Barnes & Noble

The 24 episodes of 2004-5 see some personnel shakeups in the Las Vegas CSI team, but the crimes and their solutions are just as fascinating and intricate as ever. "Viva Las Vegas," the season opener, finds lab man Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) out in the field at last, helping team leader Gil Grissom (William Petersen) investigate a fatal nightclub shooting. His replacement, Chandra (Reiko Aylesworth), gets off to a shaky start -- and that portends complications in future installments. Aisha Tyler guest-stars in a very strong episode, "What's Eating Gilbert Grissom," which finds Gil haunted by the reemergence of a serial killer the team failed to apprehend two years ago. In "Swap Meet," Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) persuades the powers-that-be to give her a shot at day-shift supervisor, a decision that sparks some tension. "Who Shot Sherlock?" offers a unique change of pace: leaving aside the gritty Vegas atmosphere for an hour, the team looks into the murder of a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast found in his Victorian-era home, a re-creation of the Great Detective's Baker Street digs. One of our favorite episodes is "Snakes," in which the severed head of an investigative journalist is discovered in a trash bin, and clues lead the team into the seedy underworld of Mexican drug dealers. But the highlight of the year is the season-ender, "Grave Danger." With a story by Quentin Tarantino (who also directed), the episode follows the agonizing search for Nick Stokes (George Eads), who has been kidnapped and buried alive in a Plexiglas coffin. It's pretty tough to maintain quality on a weekly schedule, but this show's creative team kept Season 5 on a very high level. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

As Season 4 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation drew to a close, it appeared as though a contract dispute would rob the series of two of its most popular characters, Las Vegas PD forensic specialists Sara Sidel (Jorja Fox) and Nick Stokes (George Eads). At the last moment, however, a suitable financial arrangement was worked out, and both characters -- and the actors who played them -- were retained for the whole of Season Five. New to the series is Reiko Aylesworth as Chandra Moore, a dedicated, no-nonsense lab tech who replaces Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) when Greg is promoted to CSI field duty. Both Chandra and Greg prove to be worthy to their new responsibilities, though both are somewhat nonplussed by being dropped head-first into a whole new world of investigation. In a major mid-season development, a storm of controversy attending the apparent bungling of a murder investigation prompts CSI boss Ecklie (Marc Vann) two split the forensics bureau into two teams, with senior officer Gil Grissom ({|William Petersen|}) heading one team, and his former assistant Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger). The arrangement is hardly to the liking of either party, especially when the efficiency their investigations are compromised by radical and often arbitrary budget cuts. Other demons plaguing the CSIers this season include the return of particularly vicious (and brilliant) serial killer from the earlier episode "The Execution of Catherine Willows", the revelation that a man with whom Catherine flirted in a bar is the prime suspect in a high-profile murder case, and the unpleasant childhood memories of Sara Sidel. The Grissom and Willows teams are reunited for the Quentin Tarantino-directed season finale, as the combined officers search for their colleague Nick Stokes, who has been buried alive in a casket filled with red ants by a maniacal murderer! Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 097368772625
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Time: 18:08:00
• Sales Rank: 8,496

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Viva Las Vegas
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Down the Drain
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Harvest
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Crow's Feet
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Swap Meet
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: What's Eating Gilbert Grissom?
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Formalities
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Ch-Ch-Changes
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Mea Culpa
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: No Humans Allowed
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Who Shot Sherlock?
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Snakes
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Nesting Dolls
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Unbearable
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: King Baby
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Big Middle
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Compulsion
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Spark of Life
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: 4 x 4
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Hollywood Brass
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Committed
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Weeping Willows
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Iced
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Grave Danger

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