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.

Viva Las Vegas
Greg Sanders is taking his field proficiency test on a nightclub shooting, with Grissom judging his work; Nick and Sara investigate an alien body found in a shallow grave in Area 51; Warrick walks a mile in a dead man's shoes to figure out why he committed suicide; and Catherine investigates the bloody murder of a stripper who died in bed with a tourist who doesn't remember a thing.

Down the Drain
After a flash flood, drains clogged with human bones lead Catherine and Warrick underground, where they find themselves in a compromising situation; Greg donates his body fluids to science; and an untimely explosion jeopardizes the CSI team.

Harvest
Vegas is on an "Amber Alert," as the CSI team races to find a missing 12 year old girl, but the kidnapping turns even more complicated - if they don't find her, her brother who needs his sister's kidney to live, may die; and Greg may have found a worthy replacement for himself in the DNA lab.

Crow's Feet
Catherine and Nick investigate the death of a woman who was searching for the Fountain of Youth; Greg and Sara try to solve the ultimate "locked room" mystery, when a man is poisoned while his house is being tented by an exterminator.

Swap Meet
Sara and Greg investigate a swingers' party when one of the revellers is found dead in a fountain; Nick and Warrick tackle the gruesome murder of a mini-mall owner who meets the wrong end of a table saw; Greg and Hodges compete for Mia's attentions.

What's Eating Gilbert Grissom?
A human tooth is found in a festering pile of maggots and wood chips on the WLVU campus, leading the CSI team to investigate sadistic ritualistic multiple homicides with the familiar modus operandi of the "blue paint killer" - who's already been executed for his crimes.

Formalities
It's homecoming at the local high school, and one of the teenage revellers winds up dead in a casino penthouse suite and another one, the casino owner's daughter, is missing. The day shift supervisor Conrad Ecklie is promoted to assistant director of the crime lab, with all the CSIs reporting to him - including Grissom.

Ch-Ch-Changes
Real life transsexual Calpurnia Adams, whose story was told in the film Soldier's Girl, appears in this episode as the member of a support group; Lindsay Crouse guest stars as therapist Dr. Mona Lavalle. A brutally murdered woman is found alongside the highway, having been sexually mutilated with her throat slit. The investigation shows she was in fact a transsexual, leading the team into a world where no one is who he - or she - seems.

Mea Culpa
When a technicality brings Grissom back to court to testify in what he thought was an open-and-shut case from five years ago, he discovers new evidence - a fingerprint he may have overlooked which doesn't match the defendant. This triggers a new investigation, indicting Grissom's work on the case, and giving Ecklie a chance to nail him; Sara and Greg investigate the questionable shooting of a John Doe.

No Humans Involved
Grissom and his team investigate the shooting of a suspected drug dealer, which looks like a straightforward single murder but soon turns into a tragic triple homicide, including the death of an emaciated five-year-old boy; Catherine, Warrick and Nick look into a messy prison murder in an over-crowded holding cell after guards and inmates tangle.

Who Shot Sherlock?
Greg's in the hot seat for his "final" proficiency test when a Sherlock Holmes aficionado's apparent suicide turns out to be murder, and the case is a little less elementary than he would have liked; Warrick and Nick are not satisfied when they can find no evidence of foul play or cause of death when a motorist, who may have been stoned, flipped over an embankment.

Snakes
A decapitated woman's head is discovered in a newspaper dispenser and when Dr. Robbins does his post-mortem he finds a startling clue - a dead snake resting in the victim's mouth; a man is found dead in a handicapped-accessible van, but he's not handicapped; and Sara and Grissom finally address their relationship.

One of the most successful and critically acclaimed TV shows of all time enters its fifth season but can 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' show continued evidence of originality?

After four years investigating the crimes of Las Vegas, the new season of the original CSI series finally starts to address the problem that fans and critics have been highlighting since the programme began, the lack of character driven plotlines. The problem with all the connotations of the show has been that it has always concentrated on the crimes and the investigations to the detriment of character development. We have only been given the slightest insights into the lives of the investigators outside of the lab.

While the fifth season still doesn't go into as much detail as some fans would be hoping, a single plotline is introduced that will have major repercussions for the team and introduce new characters into the Vegas lab. This might not be the in depth development that the shows needs but it is a step in the right direction.

One thing that stays consistent however is the quality of the crime stories. Again Gil Grissom and his team have a cornucopia mysteries to solve. The first half of the fifth season raises the bar again when it comes to crime scene investigation. CSI is responsible for the glut of investigation shows that have graced TV shows since its launch in 2000 and for the increase in intelligent programming that is coming out of the US of late. This season has some real highlights and we see the promotion of DNA tech Greg Sanders, played by Eric Szmanda to field agent.

'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' continues to be one of the most intelligent and well-written TV shows currently in production. With a cast that are really comfortable with their roles and a writing team that are on the top of their game, this is still one of the best shows on TV at the moment and with the steps taken to bring in more subplots and out of lab stories, the show will just get better and better.

PICTURE AND SOUND

Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack the transfer is very good.

BONUS FEATURES

Audio Commentary
Listen to audio commentary for the episodes 'Viva Las Vegas', 'Down the Drain', 'Formalities', 'Who Shot Sherlock' and 'Snakes' with contributions from directors Danny Cannon, Richard J. Lewis and Ken Fink, writers Dustin Lee Abraham, Naren Shahker, David Rambo, Richard Catalani and Carol Mendelsohn and star George Eads. These are chatty and informative commentaries that offer an insight into the making of a modern TV show and that allow the directors, writers and star to reveal how the fifth season is progressing.

The Research of CSI: Maintaining the Accuracy (10.55 mins)
Writers Sarah Goldfinger and Carol Mendelsohn and stars David Berman and Jon Wellner are joined by real Las Vegas CSIs Dr Gary Telgenhoff, Daniel Holstein and Kathy Guenther to talk about the scientific accuracy of the show. They reveal the differences between real life and the science used on the show. This is a good featurette that shows how realistic the show actually is. OVERALL With five commentaries and a 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

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