CBS's "Best Detective Since Columbo" Got Quentin Tarantino To Direct A 2-Part Episode

Published Sep 28, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. Sign in to your ScreenRant account While CBS’s massive police procedural franchise was always known for pushing the boundaries of network TV censorship more than the likes of Columbo, guest director Quentin Tarantino’s two-episode stint on the series was still enough to raise the eyebrows of many viewers. Even though Columbo remains the greatest TV detective ever, it is fair to suggest that the police procedural genre has changed a lot since Peter Falk’s shabby, always underestimated sleuth graced the screen. Viewers who wish there were more cozy murder mystery shows like Columbo, Diagnosis Murder, and Murder She Wrote can still get their fix of Agatha Christie-style whodunits with shows like the BBC’s Death in Paradise, Apple TV’s The Afterparty, Peacock’s Poker Face, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, and Netflix’s The Residence, among others. However, the network TV police procedural as a genre has gotten a lot grittier since Columbo’s last case, thanks in large part to the success of Dick Wolf’s Law & Order franchise. As well as the original Law & Order and its many spinoffs, there were a slew of police procedurals in the ‘90s and 2000s that tried to outdo the gloomy, dour tone of Wolf’s hit. Many of these shows have since gone on to spawn massive franchises of their own, such as the Criminal Minds universe, the NCIS shows, and, of course, CBS’s CSI. Debuting in 2000 and running for 15 seasons and 337 episodes until 2015, CSI spawned the spinoffs CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and CSI: Cyber, as well as the follow-up CSI: Vegas. Quentin Tarantino’s Two-Part CSI Episode Was An Instant Classic Throughout its run, CSI was notorious for pushing the boundaries of network TV censorship as far as they could go. While the Law & Order shows and Criminal Minds might have featured graphic descriptions of horrible crimes, CSI’s entire premise allowed the show to get up close and personal with the gory particulars of these crimes themselves. Using then-cutting edge CGI, CSI often dove inside the skin, organs, and other remains of its victims to expose pivotal pieces of forensic evidence. This gross approach shocked viewers and earned the series plenty of attention, but the show took things further than ever with its two-part season 5 finale, “Grave Danger.” Directed by Hollywood legend Quentin Tarantino, “Grave Danger” is arguably CSI’s best episode. The daring two-parter sees a kidnapper take one of the show’s crew, Nick Stokes, hostage. Nick is trapped in a Plexiglass coffin and the kidnapper livestreams his nightmarish ordeal, sending the CSI team on a wild goose chase in an attempt to save his life. Even for a two-part special episode of CSI, “Grave Danger” is impressively inventive in its nastiness. The show constantly ratchets up the tension with each scene, and Nick’s fate is left a mystery until the ending of the second episode. Along the way, there is plenty of blood and guts on display in a striking reminder of just how much the CBS procedural reshaped the norms of network TV. CSI’s “Grave Danger” Helped Change Network TV Forever In the era of FX’s American Horror Story franchise, when cable and streaming have made jaw-dropping levels of graphic violence, nudity, and adult content not just acceptable but commonplace, “Grave Danger” could seem quaint to some modern viewers. However, CSI pushed the boundaries of how much visceral violence could be depicted on TV, and Tarantino’s two-part special took this even further with its gruesome story. Without CSI’s innovations, there would be no “Grave Danger,” and without Tarantino’s risky CSI episode, there would be no Hannibal. Tarantino’s special, and the CSI franchise more broadly, expanded the possibilities of network TV depictions of violence, and changed the norms of network TV censorship on the whole as a result. Release Date 2000 - 2015-00-00 Network CBS Showrunner Carol Mendelsohn Cast Eric Szmanda Greg Sanders Directors Kenneth Fink, Richard J. Lewis, Alec Smight, Danny Cannon, Brad Tanenbaum, Louis Shaw Milito, Jeffrey G. Hunt, Philip Conserva, Martha Coolidge, Bill Eagles, David Grossman, Duane Clark, Eagle Egilsson, Michael Nankin, Paris Barclay, Terrence O'Hara, Christopher Leitch, Deran Sarafian, Karen Gaviola, Lou Antonio, Michael Slovis, Peter Markle, Thomas J. Wright, Matt Earl Beesley Writers Jerry Stahl, Ed Whitmore, Michael Frost Beckner, Corey Miller, Jack Gutowitz, Chuck Lorre, Ethlie Ann Vare, Jacqueline Zambrano, Lee Aronsohn, Marc Dube, Mary Leah Sutton, Deanna Shumaker, Thomas Hoppe, M. Scott Veach, Areanne Lloyd, Fulvia Charles-Lindsay