InsidePulse DVD Review – CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – The Complete Fifth Season

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Credit: Amazon.com

Created by
Anthony E. Zuiker

Cast:
William L. Petersen …. Gil Grissom
Marg Helgenberger …. Catherine Willows
Gary Dourdan …. Warrick Brown
George Eads …. Nick Stokes
Jorja Fox …. Sara Sidle
Eric Szmanda …. Greg Sanders
Robert David Hall …. Dr. Al Robbins
Paul Guilfoyle …. LVPD Capt. Jim Brass

The Show
Does anyone really know why this is the most consistently popular show on television right now? CSI: Crime Scene Investigation does have great good characters and is written well, but you would think a series with a more serialized format would be more inviting. The truth is, with the show not being serialized it may invite more casual viewing than other dramatic series that require viewers to watch week to week.

What’s surprising is that little by little in this series there are character arcs, but the strength of the series is really in its formula. Week to week, perhaps more than any other show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation puts out a highly entertaining hour with great character interaction and terrific production values provided by Executive Producer Jerry Bruckheimer. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation- The Complete Fifth Season is a stellar example of how good the series can be.

The highlight of Season 5 was, of course, the two part season finale, Grave Danger. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, the episode has George Eads’ CSI Nick Stokes getting kidnapped and buried alive, ala Kill Bill. To make things worse for the rest of his team, a video feed has Nick being taped as he runs out of air.

While Tarantino’s involvement doesn’t secure one of the best TV episodes ever made, it does create some exciting television. Seemingly everything that could go wrong for Nick while he’s in the coffin does. Not only is his air running out, but a crack in the coffin allows for ants to come in and constantly bite him. To add to the fun of the episode, QT adds some funny cameos and weird moments along the way.

Even without the success of Grave Danger, the season would still be a great one for CSI. The entire cast is as good as ever with William L. Petersen especially doing some of his best work as the show’s lead character Gil Grissom. Petersen’s best work may still be in Michael Mann’s underrated Red Dragon adaptation, Manhunter. The strength of Grissom as a character is that he’s able to bring the drive and quirkiness he showed by playing Will Graham. Grissom is a much lighter character, but that makes him that much more personable and gives the show that much more power when it shifts into serious mode.

The episode What’s Eating Gilbert Grissom? is a great example of how good Petersen is on this show and also how good the writing is. The CSI team finds out a serial killer who was presumed incarcerated is still on the loose. Petersen is able to bring gravity to the situation as if he and the team had worked on the case before, when in fact the back-story had never been presented before the premiere of this episode.

Amazingly, instead of just staying the course and riding out their success, the creators on CSI decided to shake up their formula. The team of Marg Helgenberger’s Catherine Willows, Gary Dourdan’s Warrick Brown, Jorja Fox’s Sara Sidle as well as the aforementioned Nick Stokes and Grissom were finally broken up into two teams. In the episode Mea Culpa, power hungry CSI Assistant Director Conrad Ecklie (Marc Vann) takes an opportunity to get at rival Grissom by breaking up his team.

Adding more flavor to the cast is Louise Lombard as Sofia Curtis another CSI who is put on Grissom’s team when Catherine is promoted and takes Nick and Warrick with her. Sofia is another quirky character that even starts a bit of a romantic attachment to Grissom, but much like the rest of the possible relationships on the series, it’s only hinted at. If nothing else, adding such an interesting female character to the cast keeps the show feeling fresh.

Also Eric Szmanda’s Greg Sanders is promoted to the field giving him much more screen time and also allows for a new father/son dynamic with Grissom on the show. Many episodes feature Greg desperately trying to impress Grissom with little to no success. A great one for characters is Who Shot Sherlock? which is a very lighthearted installment where the two must figure out the murder of a Sherlock Holmes impersonator.

For a great police procedural show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is the most entertaining on television. It may not be the most addictive show as it doesn’t have a huge season long story arc, but week to week each episode is highly engrossing. Even if you’ve never watched the show before, this season is as great an introduction to CSI as any after the first year.

Score: 9.0/10

The DVD

The Video

Presented Anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, this DVD is absolutely beautiful to look at. If ever there was a show looked better on DVD than it does on TV, its CSI as the picture looks crystal and the show’s cinematic look is completely intact.

The Audio

The show also looks as good as it sounds. The disc’s Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track is absolutely beautiful to listen to, especially considering the show’s musical selections are top notch.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Audio commentaries, CSI: Season Five A post Mortem, The Research of CSI: Maintaining the Accuracy, CSI: Forensic Procedures On the Scene vs. On the Screen, CSI: Tarantino Style

Audio Commentaries – You get commentaries on nine different episodes here by show creators. None of the commentaries are particularly groundbreaking, but all are entertaining enough. The best of the commentaries comes on the episode Who Shot Sherlock?, in which a Sherlock Holmes impersonator is shot. Writer Rich Catalani, Director Ken Fink, and Technical Advisor David Rambo give a very in depth commentary track on all aspects that went into the show’s production. The episode was intended to have a lighter tone than the rest of the season and for the most part it succeeds. Part of the fun of the Grissom character is that he’s kind of a modern day Holmes and to bring the two together in a way adds to the enjoyment of the episode immensely. Catalani states that he tried to add little nods to the Holmes character and his fans as much as possible such as naming the impersonator Denny Kingsley, the name of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s children.

CSI: Season Five A post Mortem – This 20 minute Featurette is like a highlight reel of the events of the season. It features a lot of interviews with the cast and is actually pretty in depth. It really makes it look as if all of them have a great time on the show and get along swimmingly

The Research of CSI: Maintaining the Accuracy – This is a great Featurette on how the show takes great pains to stay as factual as possible. Apparently the show has an army of consultants that take ideas from their own experiences and real cases to present an entertaining show. While the show does admit to cutting corners on some time frames so that the every case can be solved within the episode, most of the info is as accurate as possible.

CSI: Forensic Procedures On the Scene vs. On the Screen – This is an 8 part featurette hosted by real life CSI’s Richard Catalani and Larry Mitchell. For those thinking the job is a walk in the park, think again. These two investigators go through several of the complicated procedures that are used on the show.

CSI: Tarantino Style – Want to see a Tarantino love fest? This is it. Everybody on this show loves QT and goes through great lengths to tell you so. It’s actually a pretty good featurette that details a lot of the aspects that went into creating the season finale. What’s great to learn is that Tarantino is a huge CSI fan that has a great reverence for the show and its characters. The courtship to get QT to direct an episode apparently took about two years to finally get him on the show, but once there he felt right at home with the cast and crew.

Score: 8.0/10

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.