Following the debacle at the end of Season 11 with Ray Langston (Lawrence Fishburne) having confronted his own personal serial killer, Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) is relieved of her duties as Night Shift Supervisor. She is replaced by someone from the outside, D.B. Russell (Ted Danson, Bored to Death), a man so peculiar he even makes Grisson look normal. Russell is a bit of a lone wolf and often "shushes" the other CSI’s so he can get into his own personal zone. Like him, the team does not, but they can’t argue his effectiveness. Another newcomer to the team is Morgan Brody (Elizabeth Harnois), a lovely young blonde who also happens to be Eckley’s estranged daughter that we met at the end of Season 11 while in L.A.. What?!? She’s pretty cool though and works hard to shake the misconception of nepotism, having actually earned her position. In fact, in an early episode in this season, she is involved in a helicopter-jacking and crash and the team almost loses her.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 12 is probably the most tumultuous season of CSI to date, though because we not only gain three new members of the team, but we lose a crucial one. Catherine Willows leaves the show and it’s really difficult for both the cast and those loyal fans who’ve been with it from the start. Catherine’s story arc begins when Sheriff Liston (Barbara Eve Harris) suggests her for a position on a task force being created in D.C. However, when Catherine runs into an old friend, Laura Gabriel (Annabeth Gish) and becomes embroiled in a vast plan of murder and cover-up in an attempt to rescue her friend, she begins to rethink her whole life. This arc is pretty serious and finds Catherine catching the eye of handsome FBI Agent McQuaid (Grant Show, Melrose Place), becoming the target of an efficient murder team, and finally, making the life-changing decision to leave CSI.

Naturally, Catherine can’t be replaced as she held a special role on the team, blending brains and efficiency with sex appeal and beauty, but a new team member is brought on by D.B. Russell and her name is Julie Finlay (Elisabeth Shue), but she goes by Finn. She’s a blood spatter expert that he calls in on a really rough case, and he offers her a job. There’s plenty of history between Russell and Finn, and we get to learn a little of it throughout the season. Shue is great, but a little much to take, at least initially. I’ve been a fan of hers since The Karate Kid and was interested to see her on the show, but I feel like the show’s creators have really been bringing in the movie star big guns lately, and I hate to see the rest of the cast pushed aside, as in the case of the opening credits and the cover of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 12. This show was about relatively unknown actors coming together and making magic, not about movie stars taking over. That being said, I can‘t say enough good things about Ted Danson. He is fantastic as D.B. Russell and the team grows to love him, even as viewers do as well.

There are some really interesting episodes this season, and a lot of them focus on the personal lives of the CSI team. I already mentioned Catherine’s storyline, but Doc Roberts (Robert David Hall) also has his own episode. We also get to meet David Hodges’ mother, who happens to be played by Jaclyn Smith, which is awesome. My favorite episode of all is called "CSI Unplugged" and it has a similar feel to the "Lab Rats" episodes of seasons past. Here, a power outage has struck most of the city and the CSI’s are forced to go "old school" without the use of their computers and gadgets, if they have any hope of finding a kidnapped child alive. It’s a great episode, especially since Henry (Jon Wellner) and Hodges (Wallace Langham) get stuck in an elevator together and are forced to put aside their differences and work together. Other crazy episodes abound, including a man drowned in chocolate, an octopus who is a shooting victim, a sideshow murder, an unidentified brain, a social networking-driven murder and even a missing house! 12 years of great episodes and they are still coming up with unique ideas, with no evidence of slowing down.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 12 not only has some major changes, but we see the re-emergence of former Undersheriff McKeen (Conor O'Farrell), who murdered Warrick Brown some years back. He is still calling a lot of shots from prison and will be a major player going into Season 13. In fact, the season finale is quite shocking and a number of the team members are touched by what happens. It should be interesting to see how everything resolves.

Special features are fun and include a handful of deleted scenes, which appear on the appropriate discs so you can watch them following the episode, commentary on select episodes, plus featurettes on select episodes like the sideshow murder and the off-road racing episode (where Joe Perry of Aerosmith does the music). There’s also a heartwarming episode on the departure of Marg Helgenberger, one on all of the changes in Season 12, and one on the episodes that focused on the episodes concerning the CSI’s personal lives. It’s all good stuff and great fun for fans of the show.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 12 is must-see stuff for fans of the show. There are enough fun extras through in that you’ll want to own it, since these episodes never really get old. CSI continues to impress and I hope it has plenty more years left because I’m definitely not tired of seeing these guys solve crimes.