Plot: What’s it about?
C.S.I. burst on the scene more than a year ago and was an instant hit with audiences and critics alike. Now that’s a feat! Sporting a somewhat recognizable cast, the two leads (William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger); the series attempted to show what happens after a murder has been committed. Plenty of shows out there focus on being cops and trying their darndest as to “whodunit”; C.S.I. are comprised of experts on forensics. Taking clues, no matter how small (actually, the evidence is usually microscopic), they piece together who the perpetrator is time and time again. It’s also no secret that the show is a product from Jerry Bruckheimer, who has given us fast-paced, adrenaline fueled movies for years (and will probably continue to do so unless things somehow drastically change). The show was so popular that it spawned a spin off entitled C.S.I. Miami with David Curoso in the lead. Being a television show, however, we have to ask ourselves…what is it all about?
Naturally, every episode follows a similar plot in that a crime (murder) is committed, and we leave it to the crack team of forensics to come up with who did it; and if possible why. To be quite honest, the show is fresh and original, but after sitting down and watching all of them, they do tend to get a bit repetitive. Then again, the shows were “meant” to be watched a week apart and not in one day. With that being said, William Petersen’s Gil Grissom is the leader of the bunch, with Catherine Willows (Helgenberger) not far behind. The rest of the cast is young, good-looking and adds to the mystique and glamour of the show. While a bit glossy at times, the show continues to keep its edge and is exciting and entertaining at the same time. Television shows like that don’t come around all the time and when they do, they’ll usually be around for a while. It appears that this is one of them. Fans of the series will be delighted, while for others this is a great introduction to the world of Crime Scene Investigation.
Video: How does it look?
Bad Paramount! Even though C.S.I. is broadcast in HDTV (meaning a ratio of 1.78:1), the complete first season is shown in a full-frame aspect ratio. Granted the masses do see the show this way, but you have to figure that they’re marketing to a DVD audience here and we’re, well, a few steps above the people who just watch the shows on TV and nothing more. While what you miss isn’t that much, it’s still the plain fact of the whole thing. A widescreen version of each and every episode does in fact exist, but you’ll not see it, not on DVD anyway. Still, this is an accurate representation of how it appears on TV (though, if you’ve seen it in HDTV before, you’ll probably be let down).
Audio: How does it sound?
In yet another somewhat disappointing turn, the episodes are broadcast in a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. Granted, things made for television don’t really need a 5.1 soundtrack to reach their full potential, but these are still being made and you’d figure they would want to give the series a nice sound. And this coming from Paramount, a studio that usually gives most anything a nice 5.1 mix. The dialogue, the most important part of the show, sounds clean and natural, and the surround effects (though mono), actually do come into play a few times. While there’s not a lot to compliment here, there’s not a lot to complain about either; so we’ll leave it at that.
Supplements: What are the extras?
I guess the mountain is relying a lot on name recognition, because there’s not a lot of features here. The original featurette “People lie…evidence does not” is entertaining, though the title essentially says what the program is all about. Though the evidence, they can find out what really happened. Interviews with the cast and crew give us a bit of insight into the world of C.S.I. Some cast bios (labeled as character profiles) and a music video for the show’s theme song “Who are you?” is also enclosed. While the show finished in the top three last year and the year before, this means that the box set will be a hot seller. However the lack of a widescreen transfer and less than stellar audio and supplements means that only true fans will want to pick this up. Maybe they’ll do a version 2.0 (like the Stanley Kurbrick Collection was done by Warner) and make some improvements?
