DVD
CSI: Miami
Season 1 - Part 1

Starring: David Caruso, Emily Procter and Adam Rodriguez
Momentum Pictures
RRP £39.99
MP286D
Certificate: 15
Available 06 September 2004


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...

I have to admit that I wasn't really looking forward to watching the first season of the spin-off series of CSI. And from the opening scene of the first episode my worst fears seemed to have been confirmed.

In Golden Parachute the new CSI team are thrown in at the deep end when they are the first on the scene of a crashed plane. David Caruso's Horatio 'H' Caine just doesn't have the same appeal or charm of William Petersen's Gil Grissom in CSI. He is too cold and mechanical. In the opening scene a survivor of the plane crash is found, but resuscitation fails. "I lost him!" says the guy trying to saving him. "It happens," says Cain, calmly. Oh, please. Less of this macho bullshit.

Part of the charm of the original CSI series was that the team were there to get to the bottom of what happens? In Golden Parachute, and a number of other episodes in this release, the CSI team act as a group of gossip mongers, coming up with bizarre, fabricated theories and then spending their time trying to get the evidence to fit their story. In fact, the clinching piece of (flimsy) evidence comes in the form of Caine's guess work. What is all that about? In fact, Caine's guess work starts to become down right annoying as the show progresses. In fact, he starts to look more like Millennium's Frank Black. Why is it that he knows everything - even in the fields where his staff are experts, he always seems to know more.

Sadly, it is the character of Caine that is the root of this show's problems. Why does he act the hard man, threatening possible suspects? Should that really be the role of a CSI boss? Isn't that a job for the local police force? In fact it's not until half way through this collection that we are introduced to Detective Puig - the first time that any real police seem to be working on any of the CSI: Miami crimelab's cases. And, in the episode Breathless, Caine even speaks to the victim's family on the phone to let them know that their loved one has died. So in Miami are we to believe that if your loved one is killed the police won't be knocking at your door, but instead the crimelab will call you?

While Grissom, in CSI, lets the evidence do the talking and stays objective, Caine constantly jumps to conclusions and then sets about looking for the evidence to prove his crazy theories. There is also an element of Scooby-Doo! reasoning and the killer also gets to confess at the end of a lot of the episodes. Sadly they never say: "And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling CSI: Miami types!"

There is also a very emotionally questionable episode concerning pedophilia where a young girl is killed (Camp Fear). While this is a touchy subject the CSI lab act totally over the top and when the wrong guy is accused do they apologise when they discover he had nothing to do with it? No. Also there is some awful dialogue surrounding how recent statistics show that an average pedophile attacks 150 victims in their life time. If they are caught, we are told that figure drops to 65, to which Calleigh says: "Then we can still save 85 children." To which Caine says: "Let's work for that."

There are a couple of episodes that stand out as being of CSI quality, most notably Losing Face, in which Caine's mentor (back from his bomb disposal days) is killed while defusing a bomb. It tugs at the heart strings, but then Caine's macho crap comes into play and almost spoils everything. Almost, but not quite.

Sadly, there is no personality in this series, which was one of the main elements that made CSI work. While CSI: Miami is entertaining, it's not a patch on its sister show.

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.


cover
£29.99 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
£35.99 (MVC.co.uk)
   
£35.99 (Streetsonline.co.uk)

All prices correct at time of going to press.