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CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The First Season

One of the greatest success stories in post-milennial television is CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Now incorporating two other series (CSI: Miami and CSI: NY), the franchise all started with the mothership launched in 2000 by powerful Hollywood executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer and creator Anthony E. Zuiker. Though a procedural somewhat in the vein of the Law & Order series, CSI punches up its storytelling with biologically invasive visual effects and a soapy interest in its characters' sexy private lives.

The series follows the exploits of the team of criminalists working the graveyard shift of the Las Vegas Crime Lab ("the number two crime lab in the country"): supervisor Dr. Gil "Gruesome" Grissom (William Petersen of Manhunter); assistant supervisor Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), a single mother troubleshooting her ex-husband (Timothy Carhart); a team of "CSI-3"s (Jorja Fox's Sara Sidle, George Eads' Nick Stokes, and Gary Dourdan's Warrick Brown); and DNA/trace technician Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda). (Robert David Hall also turns up frequently as Coroner Albert Robbins.) Calling the shots is the punnily named detective Captain Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle).

The hook of the series is that crimes are solved on the basis of evidence, scientifically collected. Though these CSIs frequently overstep their bounds by doing witness interviews, it's basically all about the evidence, collected through high-tech toys and low-tech tricks as Grissom reminds his investigators to keep emotions and assumptions at bay. The series' appeal is largely its scientific angle, little explored by the time the series debuted (though some will recall the unfortunately short-lived UNSUB as having focused on crime scene investigation, employing similar style and substance). Danny Cannon, who directed the pilot and many subsequent episodes, established a much-copied slick style incorporating fantastic voyages into corpses.

The series' signature theme song--The Who's "Who Are You?"--plays on the search for perps, but also the show's interest in its characters, who Catherine describes as "not Crime Scene Investigators. We're just a bunch of kids that are getting paid to solve puzzles." Grissom resembles the remark. He's distinguished first and foremost by his forensic genius (with a special emphasis on entymology), but also by his penchant for cultural references and puzzles and his anemic social life: he lives for his work. Offering a potential respite from his loneliness is attractive forensic artist Teri Miller (Pamela Gidley of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me).

Miller exemplifies Season One's interest in story arcs spread over a few episodes. Another, left unresolved in Season One, involves a serial killer toying with Grissom. Other CSIs toy with romance, such as Catherine's flirtation with a structural engineer played by Brad Johnson (Always), and Warrick struggles with a gambling addiction. TV fans will also note the presence of a number of familiar faces in guest star roles: Rainn Wilson (The Office), Gregg Henry (Payback), Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), Jarrad Paul (Monk), Mark Valley (Fringe), Gregory Itzin (24), John Beasley (Everwood), Sam Jones III (Smallville), Glenn Morshower (24), and Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard), among them.

CSI is mainstream TV that's not deep or challenging or realistic, but its strong hook and snazzy style have served it well for nine seasons. Who woulda thunk a show about cops greeted as "the nerd squad" would becomes a smash hit, finishing every season in TV's Top 10?