'CSI' Remains Strong

See Also: 'Lab Rats' Episode Guide

The seventh season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation shows that everything old is new again.

Francis Rizzo III from DVD Talk pointed out that the seventh season "saw the introduction of a new kind of CSI, as the series tried true long-form storytelling this year, spreading one case over the length of the season, and into the next, while trying a couple of new ideas along the way." The season-length arc involved the elusive Miniature Killer. "CSI has had a couple of serial killers in its past, but nothing like this," Brad Brevet pointed out in his review for Rope of Silicon. "This isn't a one note killer," he continued, "it is rightly confusing for the CSI team, which really made it work well." Rizzo described the effect of the Miniature Killer on the CSI team:

The idea of a criminal obsessed with the perfection exhibited in the models is frightening for criminologists who rely on even the smallest amount of sloppiness on the part of the bad guys... When you have such a successful team like Grissom's, putting them up against a serious challenge, even if it is the kind of incredible supervillain that only exists in fiction, helps raise the level of drama.

One of the "new ideas" utilized in season seven involved the introduction of Michael Keppler (Liev Schreiber) for four episodes in the middle of the season. The character was brought in as a temporary replacement while William Petersen (Gil Grissom) took a hiatus from the show to do theater. Rizzo gave his assessment of Schreiber's appearance on the show:

Schreiber does everything you could ask for in creating Keppler, developing a believable, tragic character quickly and fitting in with the remaining cast well, even if he could never be Grissom. He was an excellent choice for a limited run on the show, but one wonders if he would have been better received if he had been introduced outside of the world of Las Vegas.

Another example of season seven trying to do things differently was "Lab Rats", an episode that concentrated on the supporting characters. Rizzo described the technique as a "very folksy" and "offbeat" way to tell a story on CSI, and he felt that the episode had "a unique feel that makes it extremely memorable and extremely enjoyable":

Watching lab tech Hodges (Wallace Langham) "lead" the other techs in attempting to solve the Miniature Killer case for the CSIs is a great deal of fun, as it takes the concept of a "clip show" and twists it to give the excellent supporting cast a chance to shine, and plays off Hodges' ego, feeling a bit like a junior-league detective gang. When the show gets "goofy" it's a welcome break from the traditionally dark and serious nature of the series.

According to Rizzo, the DVDs themselves have "anamorphic widescreen transfers that are clean and gorgeously lush, with vivid color and an extremely high level of detail." As far as the DVD extras go, Matt Brighton from the DVD Authority felt that the seven full-length episode commentaries provided in the set "shed a little light on what went on behind the scenes and some character motivation as well." With the miniature killer storyline, the commentaries give viewers "an insight into the producer's point of view and it's a nice touch," said Brighton. Although none of the main cast members participated this season, the supporting cast got the chance to do the commentary for "Lab Rats"--Langham, Jon Wellner (Henry Andrews), Liz Vassey (Wendy Simms), Sherri Rappaport (Mandy Webster) and Archie Kao (Archie Johnson) all come together to provide what Rizzo described as "an entertaining and lively commentary."

The seventh disc in the DVD set contains the rest of the special features totaling approximately 99 minutes of material spread over six featurettes. From a behind-the-scenes look at the production of several episodes during the season to a look at the real process of solving crime in Las Vegas, the features are what Brighton refers to as "the icing on the cake" for a high-quality set of DVDs. "Miniature Murders" is a fourteen minute featurette that explores the season-long miniature killer story arc and shows how the miniature crime scenes themselves were constructed. "It's a fascinating idea and the featurette explores the intense effort from all involved," Rizzo said. He also went into detail about the feature that explores the reality of forensic science:

The camera is turned on the real life CSIs in "Las Vegas: The Real Crime Solvers" (18:24), in the latest in the CSI DVD trend of using the cast, here Robert David Hall (Dr. Robbins), to host a comparison of the fiction of the show and the reality of the job. These segments have been consistently impressive, as the actors have done a solid job of standing in for the audience, asking interesting questions and bringing things down to layman's terms, while the featurettes cover fascinating concepts in the field of forensics.

The DVD set for CSI's seventh season can be ordered from Amazon.com.

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