CSI
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CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (commonly referred to as CSI or CSI: Las Vegas) is a popular, Emmy Award-winning CBS television series that trails the investigations of a team of Las Vegas forensic scientists as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths and crimes committed. The show has spawned two spinoffs, each enjoying their own success. The first spin-off, which debuted in September 2002, is set in Miami (CSI: Miami) and the show's second is set in New York City (CSI: NY) debuted in September 2004. CSI is produced in partnership with the Canadian media company Alliance Atlantis. The series has finished its 12th season.

Season8cast

The season 8 cast of CSI, starting with episode 8, after the original departure of Jorja Fox.

Opening Theme

thumb|300px|left|Original Opening Titles (season 1) thumb|300px|right|Opening Titles (season 10)

Premise

Csi team

The CSI team.

The show follows the cases of the Crime Scene Investigation division of the Las Vegas Police Department, usually referred to by officers as the "Las Vegas Crime Lab". Anthony E. Zuiker chose to set the series in Las Vegas because—as mentioned in the pilot episode—that city's crime lab is the second most active in the United States, after the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.[1] The division solves crimes almost entirely through the means of forensic evidence, which may or may not come to the conclusion of a murder or accidental death. Keeping in theme with the setting, investigations often lead to taboo subjects, such as sexual deviations. The bizarre conclusions of these cases often force one to question morals and beliefs and possibly human nature in general.

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Style

Stylistically, the show has drawn favorable comparisons to Quincy and The X-Files. The show's gadgets and occasional usage of yet-to-be-invented technology have moved the show nominally into the genre of science fiction and garnered it a Saturn Award nomination for best network television series. The series also occasionally lapses into the realm of fantasy, such as a 2006 episode, Toe Tags which is told from the point of view of several corpses in the CSI lab who reanimate and discuss their deaths with each other.

The series is known for its unusual camera angles, percussive editing techniques, hi-tech gadgets, detailed technical discussion, and graphic portrayal of bullet trajectories, blood spray patterns, organ damage, methods of evidence recovery (e.g. fingerprint's from the inside of latex gloves), and crime reconstructions. This technique of shooting extreme close-ups, normally with explanatory commentary from one of the characters is referred to in the media as the "CSI shot". Many episodes feature lengthy scenes in which experiments, tests, or other technical work is portrayed in detail, usually with minimal sounds effects and accompanying music — a technique reminiscent of Mission Impossible. Often the lighting, composition, and mise-en-scene elements are heavily influenced byavant-garde film.

Although violence plays an important role in the series, in terms of the investigators' actual conduct, the series is actually less violent (but more sexual) than its immediate spin-off, CSI: Miami in that the Las Vegas investigators rarely use deadly force. In fact, Gil Grissom, supervisor of the crime lab, has expressed distaste for carrying a firearm, and Warrick Brown and Nick Stokes are hinted at as having barely passable firearms expertise.

Although most episodes cover the solving of two (usually unrelated) cases, a few episodes focus on a single case. In general, the crime is solved, but in some cases, they fail (which makes the story more realistic).

Characters

The Current Cast includes 6 CSI's, 2 Medical Examiners, a Technician and a Detective. Laurence Fishburne departed the cast at the end of season 11 and is therefore no longer listed. Liz Vassey departed at the end of the tenth season, whilst William Petersen, Gary Dourdan, and Lauren Lee Smith all left during Season 9. Louise Lombard departed in Season 8. Marg Helgenberger, the original lead, departed in the 12th episode of the 12th season, "Willows in the Wind."

Lombard, Petersen, and Vassey returned for a single guest appearance each during the eleventh season, whilst Fox departed in Season 8, and returned for sporadic guest appearances throughout Seasons 9 and 10, before returning permanently starting with the Eleventh Season.

Reception

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, along with CBS' hit franchise Survivor, was instrumental in CBS instantly becoming a major competitor on Thursday nights, as well as becoming the most-watched network on U.S. television. It was announced on that CBS was going to move CSI (from Fridays) and Survivor (from Wednesdays) to Thursday nights starting in February 2001 to challenge NBC's long-standing and popular lineup, which included the hit shows, Friends and Will & Grace. As a result, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was the most-watched program on television for the 2002–2003 TV season[2] and has been the most-watched scripted show for five consecutive seasons, from the 2002–2003 season through the 2006–2007 season.

  • Ranked first in the June 2005 Nielsen Ratings with an average viewership of 16 million a night, the show serves as the backbone of CBS' leading Thursday lineup.
  • The 2004–2005 season finale, directed by Quentin Tarantino and entitled "Grave Danger", was watched by over 35 million viewers on May 19 2005, twice that of the nearest competition.[3].

CSI: The Experience

The exhibit, CSI: The Experience, immerses guests in hands-on science while leading them through the challenge of solving a crime mystery. The hands-on exhibit brings to life fundamental scientific principles, numerous scientific disciplines, and the most advanced technology and techniques used today by crime scene investigators and forensic scientists. Through hands-on activities featuring real equipment and multimedia presentations, guests will sample the following science fields and understand the significance of each in cracking crimes.

Chicago’s Museum of Science opened an exhibit in CSI's honor on May 25, 2007 called: "CSI: The Experience".[4]

MGM Grand Las Vegas also opened a permanent exhibit called "CSI:The Experience" on September 12, 2009. [5]

Criticism

  • CSI has often been criticized for the level and gratuitousness of graphic violence, images, and sexual content. The CSI series (along with its spinoff shows) have pushed the boundary of what is considered acceptable viewing for primetime network television.[6] The series had numerous episodes on sexual fetishism and other forms of sexual pleasure; see especially the recurring character of Lady Heather, a professional dominatrix. CSI has been ranked as among the worst prime-time shows for family viewing by the Parents Television Council nearly every season since its debut.[7][8][9][10], this series being ranked the worst show for family prime-time viewing after the 2002-03 season.[11] The PTC has also targeted certain CSI episodes for its weekly "Worst TV Show of the Week" feature.[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] In addition, the episode "King Baby" aired in February 2005, which the PTC named the most offensive TV show of the week, also led the PTC to start a campaign to file complaints with the FCC with the episode[17]; to date, nearly 13,000 PTC members complained to the FCC about the episode.[18]
  • Another criticism of the show is the depiction of police procedure, which is decidedly lacking in realism.[19] For instance, the show's characters not only investigate crime scenes (as their real-world counterparts would), but they also solve cases, which falls under the responsibility of detectives, not CSI personnel. However, some Detectives are also registered CSI's, although this is exceedingly rare in actual life.
  • Police and District Attorneys in particular dislike the show as it gives members of the public an inaccurate perception of how police solve crimes. District Attorneys state that the conviction rate in cases with little physical evidence has decreased, largely due to the influence of CSI on jury members.[20] For more information, see the article CSI Effect.
  • The LGBT community has criticized the show for its negative representation of LGBT characters.[21] However, as the majority of the non-regular characters in the show are - by the show's very nature - criminals or suspects, it is only natural that all of the aforementioned guest characters are portrayed in a less than positive light. Furthermore, the fifth season episode "Ch-Ch-Changes" was received positively by the transgender community in particular.[22] Furthermore, the season 5 episode "Iced" featured one of very few openly gay characters that was not a victim or criminal, as the victim's neighbour.[23]

Episodes

See List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes

U.S. television ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season Timeslot Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Ranking Viewers
(in millions)
1st[24] Friday 9:00pm/8c
(from October 6 2000 -January 12 2001)
Thursday 9:00pm/8c
(from February 1 2001)
October 6 2000 May 17 2001 2000-2001 #10 17.80
2nd[25] Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 27 2001 May 16 2002 2001-2002 #2 23.69
3rd Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 26 2002 May 15 2003 2002-2003 #1 26.20
4th[26] Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 25 2003 May 20 2004 2003-2004 #2 25.27
5th[27] Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 23 2004 May 19 2005 2004-2005 #2 26.26
6th[28] Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 22 2005 May 18 2006 2005-2006 #3 24.86
7th Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 21 2006 May 17 2007 2006-2007 #4 20.51
8th Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 27 2007 May 15 2008 2007-2008 #9 18.06
9th Thursday 9:00pm/8c October 9, 2008 May 14, 2009 2008-2009 #4 19.03
10th Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 24, 2009 May 20, 2010 2009-2010 #8 15.82
11th Thursday 9:00pm/8c September 23, 2010 May 12, 2011 2010-2011 TBA 13.61 (to date)

Awards and nominations

Awards

Emmy

  • Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-camera Series - 2006
  • Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series - 2003
  • Outstanding Makeup For A Series (Non-Prosthetic) - 2002

Nominations

Emmy:

  • Outstanding Drama Series -2002, 2003,2004
  • Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series - 2005: Quentin Tarantino-
  • Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series - 2003: Marg Helgenberger
  • Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series – 2001
  • Outstanding Makeup For A Series (Non-Prosthetic) – 2003, 2004, 2005
  • Outstanding Makeup For A Series (Prosthetic) - 2002, 2003
  • Outstanding Sound Editing For A Series -2001, 2002, 2005, 2006
  • Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-Camera Series - 2002
  • Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-Camera Series – 2001, 2004
  • Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Series - 2001
  • Outstanding Single-camera Sound Mixing For A Series – 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006-

See also

References

External links

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