C.S.I. Miami - The Complete Third Season (2002)

Excellent Show

This show is phenomenal. The production is amazing, the actors are great, and the story lines are intricate and interesting. I am addicted! I recommend this show to all of my friends. September 1, 2008

AWESOME!

CSI: Miami is the best. Great cast, great writing and stories adapted from real life.

We now own all the sets. It is our favorite program! We can watch them over and over, always entertaining. March 23, 2008

Terrific

Terrific Season with the care and commitment of the entire cast, With the loss for a strong member the season morphed into a more, caring nurturing, cohesive group making me want to see what would happen in the next episode and I hope with seasons 5-6-7 the cast continue growing many and varied ways. April 11, 2007

Killers, crocodiles and DNA

I am a great fan of CSI and while I love all both the original and the NY franchise, CSI MIAMI is my favorite of the shows. I like the Horatio CAINE character and am a huge fan of actor David CARUSO. CSI MIAMI also has the great advantage of unusual diverse locations (the ocean, the Everglades, marinas, etc) which are great backdrops for exciting crime stories, while on the other hand in Vegas there is just desert and neon-lights and New York has been the setting of too many movies and series to be "fresh". Besides, CSI MIAMI stars stunningly beautiful Southern Belle Emily PROCTER :)

I finished the DVD box of season three a couple of days ago. It is great stuff that will appeal to all fans of the series. What I found particularly fascinating with season three is the effort and expenditure that went into it - you know, the episodes are more like condensed feature films for cinematic release. You have a plane crash (episode MONEY PLANE), a yacht ramming a bridge (LOST SON), a tsunami (CRIME WAVE), attacks with rocket propelled grenades (PIRATED), huge explosions (10-7, among others) etc Really awesome! Okay, nitpickers will argue that the computer generated tidal wave in CRIME WAVE was not up to Hollywood blockbuster standard, but hey, it is a TV show! I have seen far worse computer effects.
Season three managed to add more human depth to the characters and their development. There is the death of Speedle in the first episode (very touching, indeed), his replacement by ambitious cop Ryan WOLFE and the evolving rivalry between WOLFE and DELKO, Calleigh's father is still unable to quit the booze (detailed in the unfortunately rather weak episode UNDER THE INFLUENCE) and Horatio learns that his brother is still alive (more on that in the last episode of the series). Personally I miss the Speedle character and I think Ryan WOLFE is a weak replacement. With all due respect to the fans of the character and actor Jonathan TOGO, but I find this over-ambitious and eager guy more than annoying!
Most of the episodes are great storywise, although there are some exceptions. For instance, the aforementioned episode UNDER THE INFLUENCE was quite predictable - from the moment it was established that Calleigh's father was involved in a car accident when driving drunk, I knew that the guy he run over was already dead long before the car hit him. Other more unremarkable episodes are MURDER IN A FLASH and ADDICTION.
PIRATED is my favorite season three episode. The plot concerns weapon smuggling with a fishing boat, high sea piracy and political radicals, who use RPGs to terrorize Latino immigrants (while a subplot in the episode revolves around cannibalism among sailors adrift the ocean in their life raft). Plot and forensics are top notch, e.g. when residue from the exhaust fumes of a bazooka is found in the nose of a culprit it puts him on the crime scene. However I have issues with the ideology this particular episode promotes - it goes out of its way to promote multi-culturalism, a point which is re-iterated in some dialogues towards the end of the episode again and again. That said, PIRATED is great.
Other great episodes are CRIME WAVE (although the heist plot - taking adavantage of a tsunami to rob a bank - is a bit too elaborated and complicated to be fully believeable) and SEX AND TAXES (concerning the violent deaths of not one but two revenue service agents). SEX AND TAXES also featured a forensic accountant finding essential clues to the crimes (being an accountant - albeit not a forensic one - myself, I simply love this episode).
It needs to be pointed out that even weaker episodes usually have their merits like freak causes of death (for instance by paint ball gun in the HELL NIGHT episode or decapitation by shutter [ADDICTION]). I really admire the imagination of the script writers, when they come up with stuff like the aforementioned (or a drive-by shooting by boat in PRO PER.) And suffice to say that the forensic stuff is hugely educational, well made and simply great!

There is a host of extra features on disc 7. These include:
* CSI MIAMI DEEP BLUE SEA - a very interesting featurette about underwater film shooting both in the ocean and in a fishtank.
* Two making ofs (CSI MIAMI DELIVERING THE GOODS and VISUALIZING SEASON 3). You have the usual interviews with the actors, where they elaborate on their respective characters, but also hugely interesting stuff about the stuntwork in the series and memorable look inside the shooting of the vault scenes when the tsunami wave hits the bank in the CRIME WAVE episode.
* An excellent 8 part featurette hosted by the series` consultant ( a real life coroner), which is an ultra fast paced crash course in forensic medicine ranging from autopsy proceedures to various causes of death (gun shot wound, blunt force trauma, asphyxation), illustrated with snippets from various episodes. Very interesting!
* A brief documentary on the locations. While I knew that much of the series is actually shot in California I was not aware of the large extent. A location scout is being interviewed commenting on the difficulties finding convincing stand in locations. It is also depicted how sometimes CGI effects are used for greater authenticity (e.g. to remove hills in the background, as Miami is completly flat)

Despite some shortcomings a clear recommendation! Buy it now if you have not already done so!

February 2, 2007

Not as good as CSI Vegas, but better than CSI New York :-)

Admittedly, I don't love this as much the original CSI set in Las Vegas, but I don't like CSI New York and don't watch that at all. I really like this cast (and in the first episode of this season we lose Tim Speedle (who I thought was pretty good in it - maybe a little dull but a nice guy). That was a sad episode but his replacement Ryan Wolfe (who's so cute) does a good job in filling the void. He's an ex cop and takes some time fitting in with the team.
One thing you'll notice if you watch all three franchises is the colour they use for each show. I find Miami is the most colourful. Their lab is sleeker but the outdoor shots are stunning and use vibrant colours - often a lot of yellowy orangey tones (whereas New York is dull and blue and grey and Vegas is somewhere in the middle).
There are 24 episodes in this season and I'm always impressed with how they keep it fresh and different. Someday I'm expecting them to run out of ideas, but in the meantime it's always interesting and really keeps you guessing. There is a little more personal looks into the lives of the CSI agents which you don't see in Vegas, and it's a nice mix.
Overall, this is a great series but I do still prefer the original. Either way, this is a smart and intelligent show that gets me watching every single week. I really like it and hope you enjoy it as much as I do. August 27, 2006

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