C.S.I.: Miami - The Complete Fifth Season (DVD)

Yikes, I had always been an apologist of "C.S.I. Miami" but this fifth season is an absolute mess on every level. The fellas in the post production suite have gone crazy with the levels of saturation and color correction to a point that the images are almost unrecognizable. On top of that we get the endless amounts of effects, most notably the paneled framing of the montage scenes and sometimes even when it isn't an ultra cool techno beat induced investigative montage they decide to split the screen up or give it wavy framing effects. Everything they do takes the viewer out of the story completely and turns it into a proper mess that is virtually unwatchable.

Immediately you will realize how bad this season is as they Miami team heads off to Rio for their first case, an episode hell bent on showing you Rio more than telling a story. However, I let this slide and designated it a bad episode and hoped for better, but it didn't take long for me to lose all faith. Then there is episode 3, "Death Pool 100" where some off shore gambling outfit is paying people in fake $100 bills. Once all is said and done Caine meets his team on the beach and Calleigh Duquesne (Emily Proctor) walks up and says, "I guess somebody will always think it's easy to make a hundred..." to which Horatio replies, "But we - we know different don't we?" They all walk off laughing and smiling as multiple panels and framing effects are applied (see pic to the left). Is this "C.S.I." or a fucking teen drama? It is one of the most ridiculous, god awful scenes ever put on video.

Finally, if someone can tell me if there is something wrong with Caruso's head and that is why he tilts it all the time I could stop making fun of him. Perhaps his head weighs 10 times more than the average human head and he can't keep it up straight, if that were the case I could understand, but damn it is annoying.

This fifth season comes equipped with all 24 season five episodes, five commentaries and five making of featurettes. In fact these folks are so oblivious to how shitty all their video doctoring is they give it a special feature of its own. Ironically enough the feature itself is actually interesting, even though what it produces is a messed up television show.

I have never told anyone explicitly not to buy any of the season sets of any of the "C.S.I." shows, but the fifth season of "Miami" is absolute trash!