Come, See, Inspect (C.S.I (Las Vegas))

Member Name: laurence_powell

Product:	C.S.I (Las Vegas)
Date:	01/11/02 (232 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: there are lots of opportunities for Gil to use bugs, Realtively unknown, so you can feel supirior in watching it

Disadvantages: there are lots of opportunities for Gil to use bugs, On channel 5, some people might be put off by that alone

When the words Crime Scene Investigation are uttered, what comes into your mind - usually one of two things I'm guessing, either what dreadful murder has been committed, what crime happened, or that?s something on Channel 5 isn't it, there'?s no way that that's good. That you're reading this, I take to assume that you have already heard of CSI, and am attempting to find out about it, so you probably fall into the third category - people who have heard of it and are trying to find out whether to bother watching it. You are one of the select few - I have found that out of all the people I have asked, the only one outside my family that has known what CSI is, has been a German friend of mine.

I decided to tell the rest of the world what they're missing by not watching this program. At first glance, CSI appears to be a relatively run of the mill program, designed for an American audience. We have the requisite spread of race and gender: There is Warrick Brown the incredibly cool black guy played by Gary Dourdan; Sara Sidle and Catherine Willows, the two typical women on the CSI team and Gil Grissom and Nick Stokes, the two white, male Americans on the team. Each has a past or present problem that comes into play with how thy do their job and run their lives

Sara is the neurotic one of the team, she reads books on how to improve herself as a CSI member, keeps a police scanner at home that she listens to at night - just in case there is something that might need her help. Warrick is a recovering gambler, and occasionally gets accused, rightly or wrongly of sneaking off work to go to the casinos. Catherine has possibly the most complex past of all of them, an ex-exotic dancer with a divorce and an antagonistic husband. Nick is the newest member of CSI, and so is a bit naïve, and he gets into trouble because of this. Finally Gil has trouble communicating his emotions, which is a bit of a hindrance as he is the one in command, and
also doesn't help wh
en he's trying to ask someone out. I admit that this doesn't sound like I am emphasising the show's good points, but more like I am complaining about the clichéd nature of the show, just bear with me a moment more.

If you get past the tailoring to suit the 'Politically Correct' audience, CSI surprises you, I have to admit that I was sceptical the first time I heard a someone say, CSI, it's on channel 5, watch it, it's really good. Each of the roles are admirably acted by the stars of the show - one of whom is the charismatic William Peterson as Gil. He's most known for his role as Will Graham in Manhunter. Again he takes to this sort of role with panache and ability.

I've been busily extolling the virtues of CSI, and I have completely forgotten to mention the fabulous soundtrack that goes with it. There is never a moment of wasted time, every minute there is speaking, or some relevant music going on in the background, this has a double effect, the feeling of immersion, but also, when there is, at last, silence, it has a serious effect on you.

CSI is one of the few shows to use the abilities of its actors to the full, you can believe the character of each of the personas, Warrick is believably cool, Gil is commanding enough to be the leader and so on. There are odd occasions when The Writers (and they are so good as to deserve those capital letters), Anthony E Zuiker especially, come up with some very odd ideas, some of which are disturbing, and there are possibly too many dealing with rape and incest.

This is not to say that odd ideas are always bad, and there are certainly interesting ones that have been imagined - for example there has been an episode where a man in full scuba gear was discovered up a tree in a forest that had recently been on fire. Everybody has heard this story, a man is scuba diving when the nearby forest catches fire, the water-carrying plane
s scoop him with the water, and he ends up being dropped over the for
est along with it. However this time there is a little twist in the story, but I don't want to spoil an episode for you, so I shan?t carry on.

Of course it would never be a modern television show without some special effects, and the CSI is no exception. The speciality of this show is moving through the bodies of the deceased, of which there are copious amounts, and showing what happened at the time of death using 3d graphics. It may sound a bit morbid, but this is one of the parts of CSI that I look forward to the most, the graphics are fantastic, not only that, but they make the world of CSI with interesting gadgets and technical jargon understandable. That said, CSI falls into the trap of bombarding the viewer with overly complex words and acronyms less than other programs I could care to mention. *cough* ER *cough*

My advice is, get over that CSI is on Channel 5, and just watch it, make up your own mind, but I can guarantee you that you will enjoy it, everyone that I have introduced to this show has thanked me for it, you will be no exception.

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