CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI Crime Scene Investigation: The Ninth Season is a really rough one for the show, one fraught with change. For starters, it begins with Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) being shot down in cold blood, dying in Grissom's (William Petersen) arms. While Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) comes back for a time to help the team solve Warrick's murder, she eventually leaves to work in a more fulfilling position in Costa Rica. Before long, the death of Warrick and the job really wear on Grissom and he decides to leave CSI, placing Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) in charge. However, he doesn't leave the team high and dry. During the course of a murder investigation dating back 20 years, he meets Dr. Ray Langston (Lawrence Fishburne), who consults on the "Dick and Jane Killer" case. With Sara's departure and Grissom's inevitable retirement from the team, Ray is offered the position of a CSI 1 and he takes the job. I liked that Lawrence Fishburne, arguably a huge movie star, didn't step in and take over. He came in as the low man on the totem pole. Granted, he does get top billing in the credits and a ridiculous amount of screen time, but he really works well in the series. He brings a completely different dynamic to the team, but I love him in the role. He takes more chances in his position because his focus is always on the person and their care rather than the scene, so some of the other team members, namely Riley Adams (Lauren Lee Smith), are a bit nervous around him.

The storylines from CSI Crime Scene Investigation: The Ninth Season are good, but as a whole, didn't have me glued to the TV screen as they have in past seasons. However, I really enjoyed certain episodes like the one that focused on Nick Stokes (George Eads) and his friendship with a troubled young teen, played by Taylor Swift; one that had Catherine and her team having to rework her first solo case when a jailhouse lawyer (Henry Thomas) questions her evidence; finally, my absolute favorite episode was another of the "Lab Rats" episodes. In "A Space Oddity," Wendy Sims (Liz Vassey) and David Hodges (Wallace Langham) discover a shared love for Star Trek clone "Astro Quest" when they see each other at a sci-fi convention. A murder there throws the pair together and they discover dormant feelings for one another, and Hodges spends the bulk of the episode fantasizing about Wendy in different Astro Quest getups. It's totally hysterical and the best episode of the season.

As far as special features go, there are some commentaries, as well as some special modes for particular episodes that have pop-up video type trivia, additional data and allow extra exploration in the episode. There's a featurette on Grissom's departure and how his story arc has played out over the years, and another on the 200th episode which was directed by William Friedkin and focused on lucha libre wrestling and the murder of one of Langston's grad students. There are also a handful of deleted scenes that you can watch right after viewing an episode rather than seeing them all as a special feature later. It helps to place where they would have gone in the episode when you see it right after viewing the episode as it aired on TV.

If you pick it up on Blu-ray, you are in for a visual and aural feast as CSI has never looked so gorgeous. The opening scenes and Vegas fly-overs, especially, look totally lush and brilliant. The surround sound really places you smack dab in the middle of the lab and you can hear every tinkering sound as the show progresses. If you have a high-def setup, Blu-ray is definitely the way to go. Overall, if you are a fan of the show, you'll want to see the progress of the CSI team in its 9th Season.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The Ninth Season

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