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Why CSI is so popular - Radio Times, February 2002 |
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John Naughton investigates why the US drama series following the work of forensic experts has earned so much acclaim.
"If you were asked to name the most successful American TV drama of recent years, you might reasonably hazard a guess at The Sopranos or The West Wing. Sex and the City, perhaps, or Ally McBeal?
The honour, in fact, belongs to the relatively unheralded CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, about to begin its second series on Channel 5 after recently climbing to the top of the US television ratings.
While the likes of The Sopranos achieved relatively small but discerning audiences, last year American television belonged to CSI, a weekly crime drama in which five forensic investigators working the graveyard shift in Las Vegas weigh crime-scene evidence against witness testimony until the truth emerges.
Creator Anthony Zuikor found his inspiration for the series from the popular true-crime reconstruction series on Discovery. He fused this idea with the backdrop of his native city and then borrowed liberally from the 1998 German arthouse smash Run Lola Run, in which different scenarios are played out every 20 minutes. Zuikor's resulting brainchild found its way to legendary Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
"He really bowled us over," says Zuikor of the producer whose flashy visual style and populist touch are strongly apparent on CSI. Bruckheimer's involvement helped CBS to take the plunge and led to the casting of William Petersen, a familiar TV face in the USA but probably best known here for playing an FBI forensics expert in Manhunter, the forerunner to The Silence of the Lambs.
Before long the rest of the cast took shape - a canny mixture of established names, such as the Emmy-winning Marg Helgenberger (who had played a George Clooney love interest in ER), rising stars such as Jorja Fox (a regular on The West Wing and ER) and virtual unknowns such as George Eads and Gary Dourdan.
Yet from the series' earliest episodes, it soon became apparent that the biggest star was the forensic science itself. More than the human drama, viewers were responding to the intricately plotted and meticulously accurate storylines in which cutting-edge forensic technology was explained and illuminated.
A tour of the set in a grim Los Angeles warehouse soon reveals the programme's attention to detail. Through the Stygian gloom in which most of CSI takes place, a gleaming new spectrometer is pointed out. Price tag: $250,000. All equipment used is authentic and, generally, expensive. It's ruefully pointed out that this CSI unit is better equipped than almost all its real-life counterparts.
Aside from the equipment, however, responsibility for the authenticity of the series rests ultimately with writer Elizabeth Devine. Hired after the pilot episode to act as technical adviser, Devine brings 15 years of experience as a criminologist in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, where she worked on some of the city's grimmest investigations.
Certainly the show seems to have no shortage of raw material, as British director Danny Cannon acknowledges: "As long as people continue to do the things they do to each other, we'll always have stories.""
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Now take a look at our full CSI: Crime Scene Investigation guide.
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