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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...
Season
Five of CSI sees a serious shift in the group dynamics
of the show. Firstly Greg (Eric Szmanda) is now working in
the field, and the CSI team has been broken up - although
to be honest that doesn't really seem to make that much of
a difference. Gill and Sara end up working together, while
Catherine is promoted and has Warrick and Nick working under
her and the two groups still interact.
Highlights
in this collection include:
Nesting
Dolls: Two bodies buried together and encased in tar are
exhumed at a construction site; after a heated argument with
Catherine, and an explosive meeting with Ecklie, a suspended
Sara is forced to tell Grissom how she feels about everything.
This episode opens this DVD collection and sees poor old Sara
having a bit of a rough time. She's rude and abusive to witnesses,
to Catherine and finally to Ecklie - not a good move if you
want to keep your job. Thankfully, for Sara's fans, after
this episode she seems to be back to her normal self - with
no indication that she is still an alcoholic.
King
Baby: When a high profile and much-hated casino mogul
with a strange secret is found dead in his driveway things
don't seem to add up at the crime scene. It appears that the
body has been moved and why has someone stolen Catherine's
crime scene photos? This has to be one of the most bizarre
CSI episodes that's ever been written. Only one thing
lets this episode down - the fact that I worked out what the
murder victim's little secret was from the very first scene.
The title really spoils what would otherwise be an amazingly
difficult to fathom crime.
4
X 4: It's a busy twenty-four hours in Las Vegas for the
crime scene team: Grissom works a case in which a stolen Hummer
is involved in a hit-and-run; Warrick investigates the murder
of a model who was working a car show; Greg and Sara need
to be hosed down by Haz-Mat when the case they are working
turns toxic; and Nick tries to figure out who killed a schoolboy
and dumped his body on a bus stop bench. This is an incredibly
well presented episode - one that you really need to see twice
in order to fully appreciate. The episode keeps skipping back
in time so that you see the build up to an event that you've
already seen. There are some great lines in here including
Greg telling Sara that he didn't look at her when they were
in the shower. To which Sara says: "Really? I saw everything."
This gag makes no sense the first time you hear it - it just
sounds odd, but when the episode skips back a few hours you
get to see why the two were showering together. This episode
also has a very clever, and rather gory scene when Dr. Al
Robbins discovers how the muscled body on his autopsy table
actually died.
Hollywood
Brass: LVPD Capt. Jim Brass asks for emergency leave to
help his daughter Ellie in Los Angeles - a friend of hers
has disappeared, and the police are not particularly motivated
to begin a search for a missing hooker, based on the word
of another one. Tony Award-winning actress Donna Murphy (who
sci-fi fans will best remember as Anij in Star
Trek: Insurrection
and Rosalie Octavius in Spider-Man 2) guest stars as
homicide detective Captain Annie Kramer, a former colleague.
I loved this episode, mainly because it took one of the under
used regular guest characters, Brass, and spun an entire story
around his private life. If Paul Guilfoyle's acting hadn't
have been up to the challenge then this entire episode would
have fallen flat on its face. Thankfully Guilfoyle pulls out
all the stops and what we are left with is one of CSI's
best episodes to date. Warrick Brown is also shoehorned in
to the story in a rather cheeky way - he just happens to be
at a convention in LA at the time. I'm hoping that we'll see
more episodes in a similar vein in the future - I'd love to
see Robert David Hall's Dr. Robbins get an episode to himself.
Committed:
Grissom, Sara and Brass respond when a patient is found murdered
in a mental hospital for the criminally insane with another
inmate sitting nearby, covered in blood. To be honest this
episode is fairly run-of-the-mill. The only reason I've mentioned
it here is because it has one of the funniest scenes I've
ever seen in CSI. During an autopsy Dr Robbins finds
lots of strange items in the stomach of a murder victim. He
tells Grissom that it reminds him of the scene in Jaws
where they cut open the shark and loads of strange things
spill out. To which Grissom calmly asks: "You found a
licence plate?"
Weeping
Willows: Catherine meets the wrong man in a bar, but doesn't
admit to the encounter, even when he turns up as the lead
suspect in what may be a double homicide. Alan Rosenberg,
Marg Helgenberger's real-life husband, guest stars as Adam
Novack. Again, as with Hollywood Brass, I enjoyed this
episode more than normal because we get to see something of
the private life of one of the characters we know so well.
While the "Is he? Isn't he?" murderer plot is handled
quite well there are some very strange scenes - like why does
Novack turn up at Catherine's house? If he was a solicitor
he'd know how stupid a move that was.
Grave
Danger: This two part episode (which has already
been released
as a single
disc DVD)
is based on a story by Quentin Tarantino - who directs this
episode. When one of the CSI unit is kidnapped and buried
alive, a reunited CSI team must race against the clock to
save him, in this special two-hour season finale. John Saxon,
Andrew Prine, and Lois Chiles guest star. There are also cameo
appearances by Tony Curtis and the late actor/comedian Frank
Gorshin (who Batman
fans will remember played The Riddler in the '60s TV series
and movie) in his last acting role, playing long-time friends
of casino owner Sam Braun. I also have to eat a bit of humble
pie too as it would seem that Tarantino is one of CSI's
biggest fans. I mentioned in my review of the Grave Danger
DVD that the dialogue for some of the main characters was
a little odd and it looked like someone who didn't know the
show very well was giving bad direction. Watching the Tarantino
Style extra it would appear that Tarantino is the world's
biggest CSI fan. And, apart from the rather odd Trigger scene,
I don't even know what I was blathering on about before -
this time around none of the acting seemed that out of place.
Extras
include CSI: Season 5 a Post Mortum (19 minute behind
the scenes featurette); CSI: Procedures on the Scene and
in the Lab (16 minute look at how the show tries to be
as realistic as possible); CSI: Tarantino Style (17
minute featurette that looks at the two-parter Grave Danger).
There are also audio commentaries with cast and crew on various
different episodes.
Without
a doubt, the best CSI collection to be released to
date.
 
Nick
Smithson
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