CSI evolves in new season

MANILA, Philippines - Death is always a new beginning: A phrase which might never be as literal as in the Season 9 of AXN’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which opens with one dear CSI member Warrick Brown being gunned down. It will premiere tomorrow, Feb. 18, 10 p.m.

And with this death, CSI gains yet another phoenix-like lease of life. Welcome to the latest installment of one of TV’s only living classics: A grimly gorgeous series that never fails to keep being thoughtfully surprising, shocking and absolutely sensational, year after year, and its latest season is no exception.

Season 9 opens with the best episode ever of this long-running series. It is gripping to say the least. Key member of the Las Vegas CSI Police department Warrick Brown is gunned down by a high ranking police officer, and while his forensic-investigation team is still in the dark on who the killer is and goes all out to track him down, viewers are in on the truth as they witness who the culprit is right from the very beginning. The result: A heart-palpitating trip for TV viewers as the CSI team unravels who the bad guy is with its hi-tech forensics.

CSI has revolutionized the face of TV and what we expect of crime investigation TV shows. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation remained the most watched series in the world in 2007 with 83.9 million viewers. It has not gotten tired for viewers at all even after eight seasons and two spin-off series. And when CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’s Season 9 premiered in the US last September, it showed proof that the perennial series has more lives than a sorcerer’s cat. It topped itself once again with a most-watched season premiere with the largest primetime audience in the US. 

And why shouldn’t it? Never failing to reinvent itself, the latest season of CSI not only has the well-loved magic formula of Crime Scene Investigators racing against time and the most brilliant criminal minds to arrest body counts, but is also the season where absolutely everything changes.

For one, the CSI team faces a big shake-up internally. After eight seasons, the humorous, troubled, almost disturbingly dedicated CSI and the indisputable star of the show, Gil Grissom, takes his final bow. In the final 10 episodes with Grissom, dig deeper into this compelling but reserved man’s psyche and emotions than has ever been revealed on the show, before he makes his final exit.

Old friends will return in times of death and danger — including enigmatic ex CSI Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), the killer that almost took her life, Natalie Davis a.k.a. the Miniature Serial Killer (Jessica Collins) and the complex professional dominatrix Lady Heather (Melinda Clarke), amidst crimes that will jolt even the most seasoned CSI viewer.