Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1411 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-07-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 513 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The latest in a long line of successful US police dramas, the forensic cop show Crime Scene Investigation varies the formula by focusing on a team of civilian scientists who work the night shift in Las Vegas, poring over crime scenes for fingerprints, blood spatters, DNA-laced mucus and (especially) maggots.

Star William Petersen plays a variation of his role from Manhunter, the cool puzzle-solving genius who can rattle off mystifying speeches with aplomb, while his contrasting partner is Marg Helgenberger, cast as a single mother/ex-stripper who is as concerned with the emotional as well as the physical mess left by crime.

While most US cop shows (witness NYPD Blue) tend towards soap, neglecting the cases in favour of personal crises, CSI gives its regulars enough life to make them human but is essentially puzzle-based, with individual episodes following two or three cases à la Homicide: Life on the Street. The occasional special focuses on a major job with the team investigating the slaughter of a whole family ("Blood Drops") or a death in first class on a plane over Vegas ("Unfriendly Skies"). A few continuing threads are laid down, with a recurrent villain who gets away, but will inevitably return, but on the whole these shows play pretty well as one-offs. Very high-tech in style, with lots of zooms into microscopic examinations of hair follicles or stomach contents and distinctive visualisations of the different stories told by witnesses and evidence, this is one of the best shows currently airing.

On the DVD: CSI's first DVD box set contains the show's first 12 episodes: the pilot followed by "Cool Change", "Crate & Burial", "Pledging Mr Johnson"; "Friends and Lovers", "Who Are You?", "Blood Drops"; "Anonymous", "Unfriendly Skies", "Sex Lies and Larvae"; "The I-15 Murders" and "Fahrenheit 932". In addition to inventive menus, the three-disc set offers character profiles, a trailer, some B-roll on-set footage, a subtitle option, and snippet-like interviews with the cast and creatives. --Kim Newman

Special Features
Cast and Crew interviews
Trailer
Character Profiles
Behind the Scenes footage
Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English

Synopsis
This astoundingly popular and highly acclaimed television series focuses on a team of police forsenic experts in Las Vegas. Deadpan investigator Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen) is joined by Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), a fiery former stripper, and other intriguing characters as they search crime scenes and employ remarkable techniques to determine what happened and, in many cases, who was responsible for the crime--most often murder. The collection presents the first 12 episodes of season one.

Customer Reviews

C.S.I. - Briefly in Detail
...Crime Scene Investigation is an invigorating breath of fresh air amongst a television schedule filled with less than ordinary viewing.

Here is your chance to own the first twelve episodes on DVD. The DVD's themselves are housed in a Digi-Pak type of packaging ala Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. There are three discs with four episodes per disc. C.S.I. is filmed in widescreen yet the transfer on the discs is formatted for a regular television (4:3)...The transfer itself is very good. Grain appears a little throughout the episodes but it is not distracting. I am pleased to say that aliasing is not a problem and there does not appear to be any major artefacts. Very pleasing to the eye indeed.

Now to sound. It presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (stereo)... The voices spoken are clear and easy to understand. The subtitles appear to be mostly true to what is actually being said....

Special Features include cast and crew interviews, a trailer, character profiles and some behind the scenes footage.

In summary the DVD set is a must own for any C.S.I. fan. The video is very good but not perfect. The audio is clear and does the job. The extras are minimal and it presented in a beautifully designed package.

Excellent
CSI just has to be the best crime series out there. It's true to life which is one of it's best features. Unlike the sloppy British counterparts which see pathologists doing detective work (like when does that ever happen?!), CSI sticks to the "job description" if you will, of a crime scene investigator. It's about time there was more emphasis on forensic science - most crimes are identified and cases solved by using forensics but very few people - and that includes police - know very much about it; how evidence can be found and recovered, and what it can tell us. CSI brings this to life with incredibly well cast characters and enthralling storylines.
Another brilliant point is that the CSI unit doesnt always get the result they want. I for one am sick of the police detective always getting the bad guy - that's not real, it doesnt always happen, and CSI shows that.

One of the most brilliant episodes - though perhaps disturbing for those faint of heart - is "Blood Drops". Its a fascinating insight into just how complex forencic science can be - and how the crime scence investigator pieces together the chain events from the evidence they find.

It's not to be missed.

A Televisual Masterpiece
We all love a good crime drama but with CSI you get much more. As an article in American Cinematographer stated; "...it's not so much a whodunit but a howdunit."
Jerry Bruckheimer does an excellent job taking the viewers into the science of the crimes and the scripts are well written to help explain how some of the more complex techniques work without sounding patronising. If you were ever fascinated by how some of the science behind the crime worked then this show is a must watch.

Remembering the fact that this is still a drama in that the CSI team wander around crime scenes without the proper clothing and move vital pieces of evidence without gloves on etc. then there should be no reason for anyone to dislike this.