The TV series Crime Scene Investigation has for some time been one of the viral and most watched series in the world. With its combination of both reality and fiction, much attention is gained from the viewers who criticize and at the same time big up the captivating work of executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer alongside Anthony E. Zuicker, Ann Donahue and Carol Mendelsohn. CSI is a series depicting the crimes (especially murders and kidnappings) committed in most, if not all of the cities around the continent. Moreover, it shows how these crimes are solved to find the unknown truths and how the perpetrators are found and put to justice. Many technicalities are displayed, including the solving of complicated puzzles, unraveling of patterns and discovering of codes all leading to unfolding causes of deaths and finding of the offenders. Analyses of the episodes in the CSI series reveals that some of the things the actors do are real and some are not. The unrealities are mostly done by the doctors and scientists in the laboratories and morgues. This paper seeks to show some of the realistic and nonrealistic actions in the first episode of the first season of CSI New York. Furthermore, it explains how the non-realistic actions would have been performed in the real world.
The episode begins in a church where detective Mac Taylor receives a message in his pager calling him to a crime scene where a lady in her late 20’s is found dead and dumped with unknown cause of death. This is just one among three of the bodies found as the investigation of the cause of death of the identified first victim as LeAnn Goodman, continues. As investigations proceed to find the actual causes of death and the murderer, it is found out that the killer is serial due to the similarities in the autopsy reports of the first and second victims. The thirdly found victim is alive, and detective Mac Taylor tries to use her to find the murderer by blinking. According to pathologist and doctor Sheldon Hawkes, the core cause of death for the first two victims was a severe stroke, which went to their brains and caused hemorrhaging, showed by horizontal lividity marks and bedsores on the backs of the victims as a result of prolonged stay on slats on the bed. There was a possibility of strangling evident by the contusions on the victims’ necks, as well as blocked blood vessels carrying blood to the brain.
Much information is obtained from the last found victim whose destination was traced by triangulation from the photos from a camera found alongside the second victim in a dumpster. Detective Stella and Taylor do a critical analysis on the three cases and decide to user very strong chemicals and laser beams to obtain any information from the equipment found alongside the third unidentified victim. The findings point to the sponsor father of the second victim identified as Zoya Pavlova. When brought in for questioning by Taylor, he admits having tried bizarre scientific experiments on his victims of whom the first and second victims were failures. The third alive victims were a success of the ‘locking in syndrome’ characterized by a complete paralysis of all the voluntary muscles in the body except the eyes.
Just but to mention some of the realistic actions in the episode, the autopsies are one of them. From the tests carried out by Dr. Hawkes, revelation of the core cause of death was realistic but for the brain hemorrhage. The scene showing how the hemorrhaging occurs non-realistic. First the victim was dead, meaning that the blood was not flowing. There could have been no way of showing blood flowing within a dead person’s brain as it happened during the activity. It is possible to tell that there was blood clotting in the brain, but the live display of how it happens is just but an imagination in the brain of the doctor suggesting maybe how the hemorrhaging occurred (Zhou, 2008). Secondly, the victim was said to have been murdered days before, and that putrefaction was setting in including bloating. In the scene of examining the body, there was no use of nose masks by both detective Taylor and Dr. Hawkes. It raises the question, even though the body was in the morgue where the temperatures are maintained very low, was there no bad odor emitted?
Realistic action number two was the response of the husband to the first victim, Mr. Goodman. At first he did not want to believe the news about the death of his wife until he saw the body. The sadness, grief and pain he felt, he could not hold back. He broke into tears and a state of deep sorrow and mourning. On the other hand, Jason’s (Zoya’s boyfriend) reaction was questionable! How can one be told of the news of the death of someone he acknowledges is his girlfriend and just act as though everything is normal? As Jason is showed some of the photos they took together in their tour of New York, he smiles and giggles, meaning he is not even sorry that he will never have to share those moments ever again with her deceased girlfriend.
The third victim’s state of being in a comma is very practical. It is probable for people to fall into comas especially after what is done to them. For example, this is seen in the third unidentified victim, who is in a comma after being successfully induced into the ‘locked in syndrome’ by Bogdan Ivanov, the Russian sponsor father to Zoya, who was found out to be a doctor in the military years ago (Laureys, 2011). Detective Mac Taylor sees this victim as him ‘angel of mercy’ as he tries to find a way of obtaining information from her. By consulting his friend Dr. Giles, he learns that the patient can blink the eyes voluntarily even though her condition is complete paralysis. He uses this trick to get some information from her by simple yes and no answers. The patient seems to respond well to this idea, but it is questionable whether this is possible. According to the research that has so far been carried out on patients in this condition, there is no way for they can communicate with their environment except maybe for pupil dilation (Gonzalez, 2013). By measuring the changes in the diameter of the pupil by use of special cameras connected to a computer, the doctors could determine their responses as either being ‘yes’ or ‘no.' There was 84% to 99% success in the healthy patients. This is one of the ways in which information can be obtained from the ‘locked in syndrome’ patients.
An interesting action whose reality is also questionable was the use of laser to identify anything that could link to the murderer. According to Stella and Taylor, the killer was too smart to leave any of his traces. He covered up everything that could be traced by dusting or using super glue, but he could not cover up the use of laser. The detectives spray all the equipment alongside the third victim and use special laser torches to look for any trace. The initials B.I but in Russian letters are found on a briefcase, and it directly points to Bogdan Ivanov. He is brought in for questioning and admits having committed the crimes. This was close to being non practical, but it turns out that the laser technology has improved, and significant advancement has seen its use being applied in criminal investigations (Bart, 2006).
Reference Top of Form
Zhou, L.-F. (2008). Cerebral hemorrhage. Wien: Springer.
Bart, J. C. J. (2006). Plastics additives: Advanced industrial analysis. Amsterdam: IOS Press.
Laureys S1, Pellas F, Van Eeckhout P, Ghorbel S, Schnakers C, Perrin F, Berré J, Faymonville ME, Pantke KH, Damas F, Lamy M, Moonen G, Goldman S. (2011) The locked-in syndrome : what is it like to be conscious but paralyzed and voiceless?. Pubmed. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16186044
Fun Trivia. Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information CSI: NY- Season 1. http://www.funtrivia.com/en/Television/CSI-NY-Season-1-14765.html
The CSI Season 1 Episode 1 video.
CSI FILES. http://www.csifiles.com/episodes/newyork/ Bottom of Form
