Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: The CSI franchise, Gary Sinise
Likes: Danny Messer, "CSI:NY"
Dislikes: New York City
Hates: Crazy-ass taxi drivers

The Story So Far...
The second spin-off from the successful "C.S.I." series, "C.S.I.:N.Y." follows the New York City-based forensics team led by Detective Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) as they track down criminals in the enormous, dense and diverse city of Manhattan. The show takes full advantage of Gotham's world-famous and iconic locales, as well as the wide variety of residents, businesses and lifestyles, to tell stories unique to this series. The first season of the show was released on DVD in October of 2005, and was followed by annual releases. DVDTalk has reviews of all three seasons: 1 | 2 | 3

The Show
It's easy for me to like "CSI:NY" most of the CSI family, considering it takes place a short train ride from my home and stars one of my favorite actors, Gary Sinise. But those aren't the only reasons I've taken a shine to the franchise's kid brother, as it's proven itself to be the most stylish and consistent of the three series.

In the third season, thankfully, for once, there's no shake-up on the team and no one's under investigation, two plot devices that have become far too overused in the "CSI" world. Instead, for the most part, the drama is limited to working the cases and some personal issues. Taking a cue from the successful "Miniature Killer" story arc on the original "CSI," this run of "CSI:NY" features not one, not two, but three multi-episode cases, putting the team to the test, as they had to all pitch in to bring the bad guys to justice. There's just something about stories where the criminal seems to be just a step ahead of the cops that's hugely entertaining, and watching Mac (Sinise) get tormented by the 333 stalker, whose personal vendetta builds and builds, is a great example of them.

Though the team is on pretty solid ground professionally, their personal lives are frequently a problem (a trademark of the franchise.) Stella (Melina Kanakaredes) sees her trouble with guys crop up again, and faces trouble close to home, while Mac's relationship with medical examiner Peyton is struggling also. This year's big winner in the unlucky lottery though is Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo), who suffers an unfortunate loss that sends him spiraling both at home and at work, affecting his relationship with Lindsey (Anna Belknap). Though Stella's problems feel a bit overdone at this point, Messer is great to watch as he tries to hold it together, as Giovinazzo projects a frustrated strength by playing his character's boiling anger close to the vest.

There's a pretty nice variety of cases to solve this season, including a murder on a billboard in Times Square, a man who dies after hitting a half-court halftime shot at a basketball game and a killing at an exclusive prep school that reveals a crime possibly more disturbing. It's the diversity of the settings in New York City that's one of the series biggest strengths (though I'm still trying to figure out why they traveled all the way to Amityville (well out on Long Island) for one case.) Honestly, I started to think they would run out of new concepts in the big city, but thankfully, that hasn't really happened, as they keep finding new trends and new places, like a murder at the Statue of Liberty. On the other hand, there are several cases that really could have happened almost anywhere, like the big Second Life storyline, which sees the team chasing an assassin through the online virtual world. Despite that, you never forget where the show is set.

The season ends up on a strong note, starting with a multi-episode case involving a series of murders seemingly committed by a cab driver who might be leaving messages for the police. Reed, the previously-revealed son of Mac's dead wife Claire, finds himself tied into it all thanks to his new venture as a blogger, which obviously gives Mac more interest in the case, which is a frustrating one that puts the entire city on edge. The finale is similar in a way to last year's final episode, with a very intense story about an invasion (in this case a bank robbery), with Mac on the inside, trying to work everything out. The unique thing this time around is the bad guy wants the C.S.I.s to prove he's not guilty. Unfortunately, it all ends in a cliffhanger that will probably piss you off if you don't have the premiere of Season Five handy.

The series continues to prove itself to be the most stylish of the three CSI series, using fantastic current music that fits the locale perfectly, while using the imagery of the city to build authenticity. While "C.S.I.: Miami" brought in the Surface computing technology last season to up the tech look of the show, the New York crew remains mostly street-level realistic, with the exception of a product-placement for a video teleconference set-up and the gear used by medical examiner Sid (Robert Joy.) From a nifty three-dimensional electronic x-ray of a brain that comes in handy on a number of occasions, to a full-body "map" of a body that helps him teach autopsy techniques, he gets the coolest toys and has the coolest personality to go with it. As much as the other show's MEs have been good, no one touches Sid and former ME Sheldon Hawkes (Hill Harper) for the title.

On a non-plot-related point, the opening credits were changed this year, backed by a new remixed version of "Baba O'Reilly." Though the imagery is nice, the song...well, no sir, I don't like it.

The DVDs
Like its South Florida kin, New York's broken tradition as far as the packaging goes, switching from the digipack book to a embossed, holofoil-covered slipcase filled with a trio of dual-hubbed black Thinpaks, holding six DVDs. The art, which lists the discs' content, has a really nice image of the cast posed like the iconic photo of workers having lunch on a beam high above New York. The discs themselves are the boring gray Paramount loves to serve up time and again. The discs have animated anamorphic widescreen main menus, carrying the same design as the previous set, with episode selections and language set-ups. Audio is available in English 5.1 and Spanish 2.0, with closed captioning, but there are no subtitles.

The Quality
The anamorphic widescreen transfers in this set look terrific, capturing the subdued hues of New York City, along with the more colorful aspects of Gotham. The DVDs feature a very high level of detail and sport no obvious issues with dirt, damage or digital artifacts. For a gritty show, it's got a nice polish to it.

The sound is quite nice as well, delivering clean dialogue that's well separated from the show's excellent musical soundtrack. Music enhancement utilizes the surround speakers, along with some atmospheric sound effects, which are really quite impressive in spots. There's nothing all that dynamic about the mix, but there are no stand-out negatives about it either.

The Extras
Continuing the CSI DVD trend, this set once again reduces the amount of extras, with just one commentary (after last year dropped from five to four.) The track for "Down the Rabbit Hole" is provided by creator Anthony Zuiker and offers a good bit of info about the inspiration for the episode and a lot of well-thought-out comments from Zuiker on the whole idea of Second Life. Unfortunately, there are several points where he's just watching, leaving dead air.

Like last time, there are four featurette, starting with the 15-minute "Art Imitates Second Life" again focuses on "Down the Rabbit Hole," an episode set partially in the online service Second Life. While Zuiker, producer Peter Lenkoff and writer Sam Humphrey provide good info on the concept, the cast is amusingly ignorant about the idea. The info about the company who did the Second Life work is a bit promotional, as the company has picked up an investment from CBS, but it's still interesting, along with the notes on how they made using a computer visually impressive.

"Dante's Infernal Episode" spends 10 minutes on the season's unusual Halloween episode, which was directed by scaremaster Joe Dante. Dante, the cast and the crew talk about the two halves of the show, and how to make an episode that's different, yet fits the style. It's a solid extra that goes deeper than a superficial overview.

"Art Attack" is a four-minute look at artist Clemente Bornacelli's paintings, as seen in the episode "Right Next Door." But as production designer Vaughan Edwards notes, you hardly see the paintings because of how they are used, so it's a profile of something that's barely a part of the series. At least they are interesting works, which you get to check out in detail here.

th The 13-minute "Cutting to the Core: Season Four in the Big Apple" is essentially an overview of the season, covering the storylines and cases, with interviews with the cast and some of the creators. It's a good capsule summary of the show, but if you've seen the episodes, it's not really telling you anything new (though it is from the mouths of the actors), while if you haven't seen the episodes, everything is basically spoiled for you.

The Bottom Line
Another solid season for "C.S.I.: NY" offers up a mix of excellent cases and serialized detective work, all topped off by the personal drama that makes the CSI shows so engrossing. The DVDs look and sound great, but the decrease in extras is once again a disappointment, even while the extras we get are interesting and worth checking out. There's no reason new fans couldn't jump right in here, while those with a few seasons under their belt won't be disappointed by the action and police work.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.