In an episode that resembled the stereotypical formatting of Clue and the “whodunit” genre, the CSI of Las Vegas is tasked with solving what seems to be the accidental death of a male passenger aboard a commercial flight. They often raised questions of morality that bled into those of their characters. Forcing victims to read their suicide notes is a new level of sadism that CSI skillfully weaves into the character makeup of this killer.ĬSI didn’t just provide cases to appease the curious minds of their viewers. This time, it’s a killer set on reenacting his traumatic past through the forced suicides of his victims. It’s not the usual female victim, the sole focus of all the violence. It’s a clever way of reintroducing the serial killer trope to the crime drama. What’s more chilling than a serial killer that is intimately familiar with the ins and outs of forensic science? It’s all perfectly staged, down to the voice recording of the victim’s alleged suicide note. This particular serial killer hones in on Gil, using his handprints in multiple crime scenes to taunt him.Ĭalled out to what seems to be a suicide, Gil soon discovers there’s an eerie similarity to the case he encountered back in the pilot episode. “Anonymous” ushers in the seasonal serial killer cases CSI focuses on throughout the series. The first is always unforgettable the first serial killer case, that is. Let’s go back and take a lot at some of the most memorable episodes from Las Vegas’s finest. They are the group of scientists that follow the evidence to its conclusion, whether it’s at a local Las Vegas casino or the outskirts of suburbia. Aside from Peterson and Fox, the original CSI’s impressive cast ranged from Paul Guilfoyle’s ( Air Force One) Detective Jim Brass to the other head lab tech Catherine Willows played by Marg Helgenberger( Species). Staging crime scenes like a murder mystery game for viewers to solve each episode, CSI pioneered the “whodunit” narrative structure that is still present to this day. After 16 seasons and over 300 episodes, CSI said goodbye back in 2015 only to make a comeback late in 2021 with its original two cast members Gil Grissom, played by William Peterson ( Mindhunter), and Sara Sidle played by Jorja Fox( Memento), back in the lab. It is the series that ushered the televised procedural crime drama into American culture ever since its creation back in 2000. CSI has become the staple television phenomenon that spawned multiple spin-offs and redefined the procedural.

Cold case files season 2 episode 1