When a television series is this incredible (you can throw in awesome and amazing, too), you don't want it to change. But in this, the seventh season of C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, there are undeniable signs of growth in the show: more development of the characters, story arcs, and themes. In the fifth season, there was the two-part episode entitled "Grave Danger" that had Quentin Tarantino behind the camera directing. At that time, I believed they had reached a level of greatness that was unprecedented in television. The writing, directing, and the performance of George Eades (Nick Stokes) was absolutely fantastic. The sense of dread, the mounting suspense, and the unending excitement was completely enthralling. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the sixth season delivered another incredible two-parter with "A Bullet Runs Through It." This one literally opens with a bang as the police get into a shootout that ultimately leads to an officer being killed - another mind-blower with tremendous action, a great twist, and two of the best performances ever on the show from Louise Lombard (Sofia Curtis) and Paul Guilfoyle (Jim Brass) that can bring a tear to your eye. So that begs the question: what is the seventh season going to deliver that will top the previous seasons? The answer comes in the form of the "Miniature Killer." This was the main over-arching theme (the first time for C.S.I.) to the season, and ultimately, a crucial ingredient to the cliffhanger season-ender, where a killer leaves exact miniature replicas of the crime scene. But there is so much more. This season not only has super taut writing, excellent plots and subplots; there are also some fine performances, especially Marg Helgenberger in "Built To Kill," where her character, Catherine Willows, is date-raped. Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders) also gets highlighted in "Post Mortem," where he is confrotned by an angry mob and kills a young man with his truck in self-defense. This is the season in which the brains behind C.S.I. were finally able to get Roger Daltrey of The Who fame to appear in an episode ("Living Legend"), and it's also the season where William Petersen's character, Gil Grissom, takes a sabbatical and Liev Schrieber (Mike Keppler) joins the cast for a few episodes. With twenty-four episodes, there are sooo many highlights that I can't name them all. Suffice to say that season seven has its share of comical and dramatic moments, all while delivering tremendously entertaining mysteries. |
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