CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (1 Viewer)

[Pete Battista]

Decided to start watching the original CSI tonight. This is a long running series... so at a couple episodes per night it should take me quite a while to get through them all.

 

[DavidMiller]

I have been watching CSI with my wife on Hulu. Great quality. I have been surprised. I think we are on Season 5.

 

[Matt Hough]

CSI was the show I was most eager to experience when I bought my first HDTV (a 42" Toshiba rear projection set), and I was never disappointed. I think for me this was the series that brought a feature film quality look and feel to a network television show. No wonder it was such a game changer.

 

[Stan]

Early years are the best with the Grissom and Sidle characters, I still watch repeats of those. Started to fade when they brought in Lawrence Fishburne. When Elisabeth Shue and Ted Danson showed up, the show was totally destroyed.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I am a huge fan of William Peterson's portrayal of Gil Grissom. I think Grissom is one of the most original and interesting characters to appear on a network procedural, and that's what got me into CSI in the first place. Even though the show was very rarely serialized (with a few key exceptions), Peterson was able to suggest the effect that time would play on someone working such a dark job over such a long period of time, and the tragedies that befell those around him could be seen reflecting in his eyes even when the episode otherwise had nothing to do with an ongoing storyline. I miss that character greatly.

I continued watching during the Laurence Fishburne years. I appreciated that rather than writing it so that Fishburne would be the new boss, they instead elevated Catherine (which would have been the logical, real-world way of handling things) rather than giving the role to the flashy new lead actor. Having the "star" playing a character that was a rookie in a room full of veterans was an interesting choice, and I think it mostly worked.

But, with all due respect to Ted Danson, I just couldn't. I saw Danson's first episode and bailed immediately after that. I think part of it for me was that I couldn't get past Danson being a recognizable actor. Fishburne was able to disappear into the part for me, or at least, since his character was known for being a successful author and professor but not known as a crime scene guy, it worked to have him learning the ropes and I could accept that. But seeing Danson practically waltz in (or was he pretending to be a dead body?), with that somewhat glib moviestar persona and line readings, and it just didn't feel real to me. I couldn't not see Ted Danson.

 

[Pete Battista]

Very interesting.... I am actually looking forward to the entire series... though with low expectations for the later seasons. Thanks

 

[jcroy]

Fishburne was able to disappear into the part for me, or at least, since his character was known for being a successful author and professor but not known as a crime scene guy, it worked to have him learning the ropes and I could accept that. But seeing Danson practically waltz in (or was he pretending to be a dead body?), with that somewhat glib moviestar persona and line readings, and it just didn't feel real to me. I couldn't not see Ted Danson.

In the short-lived CSI Cyber spinoff, Ted Danson's DB character was portrayed as a fish out of water in the world of hacking. (Albeit hollywood's inaccurate portrayal of hacking).

But, with all due respect to Ted Danson, I just couldn't. I saw Danson's first episode and bailed immediately after that. I think part of it for me was that I couldn't get past Danson being a recognizable actor.

I never got that impression with Danson.

Though this could be due to me not watching Cheers or Becker back in the day. I didn't immediately recognize Danson as being a big name recognizable actor.

 

[Pete Battista]

As of last night I am already on the third disc of the first season. Obviously at this point I am still loving every minute of it.

 

[Stan]

But, with all due respect to Ted Danson, I just couldn't. I saw Danson's first episode and bailed immediately after that. I think part of it for me was that I couldn't get past Danson being a recognizable actor. Fishburne was able to disappear into the part for me, or at least, since his character was known for being a successful author and professor but not known as a crime scene guy, it worked to have him learning the ropes and I could accept that. But seeing Danson practically waltz in (or was he pretending to be a dead body?), with that somewhat glib moviestar persona and line readings, and it just didn't feel real to me. I couldn't not see Ted Danson.

Slightly off-topic, but when Danson showed up in "Saving Private Ryan", took me completely out of the film, terrible choice when casting that part.

Not totally trashing the later years of CSI. There was a really good story arc with Bill Irwin, pretty creepy.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I feel like at some point it'll probably circle back and watch the CSI years that I missed. At a certain point the allure of having a pile of unseen new CSI episodes will outweigh the fact that they're missing my favorite cast member(s).

It's a shame that after reissuing Season 1 on BD that CBS stopped. It looks spectacular compared to the DVDs of the later seasons, and I gladly would have repurchased the earlier seasons to upgrade to HD.

 

[Stan]

Fishburne was able to disappear into the part for me, or at least, since his character was known for being a successful author and professor but not known as a crime scene guy, it worked to have him learning the ropes and I could accept that. But seeing Danson practically waltz in (or was he pretending to be a dead body?), with that somewhat glib moviestar persona and line readings, and it just didn't feel real to me. I couldn't not see Ted Danson.

That's what was so awful about choosing Danson. Ted Danson isn't an actor, he can't do anything except play "Ted Danson". He's made truckloads of money doing it, but to put him into a serious, dramatic role? No way could he pull that off. Used to like Elisabeth Shue, but she just came off as a snarky, arrogant bitch.

This show could still be going on like NCIS, but really screwed things up towards the end.

 

[Pete Battista]

I only have 3 episodes of season 1 left to watch. Since I am off work today I hope to finish it off today. First season has been great and added several more seasons to my collection. I believe I only need 2 more seasons to have the entire series.

 

[Stan]

I only have 3 episodes of season 1 left to watch. Since I am off work today I hope to finish it off today. First season has been great and added several more seasons to my collection. I believe I only need 2 more seasons to have the entire series.

Hope you enjoy it. Like I said, the earlier seasons with Grissom, Sarah, Nick, Catherine and Greg were wonderful. Downhill after they started changing the cast members.

 

[Matt Hough]

My favorite season one episode is the one where Nick finds himself unknowingly trapped in a house with the killer ready to off him. When it dawns on him that his life is about to be ended, the way his face falls and his eyes fill with tears knowing he had only seconds left to live made a stupendous impression on me, and I've never forgotten it.

 

[Stan]

My favorite season one episode is the one where Nick finds himself unknowingly trapped in a house with the killer ready to off him. When it dawns on him that his life is about to be ended, the way his face falls and his eyes fill with tears knowing he had only seconds left to live made a stupendous impression on me, and I've never forgotten it.

I still remember that episode. Have never come across it since, but keep trying. Maybe time to buy the discs.

 

[jcroy]

It's a shame that after reissuing Season 1 on BD that CBS stopped. It looks spectacular compared to the DVDs of the later seasons, and I gladly would have repurchased the earlier seasons to upgrade to HD.

Not surprisingly, the CSI blurays have been dump bin fodder for quite awhile.

Besides the hd quality video, the other big selling point for the CSI season 1 bluray were the episodes being in 16:9 widescreen.

In contrast, my old dvd copy of season 1 was in 4:3 fullscreen. (IIRC, the season 2 and later dvd sets were all done in anamorphic widescreen).

 

[Matt Hough]

Ugh! I can't bear to watch shows I saw originally in 16:9 in their 4:3 incarnations. On my old cable line-up, there were SD and HD incarnations of a few networks, and I remember several times inadvertently tuning to the SD feed before realizing my mistake and switching over to the HD version. And our ABC station used to have to flick a switch to make the SD feed go to HD. Several times watching Lost and other ABC programs, I had to CALL the station to remind them to turn HD on! They eventually gave me the number to call the engineer directly so I wouldn't have to go through the switchboard.

 

[jcroy]

Ugh! I can't bear to watch shows I saw originally in 16:9 in their 4:3 incarnations. On my old cable line-up, there were SD and HD incarnations of a few networks, and I remember several times inadvertently tuning to the SD feed before realizing my mistake and switching over to the HD version.

I only really started watching CSI when multiple daily reruns were being played to death on basic cable channels like Spike and aetv. In those days circa 2007, I wasn't subscribed to any hd feeds of any cable channels. So most of my viewing was still in sd resolution at 4:3 fullscreen. (I only really started watching everything in hd sometime in the early 2010s).

So watching CSI in 16:9 widescreen was more of a recent thing for me, such as the dvds/blurays and on hd broadcasts.

 

[jcroy]

On a different note, I wonder if the upcoming CSI complete series dvd set will have the season 1 discs redone in 16:9 widescreen (like the blurays).

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/CSI-The-Complete-Series/23634

Though I suspect if CBS doesn't really care much anymore about CSI, then I wouldn't be surprised if they take the lazy way out and just "recycle" the old season one 4:3 fullscreen dvd discs (from 2003) into this upcoming complete series set.