CSI: NY - The Eighth Season

The (Semi) Final Season...
The eighth season of "CSI: NY" opens with Detective Mac Taylor (Gary Siniese) absent from the CSI Lab, on a DNA ID project associated with the 9/11 attacks, while Jo Danville (Sela Ward) is acting head of the CSI lab, and newly-promoted police sergeant Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) is working the streets as a uniformed cop. However, viewers need have no fear; the CSI Lab crew will be reunited within a few exciting episodes.

An early highlight of the season was a tasteful tribute to the 9/11 anniversary, as the characters discuss where they were when it all happened. Mac Taylor sheds some light on the fate of his long missing wife, while assisting an emotionally-damaged fellow public servant to face the day. A mid-season multi-episode thriller involves a case from Jo's past with the FBI, a serial rapist who resurfaces in NYC with disturbing consequences. In late season, Mac Taylor will hestitantly consider a relationship with a woman from his past as a police...

Missing Persons bureau....
CSI:NY continues to amaze its avid followers with the uncanny brilliance of mixing science and criminology. The characters grow and mature as personalities instead of tropes. Gary Sinise remains at the helm, and his trusty associates are Carmine Giovinazzo (in a wheelchair this year after a gunshot wound to the spine), Anna Belknap, autopsy expert Robert Joy, funky A.J. Buckley who adds much of the humor when necessary, the every bright Hill Harper, and the amazingly handsome and trustworthy actor Eddie Cahill. Now Sela Ward has stepped in to attempt to fill the shoes worn for so many seasons (2004 - 2010) by the beautiful and talented Melina Kanakaredes, who is a very much-missed member of the team for many reasons. The scripts remain tight and intelligent and the pacing of the show never misses a beat. This is television series at the highest level. Nice to know it has been picked up for another season. If only Melina Kanakaredes could slip back in from missing persons....Grady...

Great Season But Image Quality is lacking
Season 8 has it's flaws creatively, but it is definitely one of the better seasons for sure.

However, the one thing that bothered me about this DVD set was the image quality. Compared to past seasons of CSI:NY and even this year's releases of CSI and CSI:MIAMI, season eight of CSI:NY has a noticeable dip in quality, possibly due to excessive image compression. Some images are blocky (artifacting) and some jagged images (aliasing) appears in some of the action/tracking shots. I know that this problem isn't because of my equipment, as I own (and tested) the other CSI shows and seasons on the same gear with no other problems.

A curious problem to an otherwise great DVD set.

If this sort of thing doesn't bother you (and admittedly, after two episodes or more, your eye adjusts) by all means get the this set; CSI:NY is a wonderful show. However, its image quality does hurt the overall presentation.

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