DVD Review: CSI Miami The Fifth Season

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Director: Numerous
Writers: Numerous
Cast: David Caruso, Emily Procter, Adam Rodriquez, Khandi Alexander
Rating: TV14
Studio: CBS/Paramount
Release Date: October 30, 2007

CSI Miami is a spin-off show of the widely successful CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) series, which also airs on CBS. CSI Miami is currently in season six and has offered five full seasons of DVD releases, this being the most recent. The goal, from the looks of things, was to offer a CSI that had more action and danger than the original or the other CSI spin-offs for that matter. In the end, they are all similar, but meant to offer you new working situations and subtle differences to keep the average person happy and watching.

This is actually my first time watching CSI Miami. I have watched the others, but for one reason or another I have never checked this one out. I cannot say how much the series has diminished over the years due to that fact. That being said I was neither hating the series nor loving what I saw. It was watchable television that had some good and bad moments. I don’t know that I will be setting my DVR for it, but it wasn’t the worst hours I have spent watching something.

Release Info:
CBS and Paramount Pictures released season five of CSI Miami on October 30, 2007. CSI Miami comes in a six disc set that includes all of the season five episodes plus a large selection of extras. Fans of CSI Miami will definitely want to add this to their collection. As for new watchers, you may want to check out the beginning of the series first or at least rent the season before making this a must have purchase.

The CSI Miami Plot:
CSI Miami place in Florida in the Dade County area. Like the other CSI shows, CSI Miami is a crime drama that revolves around criminal cases, solving mysteries, and the crew that handles bringing down the bad guys. Generally, what you get is a dynamic blend of characters, exciting mysteries and criminal elements, and office drama that fuels the show. In this case, CSI Miami is able to deliver something worth watching. There are some flat moments and if you attempt to compare it to other shows in the genre you may find you are partial to the others, or at least I did.

This season starts out as an extension of the last. Marisol (Alana De La Garza), Delko’s (Adam Rodriguez) sister just married Caine (David Caruso). However, one bullet would change all that and when Marisol dies, the two men go off to handle their thirst for revenge in Brazil. As you can imagine, this leads the season to start in a new land. This was interesting because the boundaries of US law no longer applied to them where they were.

The Delko siblings must not have good luck because after the sister dies, the brother ends up being served a foolish lawsuit and getting stuck in a trap that was meant for Caine. The trap leads to some life threatening situations that are bad enough to leave him unable to do his job correctly in addition to some other issues he must face. While others will face trouble, some of them find that this trouble occurs due to their own stupidity.

Wolfe (Jonathan Togo) ends up causing himself a considerable amount of trouble in the job as he deals with gambling problems. His hotheaded nature and his bad luck shine through, especially towards the end of the season. Meanwhile, Wolfe’s self-created drama is only trumped by Boa Vista (Eva La Rue), who causes the end of a person’s life while pinning herself with a potentially deadly bullseye.

I am not sure if this is because it is Miami or its just coincidence, but it seems the rich and possibly famous are always on the giving or receiving end of trouble. The season has its high and low moments. One of the highest moments is in “No Man’s Land”, which brings numerous conflicts that come into play. This episode offers one of two chase scenes when Clavo Cruz escapes from custody and Caine sets out to find him.

Audio/Visual:
CSI Miami offers a compression ratio of 2.35:1 and comes through offering vivid colors and strong visual aspects. There are no problems with the visual aspects of the CSI Miami Box Set, at all. The quality starts out strong and stays that way the entire series. The audio also comes through perfectly. I don’t have the specific specs, but I am going to guess it is Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Either way, the sound was strong the entire way through and complimented the visual quality perfectly.

Special Features:
Audio commentaries are available on five episodes this season. The episodes that received commentary include “Rio”, “Death Pool 100”, “Death Eminent”, “Darkroom”, and “Man Down.” In addition to the commentary there is also five featurettes included in the CSI Miami Box Set. The featurettes include “Rio Grand: CSI Miami Goes to Rio”, “If Looks Could Kill: Special F/X Makeup”, “Turning Up the Heat: The Look of CSI Miami”, “Dressing the Part”, and “The Real MDPD with Jonathan Togo.” All of the featurettes were incredibly interesting though if I had to pick favorites they include “Rio Grand”, “Special F/X Makeup”, and “The Real MDPD with Jonathan Togo.”

Bottom Line:
If you are new to CSI Miami you might find this season to be slightly confusing at times. It seemed that a great deal of time was spent completing various older storylines rather than working on new or separate ones. If you have been a fan from the beginning this is going to be a must have for you. Overall, the season wasn’t bad. There was plenty of action and murder and the acting was on par with other shows of this type.