In my opinion CSI and its spin-offs are great shows and have, for better or for worse, reinvented the cop drama. While some episodes feel like modern day "Quincy" they are, on the whole, well directed and well written. However there are a few things that I have a problem with.
Now I understand that a lot of concessions have to be made and accuracy has to be scaled back for the sake of the drama (like how they turn up at crime scenes looking for single skin flakes while wearing their street clothes, and Simpsons style "Did I say weeks I meant seconds" DNA tests). But I was watching CSI: New York (it was the 1st episode of, what is in england, the new series) and they had a HOLODECK! That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I mean you can bend the truth but they had a full fledged hologram of a dead body that had been scanned in the field (a bank vault in this case) and they where preforming an e-autopsy on it. CSI seems to be focused on realism, and can go to great lengths to show how science is used to solve a crime, so why do you have to resort to sci-fi technology? A virtual image on a computer screen would have sufficed. I'm perfectly fine with holograms in science fiction shows and the like as it is relevant to the genre, but not in fact based dramas.
I know this may sound like a rant, but I have a point. CSI is a popular show, and I see it as a antidote to god awful shows like "Ghost Whisperer" or "Medium". I'm just saying that this could be a slippery slope. The thing is there are loads of cool scientific advancements that, to my knowledge, CSI hasn't used yet. Like how you can get DNA from hairs even without skin on them, and you know that bit form The Dark Knight where they get a fingerprint from a shattered bullet you can actually do that! Scientists can get fingerprints from exploded bombs, even if they have been wiped totally clean.
So CSI can you please stick with the science and away from the science fiction.
Now I understand that a lot of concessions have to be made and accuracy has to be scaled back for the sake of the drama (like how they turn up at crime scenes looking for single skin flakes while wearing their street clothes, and Simpsons style "Did I say weeks I meant seconds" DNA tests). But I was watching CSI: New York (it was the 1st episode of, what is in england, the new series) and they had a HOLODECK! That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I mean you can bend the truth but they had a full fledged hologram of a dead body that had been scanned in the field (a bank vault in this case) and they where preforming an e-autopsy on it. CSI seems to be focused on realism, and can go to great lengths to show how science is used to solve a crime, so why do you have to resort to sci-fi technology? A virtual image on a computer screen would have sufficed. I'm perfectly fine with holograms in science fiction shows and the like as it is relevant to the genre, but not in fact based dramas.
I know this may sound like a rant, but I have a point. CSI is a popular show, and I see it as a antidote to god awful shows like "Ghost Whisperer" or "Medium". I'm just saying that this could be a slippery slope. The thing is there are loads of cool scientific advancements that, to my knowledge, CSI hasn't used yet. Like how you can get DNA from hairs even without skin on them, and you know that bit form The Dark Knight where they get a fingerprint from a shattered bullet you can actually do that! Scientists can get fingerprints from exploded bombs, even if they have been wiped totally clean.
So CSI can you please stick with the science and away from the science fiction.
