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While keeping abreast of cutting-edge technologies, CSI combines the ingenuity (and fallibility) of villains with the appealing humanity of its heroes. CSI director and entomologist Gil Grissom (played by series coproducer William Petersen) is introverted but ethically intense; he's both mentor and moral compass for his night-shift team, including a former stripper-turned-CSI (Marg Helgenberger); a recovering gambler (Gary Dourdan); an eager ace (George Eads) with room for improvement; a workaholic (Jorja Fox) who can't always remain emotionally detached from her cases; and a chief detective (Paul Guilfoyle) who's a necessary link to police procedure. Like The X-Files, CSI supports its characters with feature-film production values, employing a Rashomon structure that turns murder into a progressively accurate study of cause and effect. Script quality is consistently high ("Blood Drops" and "Unfriendly Skies" are exceptional), direction is slick and sophisticated, and the mysteries are complex enough to invite multiple viewings. Despite a regrettable shortage of DVD features, CSI's inaugural season remains addictively worthy of its lofty reputation. --Jeff Shannon

And just when CSI starts to seem a little too pat, just when the trail of clues seems a little too neat, the show always seems able to throw a surprise or two at us: perhaps there has been no crime after all; perhaps the evidence concerns a completely different crime altogether; or perhaps, as in one brave episode concerning brothers implicated in multiple murders, the evidence simply isn't good enough to convict the right man, even when Grissom knows which one really is guilty. As a result, every episode is simply compulsive viewing. --Mark Walker

Other episodes of note include "Feeling the Heat," with Stacy Edwards and Arye Gross, "Jackpot," with Henry Czerny and Re-Animator's Jeffrey Combs, and the instantly infamous "Fur and Loathing," which was written by Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) and centers on the death of a "furry." As Grissom explains to Willows, "furries" are a "tribe of people who prefer to interact as furry animals." Stahl also penned "Getting Off," about the death of a clown, and continues to come up with some of this still-groundbreaking series' most colorful scenarios. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

The main problem with CSI also is something that can't be prevented. In order to clue viewers in to some of the complicated procedures the investigators are undertaking, the characters habitually explain to each other why they're performing a certain test or checking for other components. They're scientists and already know why. The special features include audio commentary on six episodes. One of the most interesting (and funny) featurettes is the sound editor explaining how he utilizes vegetables to enhance autopsy scenes--and then later uses the leftovers for snacks. --Jae-Ha Kim

The 23 episodes of season 3 on this five-disc set present more deliciously bizarre situations for the problem-solving sleuths: cannibalism, snuff movies, dwarfs, death while drag racing, bodies falling from the sky, and various dismemberments all tax the team's acumen. These are all double or multiple-case episodes, though in a characteristic trick of the writing sometimes apparently unrelated murders turn out to be connected (or vice versa, as in "Blood Lust," in which a road-accident victim is not what he seems, and the death of the driver at the hands of an angry mob is made all the more tragic). The mix of genuine forensic science with the glossiest Jerry Bruckheimer production values, plus the virtues of a good ensemble cast headed by William Peterson's modern-day Sherlock Holmes, remains as compelling as ever. --Mark Walker

The biggest change in this season is an HR one: new director Conrad Ecklie (Marc Vann) splits up the team, making Willows a shift supervisor and causing friction between she and Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox). He also adds a new member, Sofia Curtis (Louise Lombard), to banter with Gil Grissom (William Petersen)'s team. The move doesn't dampen the show's pace, as most cases break the team into twosomes anyway. But it does add a new villain in Ecklie, all politics and PR versus Grissom's heart to protect his team. Meanwhile, other cases dig deeper into the personal demons of Sidle and Willows; and the season finale, a slam-bam two-parter handily directed by Quentin Tarantino, focuses on the kidnapping of Nick Stokes (George Eads), buried alive with fire ants. This episode, the most emotionally charged yet, brings the entire team together and shows why it's still the No. 1 show on television. --Ellen A. Kim

• Documentary: "Evolution of an Episode from Concept to Completion"
• Audio Commentaries on 7 episodes