Amazon.co.uk Review The second half of CSI's first year takes Grissom and his untiring team down some darker paths than before. Nick finally gives in to his urges and sleeps with the hooker who has a crush on him in "Boom"--with predictably disastrous consequences. Sarah is badly affected by the rape and attempted murder of an unknown woman in "Too Tough to Die"; and even Grissom is shaken when dealing with the sudden death of an infant in "Gentle, Gentle". The final episode of the year, "Strip Strangler", is a real shocker, as the team track a brutal serial killer. Elsewhere, the morbid business of investigating corpses and crime scenes is enlivened with flashes of welcome humour: when a horse is found dead with packets of uncut diamonds concealed in its uterus, Grissom deadpans "This horse is a mule". Throughout, the show remains focused on its scientific remit, only revealing enough of the characters' private lives to provide added piquancy to each investigation: Sarah's complete lack of a life outside her work; Warrick's old gambling habit; Catherine's attachment to her daughter and troubles with ex-husband Eddie; Nick's over-eagerness to please. Grissom, meanwhile, like the Dalai Lama, is the model of inscrutable wisdom. The show itself, like a millennial antidote to a decade of X-Files, is relentlessly empirical: everything that initially seems mysterious--from spontaneous human combustion to an apparent case of vampirism--is always explicable and explained by the team's scientific dedication. On the DVD: CSI, Series 1 Part 2 contains 11 episodes on three discs. Extra features consist of a brief promo featurette, production notes and a series of on-set interviews with the cast. Oddly for such a cutting-edge show, picture is old-fashioned 4:3 with basic Dolby stereo sound. --Mark Walker Product Description Episodes 13 to 23 from the first season of the Las Vegas-set crime series. In 'Boom' the team investigate the bombing of an office building and Nick is suspected of murdering a prostitute. 'To Halve and to Hold' finds Catherine and Grissom searching for a skeleton in the desert. 'Table Stakes' has Warrick investigate an apparent assassination attempt in a hotel. 'Too Tough to Die' sees Sarah become attached to the victim in a rape and attempted murder case she is investigating. 'Face Lift' finds the team examining the connections between a recent robbery and an old kidnapping case. '$35K O.B.O.' has Catherine investigate the collapse of a housing block. 'Gentle, Gentle' sees the team on the trail of an abducted child. 'Sounds of Silence' finds Grissom looking into the case of a murdered deaf man. 'Justice is Served' has Grissom and Nick perplexed when they take on the case of a jogger killed by a wild animal. 'Evaluation Day' sees Grissom forced to evaluate the working methods of his team. Finally, in 'The Strip Strangler', the team faces difficulties when they try to trace a serial killer with knowledge of forensics.

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