CSI Crime Scene Investigation Season 2 Part 1
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DVD Review
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Review
If you’ve read my review of Season 1 Part 2 then you’ll know that before getting those previous disks I was completely new to CSI having never watched a single episode. I am now though a complete fan and look forward to getting my hands on new episodes to review.
CSI is a really well put together television programme, all the episodes always have a good strong plot and most of the time I find the suspense hanging right up to the end. The real appeal of the show, is the fact that these people think more like scientists than they do police. Episodes don’t descend into gunfights between good cops and bad guys, rather scientific methods and clever theories are used to find the culprit of the crime in question.
As might be expected of a Jerry Buckheimer produced series, production values are very high here. The show has a good strong cast, great cinematography, very effective special effects and good strong storylines. If I have one complaint, it’s that I felt the episodes were a little less clever than the last season. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, it’s just that they felt a very little bit dumbed down in comparison to season 1.
Given the subject matter of murder investigations some gruesome scenes are to be expected. These are actually handled very well with great usage of special effects. Often a CSI investigator will be explaining some aspect of a murder and the camera will fly into the bullet hole or whatever it is and demonstrate the internal damage. It might sound pretty gruesome but it really helps to explain much of the science to the less educated among us (like me).
Video/Audio
Unlike series one these disks are actually in a widescreen format which is a more than welcome new feature. The 16:9 anamorphic print here is very good for a TV programme, artefact's and scratches are non-existent and grain is kept down to a minimum.
The audio track on here has obviously been treated with the same respect as the video quality. We get a very nice Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack across all episodes. Given the subject matter the show isn’t always pushing your system to it’s limits but when they’re needed, all channels are used very effectively. The audio quality is certainly much better than most TV conversions manage to provide.
Extras
Disk1
First off we have an optional commentary for the opening episode “Burked”. The commentary itself while fairly humourless is in fact a nice interesting commentary. The people involved go into great detail about what exactly is involved in creating a CSI story. They also discuss the influences they had for this particular episode including Scorsese’s Scarface and Alfred Hithcock. It’s a shame that there’s not a commentary for the rest of the episodes as I would personally have liked to have heard it.
There’s a short behind the scenes feature which considering the short length is actually a nice little feature. It’s split into three sections with the first showing the make up effects of creating a rather gross looking car crash victim. Next there is an interview with show music composer John Keane, he gives a breakdown of how he composes the music for a short scene from the series. Finally there’s a short piece at visual effects studio “Stargate” they demonstrate a particular close up screen of a camera travelling down a woman's throat.
To finish off the disk 1 extras we have a trailer for season 2 and a music video of “Who are you” by The Who, which is the theme tune for this series.
Disk 2
Another good commentary for an episode is found on disk 2. The commentary for Alter Boys by writer Ann Donahue and director Danny Cannon is again filled with really interesting facts. Unfortunately unlike the previous one this is clearly two separate commentaries spliced together. I always find that these spliced tracks just don’t flow as well as if they’re together discussing the program.
Cast & Crew interviews last for around 38 minutes and cover various aspects of the show in great details. Interviews include many of the cast as well as Creator Anthony E. Zuicker and Director Danny Cannon as well as several others.
Disk 3
The commentary for disk 3 is for a particularly good episode called Ellie. This is a bit different to the others as it features the writer of the episodes and one of the actors. The actor in question plays a bigger role in this episode than he does in the others so I guess that’s why he’s in this commentary. It’s another good track with plenty of insight into the science and research behind the episode as well as general comments on the making of the episode.
This disk also features a set walkthrough of the CSI building, presented by a former crime scene investigator who is now an adviser for the program. Although very short this is a nice little insight into the kind of machines and tools used in a crime lab.
Overall
I find myself with the same dilemma here as I did with the previous disks. On the one hand the quality of the DVD set is excellent, with great audio and video quality and unlike the previous set a reasonable if not outstanding selection of extras. Also all the episodes here are good ones. However £40.00 for half a season (12 episodes) just seems a bit steep to me, if this was the whole season then I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it though.
If you’re a real fan then the purchase of the boxset is probably a no-brainer, however for those of you that are new to the show I’d recommend looking out for a few episodes on the TV before committing any money.
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