Brace Yourself For A Killer Season

CSI first hit our TV screens in 2000 and from the start was a massive hit. Since that date it has gone on to spawn two similar TV series’, CSI New York and CSI Miami, as well as numerous video games, board games and even figurines. The original CSI, sometimes referred to as CSI: Las Vegas, however is my favourite and so when I first decided that CSI was something I wanted to purchase this was the series that I began with.

Each CSI series can be purchased in one complete box-set but it is more common to find them sold in the split two DVD box-sets. This review is for the box-set series 4.1 and therefore contains, over three discs the first twelve episodes of the fourth series.

What is CSI all about?

CSI is fundamentally a crime series but and focuses primarily on the actions of the Crime Scene Investigators. More specifically it focuses on the CSI’s that work the graveyard shift in Las Vegas. Each episode documents the crime from the time it is reported to the point at which the team have enough evidence to make a well founded and evidence based judgement as to what actually happened.

This therefore means that the majority of each episode delves into the investigative process that the CSI’s go through in order to un-pick the crime scenes that lay before them and extract the necessary evidence from what we would see as non-probative material. The very nature of the crimes being discussed however does mean that the series can become a little dark at times as the crimes range from burglaries to arson, rapes and homicides.

Todd: It was just a little target practice.
Nick Stokes: And that's why it's illegal to discharge firearms within the city limits, genius.

The Characters and Actors who play them

It is my considered opinion that no matter how good the premise for a television series is, it will not work unless the devised characters are ones that resonate with the audience and the only way that this can happen is if they are all allowed to develop like people in reality and if the actors that portray them do so with and sense of conviction yet a presence of ease. Personally I think that CSI as a show works so well and is so popular because of it’s characters and of course the actors who play them.

All of the characters within the show grow as the episodes and series’ progress and all of them have a history before even the first episode aired and this means that we are able to learn new information about them just a little bit at a time without it seeming like the character focus is simply a way for the writers to create a new episode. Because of the way that the characters have been written they interactive with each other in an extremely believable way in I feel that they are possibly the most rounded television characters and therefore cast that I have seen.

It was possible to view the CSI cast as a family tree when the programme first began but with this fourth series it doesn’t seem appropriate to do so anymore. The dynamics within the cast haven’t changed although the characters have blossomed but Sara’s warm feelings towards Grissom make such an analogy seem rather tasteless.

Below I have written small character brief for each of the characters and tried to explain how the episodes in this box-set effect them, cause them change etc. I have done so because of the fact that I think by understanding the characters within the show you understand the show so much better.

Al Robbins

Al (Robert David Hall) is the Chief Medical Examiner for the CSI unit and working alongside David, his deputy, performs all the autopsy’s for the team. Al is a well-respected member of the team and always willing to impart his knowledge with a bit of healthy humour and a guiding hand. I personally can’t really see anyone else playing Al but Robert David Hall because he does so, so well. Al’s part in the show seems to increase even further in this series and he seems to ground himself as a permanent member of a well-loved team.

Gil Grissom

Gil Grissom (William Petersen) more commonly known as just Grissom is the graveyard shifts supervisor and a quirky forensic entomologist (bug specialist). His laid back attitude doesn’t always win him favours but ultimately he is exceptional at his job and the team around him respect this. Everythign about Grissom however isn’t always as it seems and some of this have been drip fed to us throughout the previous three series’, his feelings for Sara are the next things to start to appear and in my opinion William Peterson handles these slight changes to his character wonderful and conducts himself in the same professional yet at the same time loveable way he has from the very start.

Gil Grissom: If you need someone to talk to...
David Hodges: Yeah. When's a good time?
Gil Grissom: We have a psychologist here on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Catherine Willows

Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) is the Assistant Night Shift Supervisor and an exceptionally competent investigator. In order to pay her way through college Catherine was an exotic dancer and this part of her past often plays a part in the episodes. Catherine is also a single parent but can rely on the rest of the team to provide her with all the assistance she needs. Her friendships with the others are founded and strong especially with Grissom and Warrick. Helgenberger is superb as Catherine and plays the sometimes-fiery investigator down to a tee. She fills her performances with a sense of conviction and makes her character empathic yet still aloof of the cases she is working on.

Nick Stokes

Nick (George Eads) is an easy-going and friendly sort of guy with an immense presence in my opinion. Nick was molested as a child by a baby-sitter, which makes him rather more emotional than some of the others. He is also the most empathetic character, which sometimes gets him into a little trouble. On top of this he is girl-mad but at the same time a traditional romantic this does mean though that he is often seen giving people a rather sexy smile or flirting with Catherine or Sara. Nick is my favourite character as you might have gathered and one that I think constantly offers something new. He is smart, quick witted and fun loving but he also has a past that enables him to empathise more successfully than the others and in a way that his outward appearance doesn’t show. Because of the complexity of his character I think that George Eads does a tremendous job in portraying him. His slight expressions are brilliant to watch and make him so convincing in his scenes.

Warrick Brown

Warrick (Gary Dourdan) is an audio-video analyst and a very good one at that. Warrick is also slightly cocky but in a good way as he never professes to be able to do something he can’t and always tells of his abilities in a humorous yet meaningful way. Warrick’s gambling past, which has caused great problems in the past, now allows him to provide greater insight into some of the suspects and victims that find themselves lost in the casinos of Las Vegas. Gary Dourdan is brilliant in so many ways as Warrick. He is an imposing, in a good way, presence and really changes and makes a difference to all the scenes he is in. A natural relationship has also developed between George Eads and he, which makes the scenes between Warrick and Nick look, sound and feel real to the audience.

Sara Sidle

Sara (Jorja Fox) is the final team investigator and was once a student of Grissom’s. She is a materials and elements analyst but at times tends to push her ideas and ways too forcefully. Sara also has a rather cold tone about her but this doesn’t mean that she isn’t completely devoted to her job. Her outward emotions and appearance however are it becomes clearer partly because she has a great number of emotional difficulties. Jorja Fox portrays Sara extremely well and manages to soften what could have across as an extremely harsh and ambitious character. She also displays a great talent for being able to shift between emotions and is capable of moving seamlessly between Sara’s hard-nosed image to her more sensitive one.

Greg Sanders

Greg (Eric Szmanda) is the teams DNA Technician and after expressing a strong want to actually become a CSI in the last series although this ultimately means a drastic pay-cut for him, this series seems him start to assist on cases outside of the lab. Greg is enthusiastic and at times extremely comical but he is ultimately good at his job and willing to learn new skills, which in turn makes him a highly respected by the team. He has a strong friendship with Nick who he is often found joking around with. Greg is another of my favourite characters as the way Szmanda manages to portray all the energy of Greg’s character really does light up the screen and his boyish outlook is and comical one-liners are maintained well without the audience being distracted from his credibility as a scientist.

Jim Brass

Jim (Paul Guilfoyle) is the homicide detective that works extremely closely with the CSI lab. Before now I have never included him in my character profiles but I think that he is, as probably always has been, becoming an integral member of the cast and one that endears himself towards me more and more. Jim is hard-nosed at times but ultimately knows what is expected of him and knows how to get it. He has a good relationship with Grissom and the rest of the lab and is always ready to pass on some fatherly advice as and when needed. Guilfoyle plays a wonderful part in my opinion and really adds something to Brass’ character that makes him so interesting to watch. He has a warmth about him that some of the others, because of their characters lack, but at the same time he gives his role a great deal of credibility and sense of purpose.

Sara Sidle: You know what pisses me off?
Nick Stokes: Lots of things.

This Box Set

This box set contains the first twelve episodes of CSI’s fourth series. Each episode contains at least one case for the CSI’s to investigate and often two. Although the premises for some of the cases may seem similar to those in other episodes the cases are in my opinion all very unique and the way that the team handles each of the cases is always different. The fact that every episode does contain a different case (or at least in this half of the box set at least) means that you can dip in and out of a series as and when you please. Personally however I would highly recommend watching the episodes in the order intended as in this way a logical progression of characters and cases can be seen and enjoyed.

I absolutely adore nearly every CSI episode I watch but I must admit that this half of the series contains some of the best I have seen so far. All of the cases are intriguing and wonderfully interesting and it is wonderful to watch how the team, we as an audience have come to now so well, deal with what it placed before them. The cases in series 4.1 include a women found mummified in her own closet, a college student found boated in his bathtub, a dead man in a racoon suit and the death of a baby in a hot car.

On top of this the team must deal with evidence being discarded due to unsuccessful warrants and the reopening of a four-year old missing persons case.

As I hope this snippet has demonstrated, this series is jam-packed with fascinating cases, personal problems and dilemmas for the CSI’s and tragedy or difficulties for the team as a whole. It is these difficulties however that make what we see on the screen seem so real and what keeps us coming back for more. I personally find myself engrossed in episodes once they begin and love trying to figure out the cases for myself. This feeling of being wrapped up in the cases is aided by the fantastic computer graphics that really place you in the minds of the investigators themselves.

Dark Vs Light

Although I have mentioned that the tremendous computer graphics make the cases so engrossing they also make them exceptionally visual and therefore we as an audience get to see a lot of the gruesome points of the crime in great detail. This coupled with the crime flashbacks as the CSI’s piece ideas together can provide some rather horrendous and slightly uncomfortable scenes and for this the programme has been criticised. Personally though, although I will admit that the programme can be quite dark at times, I think that this merely adds to it’s appeal. The inclusion of these images and scenes makes us feel closer to the CSI team as well as the victims and suspects. In this way we feel like a greater part of the programme rather than just a spectator.

Furthermore I have to say that I think all of the issues tackled within the programme are dealt with in a way that shows delicacy yet doesn’t shy away from the truth. On top of this the programme’s darker moments are interspersed and sometime coincide with some much lighter ones that lift the mood. These lighter moments often come from the comments of the CSI team or those around them and provide us with tasteful humorous snippets. Some will find this humour rather crude whereas others like myself realise that the way they joke about things is simply their way of coping with what they see.

[a suspect is at a convention for people who dress as animals]
Captain Jim Brass: What do we do... put out an A.P.B. on Tom and Jerry?

Music

The music in this series as a whole is an integral part of the whole viewing experience, as it dictates mood and feeling throughout. Most of the musical score is made up of instrumental piece, which provide some good atmospheric background sound, but the odd up-beat music scene track can be found in some of the episodes. My favourite piece from this series is a piece called Get the Message, which is used in episode two. I liked this piece because in many ways it suited both the task and the character, Greg, who was performing it and really seemed fitting.

The most iconic piece of music from the series however it the programmes title track; ‘Who Are You?’ by The Who. This truly is a memorable theme tune and one that I think fits the programme perfectly. The tempo and general pace is quick and quirky rather like the cases and character and the lyrics in many ways sum up some of the things the CSI’s must think on a day-to-day basis.

DVD Extras

As well as the twelve episodes, the box set also contains some special features. These special features are nowhere near as impressive as those of some of the other box-sets as they consist only of six episode commentaries and a feature called Evolution of an Episode: Script.

Now I’m not a fan, at all, of episode commentaries and therefore I cannot comment on the quality of these and to be honest I’m not exactly sure I’d class them as special features - each to their own of course. The Evolution of an Episode featurette is quite interesting but nothing to write home about. It cleared up a few things for me and explained a couple of others but isn’t something that I’d say you have to watch if you’re short on time or simply just interested in the episodes themselves.

Overall Opinion

I really loved this series and although I know that I am saying this of every series box set of CSI that I watch, this one really is my favourite so far. I suppose the fact that I keep saying this means that the series is a top class series and I have to agree with this. The characters are superb and really progress in this first half of season four. Furthermore they interact wonderfully with some fantastically constructed cases. The only downside to this box set is the special features but if I’m honest I don’t by DVD’s for the special features but for the programme itself and therefore for me this is not really something that should deduct stars from my overall opinion.

This series therefore, even with its somewhat pathetic DVD extras is a fantastic one and certainly one that any CSI fan should own, although if I’m honest a true fan should own, or at least have seen, them all.

Facts

The complete run time for the episodes is 495 minutes.

The box set has a 15 rating, which I think it honestly deserves due to the nature of the case content.

The DVD box-set can be purchased from most good DVD stores as well as online but ranges greatly in price. I bought my copy for around £8 but it can cost anywhere up to £40, so keep an eye out.