C'mon,. guys, get real!

[ffutures]

CSI have just used the most ridiculous "find the vital clue" McGuffin ever... I know that what they're describing (without giving the plot away, it's finding a sound recording in an unlikely medium) is technically possible, and really has been done, but they didn't make any attempt to make it look plausible. You don't scan 1% of the possible recording area and instantly find exactly what you want, it's an incredibly difficult technical process that takes hundreds of hours. Yes, I know it's a 45 minute show, but this was just silly...

Comments

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Sometimes its the stuff they skip over and ignore that bugs me the most. There was one episode where they spent half the episode collecting and comparing footprints, and when they've finally matched them to their suspect, they toss in an "oh, by the way, your finger prints were all over the plastic you wrapped the body in."

I've heard from a few cops and real forensics people who classify CSI as a cross between fantasy and science fiction.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The thing that bugs me is that they could have done one of their sequences to show that a process is complicated and takes a while, which they usually do pretty well, e.g. when they show the face of a corpse being reconstructed by a sculptor sticking clay to the skull. Instead we got them sticking the object in question onto a turntable, shining a laser at it, turning a few dials, and instantly extracting a sound recording. It was insultingly over-simplified.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Even when they show something like that, they compress the time. A facial reconstruction like that takes days or weeks to complete, not a couple of hours.

And then there's the way they run DNA profiles at the drop of a hat. Typical lab turn around time for doing a DNA profile is two or three weeks. If they rush it, it can be done in three days.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

My friend studies biochemical engineering and has had to clasify CSI as sifi-fantasy to stop herself yelling at the TV.
I have to exercise greater effort in my suspension of disbelief watching CSI than watching Buffy or reading HP.