Who Are You? (C.S.I (Las Vegas))

Member Name: friendsnut

Product:	C.S.I (Las Vegas)
Date:	07/07/03 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining, Educational, Good Characters

Disadvantages: None

Every week over 25 million americans on average tune in to watch Crime Scene Investigation. It's the biggest drama show in the USA and even has a spin off set in Miami. So did the big guns of the BBC, ITV or Channel 4 snap up the rights to it? Nope, instead Channel 5 saw the potential and threw it into a primetime slot. It's now the highest rated show on the channel with over 2 million UK viewers each week.

The show is set in the bright lights of Las Vegas and follows the night shift of the Las Vegas PD Forensic's unit. Each episode opens normally with the discovery of a body, sometimes in an exotic fashion. Then the titles crash in with The Who's 'Who Are You' over the top. It's instantly a lot more bigger than anything you've seen in the UK production wise.

The team is led by Gil Grissom (William Petersen). He's backed up by a couple of guys and a couple of women, one of whom is played by Erin Brockovich's Marg Helgenberger. There are normally two cases in an episode which are split between the team. They are assisted by a varied bunch of forensic lab scientists as well as Police Captain Brass. The object is to piece together the evidence left at the scene of a crime. Step by step the teams come up with theories which are played in flashback. By the end of the episode the evidence points to one conclusion and usually this leads to the aprehension of the criminal involved.

What makes this show great is that it shows up what goes into solving crimes through science. The show uses real methods and in some ways actually educates as well as entertains. Most people find crime work fascinating from the outside and it's amazing to see what can be done these days to solve crime. The team use everything from footprints, DNA and fibres through to voice characteristics and scene re-staging. The way the show is shot also adds to the excitement as the camera punches into a body wound to show you what happens
to the body when someone is strangled etc. It's gruesome stuff but morbidly intriguing as well.

There's also some good story arcs for the characters as some episodes will concentrate mainly on what one character is going through. At the moment Grissom has a problem which could mean he'd have to leave the work he loves. The acting is great from all the cast, in particular Petersen as Grissom. Those who've seen the film Manhunter will know who he is. While it doesn't have the dramatic weight of say The Sopranos it's easy to see why this is incredibly popular. You can currently catch a double bill of the show on Tuesday nights starting at 9PM. If you haven't see it then it comes highly reccomended.

Summary: