CSI: Crime Scene Investigation-Season 1-Episodes 1.13-1.24 (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Booklet Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio Featurette Production Notes Interviews-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	468:31 (Case: 466)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kenneth Fink Lou Antonio Danny Cannon Peter Markle
Studio Distributor	Imagine Entertainmnt Imagine Entertainment	Starring	William Petersen Marg Helgenberger Gary Dourdan George Eads Jorja Fox Paul Guilfoyle Eric Szmanda Robert David Hall
Case	Slip Case
RPI	$89.95	Music	John M. Keane

    If you are the type of person that doesn't like home renovation or cooking shows, then there are not many days of the working week where you can see a different topic on Australian TV these days. C.S.I. on Tuesday nights makes a pleasant change from the "norm" and is followed on Wednesday nights by the show's spin-off, C.S.I. Miami.

    For viewers familiar with the show, you already know that in each episode you get to watch dead people being examined for forensic clues. Well, that's not entirely true and to use the show's co-executive Producer Anthony Zuiker's own words "CSI is never a show about guys who see dead people. CSI is not a 'who done it', it's always been a 'how done it'. It's not a cop show either, it's a mystery with a twist." Complete with the magnificent aerial shots of Las Vegas at the start of each episode, a great team of writers and a solid collection of actors, this is one impressive show.

    The star of this show is the forensics and another point that sets this show out from others is that it is technically accurate. According to Elizabeth Devine, the show's Technical Director, the equipment that is used is current technology that is used today. The actors are all trained and shown how to use the equipment correctly and everyone from Bruckheimer down insists that this level of accuracy remains through each show.

    If you would like to read more about this intriguing series, then head to Carl's original review of the first episodes.

    This box set includes Episodes 13 thru 24 of the First Series. The individual episodes are;

Disc Four (numbered from where the first box set ends)

1.13 Boom (43:16)

When a bomb explodes in a Las Vegas office block, the CSI team are sent to trace a serial bomber. The prime suspect appears to be an explosives fanatic who also happens to be the building's over-helpful security guard. Meanwhile, Nick has to explain why his DNA and fingerprints are at the murder scene of a call girl.

1.14 To Halve And To Hold (41:50)

When a single bone is discovered in the desert, Grissom and Catherine have to piece the rest of the skeleton and the mystery together. Warrick and Sarah investigate the death of a male stripper who appears to have been involved in a hen's night gone wrong.

1.15 Table Stakes (43:17)

At another party, a woman is found dead and floating in a pool that belongs to a well known show-girl. The team soon learns that the show-girl herself is missing in what appears to be a double murder. As a reformed gambler, this is one episode that shows the other side of Warrick as he investigates a mob hit in a casino.

1.16 Too Tough To Die (41:21)

Sarah gets herself emotionally involved, as she does all too often, but especially so with this particular case which involves the brutal rape and attempted murder of a black woman. Catherine and Warrick investigate a murder due to a neighbour's dispute.

Disc Five

1.17 Face Lift (43:06)

Grissom, Nick and Catherine are puzzled when the fingerprints from a previous kidnapping case appear at the scene of a new homicide. Warrick and Sara check out the death of a woman who appears to have been a victim of spontaneous human combustion.

1.18 35K O.B.O. (42:00)

The only witness at a scene of a double homicide explains to the team how car-jackers killed the couple. Catherine investigates the deaths of senior citizens after an apartment building collapses.

1.19 Gentle Gentle (43:16)

The team investigate the scene where an infant was kidnapped, but first appearances soon change to an apparent murder investigation instead.

1.20 Sounds of Silence (43:15)

The team investigate a deaf man's battered body and the similarities to Grissom's own problems become obvious. This is one of the rare episodes where you get to delve deeper into Grissom's character and is well worth watching for this fact alone. Catherine and Nick go to investigate a coffee-shop massacre.

Disc Six

1.21 Justice is Served (41:31)

A jogger is attacked and killed and the team investigate the possibility that this victim was used to supply human organs for harvesting.

1.22 Evaluation Day (42:21)

A severed head is found in a stolen car but it does not match the torso found in the desert. Now all of a sudden they are looking for two bodies. Warrick investigates the murder of a gang banger inmate.

1.23 Strip Strangler (43:18)

A serial killer is on the loose in Vegas and LVPD's Sheriff puts additional pressure on Grissom to solve the case because the public are starting to panic. Things get so heated that the FBI is called in . . .

Video

    As with the first part of this series, the aspect ratio of these episodes continues to be 1.33:1. We have to wait further into the series before the 1.78:1 episodes can be seen.

    There is a massive amount of grain evident in all episodes, just one of the many unfortunate characteristics that also plagued the first 12 episodes of this series. Some examples are at 8:33 and 14:25 in the thirteenth episode. The extremely high level of grain in episode 14 at 39:28 is actually intentional and not due to a transfer issue. There is some mild edge enhancement. The overall level of sharpness is quite acceptable for a TV episode. Personally, I feel that this show has always had shadow detail at the low end of the visibility scale. Numerous indoor shots, especially in the morgue or occasionally in the lab, are quite dark, but this is something that has continued from the very first episode so I believe it is an intentional technique used for this show. A good example of perfectly controlled shadow detail can be seen at 1:08 in episode 14. It is impossible to tell if there are low level noise problems with all the grain overlaid across the frame.

    Colour, or poor renditions of it, continue to plague these episodes as it did for the first 12. The bold colour palette always does the night scenes that are shown at the start of every episode justice by displaying the bold neon lights from the helicopter. There are no colour bleeding issues and the problems Carl B mentioned in regards to the first 12 episodes suffering from a transition to the red end of the spectrum appear to be gone.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing is very rare and mild when it does occur, with instances usually reserved for window blinds or car grilles. There are no film artefacts.

    Subtitles are only available in English and they are quite accurate to the spoken word.

    There were no noticeable layer transitions on any disc. Due to the number of episodes on each dual layered disc, there is ample room to separate the episodes evenly across the layers.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack on these discs.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand most of the time. Captain Brass tends to mumble at times and can be hard to understand.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on.

    The musical score was alright in its day but I must say that the version now used in the more recent episodes is so much more powerful and uplifting than this rendition could ever hope to be. It still provides a good match to the on-screen action, though.

    The surround encoded track uses the rear channels for ambience, music and for the usual special effects sounds in the lab. You know the ones, where you hear the body cavity being ripped apart as the suspect weapon is played out by a visual simulation.

    The subwoofer was not used by this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Disc 4 - Featurette (2:17)

    This short featurette is formatted much like a teaser trailer for screening on TV.

Disc 5 - Production Notes (12 pages)

    This is a fascinating story about the show's co-executive producer Anthony E. Zuiker. Over the course of 12 pages, each presented in graphical form as pages in a textbook, you learn how a tram operator at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas became a big-time TV producer . . . and other fairy tales. This is a great inclusion and could only have been made better if it was an actual clip where Anthony explained his story visually rather than in textual form.

Disc 6 - Extended Cast and Crew Interviews (39:45)

• William Peterson as "Gil Grissom"
• Marg Helgenberger as "Catherine Willows"
• Gary Dourdan as "Warrick Brown"
• Jorja Fox as "Sara Sidle"
• George Eads as "Nick Stokes"
• Paul Guilfoyle as "Captain Jim Brass"
• Eric Szmanda as "Greg Sanders"
• Robert David Hall as "Dr. Robbins"
• John Morayniss Executive V.P. TV Production
• Carol Mendelsohn Executive Producer
• Danny Cannon Producer
• Elizabeth Devine Technical Advisor
• John Goodwin

Booklet

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Spanish audio

• Nothing

    Overall, C.S.I. is a great show that just seems to be getting stronger, especially since the C.S.I. Miami spin-off. The outer slipcase has a cardboard "CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS" sleeve that keeps the whole set neatly together. Anyone that treats this without care will surely rip this though - one made from plastic would be more functional.

    The video is full of grain and the show does suffer for it. I only hope this is reeled in before the next series hits the shelves.

    The audio supports the show well and provides a good level of surround use.

    The extras are very satisfactory and well packaged.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall