The best thing about CSI: NY is that it arguably does the best job of any series in the bunch telling a story. Gary Sinise isn't the only talented actor in the cast, and Sid is my favorite Medical Examiner, hands down. There are several story arcs running through Season Four, including a stalker plotline involving both Mac Taylor and Stella Bonasera. A Second Life plotline spreads over several episodes and dovetails with a hired killer that ends up with Mac in her sights. Mac's romance with Peyton and Messer's with Lindsay goes through some turbulence. And speaking of romance, how soon can we see Detective Angell get some? She can't really be single, looking like that... A really heartbreaking sidestory involving Messer takes up only a little space in the season, but goes down as one of the most emotionally gripping in any CSI series yet. The endgame of Season Four involves a serial killer using a NYC cab for cover.
There are lots of neat episodes in CSI: NY The Fourth Season, sometimes too clever for their own good. There are too many of those moments where a body contains some impossibly rare speck of trace that leads back to only one person in the entire city of New York that - surprise! - cracks the case wide open. This show does a lot of switcheroos, where a case seems to be leading one way and then does two or three twists before ending up at the solution. Sid is usually doing the unveiling, in a witty way and with accompanying dramatizations done in classic CSI style. Great examples are the episodes, "Commuted Sentences" and "Happily Never After." The city and even the members of CSI: NY look drab compared to CSI: Miami, but it all fits somehow with the setting and the serious characters. With a critical eye, it's possible to say that CSI: NY has more of a soap opera feeling than the other shows, but if you like your crime science with a touch of melodrama, this isn't a bad thing. The trade-off for having some implausible plot touches is that you get to see some outrageous deaths and accidents. It takes way more than a set of fingerprints to solve most of these cases, and the focus on hard science has never been stronger than in this season. There's less focus on Flack and the cops than in the previous season. It's nice to see Flack come into the picture as pro CSI, rather than gunning for Mac.
CSI: NY The Fourth Season on DVD contains a few sweet extras, a summary of the season, and commentary on the episode "Down The Rabbit Hole." This is the episode that kicks off the Second Life storyline, and there is a featurette on the same subject, "Art Imitates Second Life." Someone working on the season had a serious fascination with virtual worlds, which really fits into how CSI tries to pull from real life in its storylines. Adam the lab tech shows off his prowess in Second Life and gets his geek on, which is great for laughs. The laughs are a welcome relief from some fairly heavy content in this season, probably the best so far for CSI: NY. The cliffhanger ending of the season is a teaser that leaves us eagerly waiting for the Fifth Season.
