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  Directed by
    None Listed
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English
  Extras
  • Audio commentary - Revenge is Best Served Cold
    The Accused Is Entitled
    Fight Night
    Snuff
  • Featurette - Season Three
  • Behind the scenes footage - CSI Tour: Police Station
CSI - Crime Scene Investigation - Season 3: Part 1
Visual Entertainment Group/20th Century Fox . R4 . COLOR . 501 mins . MA15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is the flagship show of the CSI franchise and is without a doubt the best and most popular crime show on television. CSI: Miami and CSI: New York have so far managed to ride on the phenomenally successful coat-tails of their predecessor, but both spinoffs lack something that CSI boasted from its first episode, great actors playing interesting characters.

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Sin City!

William Peterson and Marg Helgenberger are superb in their respective roles of Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows, the head investigators of the Las Vegas CSI team. They are well supported by actors Gary Dourdan as Warrick Brown, Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle and George Eads as Nick Stokes.

Each episode of CSI is tightly structured and solidly scripted and always looks spectacular. It helps that the backdrop for this show is sin city, also known as Las Vegas. Every episode includes numerous shots of Las Vegas, which means the show always looks glossy and slick. But for all the impressive special effects and flashy direction, CSI succeeds because of the faultless cast who impress in every single episode.

If you have somehow managed to avoid the CSI television monopoly, I recommend you avoid the spinoffs and the ripoffs and only watch the original and the best, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Disc One

  • Revenge is Best Served Cold
    Nick and Catherine investigate the world of street racing when a driver is found dead out in the desert. While Grissom and the rest of the team investigate the unexplained death of a high stakes poker player.
  • The Accused is Entitled
    A famous actor is arrested for the murder of his one night stand and his high class attorneys will stop at nothing to damage the CSIs evidence.
  • Let The Seller Beware
    While Grissom and Catherine investigate the deaths of a wealthy couple, Sarah’s case involves the gruesome death of a cheerleader whose killer is a cannibal.
  • A Little Murder
    A death at the annual Little People’s Convention appears to be a suicide, but Grissom suspects the dwarf was murdered.

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Gil Grissom

Disc Two

  • Abra Cadaver
    During a magic act, the woman made to disappear fails to reappear and when the CSI team investigates, a famous musician becomes the prime suspect.
  • The Execution of Catherine Willows
    A serial killer whom Catherine helped convict is given a stay of execution as a new murder bears a striking similarity to the serial killer’s past crimes.
  • Fight Night
    Welcome to fight night! The loser of a middleweight championship bout is pronounced dead and the CSIs are called in to determine what happened.
  • Snuff
    The team investigates the death of a porn actress after viewing her brutal slaining during a snuff film.

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Catherine Willows

Disc Three

  • Blood Lust
    A teenage boy is run over by a taxi and an angry mob, believing the driver is going to flee the scene, attacks and kills the taxi driver. But when the CSI team investigates, it appears that the boy was dead before he was run over.
  • High and Low
    A man jumps off the roof of a building but mysteriously dies before he hits the ground.
  • Recipe for Murder
    Grissom and Catherine investigate the murder of a man via a meat grinder at a slaughterhouse.
  • Got Murder?
    Bird watchers spy a raven with a human eyeball in its beak which leads the CSIs to a missing wife whose husband and daughter become the prime suspects in her murder.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

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Nick & Grissom examine the crime scene
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation began its series run in fullscreen, but since the second season the show has gone widescreen. All 12 episodes on this release are presented in their original 1:78:1 aspect ratio and are 16:9 enhanced for widescreen displays. The switch to widescreen for this show results in a spectacular transfer that's one of the best TV to DVD transfers available. The only problem is the occasional evidence of edge enhancement, but it’s very minimal. Colours are vibrant and clear with blood the bloodiest red and skin tones (when the person on screen isn’t a corpse) realistic. The bright Las Vegas colour scheme is well saturated with sharpness and detail superb throughout all the episodes. Overall, CSI looks simply spectacular on DVD.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio mix is also outstanding and completes the immersive experience of watching a CSI episode. This is a well balanced audio package with the centre channel being the most active and the left and right channels offering nice separation. The rear channels kick in well for atmospheric effect. The sub woofer gets a respectable work out during the opening theme song and during all the other musical segments during the show. This 5.1 mix could rival most movie 5.1 packages and for a show like CSI any other audio mix would be a disappointment.

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An important part of any CSI episode, a corpse!

Because each season of CSI is being released in two parts, often months apart, the extras do seem quite sparse. No doubt when part two of Season three is released the overall extras included for the entire season will seem more substantial.

Audio Commentaries appear on the following episodes:

  • Revenge is Best Served Cold
    (creator Anthony Zuiker & director Danny Cannon)
  • The Accused is Entitled
    ( writer Ann Donohue, technical adviser/writer Elizabeth Devine & director Ken Fink)
  • Fight Night
    (director Richard Lewis & writer Naren Shankar)
  • Snuff
    (writer Ann Donohue & director Ken Fink)

The Revenge is Best Served Cold commentary provided by series creator Anthony Zuiker and director Danny Cannon is without a doubt the worst commentary I have had to endure. These guys don’t seem to even know their own show and barely remember any of the details about the particular episode. Luckily, all the other commentaries are quite good. Special mention has to go to technical adviser Elizabeth Devine who provides a wealth of interesting information during her commentary. Devine serves as a writer, technical adviser and producer on the series and was once a real CSI in Los Angeles and she puts the creator, directors and other writers to shame with her wonderful comments.

The final two extras are two featurettes.

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CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Menu

The first, CSI moves into Season 3, is a decent 13 minute featurette about the third season of the show. There is plenty of behind the scenes footage as well as interviews with the creator, producers and cast of the show. As far as these kind of featurettes go this is a pretty good one with the cast interviews particularly entertaining.

The CSI Tour: Police Station is exactly what it sounds like. During this 10 minute tour, CSI production designer Richard Berg walks you through the entire complex which serves as the police station. The actual set is one continuous building that actually looks like a real police station. A very clean, empty police station.

CSI is an genuine entertainment sensation. While the integrity of the show has been harmed slightly by the spinoffs and ripoffs, the show continues to outshine most other drama on television. This release also outshines all other television DVD releases with amazing video and audio transfers.


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  •   And I quote...
    "The evidence doesn't lie! This show amazes on DVD with superb audio and video transfers."
    - Rebecca Taylor
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DAV-S300
    • TV:
          Sony KDE 42XBR950 Plasma
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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