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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this hugely popular crime show features strong doses of graphic violence, as well as lots of blood, drug use, and risqué sexual situations. Although the series' focus is on solving crimes and seeking justice, the violence, especially against women, is sometimes gratuitous. Character development is much less important than depicting splashy crimes; as a consequence, the show lacks a certain emotional resonance.

Families can talk about why the show repeatedly focuses on abuse against women and other vulnerable people. Is this a reflection of reality, or just a way to gain viewers? How do kids feel when they see gory images, even in the context of scientific discovery? Another angle of discussion could focus on the science depicted in the show. What fascinates kids about the methods the investigators use to solve the crimes? Do you think the show's use of technology is realistic?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Sierra Filucci

Set against the flashy backdrop of Las Vegas, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION follows a smart, good-looking crime lab crew as they use science and technology to solve the city's most gruesome crimes -- all within their allotted 60 minutes per week.

The show is what TV buffs call a procedural, which means it details the solving of a crime according to a specific narrative formula. Most episodes begin shortly before a victim is found dead, giving viewers a hint of what happened before the crime lab gets involved. Then the steel-stomached investigators arrive: Brainy, bug-obsessed Gil Grissom (William Petersen) heads the team, former exotic dancer and single mother Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) is a supervisor, and Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan), Nick Stokes (George Eads), and Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) round out the rest of the cast.

Rubber gloves, cotton swabs, fingerprint lifters, and keen senses play key roles in the initial evidence collection. Back at the lab, the crew tries to reconstruct the crime scene, testing theories against the evidence until the truth is revealed. The best episodes engage the use of ingenious methods or unfamiliar technology, like when Grissom and Stokes build a tent around a recently dead body and use a cyanoacrylate fumer to fill the tent with gas to find latent fingerprints on the victim's skin, something that only works when a body's been dead less than an hour.

Regularly staking out the top spot in the Nielsen ratings, CSI has had a broader affect on the real world. Universities across the country have seen an increase in enrollment in forensic science programs, and lawyers are finding that jurors are more familiar with DNA evidence and other forensic processes. This documented phenomenon is called "the CSI effect." People love the show because of its voyeuristic appeal; plus, no matter how bizarre the crime, Grissom and his team can always solve it, offering a satisfying conclusion each week.

The show's success has resulted in two CBS offshoots to date (as well as numerous imitators on other networks): CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. While both of these shows have strong followings, neither rises to the level of the original in casting, characterization, or complexity.

With its focus on violent crime and death, episodes of CSI regularly feature a significant amount of blood and gore. Most of the violence appears in flashback or imagined sequences, which provides a bit of psychological distance. But crime scenes often display victims, especially females, in grotesque disarray that suggests extreme cruelty. Sexual scenarios are common, especially given the proximity of Las Vegas's showgirl scene. But Willows and Sidle are strong, smart, opinionated women, and Grissom, without being obvious, is a feminist.

CSI fans might also enjoy the two spin-off series, plus Law & Order, Numb3rs, and Bones.

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