Grissom and co's entire first season on DVD (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Season 1 (DVD))

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Season 1 (DVD)
Date:	29/11/08 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellently made US cop series

Disadvantages: Very dark

There are many good US drama and thriller series around at the moment, and they all seem to stem from each other, linking characters between them and constantly improving to take it up to the next level at every opportunity. One such show is CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, now in its 8th season of airing, and having spawned various offshoots of the show, with CSI Miami and CSI New York also seeing much success.

However, this is still the original, set in Las Vegas, and it shows a lot of the raw passion in its acting through the cast, as well as incorporating the now familiar ways of explaining how the scientist detectives of the CSI go about solving their cases. Heading the cast is William Peterson as Gil Grissom, who takes over in charge of the team who are on the night shift of the Vegas CSI squad. Peterson brings a certain gravitas to the show, portraying Grissom as an obsessive investigator affiliated to the evidence as much as anyone can be to their job - he truly lives and breathes the work he does.

Marg Helgenberger adds a bit of experience to the squad as Catherine Willows. Another seasoned investigator, her personal life is much explored throughout this first series, and it is in showing her status as a single mum and her solid personal defence as an investigator that we see her vulnerability at home. Joining these two are freshly promoted field agents, Nick and Warrick, played by George Eads and Gary Dourdan, and while these two tend to do a lot of the donkey work in the field, it is perhaps their witty repartee between them which adds a needed lightness to the show. Jorja Fox provides a highly scientific and aggressive edge to the younger of the investigators as Sara Sidle, and with Paul Guilfoyle providing the link to the actual police as Captain Jim Brass, and computer and science geek in the lab Greg Sanders ably played by Eric Szmanda, we have our group of main actors and actresses making this show a very entertaining offering from the States.

However, the show is very dark, and it is quite dark and moody throughout the whole of this first season. I find there are few episodes to lighten the season, but the character development and the often comedic rapport between the team does provide a little reprive from what is a show to actually explore the scientific side of crime fighting. With a number of shows increasingly giving us less of the science, it is good to have a show exploring the more darker side of it, and this does it very well.

The character development throughout the series is actually done very well, despite the dark mood, and by the final episode, I actually felt like I knew them quite well. Further seasons develop them very well, but this first season sets the groundwork as well as giving us a lot of drama in their personal and professional lives. This is also explored in some of the DVD extras we get with the entire season, particularly in the Character Profiles section and in part with the interviews we get with some of the cast and crew.

The DVD extras are sadly lacking if you just buy the Part 1 or Part 2 DVDs for this first season. This is because they want you to buy this as well as the other two to get as many sales as possible. So, is it worth buying the whole set for the extras? Well, there's nothing special on there, but it is very interesting to see the character profiles and the interviews. The interview that interested me most was the one with Jorja Fox. Her character, Sara Sidle, is a CSI level 2, and is therefore the lower of the group, with Nick and Warrick being recently promoted level 3 CSIs, and her interview gives us a good insight into the hierarchy of CSI as well as explain some of the more scentific parts of it.

Also on the extras list is an interesting behins the scenes snippet which details some of the filming advantages and disadvantages they had as well as explaining how they get their facts and transform them onto the screen. Overall, if you have the two parts of season 1 already in their individual boxsets, I wouldn't buy this unless you really want to watch the extras - they are nothing major, although they are insightful and interesting.

In conclusion, this is well worth buying if you're looking for a series to start watching. CSI has laid the foundations for a number of other dramas and thrillers, not just the other CSI spinoffs, and it is highly regarded by critics and fans alike. You can regularly catch reruns of the episodes on various TV channels, but if you want to buy this DVD, then I suggest having a look around various internet sites for a good bargain. The entire season retails at £58.99, but amazon.co.uk currently have it at £49.98. Even so, this seems rather high, and it is worth having a further search for cheaper options. Either way, I recommend this.

Summary: Excellent programme and well worth owning on DVD