CSI: New York - Season 2: Part 1 (www.the-usher.com)

Summer in the City
It's the height of summer in the city as Mac and Hawkes investigate the suspicious death of a free climber attempting to scale the Empire State Building. Danny and Stella unravel the mystery of why a world famous designer was found dead wearing one of his own creations: a bra covered in millions of dollars worth of diamonds. Aiden revisits an unsolved rape with potentially career-ending results.

Grand Murder At Central Station
Mac and Hawkes explore the gruesome death of a man who was murdered in Grand Central Station at rush hour, while Stella and Danny investigate why a young, beautiful and blind woman was left strangled on a rooftop. Did her involvement in Manhattan's latest craze, cuddle parties, have anything to do with it?

Zoo York
It's mayhem at the Bronx Zoo. Mac, Danny and new CSI Lindsay Hamilton look into the death of a man thrown to the tigers. Stella and Hawkes are called in to find an elegantly dressed young woman dead on a carousel; the investigation leads from Central Park to Park Avenue in search of a debutante's killer.

Corporate Warriors
A man is found beaten to death at the San Gennaro festival and the trail leads Mac and Stella from the narrow alleys of Mott Street to the power players of Wall Street, where they find themselves confronted by the code of the corporate warrior, which insures that the weak perish at the hands of the strong and the price of disloyalty is death. Meanwhile, Hawkes probes the tragic death of a young boy trapped in an apartment fire off Washington Square Park, birthplace of New York City's outdoor chess world and end of the line for an arsonist.

Dancing with the Fishes
Mac, Stella and Lindsay team up to discover why a struggling young dancer with a winning lottery ticket in her pocket was thrown from the Roosevelt Bridge Island Tram. Hawkes and Danny wonder if an honest fisherman's obsession with getting his son into an elite pre-school leads to his own unfortunate death.

YoungBlood
The witness to a brutal elevator slaying has disappeared, and as the CSIs track her down they uncover the world of Manhattan "Lolitas", young girls who trawl for older men, never thinking of the potentially murderous consequences. Uptown, a body is discovered in the boat pond in Central Park, and as the CSIs investigate they discover that the victim has two identities from two very separate worlds. Powerful evidence points to a six degrees of separation scenario gone horribly wrong.

Manhattan Manhunt
Detective Mac Taylor and CSI Miami Lieutenant Horatio Caine follow the evidence from steamy Miami to steely New York as they close in on the blood thirsty Henry Darius. The entire New York Crime Lab races against the clock to catch the twisted sociopath before he kills again in this second part of the CSI: Miami/CSI: NY crossover episode.

Bad Beat
When murder comes to play at a high-stakes poker game, Mac and his team work to find out why. As the evidence stacks up, they find that what they thought was a cheater's revenge was actually the result of a tragic misidentification. In Central Park's Strawberry Fields, Hawkes and Danny come across a body they instantly recognize- she's the popular weather girl at Channel 2. Who would want such a sunny personality dead?

City of the Dolls
In a New York doll "hospital", Mac and Danny recover the corpse of the doll "doctor" beneath hundreds of body parts - doll body parts. Meanwhile, Stella and Hawkes find a young woman dead in her apartment; evidence leads to several suspects. After all, who wouldn't kill for a residence with a view of the park?

Jamalot
A rising roller derby star drops dead in the middle of a match, and Mac and Stella come to the rink to investigate. A deeper inspection reveals a gruesome discovery: she cooked to death - from the inside out. What could have caused such a meltdown? Hawkes and Danny unravel the mystery of why a struggling novelist was killed and left in an expensive oriental rug.

Trapped
An eccentric billionaire is found dead in his bedroom and when Danny begins to process the scene he inadvertently trips a "panic" button, sealing himself in with the victim. There's no way to open the room in less than 12 hours, so he must resort to old school forensics to ensure the murderer doesn't get a head start; Mac searches to find who pushed a stripper onto a 10,000-degree spotlight and left her to sizzle.

The third Crime Scene Investigation series continues into its second year but can it keep up the momentum it created during its first season?

The phenomenal success of CSI franchise has been unrelenting. With not one but two extremely successfully spin-offs, the major achievement of all three series has been raising the quality and the intelligence of prime time television. Police detective shows have been the stable of TV since drama first hit the airwaves but it is the injection of science that makes the show so intriguing.

While Las Vegas and Miami are big cities, each with their own unique problems and crimes but neither of these compared to the metropolis that is New York. After hitting the ground running during the first, impressive season, the CSI's of NYC soon became favourites in the franchise. Led by Gary Sinise's Det. Mac Taylor, the series continued the premise set up in the original by bringing together an excellent ensemble but the New York series did something that the two other shows are only just starting to do, reveal more their lives outside of the lab.

Having established the characters during the first season, the second run gave the writers the chance to push their characters along a little. Carmine Giovinazzo's Det. Danny Messer's gang background is explored more, Hill Harper's Dr. Sheldon Hawkes leaves the lab to go into the field as a trainee CSI, Melina Kanakaredes's Det. Stella Bonasera's love film takes a turn for the worse and new CSI Det. Lindsay Monroe, played by Anna Belknap gets to know the squad and make her mark.

There is one major change this season and that is the departure of Vanessa Ferlito's Det. Aiden Burn. Bowing out after three episodes of the new season, the character is replaced by Det. Lindsay Monroe. Some may argue that Vanessa Ferlito was too attractive for the role and that the character wasn't strong enough but she has replaced but the case that made her leave would have a dramatic impact on the season.

With strong episodes throughout and another crossover episode with CSI: Miami, the second season of sees the series continue to grow and make it different from the other two shows in the franchise. The first part of the season builds the momentum for what it to follow, proving again that CSI is one of the best franchises on television.

PICTURE & SOUND

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

BONUS FEATURES

None

OVERALL

For the first time, the first half of a CSI season has been released without any extras. This will come as a major disappointment to fans of the series that are used to having commentaries and featurettes included in the release.

DVD

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