A question for my American friends

[bookzombie]

Can anyone explain to me why it is that in the original CSI television series (the Las Vegas one) all the CSIs seem to be civilian scientists, while in CSI: Miami and CSI: New York they are also policemen?

I would have thought the former would make more sense. Is it just, perhaps, for t.v. reasons?

Comments

I'm no American

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

and I've never seen an episode. But the comment I pick up about Cracker and Wire in the Blood is that they would never let civilians do that amount of investigation and interrogation. Might making them cops give them more plot flexibility?

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what you mean. In CSI:LV (the one I've seen the most of) the scientists go out and question people all the time. Well, some of them do, anyway. They always identify themselves as being with "the crime lab." I don't recall things being any different in CSI:NY (which I watch for Gary Sinise).

I confess that I've seen as little CSI:M as possible (pictures billzilla with hands on hips, saying, "Look, I'm acting!" in best Caruso voice).

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! Yes, B does the Caruso School of Acting very well.

In CSI: LV they have guns and badges and whatnot, but they seem to leave the "let's arrest people" thing to Jim Brass. There is no Brass character in the other shows, so they gotta do it themselves!

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

Indeed, if you look at the cast on IMDb for CSI:NY all the CSIs are 'Detective this' and 'Detective that'. Mac 'personality bypass' Taylor often introduces himself as 'Detective Taylor' at crime scenes.

Horatio Caine in CSI:Miami is 'Lieutenant'.

[the-andy.livejournal.com]

I imagine that most of them are technically members of the police force, even if they rarely leave the lab. They all have guns when they're on the scene and, despite what you may have heard about us, most Americans are not packing heat all the time.

They probably went through some kind of training, a couple weeks tagging along on patrols, and then off to the labs for the rest of their time (with occasional requirements to meet minimum firearms proficiency and whatnot). But it's TV, so even scientists gotta shoot someone from time to time.

[wrdnrd]

I love how Andy's well-reasoned response is phrased as if it were all real instead of just a TV show.

All i want to say is that i'm pretty sure i've seen the ex-stripper on the original CSI sporting a badge on her sexy hip. Tho', granted, we don't watch TV so it's been a year or 2 since the last time i caught it while visiting some relative or another.

[maryread.livejournal.com]

Yes, you must remember this is the fantasy justice system. My lawyer friend who is an actual public defender in Chicagoland, she works in the real justice system, that's how I know they're different. We have learned so much about the legal system by watching these shows that we are able to object to lawyers' statements in the courtroom scenes that the fantasy judges frequently let slide! In the fantasy justice system most of the judges are black and/or women.

What she said about CSI:M. I have tried watching CSI:NY too, and they just won't give poor Gary Sinise any lines worth speaking. One of the ather appeals of the Las Vegas CSI is their scientific reliance on actual evidence, and one of the appalling things about the Miami series is that damn Horatio's "gut" feeling about who is the bad guy (not to mention his creepy pedophilia). Also they have better science music. You know when science is happening on television, and what kind of science it is supposed to be, by the music.

We have a lot of trouble with that distinction over here I think, especially considering the lines crossed by the reality-cop shows and the news. We have several fantasy FBIs, the fantasy presidential administrations (liberal and female), various fantasy CIAs (as though that were even necessary), the fantasy Navy with its Criminal Investigative Service and its own justice system (JAG), and so forth.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

Ouch!

I agree that CSI: LV is by far and away the best of the three, though at some level I enjoy all of them (the supporting characters in the other two are far more likeable than the leads).

But one of the things I've noticed about the two spin-offs is that it allows the writers' right-wing viewpoint to be foregrounded rather more, which is not comfortable (I think it is safe to say that they are in favour of the death penalty).

[maryread.livejournal.com]

I have often (in fact nearly every Monday night) thot that if they would just get rid of that Horatio character, Miami would be bearable. I quite like the southern blonde ballistics lady, although I see lately she has had a makeover, with some personality removal. But this was the show that convinced me Republicans were running television programming in general. They are selling paranoia, and mysticism. No thanks, I always say, we have plenty already.

How they treat the science fascinates me though. CSI Miami (Vice -- this is such a reincarnation of the Don Johnson vehicle) never explains the science. It is always just mystic technology that will confirm bad-guy-ness for the all-too-lenient justice system. While the music expresses the inexorable drama of justice and legalized retribution. In the Vegas show they actually talk about what they are doing with their mystic lab equipment. That is why they have to be friends, on a team, so they can talk, as you know bob.

But this is all on the criminal fun & games network. You have to have the Law & Order network option to get the full on American bad dream. We are also seeing an outbreak of outright vigilantism in the scripts, which avoids the need for all that pesky and expensive legal processing of bad guys (particularly in the fantasy FBI).

The best fantasy news this week was an imam on L&O saying "god bless America" in his inscrutable middle eastern tongue, even after his mosque had been burned down and he had to testify against the bad guys with nukes. Meanwhile in LA, Jack Bauer really has his hands full shoring up any remnants of national security single-handed, and is having a remarkably unpleasant 24 hours.