CSI-Type Shows: Their Lab Work is a Crime

My second-biggest* pet peeve about TV shows is the unrealistic depiction of lab technology, which seems to be almost a requirement on any show dealing with criminal investigations. There are two subcategories. On the one hand there's ridiculous made-up stuff, which is really only a problem if the show isn't sci-fi (so, almost always). Futuristic gadgets can be neat to look at, and their instantaneous results do keep the story moving. But to me they crack the foundation of a believable story world, which makes it harder to get invested in the outcome. Maybe the writers missed their chance to work for Gene Roddenberry, so they take it out on us.

Then, there's depicting real equipment and techniques in an unrealistic manner. Based on television, you'd think a "GC mass spec" just needs to be somewhere in the same building as the evidence, and that its output consists of aerial photos showing the only marsh in the state where the mud on the tires could have come from.

There is an argument that by doing this the shows are making more people aware of how analytical science gets answers to real-world questions. And sure, television is a mass medium and most of the audience will tune out if things get too technical. But I guess it peeves me for precisely that reason: if you don't think your audience wants to know about something, why bring it up?

It'd be beautiful if some crime dramas would shift their philosophy to be more accurate and informative. I believe they could attain that even while speaking mostly in lay terms. And it wouldn't necessitate that they explain each piece of equipment in its entirety each time it's mentioned, because people do actually retain small pieces of information from previous episodes. It just has to be presented in a way that truly relates to the characters and the current plot, rather than just as a tactic for making silly things sound plausible.

Do you have a favorite show that gets it right? A particularly glaring gaffe? Post it in a comment.

 

(*What's my biggest TV-related pet peeve? When the scene is set in a moving vehicle and the driver spends way too long looking at the passenger instead of the road. I'm so distracted by this that I can't even follow the dialog -- I'm too busy yelling "watch where you're going!")