CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is one of the most popular TV shows around at the moment. It is currently on its ninth series, but previous episodes are being shown on Sky and Five USA, among other channels.
Rather than the normal police dramas, CSI focuses on using forensic evidence in order to solve crimes and lock people up. Each episode tends to follow the same format a body is found (normally a dead one), evidence is collected from the scene, it is taken back to the lab where it is processed and run through many data bases in order to hunt out suspects. There are then a few interviews and visits by the CSI team and eventually leads to a conviction.
Following the success of CSI and its spin offs CSI Miami and CSI New York, more people want to take up forensics as a career and several police forces have reported that they are inundated with applicants for forensic posts. CSI is set in Las Vegas and follows a team of six CS's.
So, let's have a look at the characters of this popular TV show.
Gil Grissom is the lead CSI. He is very knowledgeable and has been doing this job for a long time. His specialist area is bugs and insects and is very fond of them. There aren't many episodes which involve insects, but where there are, Grissom shines. He is a very private person and there are some episodes in series three which show him starting to go deaf. He deals with this alone and doesn't confide in anyone.
Catherine is Grissom's second in command. She used to be a stripper, is recently divorced and has a daughter as well. She is very head strong and although she is good at her job she does also break the rules. Her grandfather is a convict and there is a story where she has to go up against him in court and almost jeopardises both her career and the team in the mean time.
Nick is quite a boring character and doesn't really have anything exciting behind him. He gets on with his job and goes up for a promotion against Sara and the episode see them battling it out to be the best in order to impress Grissom. Even though there are rumours that he is going to give Sara the promotion, Nick eventually gets it.
In most of the episodes there is lots of tension between Sara and Grissom and there is much debate as to whether they like each other and a relationship is on the cards. This progresses slowly through the series and is quite subtle, but is definitely there. In the latter episodes it all comes to a head and eventually the two of them leave the show all together.
Warrick is a recovering gambling addict and there are lots of episodes where he is faced with casinos and has to come up against his addiction. He and Nick form a duo and often work on cases together.
Then there is Greg, who started out as a lab technician. He is the joker of the group, always making wise guy cracks at Grissom who doesn't really appreciate them. He also fancies Sara and makes several attempts to ask her out for dinner but doesn't succeed. Through out the series he progresses and goes out on the field collecting evidence. He doesn't always go about it the right way to start with, but with some mentoring from Nick and Warrick he eventually becomes a very good CSI.
Even though this series is really good and so popular, it doesn't really depict a realistic image of how things are really done in the police force. There is no such thing as crime scene investigators; they are scene of crime officers (SOCOs). Their job is to collect the evidence but they don't get involved in the whole process, such as processing the evidence and then interviewing suspects. The latter is done by the police inspectors.
In series nine, Grissom has been replaced by Dr Langston and although I have watched a few episodes, it is not the same. Grissom made CSI because he was so good and no one can match up to him. Has the series come to a natural end with the departure of the main characters?