The Seventh Season

CSI Miami's seventh season is exciting ride with several twist and turns as Miami's hottest forensics team uncovers some very rattling crimes. At the same time, the cast is further defined with some great character development oriented episodes and story arcs. If you have been following the series to date, season seven will not disappoint, although it is not nearly as intense as season six. It is sexy, flashy, exciting, and intense bundled into twenty-five great episodes.

The show picks up from season six's exciting finale in "Resurrection". Horatio and team were deeply involved in an investigation of fused alloy bullets, which can pierce through bullet proof body armor. They were up against Juan Ortega and Ron Saris. Horatio's life was put on the line and season six finished with him taking a bullet in the chest. As season seven begins, Ryan is on the scene. Calleigh and Eric arrive shortly after. They are hurt and emotional as their fearless leader is dead. However, it soon comes to light to be a ploy to catch Horatio's enemies off guard. He was working with FBI, ATF, and Ryan to fake his death. The good guys have a plan to get the bullets off the street.

In the following episode "Won't Get Fueled Again", Dr. Sara Price (Megalyn Echikunwoke) joins the team as the new medical examiner. Price never has the same effect as her predecessor. She is not a strong character. For instance, Khandi Alexander makes a several guest appearances as a part-time surgeon at the local hospital. Her brief appearances have a more commanding effect than Price for the entire season seven. However, Price's departure from the series gets pretty exciting and dramatic.

"And How Does That Make You Kill?" is an intense episode. The daughter of Delko's psychiatrist is killed and many of her patients are suspects. It is a common whodunit plotline, but Delko's emotional connection gives it an edge. Another exciting development from this episode occurs while Delko and Calleigh are looking for answers about the killer. Calleigh reads notes from the deceased's sessions and stumbles upon notes about Delko. In turn, she learns how he really feels about her. This single moment sets things in motion, which after later events lead to them dealing with their feelings for each other head on.

Delko's past is further investigated as he uncovers more information about his father in "The Deluca Motel". Unfortunately, it is not the information he was hoping for. His father, Alex Sharova (Rade Serbedzija), has ties to the Russian mob and no desire to be reunited with his long lost son. He appears in the episodes "Sink or Swim" and "Seeing Red", which has a dramatic effect on Delko's life and everyone else. Along the lines of Russian mobsters, Ivan Sarnoff (Andrew Divoff) is another bad guy introduced. He appears in "Raging Cannibal", "And They're Offed", "Target Specific", and "Seeing Red", and gives Horatio and team a run for their money,

As for the rest of the season, there are a number of interesting storylines. Horatio continues to deal with Julia, who goes down a bad path. Kyle is given a job as an assistant to Dr. Price. Ron Saris continues to be a thorn in Horatio's side, especially in the exciting episode "Dissolved". In "Tipping Point", Hector Salazar is out of jail and goes undercover to help Horatio solve a murder. "Presumed Guilty" and "Sink or Swim" is an exciting two-part episode with guest star Sean Combs. He is a hotshot defense attorney whose tactics are borderline shady and changes his tune when his fiance is murdered. In "Wolfe in Sheep's Clothing", Ryan is tortured and blackmailed to make evidence disappear.

Overall, CSI: Miami's seventh season continues to be an entertaining experience with plenty of great storylines and all-around fun episodes. The show utilizes its strong points and builds upon them with solid character development. However, while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I did not feel it had the same oomph as season six. Still, there are enough great developments, stories, and twists and turns to keep fans on the edge of their seats.

Episode Guide

1. Resurrection: We pick up from where we left off in Season 6 with Horatio being shot as the team comes to grips with his death. Juan Ortega, a known munitions dealer selling rare fused alloy bullets, had recently put a hit on Horatio.
2. Won't Get Fueled Again: A man who was set on fire crashes through a beach party. The probe reveals the victim was involved in stealing gasoline. The new medical examiner Tara Price joins the team.
3. And How Does That Make You Kill?: The team is investigating the murder of Chelsea Marsh, Daughter of Dr. Rachel Marsh, after she is found dead in her mother's home office. The list of suspects includes some of Dr. Marsh's patients, family members and an ex-boyfriend, Shane Huntington.
4. Raging Cannibal: Horatio and his team investigate two dead men that turn up in the everglades. It becomes obvious that one of the dead men, Vince Koslov, had killed the other, Andrew Brodsky, in a particularly brutal display, by biting his neck and eating it.
5. Bombshell: When teen Kim Walderman dies in an explosion while trying on clothes in the dressing room of a high end boutique, Horatio and the team investigate the source of the blast.
6. Wrecking Crew: William Campbell, a prime witness who is about testify against big time gangster Joe Salucci, is murdered when a huge crane crashes into the high rise safe house that he's staying at.
7. Cheating Death: Steve Howell is found stabbed to death in his hotel room. The primary suspect is Christina Dodd who was lying next to him in bed unharmed, with no recollection of what happened.
8. Gone Baby Gone: When a couple snatches a baby, Sophie Walsh, away from her mother, Jill Walsh, and disappears in the resulting chaos, the CSIs are called in to help follow the evidence to find Sophie.
9. Power Trip: When a young co-ed is found electrocuted with her pupils fully dilated, making her blinded by light and unable to fight back, the team suspects it's the work of a killer from a year ago.
10. The Deluca Motel: In the morning hours shots ring out at a run down motel, leaving a young man floating face down in the pool. But what makes this case different is that Delko is taking refuge in this motel and he was grazed by one of the bullets.
11. Tipping Point: The CSIs investigate the murder of a neighborhood do-gooder who was known on the streets as Reverend Mike for his work trying to keep kids out of gangs. The team runs into a roadblock until an anonymous crime "tipster" comes forward with key evidence which points to a local gang, Los Craneos.
12. Head Case: When a man covered in blood thinks he killed someone but has no memory of how he got blood on him, Horatio and the team have the tough job of filling in his memory. The man, Doug Benson, has amnesia brought on by a traumatic event.

13. And They're Offed: The team delves into the world of horseracing when a racehorse owner, Robert Banyon, is killed at the track. Video of the race shows Banyon's horse, an odds on favorite to win, slowed up before the finish line, leading the team to suspect the race was fixed.
14. Smoke Gets In Your CSI's: While Calleigh and Ryan are investigating a dead body in the attic of a foreclosed home, they are caught of guard by a shooter who opens fire on the attic floor and sets the house on fire with an improvised bomb.
15. Presumed Guilty: After the CSIs testify in the murder trial of a woman killed at a country club and a jury reaches a guilty verdict based on the team's evidence, Horatio finds new evidence that suggests the convicted killer, Alfonso Reyes, is innocent.
16. Sink Or Swim: Derek Powell, is throwing a party on his yacht when a man and a woman come aboard and hijack the boat. They rob all the passengers but when two of the guests try to stop them, mayhem ensues and Derek's fiancee, Nadine, is shot and killed.
17. Divorce Party: Amy Lansing is celebrating her divorce from her husband Roger with a ceremony much like the one in which she was married to him. She is in for the shock of her life when his body comes tumbling out of the wood canopy and hangs, dead in front of her.
18. Fight Risk: Passengers in the baggage claim area of the Grove International Airport are in for a big surprise when one of the flight attendants comes tumbling out with the baggage, dead.
19. Target Specific: Personal chef to the rich and famous, MEGAN HAMILTON is found stabbed within an inch of her life inside her apartment. A print on the knife used leads Horatio to Partick Garrity who specializes in import & exports.
20. Wolfe In Sheep's Clothing: After being tortured by one of Ivan Sarnoff's henchman, Ryan is released with the stipulation that unless he helps them make a robbery-homicide go away, they will kill Billy Gantry.
21. Chip/Tuck: Tyler Marr is sick of his neighbor's construction crew constantly waking him up at 8 in the morning. He finally goes to confront him on it, using his video camera for back up, only to discover the source of the noise is the wood chipper and someone's inside!
22. Dead On Arrival: A Bachelor-esque type of show "The Marrying Kind" has Neil Palmer down to two women - Kaitlin Sawyer and Grace Carlson¬, whom he has to choose between to marry and award their million dollar prize.
23. Collateral Damage: When a grenade is thrown into Miami restaurant, Tisano's, kills two people and injures others, the CSIs are brought in to investigate
24. Dissolved: Horatio goes head to head with Ron Saris, now a criminal informant, when the person, Jimmy Castigan, at who's house he's staying, falls into the pool and is boiled to death by a highly toxic acid.
25. Seeing Red: Ivan Sarnoff is poisoned at the prison cafeteria. The ambulance, taking him to Dade General is stopped and then t-boned by an SUV, forcing it into the path of an incoming train.

The DVD

Video:
The video in this release is given in an enhanced anamorphic 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color format. The picture quality is quite good. It suffers from a slight grain, but detail remains to be sharp and clear. However, there are some occasional moments when the picture suffers compression artifacts. This is a rare occurrence, but it does happen.

Audio:
The audio in this release is given in English 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound. There is also a dubbed Spanish 2.0 Dolby digital stereo sound track. Overall, the sound quality is very good, providing an audible and clean audio track. The 5.1 track sounds great, with the majority of activity in the forward channels. Music and sound effects sound very rich and vibrant. There is support for closed captioning, but no DVD subtitles.

Extras:

• Audio Commentaries: are included for episodes "Wrecking Crew" with Joe Chappelle, Larry Detwiler, and Corey Miller, and "Gone Baby Gone" with Don Tardino, Barry O'Brien, and Carey Meyer.
• Miami Classified: is indicated as an extra. However, I could not find it on any on the season seven DVDs.
• The Miami Sound Machine (30:00): is all about the noise behind CSI Miami. It stars Marco Black, Sunil Nayar, Melissa Black, Tim Kimmel, Brian Davidson, John Bauman, Donavan Dear, James Mase, Chris Walmer, PJ Bloom, Adam Rodriguez, Rex Linn, and others. They offer their perspectives about the importance of sound to the show and how it is critical aspect to making it realistic and dramatic. The discussion also covers various aspects from production sound crew, difficulties, post production sound, music, correlating sound/music to scripts, and so on.
• The New AV Lab (14:06): is a featurette about the newest set on the show, the audio/video lab (introduced in season six). This set appears in a many episodes and includes some neat special effects. The CSIs use it to analyze digital information projected as a hologram. This featurette goes into its history, filming with it, special effects necessary to make it look real, and so on. It has Don Tardino, Larry Detwiler, Sunil Nayar, Barry O'Brien, Joe Chappelle, Robert Konuch, Jonathan Togo, Eva La Rue, Emily Proctor, Adam Rodriguez, and others.
• Heating Up Season 7 (21:30): is about the changes in season seven, which start with the intense season premiere. Individuals such as Barry O'Brien, Sunil Nayar, Don Tardino, Eva La Rue, Jonathan Togo, Emily Proctor, Rex Linn, Evan Ellingson, Adam Rodriguez, and others continue to discuss dramatic storylines, key episodes, and changes to season seven.

Final Thoughts:
CSI: Miami's seventh season continues to build on the same qualities that have made past seasons entertaining. The show is sexy, flash, exciting, and intense with its investigations, forensics, character development, drama, and action. The show has a lot of going on and handles it very well. In particular, this season has strong developments for its characters, which include an in-office romance, Delko learning about his father, Horatio and crew versus the Russian mob, and more. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.