'CSI: NY - The Seventh Season'
(Gary Sinise, Sela Ward, et al / 6-Disc DVD / NR / 2011 / CBS-Paramount)
Overview: The Big Apple never sleeps and neither do the criminals in 'CSI: NY - The Seventh Season.' In this season, the CSI team welcomes its newest member: former FBI agent Jo Danville, played by Sela Ward.
DVD Verdict: WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS COMING! ... As I revealed in a previous 'CSI' DVD review, and thus getting this straight from the start, I am a HUGE fan of ALL the 'CSI' shows. Indeed, this past week I sat down and watched both 'CSI: Miami' and 'CSI: NY,' their latest full seasons back to back - and loved every single second of the viewing experience!
In 'Unfriendly Chat,' a young girl is killed online live in front of Adam (A. J. Buckley), and in 'Damned If You Do,' a couple are viciously murdered in their bed - but could their own son be the killer? In 'Sangre Por Sangre,' a Puerto Rican gang leader (Edward James Olmos), and an old foe of Mac's is released from prison and soon the bodies are piling up. And in 'Out Of The Sky,' a high rise shoot out leaves Mac with thoughts that it could be more than first meets the eye. In the Under The Microscope special feature for this episode they show how the CGI all comes together. Very interesting - and revealing!
In 'Don't Pass Go,' a body is found dead in a classic car high atop a building and a deadly game is underway. And in 'Hide Sight,' a sniper is at large in NY. This is also the start of the three episode arc of the great John Larroquette as Mac's boss, Chief Carver. In 'Scared Stiff,' a young girl is literally, or so it seems, scared to death. A little bit of a ghost tale also, it also turns out that Chief Carver's sister is found dead in the park too! In 'Justified,' a young woman gets killed and dumped in the river and soon the wrap comes for Chief Carver's own running plot line.
In 'Shop Till You Drop,' a Christmas tale soon brings us a bloody store window killing, before 'To What End' tells the story of a clown killing a bakery owner in broad daylight - and then 100 other clowns show up to the crime scene for fun! In 'Holding Cell,' a young club promoter is found dead in his aparament, in 'Party Down' a party inside the back of a hitched trailer ends up in the river, and in 'Smooth Criminal,' Ne-Yo takes center stage as a cool hitman.
In 'Vigilante,' a man is killed in the way a serial killer is only killing his female pray, before in 'The Untouchable' Mac gets kidnapped, dumped in an alley, warned off the case he is on, and has to figure out why! This one includes an elite VIP club and a street girl lost and lonely. In 'Do Or Die,' a private school student is beaten to death and Mac and company try to figure out why. In 'Identity Crisis' (aka 'Con Girl'), when an old man is killed on a subway platform, it seems "he" wasn't so old after all! In 'Food For Thought,' Sheldon Hawkes
(Hill Harper) gets another date with the victim of the Ne-Yo episode, but a food truck suddenly exploding near them and killing its owner changes that romantic moment.
In 'Nothing For Something,' a young woman's dead body is found in her underwear in the park. This is a two-parter that features the return to TV of Peter Fonda as Mac's old cop partner. Mac also finds he now has a target on his back, which comes to the fore in the follow-on episode, 'Life Sentence,' when the lab comes under fire from an automatic weapon outside across the way. This, as mentioned in the special features is the episode with the most amount of bullets shown, fired, and collected in any of the shows history thus far!
In the season ender, 'Exit Strategy,' Mac has a rude awakening atop a rain-socked roof with a gun to his head, before going in search of a little girl who he has just discovered has been missing since 2002. It is his last unsolved case file on his desk and with thoughts of quitting on his mind, he vows to wrap this one final case up.
It was a new night, a new time, and had new cast members and yet this seventh season didn't stumble once, for my money. The most annoying thing I have to say about the show though is that Dr. Sid Hammerback (Robert Joy) down in autopsy always has to click together and unclick his glasses - when all he has to do is simply lift them from his nose and drop them to his neck line! As that's where they end up anyway! So, why does he have to have his clicking on and off glasses in the first place?! Another annoying moment is the fake desk they work on that is supposed to be digital and opens things up when they touch it! Bollocks! As if a Crime Lab in NY would have such sci-fi technology and use it in such a manner. Anyway, in one of the special features behind the scenes chat, Gary Sinese was asked what he had wanted from the seventh season and he responded with, "All we asked is that people kept watching!" And they did, Mac, they did! These are all Full-Screen Presentations (1.77:1), and come with the Special Features of:
Seventh Deadly Season
New in Town: Jo Danville
An Extended Visit: John Larroquette Comes to CSI: NY
Wild Ride: On the Set with Peter Fonda
Deleted Scenes
Gag Reel
Under The Microscope Blogs
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