Ok, now that all the preliminary stuff is out of the way, let me say this. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The First Season looks awesome on Blu-ray! Whether it be the fly-over scenes of Las Vegas nightscapes, blood splashed on the walls or vivid hotel decor, everything on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The First Season just pops. While everything has been upscaled for high-def, there are particular scenes that are just stunning looking.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The First Season is where we in TV Land learned that forensics and science are cool. Ok, plenty of us nerds already knew that, but CSI made being a science geek trendy. This first season sets up the amazing dynamic shared by members of the team. The season starts off with a bang (quite literally) when we meet the graveyard shift consisting of Gil Grissom (William Petersen), Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan), Nick Stokes (George Eads) and newcomer Holly Gribbs (Chandra West), all led by Captain Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle). When Warrick leaves rookie Holly at a scene to go place a bet for a dirty judge, Holly gets gunned down by the thief when he returns. This sets up a fierce hatred between Brass and Brown when Brass gets busted down to homicide cop and Gil gets his job as head of the graveyard shift. Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) is brought in to investigate and ends up staying on the team. As the season progresses, we find that she and Grissom share a bit of a history, one that develops much further as the show progresses.
Then there's Catherine Willows, one-time exotic dancer, now turned serious forensics investigator. She's great at what she does and is Grissom's right-hand woman, but is trying to raise her young daughter as a single mom and has to deal with a rotten ex bent on making her life hell. Nick Stokes is the country boy with a heart of gold, and that heart gets him into trouble time and again. The long-standing rivalry between the day shift crew and graveyard also rears its head throughout the season as Ecklie and Grissom come to verbal blows over various cases.
What made CSI: Crime Scene Investigation so popular was the clever dialogue and shocking topics, combined with fantastic characters. Plotlines ripped from today's headlines were (and still are) designed to make the viewer think. Everything from molested children who have their parents killed, to fraternity pranks gone wrong, to old folks who hide the death of a spouse to keep the Social Security checks coming, CSI doesn't shy away from the wild and rough stuff, but always leaves fans intrigued.
Special features include those previously found on the DVD release like commentary, outtakes and a really funny gag reel, plus a featurette on forensic evidence. The new addition is a retrospective with the creators and cast where they look back at the season that started it all. It was really cool to see the differences between seeing them all in the earlier featurette and this one, some 9 years later.
Any serious CSI fan with a high-def setup should consider replacing their DVDs with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The First Season on Blu-ray. It looks and sounds superb and seeing these early shows all over again in high-def is great entertainment.
