Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1575 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-07-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 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

A new fan...
It's all been said before...I have a major crush on the Grissom character..I have only watcvhed 5 episodes but the boxset is definitely going to get bought!

By far the best of the CSI series
Isn't it great when you discover a programme yourself without any hype and end up really liking it. Love it or hate it, I don't think that there is anybody on planet earth that hasn't heard of CSI, but when I first saw this one Saturday night on channel 5 in either 2000 or 2001, I had never heard of it and I don't think many people had, this was one of those programmes that I accidentally watched by channel hopping and I just really enjoyed and thought how fresh it felt.

It is not always true that original is best but in my opinion it is definitely true with this because CSI: Vegas is by far the best of the CSI series, I still like CSI Miami but I have tried and now completely given up on the extremely boring and shallow CSI: New York, I just find it more like a fashion show plus everybody has to be good looking, even the main cop, I wouldn't mind so much but most of the characters are so wooden that I am suprised that they don't get attacked by woodpeckers. I know that people will disagree and some people will obviously prefer either Miami or New York but I am only saying what I think.

This is where it all began but it is still as good as ever. I just find it much more enjoyable, yes this does have good looking people in it but at least they have got some charisma and I find all of the characters in this likeable plus the chemistry overall between the actors is much better in this. I also think that there was a very good reason for filming this in Sin City because to me it just adds to the enjoyment and gives it a much more darker feel and it also makes good use of atmospheric music.

Nobody ever said that this is a believable programme but who gives a flying circus, it is enjoyable and that is all that matters.

Consistently high quality drama.
CSI is a series set in Las Vegas which centres around a team of Crime Scene Investigators. Each week sees various different crimes committed, some of which are very disturbing, that are solved by some very interesting methods of investigation.

The Forensic science of the show is truly fascinating and at times is so absorbing it feels as though you are watching a documentary. The characters in the show are very well written, and although each episode centres mainly on the crimes being investigated, there are small details which emerge about them to actually make you care about them all. We see very little of their private lives so to have such strong feelings about each character is an exceptional acheivment. Some viewers may not like this but It is interesting that after 7 seasons the main focus is still on solving crimes and not turning the programme into a soap opera about each characters life outside of work. For such are dark programme there is quite a lot of black humour throughout the show which adds to the overall enjoyment. Some scenes are very graphic (especially on the autopsy table) but are not gratuitous and only help to enhance how shocking some of the crimes are.

The programme is very entertaing and educational (without being boring) and I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of 'whodunnits'.