It may be fiction, but CSI has arguably exerted more influence on the viewing public than any documentary ever has. Compelling evidence of this comes in the form of 'the CSI effect', a curious phenomenon identified last year. Not to be confused with 'the CSI box-set effect', whereby subjects hole themselves up in a darkened room for the weekend to watch episode after episode of the show on DVD while eating junk food, the CSI effect is a trend that has had prosecution lawyers in the United States up in arms.
In a post-CSI world, jurors no longer believe damning testimony from witnesses is enough to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt. Now, they are demanding the kind of conclusive forensic evidence they see Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen) and co dig up each week before they will deliver a guilty verdict.
Unfortunately, not every murder is investigated with the meticulous speed and accuracy the show would have us believe. The television sleuths may get the results of DNA and toxicology tests within the hour, but in real life, it can take months - due in part to a huge surge in requests for such procedures from law enforcers since the show began.
While laser microdissection, photometric stereo imaging and video spectral analysis are wondrous weapons in the fight against crime, budget restraints mean they are not always an option. The lack of availability of this kind of evidence has been blamed for acquittals in a number of recent seemingly open-and-shut murder cases. Justice, it appears, is not so much blind as microscopic.
Fortunately, none of this detracts from the enjoyment of what remains an engrossing and hugely watchable show. Returning for a sixth season this week (Wednesdays, AXN at 11pm), the CSI team are called in to investigate a fire at a caravan park, where evidence points to the wife of a man who had been enjoying some extramarital activities inside a burned-out home-on-wheels. Meanwhile, a stripper, wearing a bin liner and a pair of rubber boots, is found dead in a shady part of town and
two decomposing corpses are discovered in the boot of an abandoned car.
The personal lives of the CSI team members are also getting messy. Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) is shocked to discover Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) has married his new girlfriend, while Nick Stokes (George Eads) hasn't fully recovered from the terrifying subterranean ordeal he suffered at the end of season five.
