I think one of the best programmes to come from over the “pond” in recent years is CSI (Crime Scene Investigators).
This programme is fictional in nature, but the professionalism that is portrayed by all the actors/actresses means it could be true to life. CSI is based in Las Vegas (USA), with the investigators trying to track down how, why, and by whom people died. They are often seen working during the night, which undoubtedly affects their private lives and you can see some of their private lives during the show.
The characters of the show specialise in their own area, but all the evidence is collated and overlapped, and an answer to the death or accident is arrived at.
The main characters are:
CSI Investigators:-.
Gil Grissom (played by William Peterson)
Catherine Willows (played by Marg Helgenberger)
Nick Stokes (played by George Eads)
Warwick Brown (played by Gary Dourdan)
Sara Sidle (played by Jorja Fox)
CSI Lab Technician:-.
Greg Sanders (played by Eric Szmanda)
Homicide Police:-.
Captain Jim Brass (played by Paul Guilfoyle)
Coroner:-.
Dr Robbins (played by Robert Hall)
Gil Grissom is the lead character and head of the team of investigators. He, as with all the other team members, gets on with his job in a very methodical and quiet way. Gil is an Entomologist and often sits in the lab “playing” with insects and bugs. The reason behind this, is that he can estimate with great accuracy the time of a person’s death, by at what stage the insect has grown to.
Unfortunately, at the present time, Gil has a hereditary problem. He seems to be losing his hearing and has sometimes to lip read to know what is going on. There is one good thing on the horizon though. He is going to have an operation to sort the problem out.
His second in command in the series is Catherine Willows. Once an exotic dancer in the Las Vegas nightclubs, she specialises in blood and blood-related matters. She and Gil have had a few problems, bur they always seem to patch things up.
A single mum with a young daughter, Catherine has to do her job as well as being their for her daughter. This she seems to do with not many problems, in my opinion.
The two young men, Nick and Warrick, usually try and see who can solve the crime in the fastest time, though this does not compromise the evidence.
Nick specialises in fibre and hair-related evidence, whilst Warrick mainly deals with the audio and visual aspects of forensic work. He sometimes tries to eliminate background noise on tape recordings etc.
Warrick has, unfortunately, got one weakness. He is a gambler, and being in Las Vegas this has its drawbacks, as on occasions, his gambling has affected his work.
Sara, who is the latest addition to the team, specialises in element analysis. She, like the two men mentioned above, is one of Gil’s protégés. We do not know much about her private life, as she always seems to be at work.
The most outrageous of the forensic team is Greg. His spiky hair and laid-back attitude sometimes riles Gil and the team. He likes to play loud music whilst in his lab. Greg is a technophobe and analyses all things that are put in front of him by the investigators, such as: DNA, hair, and fibres etc.
I like this programme for the way in which special effects are used. When the team confront a suspect in a murder (if a gun is fired), then the special effects come into their own. Slow motion, highly graphic camerawork shows the bullet leaving the gun, travelling through the air, and entering the victim’s body, splattering tissue and muscle all over. It is the same with blood leaving the body and spraying on walls and floors etc.
Warrick and the other investigators then use laser effects to show where the gun was fired from (eg: height, angle, and distance). No matter what a suspect tries to do to remove blood, the CSI team use specialist equipment and good old-fashioned swobs to find the smallest traces.
More often than not, The CSI investigators have two crimes to solve. This means that Gil has to be good at man management. He has to send correct team members to the scene, which, in my opinion, he does admirably.
One of the strange aspects of the show is that the CSI team carry guns, and quite often have to draw them if they get into difficult situations.
Occasionally Dr Robbins has to perform an autopsy, whish the CSI team attend. These autopsies are sometimes fairly graphic in nature, showing organs being removed for analysis.
All in all, CSI is very compelling viewing and I hope the producers and Creators keep making more series.
