CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Season 5 Part 1 (www.the-usher.com)

The Las Vegas CSI team of Gil Grissom (Petersen), Catherine Willows (Helgenberger), Sara Sidle (Fox), Warrick (Dourdan), Nick (Eads) and Greg (Szmanda) continue to investigate crimes in the city of Sin.

Nesting Dolls
Two bodies buried together and encased in tar are exhumed at a construction site; after a heated argument with Catherine, and an explosive meeting with Ecklie, a suspended Sara finally is forced to tell Grissom how she feels about everything --- including him.

Unbearable
A young mother is reported missing by her husband; two bodies are found in the woods, one, a mauled hunter, and the other a desecrated Kodiak bear not native to the area that's been shot to death. King Baby It's all hands on deck when a high profile and much-hated casino mogul with a strange secret is found dead in his driveway.

Big Middle
Nick and Catherine investigate the death of man killed by a sawed-off shotgun; Grissom and Greg investigate when a man is found asphyxiated in a hotel room during a plus-size convention.

Compulsion
The CSIs respond when a flight attendant is found raped and stabbed to death in her cleaned and sanitized hotel room; a little boy is beaten and murdered in his own bed.

Spark of Life
The CSIs think they have found a woman burnt to death in a fast-moving arson fire, until she opens her eyes; a little girl drowns in the family pool, leading the team to discover her mother and father murdered inside the house, in what looks like a double-murder suicide.

4 X 4
It's a busy twenty-four hours in Las Vegas for the crime scene team: Grissom works a case in which a stolen Hummer is involved in a hit-and-run; Warrick investigates the murder of a model who was working a car show; Greg and Sara need to be hosed down by Haz-Mat when the case they are working turns toxic; and Nick tries to figure out who killed a schoolboy and dumped his body on a bus stop bench.

Hollywood Brass
Brass asks for emergency leave to help his daughter Ellie in Los Angeles - a friend of hers has disappeared, and the police are not particularly motivated to begin a search for a missing hooker, based on the word of another one.

Committed
Grissom, Sara and Brass respond when a patient is found murdered in a mental hospital for the criminally insane with another inmate sitting nearby, covered in blood. Weeping Willows A lonely and frustrated Catherine meets the wrong man in a bar, but doesn't admit to the encounter, even when he turns up as the lead suspect in what may be a double homicide.

Iced Two
students from WLVU are found dead after a night of lovemaking, and Sara and Greg have to figure out how they died and if it was murder; Warrick and Catherine report to the scene where a blindfolded dead man is found in the middle of a crop circle; Ecklie is the only one left to work the scene at the Tangiers, where a tourist is found dead in the parking lot - and then goes missing from the morgue.

Grave Danger
This time it's personal�one of their own is kidnapped and buried alive, and a reunited CSI team must race the clock to save him.

The fifth season of the one of the most successful crime shows in TV history continues but this time Quentin Tarantino is involved.

After five years on screen, the original CSI is still the best of the shows and the second part of season five only emphasises this even more. Finally we get a little more insight into the character's personal lives, while this might be as in depth as fans may like but at least we now get to know them a little better, after five years. We find out more about Catherine Willows' family, Nick's fears, Sara's personal problems, Brass's secret and Greg's escape from the lab. The major plotline for the season however, is the splitting up of the team by department head Conrad Ecklie.

After five years together, Grissom's leadership comes into question and group is split in two with Catherine, Warrick and Nick moving to the dayshift and Grissom, Sara and Greg staying on the nightshift. Grissom's team is joined by a new CSI, Sofia Curtis (played by Louise Lombard) who instantly has some chemistry with the scientific recluse, much to Sara's frustration. The Catherine/Warrick chemistry also comes to bear, as the two get closer in the daylight after leaving the nighttime behind them. Fans of the series should rejoice that this development of the character dynamic which only adds to the believability of the show but takes nothing away from the science and reality of the programme's dynamic.

Following a slightly slow start, season five really starts to kick in from the halfway point. Stand out episodes include 'Nesting Dolls' which sees Sara face up to the problems of her life, 'Hollywood Brass' sees Captain Jim Brass and Warrick Brown head to Los Angeles to help his daughter and 'Weeping Willows' is an excellent Catherine driven episode that allows the character to grow.

The big episode for the season is the two-part adventure, co-written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The award-winning, cult director brings his own unique touch to a series he clearly loves. In arguably one of the best episodes to grace the franchise, we see Nick Stokes kidnapped and buried alive. As his colleagues watch helplessly via a web-cam set up inside the box, they face a race against time before his air is shut off. This is television at its very best and proves once and for all that CSI is one of the best shows on TV.

The fifth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation keeps up the very high standard set by the show and then pushes it even further. The season proves that this is 'the' show to watch and one that treats the audience with intelligence by mixing drama and science.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 16x9 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the series looks great.

BONUS FEATURES

CSI: Season Five a Post Mortem (19.06 mins)
Executive producer Carol Mendelsohn, producers Josh Berman, Louis Shaw Milito and Richard J. Lewis, director Kenneth Fink and stars William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Eric Szmanda, Robert David Hall, Paul Guilfoyle and Marc Vann talk about the fifth season of CSI. Here we discover the reasons behind the character storyline shake-up and the introduction of new key characters in the lab. We also find out about the 100th episode and how the writers and cast approached the transgender storyline.

CSI: Procedures on the Scene and in the Lab (15.42 mins)
Former Los Angeles CSI and technical advisor introduces mini featurettes entitled 'Splatter', 'Photo Realism', 'Ibis', 'A star shaped wound', 'Printing a bird feather', 'Identifying tyre treads', 'Giving the third degree' and 'A ninhydrin print'. Each of these takes you behind the scenes of the show and reveals the secrets that make the show so realistic.

CSI: Tarantino Style (17.34 mins)
Executive producers Anthony E. Zuiker and Carol Mendelsohn and stars William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Eric Szmanda, Robert David Hall and John Saxon talk about super-fan Quentin Tarantino's involvement with the season finale of CSI. The director himself reveals how he got involved, imbedding his style on the show and bringing a little of himself into the script. The cast and crew talk about working with the director and how he was just as in awe of them as they are of him. This is a good featurette for fans of the show and Tarantino fans.

Commentaries
Listen to audio commentary from director Kenneth Fink and writer Allen Macdonald for 'Spark of Life', director Terrence O'Hara, writer David Rambo and Dustin Lee Abraham and executive producer Naren Shanker for '4 x4', writer/director Richard J. Lewis and star Jorja Fox for 'Committed' and director Kenneth Fink and star Marg Helgenberger for 'Weeping Willows', these commentaries offer a fascinating insight into how a successful television team is made.

OVERALL

With four commentaries and three featurette, the bonus features for this CSI release are just as good as before. Why Momentum continue to release them in two halves is still confusing but they do manage to put together a good package for fans.

DVD

The Usher Home | Hush, Hush... | The Big Story | The Usher Speaks

Stuck @ Home | Coming Soon | Links | Contact the Usher

TV SERIES