This article is about the television series. For the computer game, see CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (computer game).

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (commonly referred to as CSI) is a popular, Emmy Award-winning CBS television series that trails the investigations of a team of forensic scientists as they unravel the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths and crimes committed in and around Las Vegas, Nevada. Ranked first in the June 2005 Nielsen Ratings with an average viewership of 16 million a night, the show serves as the backbone of CBS's leading Thursday lineup. The 2004-2005 season finale, directed by Quentin Tarantino, was watched by over 40 million viewers, making it one of the most watched shows in history. The show averages 30 million viewers every week and as of February 2006, CBS reported that over 90 million viewers have tuned into the series this year alone. The show is produced in partnership with the Canadian media company Alliance Atlantis.

On June 9, 2006, episodes of CSI, along with other episodes of CBS television shows were made available for purchase at the iTunes Music Store [1].

Style

Stylistically, the show has drawn favorable comparisons to Quincy and The X-Files. The show's character gadgets and occasion usage of yet-to-be-invented technology has moved the show nominally into the genre of science fiction and garnered it with a 2004 Saturn Award nomination for best science fiction, fantasy, or horror television series.

The series is known for its unusual camera angles, percussive editing techniques, hi-tech gadgets, detailed technical discussion, and graphic portrayal of bullet trajectories, blood spray patterns, organ damage, methods of evidence recovery (e.g. fingerprints from the inside of latex gloves), and crime reconstructions. Many episodes feature lengthy scenes in which experiments, tests, or other technical work is portrayed in detail, usually with no sound except accompanying music — a technique reminiscent of Mission: Impossible. Often the lighting, composition, and mise-en-scene elements are heavily influenced by avant-garde organ.

Characters

Controversy

CSI has often been criticized for showing what is believed to be gratuitous amounts of graphic violence, gruesome images and sexual content, more than what is normally acceptable on network television and the limits of the television rating for certain episodes. The show also seems to focus on sexual fetishism and other forms of sexual pleasure. However, spokespeople for the show state that the content is not meant to be gratuitous at all and that it is necessary and relevant to the plot of episodes. For example, if a woman is killed in a ritualistic fashion after consuming illegal drugs at an adults-only nightclub, it would be necessary to show some of that content. In the episode "The Hunger Artist" a super model is found murdered in a Las Vegas back alley. The corpse has been disfigured and, later in the episode, it is shown exactly how the disfigurements occurred in a bloody flash back scene.

R1 DVD releases

On May 21, 2006 tvshowsondvd.com announced that The Complete Sixth Season would be released on DVD sometime in September [2]

R2/R4 DVD Releases

Region 2 and 4 DVD releases have followed a pattern whereby each season is progressively released in two parts (each of 11 or 12 episodes, with special features split up) before finally being sold as a single box set. The region 4 releases are, inexplicably, almost a year behind region 2, with no planned changes in the release schedule apparent at present.

Broadcasters

Episode list

Main article: List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes

Awards

• 2002 Emmy Award - Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non Prosthetic)
• 2003 Emmy Award - Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series
• 2003 Telegatto - Best TV Series (Italy)
• 2005 People's Choice Awards - Choice TV Drama
• 2005 People's Choice Awards - Choice TV Actress - Marg Helgenberger
• 2006 People's Choice Awards - Choice TV Drama

Trivia

• CSI comic books are produced by IDW Publishing. The comic books feature two different art styles throughout with a conventional style for the bulk of the story and a darker and more abstract style for the investigators' imaginings of how the crimes occurred based on the evidence they find. So far there have been more than half a dozen mini-series based on CSI, CSI Miami and CSI NY.
• CSI is the most watched American TV show in the Netherlands, with over a million viewers tuning in every week.
• It was William Petersen's idea to have his character be named Grissom, as Petersen is a devoted fan of the US space program (in particular, astronaut Gus Grissom).
• Six years before CSI premiered, Marg Helgenberger and Gary Dourdan starred together in a TV pilot called "Keys". The premise of that pilot was very similar to the current premise of CSI.
• A scene featuring Willows and Stokes making out was filmed for the first season, but was not aired.
• There were rumors of a fourth CSI series, to be set in London and using "Eminence Front" as its theme tune, but the show never materialized and there are not presently any plans for such a spinoff.
• You often hear the characters referring to a four-nineteen (4-19,4/19, etc.) or sometimes a 4-45. These are the Las Vegas Metro 400 Event codes. The often-used 419 stands for 'deceased person,' while the less-used 445 is 'explosive device threat'. See External links for more examples.
• CSI's theme song is "Who Are You", written by Pete Townshend of The Who as the title track of their 1978 album. The show's spinoffs also use Who songs as their theme songs, "Won't Get Fooled Again" for CSI: Miami and "Baba O'Riley" for CSI: NY, both recorded by The Who in 1971 for their album Who's Next.
  • However, the UK DVD release of the first season (split across two volumes) used an alternative track to "Who Are You". The reasoning behind it is unclear. Subsequent seasons on DVD in the UK contain "Who Are You". Five's original broadcast and repeat showing of season one always had "Who Are You" as the theme song.
• The theme song, Who Are You, is often confused with episode #108, Who Are You?
• The show is also known to use Radiohead's music in many episodes; a total of four Radiohead songs appeared in the span of three episodes at the end of the show's third season.[5]
• Another frequently used musical artist is Marilyn Manson, who is also friends with CSI actor Eric Szmanda. Szmanda appeared in the video for Manson's song "sAINT.".
• Anthony E. Zuiker chose to set the series in Las Vegas because - as mentioned in the pilot episode - that city's crime lab is the second most active in the United States, after the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.
• The show utilizes a wide array of tactical flashlights; the most often-used light is the Surefire M4 Devastator.
• Episode 1.20: Sounds of Silence - At the end of the episode, Grissom talks to Dr. Gilbert in American Sign Language. What he is saying is that his mother lost her hearing when she was eight years old. He once asked her, 'What is it like to be deaf?' and she told Grissom, who loved to swim, that it was like being underwater. She also taught him that being deaf does not make one inferior and that deafness can be a blessing.
• Episode 3.5: Abra Cadaver - This episode features a guest appearance by Tom Noonan. Noonan and series star William Petersen played villain and hero, respectively, in the film Manhunter.
• Episode 3.15: Lady Heather's Box - In this episode, Lady Heather tells Grissom that she runs and owns a pornographic website. She informs him that the site is located at http://www.ladyheather.com/. Any attempts to visit the site in reality will be met with redirects to the official CSI site.
• Episode 202: Chaos Theory - This episode may have been at least partially inspired by Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey which contains at least similar themes and philosophy.
• Episode 223: The Hunger Artist - Title (and plot somewhat) taken from a short story by Franz Kafka called A Hunger Artist.
• Episode 406: Fur and Loathing - While many people comment that this episode is everything from "really weird" to "the funniest episode ever!" and "one of the best!!!!" [6], those in the furry fandom tend to feel that the episode, which involves the murder of a fursuiter caught in a tryst, lacks research and focuses mainly on the more sexual, yiffy aspects of the fandom, despite rumors that the producers had consulted a member of the furry community on the creation of the script; the original script was reported to have been far more degrading to the fandom than the actual script used. According to the listing at Wikifur, the episode was written with the help of some people in the furry fandom (and actually appearing in the episode as some of the convention goers), and has garnered a mixed rating in the fandom.[7]
  • Of note is that this particular episode is one of the top contenders for CSI to attain a possible jump the shark moment.[8]
• Episode 419: Bad Words - One of the two cases in this episode involves the death of a champion word game player. The word game involved is Logos, a Scrabble-like game which uses circular tiles and no board. It also involves the word exvins, a plural of exvin, defined by the victim to his opponent (the suspect) as a "wine aficionado who no longer drinks". Both words are correctly regarded as phonies (fake words) as both the American and British Scrabble lexicons (Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary and Official Scrabble Words respectively) do not list them. Furthermore, Sara said to Gil that the word EXVINS is not even "in the OED."
• Episode 508: Ch-Ch-Changes - The outlaw doctor who performs "benevolent" sex reassignment surgery goes by the name "Dr. Carl Benway." Dr. Benway is the name of "an amoral physician" in much of the writing of William S. Burroughs. "Ch-Ch-Changes" is a variation on the song "Changes" from the David Bowie album Hunky Dory. (The lyrics to "Changes" could be interpreted as Bowie's meditation on physical and emotional metamorphosis in a time of questioning one's true gender.)
  • The original showing of this episode closely coincided with Transgender Day of Remembrance
• Episode 524-525: Grave Danger: Vols. I & II - This season finale episode directed by Academy Award winner Quentin Tarantino has a very similar situation to a part of Tarantino's second Kill Bill film: CSI Nick Stokes is captured and buried alive in a Plexiglas coffin while an Internet camera broadcasts the whole thing to CSI headquarters. In Kill Bill Vol. 2, the Bride (Uma Thurman) was also buried alive in a coffin. In addition, Grissom and the Bride say the same phrase, "on any other day, you'd be one hundred percent right. But today, you're one hundred percent wrong" when asked if there were police outside a building and if she was lying about pregnancy, respectively.
  • Also, this episode was postponed by Five when it was due to be shown in the United Kingdom as it featured a suicide bomber. The episode was planned to be shown on 12 July 2005, just days after the London Bombings. However, the day it was planned to be shown, it was revealed suicide bombers committed the atrocities in London. Five quickly pulled it from schedules and showed it the next week instead.
  • Tarantino has stated that this episode was heavily inspired by the 1972 made-for-tv movie The Longest Night where a woman is kidnapped and buried alive for ransom.
• Over a dozen cast members from 24 have made guest appearances on the show.
• Marg Helgenberger, Jorja Fox And George Eads have made guest appearances on the show ER. Marg Helgenberger as the partner of Doug Ross' dad who steals $50 000 of her. Jorja Fox as medical intern Maggie Doyle. George Eads as Greg Powell a paramedic who kisses Carol Hathaway while she is engaged with Doug Ross.
• Episode 615: Pirates of the Third Reich - At the end of the episode, Grissom says stop to Lady Heather. This recalls episode 315, when Lady Heather says that Grissom could always say stop. This is a safe word.

External links

USA & Canada

• CBS' official CSI website
• CSI at EPisodeWorld.com
• CSI episode recaps from Seasons 1-5 at Television Without Pity
• CSI at the TV IV
• CSI Files - unofficial news website, spoilers and interviews
• CSI Guide - unofficial guide to all of the CSI episode shows
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation at the Internet Movie Database
• About.com: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• CSI Music at TuneFind.com
• Your Tax Dollars At Work- unofficial Grissom & Sara messageboard

Brazil

• CSI Las Vegas - Message Board (Portuguese)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Fotolog (Portuguese)

Europe

• The "CSI effect" - from described at BBC News
• "CSI effect" - News story on the CSI effect from The Guardian.
• Serie Database CSI - CSI German Portal
• SIC Online - CSI, Portugal's broadcaster website, with episode guides in Portuguese, cast info, pictures and news.
• Crimelab.NL - CSI - Contains an episode guide, quotes, facts, wallpapers, screen shots and message board.

Asia

• CSI:科学捜査班 - CSI Japanese Portal (managed by Kadokawa Herald Pictures)