Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Compare and Contrast
So this week I felt like doing a little compare and contrast of two shows. The first set of shows are shows like house, NCIS, CSI etc.. These shows are great and utilize tons of science in the solving,catching, finishing cases throughout each show each week. I'm sure many of you have seen these and all like to see the "Dramatic" finish at the end and how they catch the suspects and then go on about airing the next show next week. I fall into the category of enjoying these shows and if by some chance you haven't seen them, I recommend them. The opposite to these are actually very close to them funny enough. Also on my recommendation list are shows like 48 hours, snapped, forensic files etc... These shows are more documentary than fictional surprise however, they show real cases and the real science behind them. When I say real I am talking about time line and facts. In the previous shows I mentioned, the science that is used is sometimes accurate but not realistic when it comes to time. Example of this is finger printing. In most of the first shows, the finger prints when finding a suspect are done in day or even a matter of hours whereas in the latter, they take weeks in some cases months. It is these subtle differences that many people take for granted or have a misnomer about what it really entails to perform these tasks. Same goes for blood identification and/or bodily identification. Just some thoughts on several good shows with some very good similarities but also worlds apart.
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Although I am not an avid watcher of crime shows like CSI, what do you think about the effect these shows have on the average American. I believe that lawyers are calling this effect you mentioned, of making science faster and able to solve everything, as the CSI effect. It appears that these shows are putting a large burden of proof on the prosectors as the jury believes that science acts exactly like in CSI. Btw, if you like crime shows, you should check out Dexter. (Although not really about crime)
ReplyDeleteI like Nate's comment.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good post, but would like for you to consider focusing it so you look in-depth at one thing (or maybe do this in a follow-up post)? I'm intrigued by the comment on fingerprinting, for example--could be interesting to compare a couple of episodes/examples of that. We need to connect more with your material, and getting more specific is one way to do that.