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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 09 June 2004 |
By David Cambell
June 10, 2004
I'm hooked on forensic science. Obsessed with fingerprints, flakes of skin, strands of hair, mysterious stains, blood, bullet wounds and, of course, DNA.
Suddenly, DNA drama seems to be dominating our screens. It was the ABC's Silent Witness that first grabbed my attention when the stunning Amanda Burton sliced her way into our collective consciousness as intriguingly perfect pathologist Sam Ryan. It was scars and scalpels TV in which autopsies replaced car chases as scene stealers.
Professor Ryan presided imperiously over countless corpses, absorbed by a variety of mutilated, putrescent or horribly burnt human remains. Each body contained a story and it was Ryan's job to tell us the tale. Sam Ryan was a fascinating character, complex, unpredictable, and frequently intimidating. A slight raising of one eyebrow sent shivers through police inspectors and audience alike. Magnificent viewing.
Now, with the Crime Scene Investigation franchise, which screens on Channel Nine, the Americans have invaded the laboratory, deciding that the relatively unruffled pace of Silent Witness was a little too sedate. Not for them the introspection, the long silences to indicate careful thought and analysis. Instead, we're invited to leap aboard the exposition express for a breakneck ride from crime scene to conclusion.
Call it time-lapse television. Photographers capture the essence of a lengthy developmental process by taking snapshots at fixed intervals. That principle has been refined to the limit in US dramas, where plots are compressed to the minimum to capitalise on our increasingly short attention spans.
The precedent was set by the Law & Order series on Channel Ten. The original program began in 1990 but has spawned spin-offs in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. These shows split the hour in half, the first part dedicated to the crime and locating the suspect, the second to the trial and the pursuit of justice.
But, significantly, they punctuate each scene change with a subtitle that identifies location. Each episode takes us instantly to the discovery of the body (or bodies). The investigative team arrives immediately, wisecracking its way through an initial investigation that turns up the first suspect. Then we jump to wherever that suspect happens to be. Which leads us instantly to the next one.
The trial scenes give us only the highlights, those verbal snapshots that mark turning points in the plot. Click! Click! Click! And we seem to like it that way.
There's no backgrounding, no build-up, and only passing attention to character development. The investigators are dedicated, almost completely lacking in a private life, and gifted with a fine line in repartee. We're pitched from one short scene to the next as they piece together the intricate parts of the puzzle.
There are two versions of CSI - one set in Las Vegas and the other in Miami. The shows have been hugely successful in America and Australia (both rating in the top 10 in Melbourne), trading on our fascination for behind-the-scenes Sherlock Holmes-style scientific detective work. And quirky plots.
In a recent CSI: Miami episode a hurricane lifted a surfer and his board off the beach and carried them several kilometres to crash into the windscreen of a car being driven by a man who had just killed his neighbour. Now there's something you don't come across every day. The imperturbable David Caruso, as chief criminologist Horatio Caine, or H as he is affectionately known, solved that one without raising a sweat.
The formula doesn't vary. There will be a moment when Horatio will pause, whip off his trademark sunglasses, and peer intently at some aspect of the crime scene. Eureka!
A split second later he is in a laboratory peering at a microscope/test tube/cotton bud/computer screen/DNA chart. The laboratory is full of gleaming equipment but, apart from him, totally deserted. Another link in the convoluted storyline will slot into place.
It's worth comparing that scenario to the frustrating reality, which in Victoria means that lengthy delays in DNA and forensic testing are holding up court hearings, with backlogs that might take years. But in the world of Horatio Caine and his CSI Las Vegas counterpart Gil Grissom, the team is always there, ready to spring into action. All that magnificent laboratory equipment just waits for their arrival and then produces results within minutes of television time.
Click! Click! Click!
It must drive our real-life law-enforcement agencies completely mad.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/09/1086749770184.html?oneclick=true |
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