romantic moment--in the form of a near-kiss--between Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) and Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan), which was discussed at length in the commentary and behind-the-scenes featurette as "a big moment." After that tease, the series pulled back and plunged into some of its most disturbing crimes yet. In "King Baby," a wealthy, middle-aged murder victim turns out to have lived as a baby, complete with adult-sized nursery; in "4x4," a personal trainer's face is eaten away from the inside out due to toxic mold in his house; in "Compulsion," a teen boy kills his younger brother for revealing that the older brother wets the bed. The biggest change in this season is an HR one: new director Conrad Ecklie (Marc Vann) spli...  (less)

means you're talking about James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart: unpretty but charismatic guys with lived-in faces, and bodies that always seemed cocked, ready to spring. When one of them entered a room, he owned it, no matter how many people were there already. Their most celebrated habitat was the gangster picture. The genre didn't originate with them, but they, more than anybody else, defined it, gave it a face and a silhouette and a heartbeat. The films in this set were produced half a decade and more after Little Caesar and The Public Enemy made stars of Robinson and Cagney, respectively, and after repeal had begun to lend Prohibition the patina of nostalgia. The studio's gangster franchise was evolving, and so were the careers of its top stars. When it came to toughness, the boys c...  (less)