CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 4

• Factory sealed DVD.

The nation's top-rated program got back to basics for its fourth season. The personal lives of the Las Ve crime scene investigators would take more of a backseat to the stories themselves: the victims, the cases, the criminals. After a successful operation, William Peterson's Gil Grissom has regained his hearing--and his Manhunter-era beard--and is back in fighting form. "You're like your old self," Captain Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) notes in "All for Our Country." Just in time, as he'll soon be promoting one of his staff to lead CSI, and it's between Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) and Nick Stokes (George Eads). He also has a new politically minded sheriff with which to contend, Rory Atwater (24's Xander Berkeley). The latter will make his first of several appearances in "Invisible Evidence," while the results of Grissom's lead CSI decision will be revealed in "No More Bets." That said, one CSI will enjoy a bit of a personal life this season--Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), who'll begin seeing nightclub owner Chris Bezich (Nicholas Lea, Krycek from The X-Files) in "Early Rollout." The other CSIs, particularly the re-energized Grissom, will remain as married to their jobs as ever--although the latter's unspoken interest in Sara will be tested in "Butterflied." Other episodes of note include "Feeling the Heat," with Stacy Edwards and Arye Gross, "Jackpot," with Henry Czerny and Re-Animator's Jeffrey Combs, and the instantly infamous "Fur and Loathing," which was written by Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) and centers on the death of a "furry." As Grissom explains to Willows, "furries" are a "tribe of people who prefer to interact as furry animals." Stahl also penned "Getting Off," about the death of a clown, and continues to come up with some of this still-groundbreaking series' most colorful scenarios. --Kathleen C. Fennessy