Review by Cate McVeigh
Stars Laurence Fishburne, Marg Helgenberger, George Eads, Eric Szmanda, Robert David Hall
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £54.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 1004 minutes | Created by Anthony E Zuiker
There's no shortage of sin in Sin City. No other place in the world is as famous as Las Vegas for throwing caution to the wind and risking it all for that slight chance of fortune and the possibility of living a life of excess. With the hope and excitement that comes with millions of tourists that visit the city every year; also comes the underbelly of society who breed upon making their own fame and fortune in less wholesome ways. Enter Las Vegas' finest forensic crime scene investigation department to clean up the city (in case you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, that's what CSI stands for).
Having seen only a handful of episodes over the previous 9 series and an even smaller group of episodes across the spin offs set in Miami and New York; I was expecting a rather formulaic and stale recipe of finding a dead body, dusting for prints, it never being the first suspect who did it but always the second, and the culprit either dying or being put behind bars. I was not completely incorrect, but I did underestimate the subtle strength of the continuing story arc that progressed silently through the series and came to a satisfying conclusion only to make way for a great cliffhanger that will keep me watching through Season 11.
I hadn't seen any episodes from Season 9, so the addition of Fishburne to the cast as the protagonist (yes, Morpheus from the Matrix), was new to me. He is a very different and seemingly more mellow character to Gil Grissom (played by William Peterson) who carried the first 9 seasons. Fishburne's character, Dr Ray Langston, is the CSI subordinate to more than half of the supporting cast and yet the focus of the series is quite clearly on his fear that he will inherit his father's violent streak and his questionable obsession with finding the series wide villian, "Dr Jekyll". He is both the voice of reason and simultaneously morally ambiguous, a nuance I wouldn't have been able to appreciate without watching the entire season.
There are some hammy moments and the script often verges into the ridiculous. But on the whole; it is funny, less gruesome than some would have you believe and after about 4 episodes, you'll be hooked! So hooked in fact that you will have previous seasons featured on your lovefilm list so that you can retrospectively catch yourself up on the adventures of Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows.
The series opener and the 2 part finale are must-watches. But there is a great crossover with CSI Miami and CSI NY in episode 7 that should be watched with CSI Miami Crossover: Bone Voyage and CSI NY Crossover: Hammer Down from the extras. Other episodes to look out for are; episode 2: Ghost Town, episode 5: Bloodsport and episode 14: Unshockable (which guest stars Country music band Rascal Flatts).
The questionable realism of the show and the unfeasibility of such a fast turn around of forensic procedures that usually take weeks or months, can become quite taxing. Although you can get sucked into it, which is what the show is about anyway. I actually started thinking that my terminably uncool brother had a cool job as he is a pathologist, he informed me that most of the techniques are a complete crock and assured me that he really is that uncool. If you can get past the lack of realism and take the cheesy lines in the tongue-in-cheek way that they are intended; then this really is a DVD that you can get your teeth stuck into. Don't let the idea that you may have missed the CSI boat with 9 previous seasons daunt you, I am living proof that you can start watching several seasons on and still be thoroughly entertained.
EXTRAS ★★★★ Frozen In Time: CSI's Season Opener; CSI Miami Crossover: Bone Voyage; CSI NY Crossover: Hammer Down; Leaving Las Vegas: Langston Heads East; Getting Lost; Lab Rats: The Saga Continues; CSI: The Experience; Killer Tales: Season 10 of CSI.