CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 4 Pt. 2 (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.

Suckers
Three CSIs (Grissom, Sara, and Nick) respond to an electrocution at a casino. The casino is hosting Japanese antiquities. The electrocution is just a ruse to steal the central piece of the exhibit. Catherine and Warrick deal with a vampire murder.

Paper or Plastic
A robbery at a grocery store results in a shootout leaving five dead. The police officer at the scene believes Grissom has a grudge against him. The entire team has to process the enormous amount of evidence at the scene.

Early Rollout
The whole team must investigate a crime where a husband and his porn star wife were murdered execution style. Things get personal for Catherine when Grissom talks to her about her evaluation. Brass believes that Sara may have some type of problem.

Getting Off
Catherine and Sara deal with the death of what at first seems to be a transvestite. Later during autopsy they find out that the make-up he seemed to be wearing was actually face paint, he was a clown. Grissom, Nick, and Warrick deal with the death of a man in a homeless area. They found out he worked in a recovery centre for drug users.

XX
A mutilated female body is discovered tied to the undercarriage of a bus carrying prisoners from a women's correctional facility after a severed arm flies out from beneath the vehicle and strikes a car. Catherine leads the investigation and at first believes the woman was escaping, but the evidence increasingly points to murder. Back in town, Warrick probes the death of a gambler who was stabbed multiple times in his brother's kitchen.

Bad to the Bone
A violent murder in a casino parking garage and another episode in the police interview room lead the CSIs to one shocking discovery after another. The case involves a missing woman, a long dead body and a missing child.

Bad Words
Warrick, Catherine, and Nick try to determine the cause of a house fire that kills a teenage kill. The fire is in the same neighbourhood as a similar arson fire. Grissom and Sara investigate a man found dead with letter tiles in his stomach. The man was a competitor in a word game tournament.

Dead Ringer
Grissom, Catherine and Nick investigate the death of a runner during a competition. Meanwhile Sara and Warrick investigate the death of couple in a hotel room, initially thought to be a murder-suicide. Both cases take place during this 'cop' competition, with more than 20.000 attendants (all of them cops). This gives the investigations an interesting turn, as almost all the suspects and all dead people are cops.

Turn of the Screws
A roller coaster runs off track leaving 6 people dead. The CSI team must uncover whether this was an accident, or foul play. Warrick and Catherine try to find the killer of a 13 year old girl.

No More Bets
Two men are found murdered after scamming Sam Braun's casinos. Grissom and Warrick investigate after Catherine is thrown off the case. One of the suspects is the son of a man Braun caught cheating. Nick gets the promotion that Sara coveted.

Bloodlines
A casino employee is beaten and raped on her way home from work, but she survives and identifies her attacker. Unfortunately, a DNA test sets him free and Grissom must wrestle with whether evidence can ever lie. Later, Grissom comes to the rescue of a co-worker who ends up on the other side of the law

The fourth season of 'C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation' continues and proves again that it is still the best who-done-it show on TV.

For its entire run the C.S.I. programmes have set new standards with it comes to weekly crime television. Now in Miami and New York also, it is still the Las Vegas set series that leads the way and season 4 shows why it is still the leader of the pack.

What this show has is well-developed characters that both the actors and audience have become very comfortable with. Each character is well defined within the job, bringing their own unique skills to each case, and they also grow and develop with each crime they investigate. The audience watches this happen over the shows and the seasons, bringing them closer to the characters and giving them a greater understanding of the scientific methods they employ.

The main problem with the show is that it becomes all about the job and the cases, meaning we don't get much of an insight into their personal lives. We get little snippets of Gil, Catherine, Warrick and Sarah's life outside the department but nothing that lets you get to know the characters more personally like you do in shows like 'ER', 'NYPD Blue' or 'Rescue Me', which also deal with the emergency services. This does make the show very focused but it would be nice to know more about the characters outside of work.

After four seasons the already excellent ensemble cast just gets better and better. William Petersen's Gil Grissom is becoming a classic TV character. Petersen plays the character wonderfully, making him all about the job and quite quirky at the same time. Marg Helgenberger is also first rate as Catherine Willows. This is a strong female character that is a perfect role model. Gary Dourdan (Warrick Brown), Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle), George Eads (Nick Stokes), Paul Guilfoyle (Captain Jim Brass) and Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders) bring the rest of the characters to life, making this one of the best ensembles on TV.

With every episode as riveting as the next, the quality of the C.S.I. episodes just keeps getting better and better. Each episode is almost a mini who-done-it movie that has you guessing throughout as the evidence is laid out in front of you. This is still one of the best and most intelligent shows on television and compulsive viewing.

PICTURE AND SOUND

Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack the transfer is very good. The picture and sound quality are first rate with the sound emphasising the dialogue of the character extremely well.

BONUS FEATURES

The Evolution of an Episode: Pre Production (15.22 mins)
Executive producer/director Danny Cannon, writer Josh Berman, visual effects supervisor John Goodwin, casting director Andy Henry, digital effects supervisor Bruce Colin, location managers Alex Chen and Paul Wilson, assistant director Stacey Murphy and set designer Richard Berg, take you behind the scenes 'Suckers'. Here we see the pre-production elements that have to come together for an episode of 'C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation', including shooting schedules, drafts of the script, set and location preparation and starting work on the visual and CG effects needed on the episode.

The Evolution of an Episode: Production (18.47 mins)
Executive producer/director Danny Cannon, writer Josh Berman, location manager Alex Chen, assistant director Stacey Murphy and stars William Petersen, Paul Guilfoyle and Marg Helgenberger take you behind the scenes of 'Suckers'. Now the episode shifts into production and the featurette takes you behind the scenes of location shoots at Green Valley Ranch, Caesar's Palace, a Vegas club and the sound stage work in L.A. Here we see rehearsals and the actually shooting of an episode and the problems of shooting in Vegas.

The Evolution of an Episode: Post Production (10.39 mins)
Executive producer/director Danny Cannon, writer Josh Berman, sound effects editor Philip A. Conserva and composer Jason Alexander show you how the episode 'Suckers' comes together in poster production. Here we see the editing process, adding the sound and visual effects, incorporating music, colour correction and actually watching the episode through to check on structure and fluidity.

OVERALL

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is without doubt one of the best police dramas to ever grace the small screen. While this may only be a half season box set (A full season set is available), there is enough here to warrant the purchase. 'The Evolution of an Episode' featurettes are very interesting, taking you behind the scenes of the making on a CSI episode, which will fascinate fans of the series. For fans of the show, Season 4: Part Two is a must and for those of you who are just discovering the programme, rent out the previous three and a half seasons and then enjoy even more of this terrific show. It just keeps getting better and better.

DVD

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