CSI E-Book

Derek Kompare

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Interventions: Studies in Film and Television
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 212

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

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

Leseprobe

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Why CSI Matters

1. Science, Spectacle, and Storytelling

2. What Happens in CSI’s Vegas

3. Finding Balance: Professionalism in Serial Narrative

4. CSI Effects

Conclusion

Appendix: CSI Episode Guide, 2000–9

Notes

References

Index

Praise for CSI

“This book acutely ‘follows the evidence’ of CSI’s spectacle, setting, and seriality. Unusually for academic work, Derek Kompare also pays close attention to the show’s developing characters. Careful, subtle, intelligent; Kompare takes CSI seriously not just as a brand, but as classic American television.”

Matt Hills, Cardiff University

“Kompare shows that we should take CSI seriously as a dense and fascinating example of American popular culture which has appealed to millions of viewers over ten seasons and established itself as the most important network franchise of its time.”

Roberta Pearson, University of Nottingham

Wiley-Blackwell Studies in Film and Television

Series Editors: Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker

Experienced media studies teachers know that real breakthroughs in the classroom are often triggered by texts that an austere notion of the canon would disqualify. Unlike other short book series, Wiley-Blackwell Studies in Film and Television works from a broad field of prospective film and television programs, selected less for their adherence to definitions of “art” than for their resonance with audiences. From Top Hat to Hairspray, from early sitcoms to contemporary forensic dramas, the series encompasses a range of film and television material that reflects diverse genres, forms, styles, and periods. The texts explored here are known and recognized worldwide for their ability to generate discussion and debate about evolving media industries as well as, crucially, representations and conceptualizations of gender, class, citizenship, race, consumerism, and capitalism, and other facets of identity and experience. This series is designed to communicate these themes clearly and effectively to media studies students at all levels while also introducing groundbreaking scholarship of the very highest caliber. These are the films and shows we really want to watch, the new “teachable canon” of alternative classics that range from silent film to CSI.

This edition first published 2010© 2010 Derek Kompare

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kompare, Derek, 1969–

CSI / Derek Kompare.

p. cm. – (Wiley-Blackwell series in film and television)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-8609-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-8608-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. CSI, crime scene investigation (Television program) 2. Television–Social aspects–United States. I. Title.

PN1992.77.C75K66 2010

791.45′72–dc22

2010016195

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

List of Figures

Crime and investigation: Catherine and Grissom investigate a dead body in a Strip hotel room

Teamwork: Sara and Nick discuss a case as they walk through the crime labs

Arriving at the scene: Catherine and Grissom search for clues late at night on a desert highway

Investigation: Sara and Warrick piece together the chain of events in a road accident

Investigation: Warrick attempts to match a blown-up film image of the Stratosphere Tower to the view from a dilapidated hotel room, in order to find the scene of the crime

Transparent science and justice: Sara and Hodges discuss evidence in the lab

The autopsy room: Grissom and Doc Robbins diagnose the cause of death (COD)

The interrogation room: Catherine and Brass confront the suspicious parents of a dead child

The Strip, in nocturnal glory

Death in Sin City: Grissom and Brass at another apparent murder in a Strip hotel

Sam Braun, icon of Old Vegas, keeping secrets from Catherine

Death in the Wilderness: Grissom, Catherine, and Brass at a triple murder scene in the Mojave Desert

Death in the Wilderness: Grissom studies a headless body buried up to its shoulders in a remote forest

Soulmates, or kindred intellects?: Grissom and Lady Heather get intimate

Through one-way glass, Sara sees Grissom obliquely confess his feelings for her

Searching for “the rush”: Catherine searching for an incriminating frame of film

Fleeting connection: Catherine and Warrick share an (almost) intimate moment, helping fuel fan speculation about their unrequited passions

Tenacity: Sara investigates every scrap of evidence at the scene of the accident

Focus: Warrick tests a ladder for blood traces

Empathy: Nick calmly gets a teen boy to confess to masturbation, in order to account for traces of semen found on a shirt in the suspect’s house

Exuberance: Greg triumphantly shows off an incriminating evidence sample

Reality/fiction: Technical consultant and former criminalist Elizabeth Devine displays real lab equipment on the CSI set, like this polarized light microscope

Watching the detectives: Catherine and Grissom encounter a reality TV camera crew

Mediated justice: Brass, Grissom and Warrick meet the press after the arrest of Hollywood star Tom Havilland

Public justice: Greg faces the media after the mixed findings of the coroner’s inquest which ruled the death of Demetrius James “excusable”

Forensic science on trial: Warrick is cross-examined about a knife found in a defendant’s car

Acknowledgments

Researching and writing about an individual, though long-running, television show has been a particular challenge, and I am very grateful to those who have assisted me along the way.

First, I cannot thank enough the series editors, Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, for their support and guidance throughout this process. Their understanding, encouragement, and comments helped provide a supportive environment throughout its development, and ultimately made this a stronger book. Similarly, I must thank Wiley-Blackwell’s acquisition editor Jayne Fargnoli for introducing me to this book series, and for her support of all of its titles.

I am grateful to the Division of Cinema-Television and the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University for allowing me a research leave that enabled me to thoroughly research CSI and begin writing this book. The time spent researching crime fiction and the history of Las Vegas, and viewing and annotating each episode was immeasurably valuable, and I am thankful for this academic support. This research work has also led me to create a new course on crime television, so my SMU students are already getting a return on their investment!

I must also acknowledge the unconditional support of my family: my children Ben and Rose, and especially my wife Sally, for putting up with my obsessive viewing routines and persistent work schedule for many months. Similarly, I thank my brother John for hosting me in Las Vegas for several days, and showing me around many facets of this fascinating city. Creative projects are shared not only by those who create, but also by those who live with the creators, and I am thankful that they have allowed me to share it with them.

Despite what one may think, an extensive analysis of a long-running TV series is not necessarily a pleasurable experience. Thus, I would also like to tip my hat to the cast and crew of CSI, for inciting my interest in this intriguing series nine years ago, and consistently delivering on its promise in surprising and rewarding ways for over 200 episodes. It has indeed been a pleasure, and I hope this study can contribute to an appreciation and understanding of this engrossing, classic and popular (yet still relatively overlooked) series.

Introduction

Why CSI Matters

Bodies tell a story because we interpret them the way our predecessors taught us to. Just because we don’t see something we’re supposed to see doesn’t mean that it’s not there.

(Grissom, 2.3, “Overload”)1

On the surface, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS, 2000–) appears nearly identical to the dozens of crime-based television dramas that preceded it. A murder has apparently occurred. The police investigate. The crime is solved. The guilty are brought to justice. The pattern is well entrenched in popular culture, and particularly on TV. However, as chief crime scene investigator Gil Grissom tells his team of criminalists (science-trained forensic investigators, also known as CSIs) we must look more closely at the available evidence. What seemed obvious at first is now thick with meaning and mystery. A murder has apparently occurred . . . but why is the blood spatter on the walls from someone else? The police investigate . . . spending as much time in the lab as on the street. The crime is solved . . . only after the painstaking processing of a wide array of evidence, from crushed cars to human DNA. The guilty are caught . . . but they have yet to be tried in court. takes the formula of classic detective fiction, extending from literature to television, and injects it with conspicuous spectacle and style, creating a contemporary mythos of science and the law, and enthralling tens of millions of regular viewers.