The Special FX of CSI

Q: With so many shows of the same genre on the air, how do these programs set themselves apart from each other?

A: The answer for CSI is special effects.

CSI has two components working for it visually. One is the special effects used to show forensic technology and forensic investigators at work. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3cu1cdwVys

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Generally in CSI slowed down explosions like the one in the video above are used to visually explain what the characters on the show are verbally explaining. According to Danny Cannon, former writer-director of CSI, the writing team had to learn how to write "visually."

The same can be said for forensic instruments in a lab. Often in CSI, autopsies of dead bodies are portrayed through the point-of-view of the small camera used to get an inside look at a body without really cutting it up. Also, like the explosion, as a character on the show is describing how a person was killed, a visual portrayal will play as they are speaking. For example, if a person was shot, we the audience see a slowed down, detail by detail scene of how it happened.

The second component that makes CSI interesting visually is the color used to make the show darker and ultimately more unrealistic looking for TV crime shows. Lots of dark greens and blues are used to light the shows interior locations. Generally if a scene is taking place indoors, the lighting in the scene is very dark. This especially adds to the surroundings where a person was killed. Low lighting would give a place like this an ominous and unnerving quality. This heightens the audience engagement within a scene like this.

Verisimilitude

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 Verisimilitude: The quality or state of being verisimiliar: 1.) having the appearance of truth  2.) depicting realism (as in art or literature)

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Shows like CSI, House, Law & Order, and others; these shows are a type of television show that Nichola Dobson, an independent scholar based in Edinburgh, calls generic verisimilitude. By generic verisimilitude she means that these types of shows spend less time depicting the realism of the text, but rather the text's conformity to the rules of the specific genre.

CSI is a crime investigation show that continues to gain profit by sticking to it's generic conventions. There is a bad guy, there are the investigators, and there are a couple of suspects before the investigators finally catch the bad guy.

CSI continues to gain success by the consistent high ratings it and it's spin-off shows garner. The show ranked number one from 2002-2004 with approximately 25 million viewers. The new season to date has 14 million viewers.