The mere idea of more CSI is enough to get CSI junkies riled up. Heck, there was that episode that had LA CSIs and the possible promise of yet another spin-off. We’ve already got one that goes glam, CSI: Miami, and another that goes with grit, CSI: NY. And while both have followings just as loyal, it seems we all still seem to agree that Vegas and Grissom’s team is the one we know best. They do have the advantage of having a few seasons under their belt and so have had the chance to establish the characters.

With the new CSI shows out, it seemed that keeping with the show’s formula was needed, but also that there had to be some variety. Thus, along with the great season-ender, there were some off-the-beaten-path episodes in Season 5, like the one that time jumps through the different cases, a la Crash or Amorres Perros, or the episode that brings Jim Brass to LA and almost completely cuts out Grissom’s team.

In the new season, not only is the team back together, but new tensions are immediately introduced. See the new ring on Warrick’s finger. Or Nick’s reaction to bugs. Or that mysterious voice on the tape from Nick’s kidnapping that Grissom hears.

Along with that are the brain teasing cases that got us to watch the show in the first place. It is, in essence, an evolved version of Dragnet, where forensic science is the focus. But with each season we see more of the team, get more fleshed-out characters.

Interesting, too, is the play that’s done with the directing. Take the second episode of the new season, "Room Service," which gives us two panels at the start, one of an actor in a limo and another of a poor Asian man in a rundown cab. The scene unfolds as "Mad World" plays in the background. Then, at the end of the scene, we are shown that these two, who seem to be worlds apart, wind up in the same place, being investigated by the CSIs. Throughout the episode, there’s a lot of camera-play. One remarkable scene transition is a shot that starts in the laundry room of the hotel, where the Asian man worked, and the camera works its way up the hotel, to the kitchen, the lobby, the casino floor, up the hotel room floors, and finally to the suite where the actor was found. It’s a simple shot that lasts a few seconds, but with that shot so much meaning is conveyed as opposed to a simple fade in/out transition.

Seeing all that’s gone into the first two episodes, one can’t help but look forward to what else this new season of CSI will give us. More of what we like, and, we hope, more of these new flourishes, new twists.

CSI airs on AXN Wednesdays at 10 pm.