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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...
CSI:
New York, unlike CSI: Miami, gets of to a very
impressive start. This is down to a number of factors. Firstly,
and most importantly, the show's main character Mack Taylor
(Gary Sinise) is an extremely likeable character. Also the
evidence does the talking while the whole CSI: New York
cast work as a team to solve each case with an objective mind.
I
love the original CSI series, passionately detest CSI:
Miami (due to the fact that the character of Horatio Caine
is such a total tosser - fitting the evidence to support is
wild theories beggars belief in some episodes). Actually,
I say I detest CSI: Miami, but to be fair, I have attempted
to approach each DVD release with an open mind (and have always
been disappointed).
This
collection gets off on the right foot with the episode Blink.
Detective Taylor discovers the body of a missing woman. When
a second body is discovered, on a garbage barge, the investigation
leads to a serial killer who "imprisons" his victims.
Taylor follows the trail to a live victim - a woman who cannot
move or speak. The only part of her body she still seems to
have any control over is her eyelids. With the only witness
to have seen the killer unable to communicate how on earth
is Taylor going to find his killer?
Blink
is a pretty terrifying episode. The thought of being totally
paralysed, but fully conscious and unable to communicate,
is a frightening prospect. I was also impressed with the way
they pinpointed the exact spot where one of the last victims
was seen alive. For this they used a photograph (that was
on a roll of undeveloped film in a camera that was found with
her body). From the recognised landmarks in the photo the
CSI team were able to use a computer program to pinpoint where
she was on the day she died.
I
did have a slight problem with this episode. When the paralysed
woman was discovered why did they have police cars swarming
to the front of the building with their lights flashing? Would
it not have made more sense to discretely remove the woman
and the sit and wait for the kidnapper to reappear?
Another
nit-pick I spotted was in the episode Creatures of the
Night. Here the trousers of a suspected rapist and the
victims underwear are in the same laboratory... what about
cross contamination?
Highlights
of this collection include:
Outside
Man: which has the CSI team guessing who the criminal
is and (unlike CSI: Miami's Caine) getting it wrong.
Rain
examines a forensic teams worst nightmare. What happens when
rain washes away crucial evidence?
Officer
Blue: When a New York City police officer is shot off
his horse, Taylor and his team comb the city for suspects.
The only shard of evidence is the bullet lodged in the dead
cop's horse. Mac has to make the painful decision to either
save the animal or risk killing it in order to examine the
bullet. The great thing about this episode is that Taylor
is all for getting the bullet out of the horse at any cost.
It's only when he learns that the horse was bought by a woman
whose husband was another New York officer killed in the line
of duty. The horse is something for this woman, and her young
daughter to hang on to in their grief.
Thankfully
Officer Blue just manages to steer itself away from
being too sentimental. The only problem I had with this episode
was how the CSI team managed to pinpoint the exact spot the
killer fired their weapon from. To be able to locate the exact
room in the manner they did is very dubious. If the bullet
had landed in something stationary, then they may have been
able to do this, but the movement of the horse and rider,
after the bullet struck, would have easily made this form
of locating the sniper impossible.
To
be honest though, there isn't a bad episode in this collection.
All of them have their merits. One
of the little problems I did have overall was the Scooby-Doo!
style in which a lot of the criminals admit their guilt when
confronted with the evidence. It's all well and good them
coming clean, but where is their solicitor? Or do New York
criminals have law degrees, and have no use for lawyers (Ah!
If only. The world would certainly be a better place).
I
also didn't think the title music really fitted very well.
The
Who must
be making a small fortune (their music has been 'borrowed'
for all three CSI shows) but I just didn't think that
the track used really fitted the opening titles in the same
way as they have in the past. And I won't even mention how
odd it is that a show that is set in the hustle and bustle
of New York should have a title song that starts with the
lyrics: "Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals."
[Too late, you have - Ed]
Extras
include various episodes with audio commentaries; The Science
Behind the Scenes (6 min featurette)
Thankfully
CSI: New York proves, once again, that the format does
work - and that it was not a miracle that the original CSI
series was such a huge success. While I still think that the
original CSI is my favourite, CSI: New York
is still in it's infancy and could, over time, equal, or even
surpass, the quality of the original series.
Amber
Leigh
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