Quentin Tarantino has mostly dedicated his career to movies, but he has two episodes of a classic TV show in his filmography, and they are two of the best in that franchise. Quentin Tarantino is one of the most respected but also controversial filmmakers of his generation. Tarantino’s works have been praised for his trademark narrative and visual style and his style of dialogue, though he has also been criticized for his use of blood and violence. Still, there’s a lot of anticipation around his projects, more so now that he’s preparing for what might be his final movie.

Throughout his career, Tarantino has mostly focused on original stories by him or alternate versions of historical moments, though also written by him. The only time Tarantino has made an adaptation was Jackie Brown, but on TV, Tarantino has been more open to stories that weren’t created by him. Tarantino’s first TV credit was one episode of ER, but in 2005, he ed a different TV show, directing a two-part season finale which, perhaps unsurprisingly, became one of the franchise’s best episodes.

Quentin Tarantino Directed The Two-Part Finale Of CSI Season 5

Quentin Tarantino Directed “Grave Danger”

In 2005, Quentin Tarantino paid a visit to the world of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Created by Anthony E. Zuiker, CSI is a procedural drama that aired on CBS from 2000 to 2015, running for a total of 15 seasons. The show followed a group of CSIs working for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and solving murders. The group was originally led by Dr. Gil Grissom (William Petersen), a socially awkward forensic entomologist. CSI was a huge success, and it spawned an equally successful franchise with different spinoffs.

For the two-part finale of its fifth season, CSI recruited Tarantino as its writer and director, marking the filmmaker’s second venture into TV after the above-mentioned ER episode 10 years earlier. The episode sees the graveyard-shift team ing forces again after one of them is kidnapped from a crime scene. The vengeful kidnapper is holding him for a million-dollar ransom, but the team soon learns there’s a lot more to the kidnapping than money. “Grave Danger” aired on May 19, 2005, and it was a big hit.

Tarantino Described His Back-To-Back CSI Episodes As His "CSI Movie"

CSI Is A Fun Chapter In Tarantino’s Career

Quentin Tarantino has been open about his experience making a CSI episode, mostly because he already liked the show. Speaking to Today, Tarantino shared that visiting the world of network TV wasn’t challenging or suffocating, in large part because he liked CSI. Tarantino said that he just wanted to do his episode of CSI, and as such, the format was “all the stuff I embrace.” Tarantino wanted his CSI episode to be bigger than what the show had done so far and for it to feel like a movie.

Tarantino’s attention to detail was very present in “Grave Danger”, as well as his trademark visual style, truly giving it a more cinematic vibe.

Tarantino being familiar with CSI before he wrote and directed his episode, and liking the show, were key to him crafting a story that felt like part of the world of CSI while also standing out as something different. Tarantino’s attention to detail was very present in “Grave Danger”, as well as his trademark visual style, truly giving it a more cinematic vibe, which made the episode stand out from the rest even more. Surely, “Grave Danger” has been compared to some of Tarantino’s movies, but one doesn’t outshine the other.

Tarantino's "Grave Danger" Is One Of The Best Episodes Of CSI

“Grave Danger” Ranks Among The Franchise’s Best Episodes

“Grave Danger” is one of CSI’s most notable and memorable episodes not only thanks to Tarantino’s involvement, but also because of its quality. Tarantino has rightfully earned the praise he has received thanks to his talent for writing dialogue, crafting stories, and creating characters, and his skills were very present in his CSI episodes. Tarantino understood the show’s characters and knew where to take their stories to make an engaging and suspenseful episode that also set up the following season.

Of course, the performances of the cast were also key to “Grave Danger”'s success, which, combined with Tarantino’s writing and direction, resulted in one of the best CSI episodes, not just of the first show, but the franchise, in general. At the time of writing, it’s unknown if Quentin Tarantino will return to TV in the near future, but it’s not among his plans as he continues to work on his tenth and possibly final movie.

Source: Today.