CSI: Miami – Season Two

 

Picture:  B     Sound: B     Extras: B+     Episodes: B-

 

 

Most CSI: Miami and CSI: New York reviews start off with a rant about how they are easy cash knock offs of their superior predecessor.  I am going to skip that obligatory section of my review to get straight to the point; is CSI: Miami Season two worth its hefty retail price tag?  (A brief overview of CSI’s history is available in our review of the first season of CSI: Miami first season located elsewhere on this site).  The good news about CSI: Miami is that the series has already had 3 years of CSI production experience and its producers should know what it takes to get the ratings needed to tell a compelling story.  Judging from the fact that CSI Miami is entering its 4^th season this fall as of this posting, it is safe to say they at least met the first part of that criteria.  CSI Miami looks good.  There is no doubt about that but does it tell a compelling story?

 

When I think about a television series telling a compelling story, I don’t judge that on a week-to-week stand-alone episode basis.  I am interested in investing myself in the characters of the show and seeing how the shows adapt and change throughout each season.  CSI: Las Vegas barely gives it’s devoted viewers enough of that which leaves them coming back and wanting more and I was hoping to get more from CSI Miami.  In Season One of CSI Miami, Horatio Cane (David Caruso) came off as a demanding and often times disgruntled leader who at times turned me against the show.  In Season Two, it seems Cane’s character had taken a turn for the better.  This improvement makes the show more interesting but I don’t believe this improvement elevates CSI: Miami over CSI: Las Vegas.  Yes, CSI Miami tells a good story each week and has a fairly high production value but in the end so does its predecessor.  I would rather watch CSI: Las Vegas over CSI: Miami any day. 

 

All three of the CSI seasons make me want to reflect on older films that were up to date, in style and forensically and technically correct for their time.  If I were to watch those films again, they would feel twice their original length and one quarter of the quality of the CSI series.  A great example of this is the 1990 Harrison Ford film Presumed Innocent.  I first saw this film before watching any episodes of CSI and at the time it seemed pretty powerful.  Now it comes off as an overly long version of a bad episode of CSI.  I don’t want to solely credit CSI for making film and other television faster paced but I find comparing the differences between the mediums of the late 80’s and today’s to be quite interesting.

                                         

Improving over Season One’s DVD set, there are now seven audio commentaries each denoted with a *:

 

1)     Blood Brothers*

2)     Dead Zone

3)     Hard Time

4)     Death Grip

5)     The Best Defense

6)     Hurricane Anthony*

7)     Grand Prix

8)     Big Brother

9)     Bait

10)  Extreme

11)  Complications*

12)  Witness To Murder*

13)  Blood Moon

14)  Slow Burn

15)  Stalkerazzi

16)  Invasion

17)  Money For Nothing

18)  Wannabe*

19)  Deadline

20)  The Oath

21)  Not Landing

22)  Rap Sheet

23)  MIA/NYC – NonStop*

24)  Innocent

 

The video quality for this set is on par with, if not a little better then it was for Season One.  The improvement in the shows production quality also had a hand in this.  The producers of this set wisely put the extra content on 7^th disc maximizing the video quality.  The 5.1 Dolby Digital surround mix is just as good as the mixes on each of the other CSI sets with the exception of CSI: Las Vegas which only had Dolby 2.0 Stereo and was only viewable in pan and scan. 

 

Not only did moving the extras to their own disc improve the episodes’ video quality but it also improved the quality of the video in extras.  In previous CSI sets (CSI: Las Vegas in particular), the extra material was squeezed onto the 6^th disc at the cost of video quality that did not meet the content’s quality.   The only disappointment I have about the extra disc is that they definitely had the space to add more extra content, so why not add it?  The features that are on the disc are interesting:  ranging from a tour of the CSI: Miami lab to featurettes on the improvements that have been implemented since the show debuted.  CSI Miami - Season Two is a fast paced crime drama capable of standing on its own without a predecessor.  It is compelling and well worth viewing.  The only problem with it is that I would much rather stand next to the original.

 

 

-   Jimm Needle