CSI

CSI

Derek Kompare

Language: English

Pages: 160

ISBN: 1405186089

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


There are certain films and shows that resonate with audiences everywhere—they generate discussion and debate about everything from gender, class, citizenship and race, to consumerism and social identity. This new ‘teachable canon’ of film and television introduces students to alternative classics that range from silent film to CSI.

  • Since its debut in September 2000, CSI’s fusion of cinematic spectacle, forensic pathology and character drama has regularly drawn in tens of millions of viewers around the world
  • This original new study investigates CSI’s cultural importance, both for the media industry and for the criminal justice system itself, exploring its formal and narrative style, and its impact on media culture
  • CSI provides a model for studying how genre, narrative, industry concerns, and the broad 'public life' of a television series contribute to our understanding of the nature and function of contemporary popular television

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face in carrying out their jobs. “[TV crime drama] relies on this psychic tension between the inclination to (re)present violence and the inclination to moderate it with form and empathetic presence” (Lee 2004: 82). In other words, these procedural roles represent a larger idealized significance in modern society, suggesting that individuals can “make a difference,” even in areas of life as seemingly defensive and futile as the modern legal or health care systems. While CSI certainly conveys this

boutique channels, or only for limited audiences. The first chapter focuses on CSI’s narrative and audiovisual style. While the series conspicuously draws from the familiar lineage of the detective story, as a drama concerning forensic scientists it also focuses squarely on the issue of visibility. On CSI, the evidence is out there, and only the criminalists are properly trained and equipped to find it, process it, and successfully use it to get suspects charged with crimes. The series offers its

9781405186094_4_000.indd 6 6/12/2010 7:08:14 AM INTRODUCTION: WHY CSI MATTERS 7 While CSI is considered more of an “episodic” series, in that its primary focus is on the cases at hand in any individual episode, it also has an important, if subtle, serialized component. Chapter 3 examines the lives of its six primary characters: Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows, Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, and Greg Sanders. Each of these characters changes over the course of the series, and their

Writers: Allen MacDonald and Richard J. Lewis Director: Richard J. Lewis 9.2 The Happy Place (October 16, 2008): Writer: Sarah Goldfinger Director: Nathan Hope 9.3 Art Imitates Life (October 23, 2008): Writer: Evan Dunsky Director: Kenneth Fink 9.4 Let It Bleed (October 30, 2008): Writer: Corinne Marrinan Director: Brad Tanenbaum 9781405186094_5_appendix.indd 125 6/12/2010 7:09:43 AM 126 APPENDIX 9.5 Leave Out All the Rest (November 6, 2008): Writer: Jacqueline Hoyt Director: Kenneth Fink

crime will always happen, the “proper authorities,” that is, those granted the requisite skills and/or official license, will (almost) always deal with it, and justice will (almost) always prevail. CSI unapologetically follows this classic formula, almost to the letter: crimes are discovered, evidence is investigated, and criminals are ultimately revealed. It is important to note that “evidence” is both a scientific and legal category. In the laboratory, hypotheses are tested by observing

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