In Season 9, Episode 3, "Art Imitates Life," a jogger discovers a dead body when he asks to use the corpse's cell phone. Mistaking a deceased person for a living one might seem unlikely, but in this case, the dead person was posed near a lamppost to look like anyone else spending time in the park.
First on the scene are investigators Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), who run a few theories by each other before passing the body off to a stunned medical examiner (David Berman). This crime scene is enough to give anyone the creeps because hundreds of people may have passed by the victim in broad daylight. Hidden in plain sight, this is the creepiest Season 9 crime scene.
This sort of gruesome creative exploration isn't new for "CSI," and it's a part of what makes the show so popular. In an interview with The Futon Critic, "CSI" executive producer Naran Shankar explains why criminal investigation shows are so popular: "There are advantages and disadvantages to procedurals and classic franchises like these. The advantages are they are open-ended. The sad fact of the matter is there is no dearth of people trying to kill each other in inventive ways, so you always have crimes to mill off." "CSI" has perfected its formula over the years, and even though there are things you only notice when rewatching older seasons, creativity has always been present.
