Reviews

From 1996 to 1997, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale delivered a thirteen-issue Batman story of epic proportions. Continuing the story timeline of Batman: Year One, The Long Halloween found Batman forming an alliance with Captain James Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, in pursuit of a killer who only dispatched some of Gotham’s top baddies on holidays. While trying to stop the villain Holiday from murdering another Gothamite each holiday, Batman and his new partners must also attempt to suspend the violent war between the Maroni and Falcone crime families. Now, Warner Bros. Animation delivers the first half of that storyline (with the second part coming soon!)

In the animated version, Jensen Ackles serves up the voice of Bruce Wayne and Batman, with Josh Duhamel (Harvey Dent), Titus Welliver (Carmine Falcone), Billy Burke (James Gordon), and Naya Rivera (Catwoman) in supporting roles. The storyline had some influence on Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, but for those who haven’t ever read the stories Loeb and Sale created (Dark Victory and Batman: Haunted Knight), this is a must watch. [Honestly, even for someone who has read the storylines multiple times, this is great stuff.]

Serving up a story that sets out to explain Harvey Dent’s background prior to becoming Two-Face, providing some history among Batman, Gordon, and Dent, and delivering a whodunit for the World’s Greatest Detective, The Long Halloween wins on multiple fronts. While there are some elements of the deductive reasoning of Batman in the DC movies, for the most part he’s a crime fighter with his fists, tech, and crazy vehicles. Here, Tim Sheridan’s script based on Loeb/Sale’s original story strips Bats back to a simpler time, even a better one.

The Blu-ray combo pack includes the animated short The Losers, the World War II version not the Andy Diggle/Peter Berg one, as well as two Batman: The Animated Series episodes from the vault (“Christmas with the Joker,” “It’s Never Too Late”) and a sneak peek at Part Two.

For nine seasons, Gary Sinise’s Marine-turned-Detective Mac Taylor led a series of investigators blending deductive reasoning, criminal profiling, and forensic evidence examination to stop evildoers on the mean, gritty streets of New York in CSI: NY. The second spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NY spun off of a crossover event featuring CSI: Miami’s Horatio Caine (David Caruso) tracking a murderer from sunny Miami to the dark and shadowy underbelly of a NY apartment building. Alongside Melina Kanakaredes’ Stella Bonasera (for six seasons), Carmine Giovinazzo’s Danny Messer, Eddie Cahill’s Don Flack, and Hill Harper’s Sheldon Hawkes, Sinise’s lead detective provided hard-nosed but fair investigations, bringing evildoers to justice.

Now, CBS DVD and Paramount have delivered NY fans’ dream: all 197 episodes are available on 55 discs, with behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, audio commentary, and gag reels. While different from the original, Las Vegas-based series, NY slots in second in the hierarchy, ahead of the cheesy one-liners (and flipped aviator sunglasses of Caruso, and lightyears ahead of CSI: Cyber. [I would also slot NY ahead of the later years’ version of the original series, too, definitely Ted Danson, and most likely even Laurence Fishburne’s.]

Always patriotic, Sinise found another “true blooded American” in Taylor, a man who was in Beirut in 1983 and in the Middle East for Operation Desert Storm, and who lost his wife in the World Trade Center attack of 9/11. He is the glue that holds the team together, given the hotheaded behavior of a few of his subordinates, never appearing too out of control or in over his head. While Gil Grissom and Caine both come across as smart alecks, Sinise’s delivery somehow always seems matter-of-fact, more like Columbo in letting the villain overplay his hand than interested in always showing that he’s the smartest guy in the room.

Of course, with a nine-year stint that is largely episodic, the show wouldn’t be what it was without a long line of guest stars. The New York version put the skills of a variety of personalities and professions to good use, like comedian Sasha Cohen, magician Criss Angel, actors Octavia Spencer, Edward James Olmos, Ed Asner, and Peter Fonda, musicians Maroon 5, Chris Daughtry, Josh Groban, Nelly Furtado, and Ne-Yo, race car driver Danica Patrick, and personality Kim Kardashian. The parade of well-known people through the series is surprising and wildly encompassing.

Each episode is intriguing, often exploring the motives and purpose of different people, including their hopes and dreams, their baser desires, and the struggle between selfishness and community that all of us must make. With hours of entertainment here, it’s a good dive back into the world of CSI (even as CBS makes some noise about a limited series return to the original Las Vegas roots). Sinise’s Taylor remains a pillar of crime television royalty, and the summer is a great time to watch how he created a character to rival Lieutenant Dan.