who finds himself on
the wrong end of a tire iron. This is another episode which
is well constructed and has some great guest stars. Although
I did have one question. Can CSI really chop of a corpses
head and then boil it to remove the skin? I assume, because
the person was murdered, that they can do whatever they need
to if it will help catch the killer, but this does seem particularly
grim.
Pirated
- A string of dead bodies, found off the coast of Miami, turns
out to be the work of modern-day pirates. This episode has
everything - underwater photography, pirates, cannibalism
and a group of nutters running around Miami with rocket launchers.
What more could you ask for? This also contains the only laugh
out loud joke of this collection. When one of the survivors
of the cannibalism storyline is confronted with the fact that
his stomach contents are going to be tested, to see what he
has eaten, he asks if doing that will bring his dead friend
back. To which Calleigh replies "Maybe a part of him".
After
the Fall - An innocent man is killed when someone falls
on him from a third floor balcony and finding out how leads
the CSI team into the centre of a high-level sex and murder
scandal. This episode is interesting as it uncovers some corrupt
goings on in the legal system - something that will hopefully
be explored later on. Although, I was a little surprised that
when the person responsible for murdering the prostitute admit
so to Caine, and then threatens him, that Caine hadn't recorded
the whole conversation (as we'd already learnt in that episode
that he was carrying a Dictaphone around with him).
Sci-Fi
fans may be interested to learn that Emilie de Ravin (who
played Tess in Roswell) appears in the episode Legal,
and that J. August Richards (who played Gunn in Angel)
turns up in Hell Night.
Extras
include audio commentaries on five episodes; CSI: Miami:
Deep Blue Sea featurette (a look at the problems that
water has on filming); and CSI: Miami: Visualising Season
3 featurette (an overview of the effects for this season).
So,
all in all, this collection showcases some pretty impressive
episodes. It's just a shame that Caine is still wandering
around with his hands on his hips spouting a load of old dribble.
Amber
Leigh
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal!
Click on the logo of the desired store below
to purchase this item.
|
|
|
£29.99
(Amazon.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£33.89
(Thehut.com) |
| |
|
|
|
£35.99
(Moviemail-online.co.uk) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
