Science Fiction or Just Fiction?
Recently the editor for a popular science fiction fan site commented that the show CSI was very well-written.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t disagree more – from my standpoint. I will admit that I have only watched a few episodes of any variation of CSI. The fact is, I can’t stand them. They are worse than the news. (By the way, the best way to tell if a friend is a former news person – watch them watch the news – if they’re like me, they’re shouting at the broadcast half the time). From my point of view, as a Forensic Video Analyst (among too many other things), they are very poorly written. They might have great characterization and wonderful dialogue, but the heart of the show is supposedly science and they’re research and writing couldn’t be farther from the truth, in this respect. They make up processes and sciences that are impossible or not relevant, while ignoring the true scientific methods that could be used to gather similar or even the same evidence. If a piece of equipment’s true purpose is not “sexy” enough, they often use the equipment, but completely misstate what it does. It creates headaches for those of us who actually perform the real science, as we are often plagued, even by people within our own law enforcement community, with demands to find evidence using junk science and complete fabrications. This is, of course, made even worse when people from NASA claim to have done something that forensic science dictates is impossible, but they too are feeling the pressure to perform at levels beyond the possible by shows like CSI and even more realistic shows like the Law & Order franchises.
The truth should matter – shouldn’t it? But that’s just my take… What do you think?
If our scientists are really feeling pressured because of TV shows, then that is sad. I don’t know you, but I am sure you are not implying that most of what we watch on television is real.
CSI goes for ratings, plain and simple. They are focused on making money…not educating viewers about scientific equipment. As a ‘non-science’ person, who watches very little television, I think it is refreshing to get a show that has good characters and decent plots (most of the time).
You asked if the truth should matter. In news or news shows (20/20, etc.), I believe it should. For everything else, as long as they are entertaining, some facts can be bent.
Just my thoughts.
Actually, CSI in its various incarnations, considers itself “reality-based” TV. And believe me, you are the minority if you truly believe and understand that what they present isn’t the truth. There is now a trend known as the CSI Syndrome, where people (including sometimes even our own law enforcement officers) honestly believe that DNA only takes a few hours to process and every case has DNA evidence, that you can actually enhance a reflection off of someone’s eyeball to find the true villian, where you can map out the entire city, based on a few points of interest in a photograph and find the location it was taken from, and therefore the victim’s house. Whether they like it or not, these people (writers, etc.) are now being tasked with representing the truth. If they weren’t concerned with it, they wouldn’t pay considerable sums to consultants (whose opinion they often ignore) to “keep them real.”
Fiction isn’t bad, as long as it follows its own rules consistently. And the rules that CSI and “ripped from the headlines” Law & Order claim to follow are the same physics and science that I use in my everyday job. Therefore, when they mis-represent them, they void their own rules and lose credibility, making the story suffer – but apparently not the ratings.