Customer Reviews

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

5 star:		(120)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Although CSI is definitely one of the best shows on television, this dvd is a little bit of a letdown. It's bare bones as far as extras go (which is not taking advantage of the dvd format as far as I'm concerned). There's no subtitles (I'm not deaf, but what if I was?). The price is almost twice as much as any other season of a network television show (most others range from $40-$50). I still think it's a great show, but they could've done a better job. If you really wanna see it, rent it. UPDATE: DO NOT BUY THIS. They are re-releasing this in the coming months with extras and in anamorphic widescreen format (like they did with all the other releases) so SAVE YOUR MONEY and buy the set they should've released to begin with.

Although CSI was not the #1 hit it currently is in its first season, this season set the stage. Interesting cases, pioneering special effects that suddenly took you INSIDE a murder victim's body to examine the injuries, competent acting... these all made CSI the pop-culture phenomenon it is today.

What sets this first season apart was that aside from the weekly crimes, the show actually dealt with the personal lives of the characters, and most episodes had continuing plotlines which were separate from the "crimes-of-the-night": Catherine had her child custody issues with her ex, Nick had his complicated relationship with a hooker, Sara had to deal with being the new person on the team, Warrick had his gambling problem/corrupt judge subplot, and Grissom had his romance with "face lady", his rivalry with the daytime CSI team's chief, and his professional problems with the sheriff and the mayor.

Such subplots vanished in season two - Catherine suddenly appeared as if she had no family, Grissom became a complete eunuch, as did Nick, who never had another girlfriend. But the ratings improved, so I guess that's what people prefer - a more classic, completely episodic crime series without the continuing subplots that give it a soap-like quality.

But for me, I miss those subplots, which is why I think this first season of CSI is a must-have on DVD. It was CSI at its best.

Finally after three years, CBS and Paramount are realeasing the complete first season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. I have been watching every episode since the first and have enjoyed almost every one! Now, with this six disc set, i can watch the first season over and over again which has some of the best classic episodes.

Pilot
Cool Change
Crate 'n Burial
Plegding Mr. Johnson
Friends & Lovers
Who Are You?
Blood Drops
Anonymous
Unfriendly Skies
Sex, Lies, and Larvae
I-15 Murders
Farenheit 932
Boom
To Halve and to Hold
Table Stakes
Too Tough to Die
Face Lift
$35K O.B.O.
Gentle, Gentle
Sounds of Silence
Justice is Served
Evaluation Day
The Strip Strangler

These are the 23 episodes of the first season that will be included.
I have taped (on VHS) every single episode since the third episode of the series, but now i can watch them with much better quality. This is by far the best show on television!

Simply, the best show on T.V. Each seaon is great and now you can watch your favorite episodes anytime you want. You'll get 24 episodes in the first season, including some of the best of the series.

Pilot
Cool Change
Crate 'N' Burial
Pledging Mr. Johnson
Friends & Lovers
Who Are You?
If These Walls Could Talk
Anonymous
Unfriendly Skies
Sex, Lies & Larvae
I-15 Murders
Farenheit 932
Boom
To Halve And To Hold
Table Stakes
Too Tough To Die
Face Lift
$35K O.B.O.

Blood Drops
Gentle, Gentle
Sounds Of Silence
Justice Is Served
Evaluation Day
The Strip Strangler

All GREAT episodes.

William Petersen & the gang make the original C.S.I an engaging way to spend the evening. Many of the stories are well written,directed and acted. Some of my favorite eppies from the first season are Crate & Burial, I-15 Murders and Farenheit 932.

William Petersen really makes his role as Gil Grissom convincing and draws us in with his infectious interest and love of the job that just doesn't seem to be there in the Miami C.S.I spinoff.. I got into the show about 2nd Season, got the Season One DVD with the desire to play catch-up and got my husband (who originally wasn't a fan) totally hooked watching it with me! I'm really looking forward to when the 2nd Season set becomes available.

If you're into C.S.I this is a fun,engaging show.. Great stories, great acting.. graphics that grab you and pull you right in.. Well worth it and a keeper..

Only downside, I found was that I wish there could have been some kind of director/producer commentary included. My husband's one complaint was that the C.S.I. profiles wasn't featured on the first disc instead of the last one. By the time you get to the last disc, you already know the characters and their foibles. Still, well worth it!

The original `CSI' set in Las Vegas and its spin-offs, all done in the Jerry Bruckheimer shop, easily deserve all the popularity they have garnered since they first appeared five seasons ago. The point of this essay and review is to ponder the source of their quality and resulting popularity.

In some ways, as the precursor to some other high quality shows such as `Numbers' and `House, M.D', `CSI' has dealt and played the `Sherlock Holmes' card to the hilt, spicing their stories with whodunit puzzles which would have taxed even that most marvelous of scientific detectives. Both Holmes and `CSI' dealt not only with puzzles, but with puzzles solvable by scientific methods.

I am not sure if this is a source of the show's popularity, but I can attest, as a former analytical chemist, that virtually all of their scientific techniques, and the way they show them, are dead on accurate. Sometimes, there is a bit of sloppiness, as when one of the supporting scientists back at the lab is a bit too fast on the draw with an automatic micropipette, and mananges to draw up about as much air as they do sample, but otherwise, they push the envelope very little at the edge of modern forensic and chemical science.

I suspect that next to the interesting puzzles, the biggest interest in `CSI' lies in the accuracy of the relations between the CSI team members. In contrast, I offer the opinion that `NCIS', an almost direct copy of `CSI' is really a very weak shadow of it's paradigm in that the relations between the team members are comic book images of how real knowledge based law enforcement officers would act toward one another.
`NCIS' may offer the argument that they are much more action based than is `CSI'. While this is true, I think it does not make up for the artificial behavior of it's principle characters.

`CSI', on the other hand, plays practically all personal relations with a very light and very deft touch. The sexual tension between Katherine and Warrick shows up just now and then and in very carefully choreographed scenes. The slightly more overt tension between Sara and mardarin Grissom is done even better.

The highlight of the first season's running backstory was based on office politics and the loyalty of Grissom for his team members, in spite of their negligences. The first half of the season is just a bit shaky, as the actors and writers are setting into their roles, with Captain Brass's character undergoing the biggest changes from CSI chief to antagonist to ally.

`CSI's greatest claim to verisimilatude lies in Grissom's forensic entomology, which places the reputation of the Las Vegas crime lab high in the ranks of the country's major forensic facilities. I would really be interested in knowing if the Las Vegas lab is really as good as it's fictional counterpart. I do know that while forensic entomology is every bit as arcane as the show makes it out to be, it is NOT fiction, but the real thing.

I am really happy to see a drama of such high quality get such high ratings. It almost makes up for the slip in acclaim and quality over in `The West Wing' camp.

I have enjoyed CSI for many years, and I have been grateful to CBS/Chicago for their continuing high quality HD broadcasts which do justice to this beautifully filmed series. While other networks have opted to compress their HD broadcasts to push multiple channels of content through their allotted bandwidth, CBS is committed to quality -- and as a viewer who wants high visual quality, I for one appreciate it.

This Blu-ray transfer more than lives up to the CBS broadcast quality level. Frankly it looks better than broadcast can deliver. There is virtually no observable compression in the video transfer. My player shows bit rates of 30-35 Mbps at times -- a bit rate unmatched by most other transfers I have seen. Sometimes film grain is very evident, but given the low light conditions of some of the original scenes that is to be expected. It accurately renders the source material.

Visually, this product delivers exactly what I want in HD.

Over the last six years, forensic science has risen from relative obscurity to one of the most fascinating subjects to grace the national consciousness. Why? The answer is simple: CSI.

In October 2000, CBS debuted a new crime drama not about police, lawyers, or criminals, but about the scientists behind the scenes who solve the mysteries. For years now, we've been hearing about DNA evidence and fingerprints, but only with the emergence of this new series were we able, for the first time, to see how it all gets done. The show - which since its beginning has remained #1 worldwide - was none other than CSI. And this DVD set takes you back to where it all began.

The collection shows off the series' first season, from the "Pilot" episode (featuring investigator Holly Gribbs) to the season finale, with all stops in between. Filled with comedy, tragedy, and white-knuckled drama, the first season of CSI had it all. For the first time, we were introduced to the enigmatic and slightly offbeat entomologist Gil Grissom (William Petersen), exotic dancer-turned-scientist Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), the fun-loving investigator Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan), the laid-back cowboy Nick Stokes (George Eads), the fiery and stubborn Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), the witty and cantankerous Detective Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle), and the two characters who would become series regulars - zany lab tech Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) and the humorous coroner Dr. Al Robbins (Robert David Hall).

Some of the first season highlights include: "Cool Change", the first episode featuring Sara Sidle; "Blood Drops", featuring a young Dakota Fanning; and "Strip Strangler", the explosive season finale.

In addition to featuring all of the first season episodes (and the "Previously on CSI" bits that aired with a few of them), the DVD set includes a music video to the show's theme song, "Who Are You" by The Who (a concert interspersed with scenes from the show), character profiles, and an interview with the show's creators and cast about its beginnings.

As a relatively new CSI fan, this DVD set provided me with the chance to get the background information on both the LVPD Crime Lab and the characters I've come to know and love. It's an excellent collection that is an asset to any CSI fan, old or new.

CSI is simply the best US police procedural drama (which, given how many there are, is saying quite a lot).

The stories are strong and there is a cast of interesting characters. The central character, Gil Grissom (brilliantly played by William Peterson) is the reason it works so well. Grissom is wonderful character - an introverted and rather unemotional man, a serious scientist who happens to be a criminologist. As such he is free for most of the traditional TV cop baggage, giving the whole series a fresh and interesting perspective. In this series, the CSI team gets on with investigating crime scenes and solving mysteries attempting, but not always succeeding, to do this without bias or preconceptions. They leave the police work to others. Unfortunately, this model was abandoned with CSI: Miami making it a much less interesting program.

The rest of the cast is also very, very good bringing complex and interesting characters to life. Marg Helgenberger as ex-exotic dancer Catherine Willows is particularly good.

Danny Boyle directs most of the episodes with great style (redeeming himself after the failure of Judge Dread), even his habit of focussing in at a microscopic level (e.g. looking at blood vessels etc) works well. Setting the series in Las Vegas works well - the city, the desert, the mountains - they all provide great backdrops and look fantastic.

This is not the best CSI series (the show really got going in series 2) but it makes sense to start at the beginning.

I received this collection as a present and couldn't stop watching it. I was already a CSI Fan but now I am a CSI addict. This is the first season of the original series. This is how the craze started. A must have for all CSI fans. This series is great and educational. This season included one of the all time greatest episodes "Blood Drops" and one of my personal favorites "Fahrenheit 932." The special featurette with actor and director commentary was great and the special features were alright. I wish there was more behind the scenes material but this is still a great collection. I can't wait to see the next seasons.