C.S.I. 118
Several things about this show are odd. For one thing, it's stars -- stocky William Petersen as C.S.I. head Gil Grissom and Marg Helgenberger (playing Catherine Willows) as his sidekick -- are not the hunks and babes of most series. Given the realities of network TV, the younger staffers are prettier, but Grissom is a guy who could actually be a convincing investigator, not a GAP model.
Oddly, too, the show is set in Las Vegas, America's capital of Weirdness. The backdrop of giant, theme-parky casinos gives the show a deliciously odd feel. And the shows plays on the fact that the crime lab in Las Vegas is the country's second busiest, after New York City's. Given the millions of strangers and tens of millions of dollars that pour into and through Las Vegas, the string of bizarre homicides needed to sustain a show like this is plausible. Less plausible is the lavishly equipped offices the C.S.I. works in. Few Silicon Valley companies have better offices or equipment. For the C.S.I., apparently, money is no object.
Although the production values are frequently chintzy (though improving, as the producers belatedly realize they have a hit), and the writing is pedestrian, there are some fine touches. When the C.S.I. unit is called to the desert to reconstruct a skeleton and figure out how the victim died, we suddenly get a fascinating case study in how forensic investigators learn things about bones.
Grissom doesn't carry a gun, kick doors down, chase suspects through alleys, or bang them around interrogation rooms. His SUV is crammed with test kits, infra-red lights, tubes, and evidence bags.
When Grissom determines that one skeleton might have been strangled, we see a sudden, graphic insert of a real neck, with muscles and tissue contracting and cutting off air and blood. The insert only lasts a second, but it's riveting. So is the show's use of increasingly sophisticated databases to match evidence up with recorded crimes, and to gather information from twigs, dirt, pieces of hair. DNA plays a starring role on this show.
One episode had Grissom and his team reconstructing a fire to try to clear an innocent man charged with setting a fire that killed his wife and child. The details -- as investigators peer at burn and fire traces on walls and floors -- were as interesting as any high-speed auto chase.
The C.S.I. unit is part of the Las Vegas police -- represented here by ever-rueful Paul Guilfoyle as Capt. Jim Brass -- which unravels two or three major crimes per show. The episodes unfold without rough stuff -- fist fights, no shoot-outs, hardly ever an explosion. Just science applied to the unraveling of mysteries.
Naturally, computers play a huge role, which could be one reason the show is doing so well. As the Net plays a bigger role each day in American's lives, their fascination with how data is collected and sorted online is growing. Aggregated information is a central tool of our C.S.I. heroes.
The influence of The X-Files is all over C.S.I.. Scenes take place in dark and eerie rooms, and spooky deaths need to be explained by the heroes. One episode showed a gambler who owed a lot of money executed professional-style in a tacky, hotel elevator. The show isn't afraid to be depressing, and the C.S.I. investigators are often defeated. Even their jazzy equipment is no match for a professional hit. There's a dark, often brutal reality underlying these stories. Last week, the C.S.I. had to track down a carjacker/rapist whose victim was in a coma. With his victim unable to talk, they nailed the killer through a belt loop and other DNA evidence.
On the debit side, there's the abscence of a charismatic character like Scully , Mulder or Sipowicz, or of compelling actors like Anderson, Duchovny or Franz. This crew is comparatively bland. Helgenberger's Willows plays an ex-show girl, but has nothing of Scully's fearless, dark complexity.
Still, it's an intriging show, especially for tech-lovers,problem solvers and people interested in how science has become the homicide cop's real partner, playing an increasing role in resolving human conflict and tragedy. Which is to say, this is a police drama for nerds and geeks. It's good stuff.
People don't watch it because its good! (Score:1)
Pft. (Score:1)
Hits to come (Score:1)
Or...
real life psychological counseling...
real life pre-natal care for crack mothers...
criminal court live...
escape from alkatraz...
the running man...
climbing for dollars...
Sad thing is, I'd probably watch, even though I'm kidding.
Top 10 or 20? (Score:1)
How is top 20 good? I admit I don't know much about TV ratings, but considering CBS is one of the 'big' networks you'd think top ten or twenty is very poor.
Survivor lead-in more important (Score:4)
Let's face it: Survivor 2 is really good. I don't even like the reality genre that much but Survivor 2 really compells me. It's just about the only reason I watch CBS (except for 60 Minutes, I'm sure not many others here do that
As for the redeeming qualities of CSI, I think they've all been developed at least as effectively on Discovery Channel, History Channel and PBS.
I agree that the kind of scientific analysis that CSI involves in a drama can be fun to watch, but CSI is not the best vehicle for it. The tackiness overwhelms it. The true drama of a scientific investigation can be just as present on NOVA as the fake melodrama of CSI.
Nerd TV shows? (Score:1)
Am I the only one here that thinks that the premiere of "Lone Gunmen" tonight is a TV review much more suited for Slashdot? I dunno, maybe Katz couldn't get an advance copy of that.
"If I removed everything here that I thought was pointless, there would be like two messages here."
Pardon me, (Score:2)
Now tell me about something i couldn't have found out anywhere else!
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Re:Top 10 or 20? (Score:1)
Get a perspective, please.
FP.
--
Re:Top 10 or 20? (Score:1)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
What the heck is this doing on /. (Score:1)
Re:Hits to come (Score:1)
A Bugg
is it really that good? (Score:1)
to be fair, i sat down and watched it. it's so cheesy and predictable,
really below the intelligence level of most geeks i would think.
here's an idea: turn off your tv. [adbusters.org]
Re:Hits to come (Score:1)
I had the perfect idea for FOX to follow up temptation island with:
Combine Nascar and Survivor by, every week, killing off a different driver!!!
Now, you wannna talk about huge ratings...whoohooo!
Now, I know what you're thinking... "Yes, but there are only so many dirvers out there to kill off." Well, that's not a problem at all actually. We then combine nascar with Temptation Island, and have waitresses hook up with the living (or semi-comatose) drivers on an island, and watch the procreating wackiness ensue.
I'd watch that...
Incidentally, The Sopranos fires back up tonight, and I am going to forsake the Lone Gunmen in their moment of need, because, by God, Sopranos is the best show on tv show right now.
sigh.
Cya guys!
New source of ad revenue? (Score:2)
Schumacher wins wins wins!! (Score:1)
Getting rid of Jon Katz (Score:1)
From: Larry Augustin
Organization: VA Linux Systems, Inc.
To: All Employees
I'd like to thank everyone for their patience while we've gone through
our planning process.
As you've probably heard by now we will cut our operating expenses by
at least $5M per quarter going forward. We need to do that to stay viable
as a business during the economic slowdown. It's very disappointing
to have to do this, but some very large companies (Dell, HP, and GE
for example) have had to do this as well. We are not alone.
Economic growth has slowed for the economy in general and for us
specifically. We must reset our plans to get the company back on
track towards profitability, and we must reach profitability at lower
revenue levels.
In order to cut that much spending, we need to reduce headcount by
25%. We constantly hear that everyone is overworked and we are trying
to do too much. The only way to reduce headcount and not be more
overworked is to focus on what is important and drop what is not. At
the same time we must improve customer focus and accountability.
We have identified three strategic areas where we will focus, and cut
investment in other areas. Those areas are Storage (NAS), SourceForge
OnSite (SFOS), and Web server solutions. We will be increasing
headcount in those three areas significantly, and cutting headcount in
other areas as a result.
We are also making some significant organizational changes to help us
achieve success in those three areas. First, I am pleased to announce
the promotion of Ali Jenab to President & COO. Ali will focus his
attention on operational success within the company, while I will
focus on strategic direction and customers. I have the utmost
confidence in Ali's ability to manage the operations of the business.
Reporting to Ali will be these people in each of the major functional
areas:
SVP Marketing - John Hall will move to the role of SVP Marketing. All
marketing functions within the company, including corporate marketing,
product marketing, and community marketing will report to John. John
has complete control of all marketing functions and control of the
marketing budget. I'm confident in John's ability to lead the
company's product vision and positioning from this role.
SVP OSDN - Richard French will continue in the role of SVP OSDN that
he took over from John just a few weeks ago. Richard has a goal of
maximizing the amount of leverage we get in software engineering by
utilizing the Open Source community on OSDN. Richard's background in
developing Enterprise software at Oracle will be a huge benefit to us
in this role.
VP Quality, Service, & Engineering - As announced earlier, Allen Ibara
will assume responsibility for all quality, customer care, and
hardware engineering functions. Allen has proven his skills over the
past two quarters with a significant improvement in quality. Allen
also has extensive experience running mission critical support
services in his previous jobs. Bringing Allen's strong management
skills and devotion to customer quality to a broader role will help us
in engineering management.
Also reporting directly to Ali will be these senior managers in their
existing roles:
SVP Sales - Bob Russo
VP Professional Services - Kyle Spencer
VP Manufacturing - Daniel Shore
VP Human Resources - McKinley Littlejohn
Finally, Todd Schull remains as CFO reporting to me.
In addition to the structural changes in senior management, we have
instituted a mechanism for creating accountability in the company for
our key areas of focus. We have created top level P&Ls for our
important lines of business, and assigned responsibility for those
P&Ls to product line managers. Further, we are in the process of
identifying team leads for each of the major functional areas
(engineering, marketing, sales, support, and operations) within each
of those lines of business.
Over the course of the next few weeks, the product line managers will
finish building their teams and report the team leads, goals, and
business plan to the company. Ultimately every employee will have a
one-page summary for each of these lines of business so we all know
who is responsible for that business as a whole and for the functions
within that business.
First, the areas of key investment for us:
SourceForge OnSite
Headcount: 31
Product Line Manager: Adam Frey
NAS
Headcount: 30
Product Line Manager: Cheryl Sindelar
Web Server Solutions
Headcount: 9
Product Line Manager: Jay McKinsey
Our change of focus here is apparent from the resources we have
devoted to each of these businesses. We have moved away from working
on a variety of different products into focusing on these 3 areas.
In addition to those 3 key areas, we have structured the company into
6 other lines of business with P&Ls and definitions of clear
responsibility. These areas are important to our success:
Linux Servers
Headcount: 108
Product Line Manager: TBD
Open Source Infrastructure Solutions
Headcount: 23
Product Line Manager: Marty Larsen
Contract Engineering
Headcount: 13
Product Line Manager: Marty Larsen
OSDN Online
Headcount: 50
Product Line Manager: Jeff Bates
OSDN Events
Headcount: 5
Product Line Manager: Mark Stone
OSDN ECommerce
Headcount: 12
Product Line Manager: Doug Schatz
As we look at the business, there are a number of areas that we have
not funded. We had to make some difficult decisions about what
businesses we were in, and what businesses we were not in. We
selected the top three businesses and assigned to them whatever
resources they needed to be successful. With the remaining
businesses, we chose those that were least defocusing, best leveraged
our Linux and Open Source expertise, best leveraged OSDN, aligned with
common target customers, and provided us the most differentiation in
the market.
We have a tremendous opportunity in the businesses we have chosen to
target. We also have a tremendous opportunity for other products and
businesses that we have chosen not to target. Before we build those
new businesses, we must make these existing businesses work. We must
focus all of our energy behind these lines of business. Once they are
successful, we can turn our attention elsewhere to new ideas.
We are the leading company in Open Source. Deutsche Banc Alex Brown
expects corporate IT departments to spend $75 Billion dollars by 2004
on Open Source. We can be the leading company providing those IT
departments Open Source solutions. We have $126 million dollars in
the bank to do it. But we must execute. We believe that the changes
we are making today and over the rest of the quarter will put us in a
position to execute.
Thanks,
Larry
Re:New source of ad revenue? (Score:1)
Re:People don't watch it because its good! (Score:2)
I didn't start watching the show until a friend recommended it and I've been hooked ever since. It has believable characters which are lacking on a lot of today's TV shows. The best way to describe it is an updated "Quincy" (for those of us old enough to remember the 70's show starring Jack Klugman).
I don't want to suggest that it's the greatest thing on TV but it's a quality show that's worth checking out.
Losing respect for Katz... (Score:1)
Re:What the heck is this doing on /. (Score:1)
Re:Bah, you're not a winner (Score:1)
THE FINAL WORD ON PIGS (Score:1)
IF ONE FICTIONAL FIGURE can be said to have dominated the popcult of the eighties, it was the Cop. Fuckin' police ev- erywhere you turned, worse than real life. What an incredible bore.
Powerful Cops--protecting the meek and humble--at the expense of a half-dozen or so articles of the Bill of Rights- -"Dirty Harry." Nice human cops, coping with human perversity, coming out sweet 'n' sour, you know, gruff & knowing but still soft inside--Hill Street Blues--most evil TV show ever. Wiseass black cops scoring witty racist remarks against hick white cops, who nevertheless come to love each other--Eddie Murphy, Class Traitor. For that masochist thrill we got wicked bent cops who threaten to topple our Kozy Konsensus Reality from within like Giger- designed tapeworms, but naturally get blown away just in the nick of time by the Last Honest Cop, Robocop, ideal amalgam of prosthesis and sentimentality.
We've been obsessed with cops since the beginning--but the rozzers of yore played bumbling fools, Keystone Kops, Car 54 Where Are You, booby-bobbies set up for Fatty Arbuckle or Buster Keaton to squash & deflate. But in the ideal drama of the eighties, the "little man" who once scattered bluebottles by the hundred with that anarchist's bomb, innocently used to light a cigarette--the Tramp, the victim with the sudden power of the pure heart--no longer has a place at the center of narrative. Once "we" were that hobo, that quasi-surrealist chaote hero who wins thru wu- wei over the ludicrous minions of a despised & irrelevant Order.
But now "we" are reduced to the status of victims without power, or else criminals. "We" no longer occupy that central role; no longer the heros of our own stories, we've been marginalized & replaced by the Other, the Cop.
Thus the Cop Show has only three characters--victim, criminal, and policeperson--but the first two fail to be fully human--only the pig is real. Oddly enough, human society in the eighties (as seen in the other media) sometimes appeared to consist of the same three cliche/archetypes. First the victims, the whining minorities bitching about "rights"--and who pray tell did not belong to a "minority" in the eighties? Shit, even cops complained about their "rights" being abused. Then the criminals: largely non-white (despite the obligatory & hallucinatory "integration" of the media), largely poor (or else obscenely rich, hence even more alien), largely perverse (i.e. the forbidden mirrors of "our" desires). I've heard that one out of four households in America is robbed every year, & that every year nearly half a million of us are arrested just for smoking pot. In the face of such statistics (even assuming they're "damned lies") one wonders who is NOT either victim or criminal in our police-state-of-consciousness. The fuzz must mediate for all of us, however fuzzy the interface-- they're only warrior-priests, however profane. America's Most Wanted--the most successful TV game show of the eighties--opened up for all of us the role of Amateur Cop, hitherto merely a media fantasy of middleclass resentment & revenge. Naturally the truelife Cop hates no one so much as the vigilante--look what happens to poor &/or non-white neighborhood self-protection groups like the Muslims who tried to eliminate crack dealing in Brooklyn: the cops busted the Muslims, the pushers went free. Real vigilantes threaten the monopoly of enforcement, lÉse majest, more abominable than incest or murder. But media(ted) vigilantes function perfectly within the CopState; in fact, it would be more accurate to think of them as unpaid (not even a set of matched luggage!) informers: telemetric snitches, electro-stoolies, ratfinks- for-a-day.
What is it that "America most wants"? Does this phrase refer to criminals--or to crimes, to objects of desire in their real presence, unrepresented, unmediated, literally stolen & appropriated? America most wants...to fuck off work, ditch the spouse, do drugs (because only drugs make you feel as good as the people in TV ads appear to be), have sex with nubile jailbait, sodomy, burglary, hell yes. What unmediated pleasures are NOT illegal? Even outdoor barbecues violate smoke ordinances nowadays. The simplest enjoyments turn us against some law; finally pleasure becomes too stress- inducing, and only TV remains--and the pleasure of revenge, vicarious betrayal, the sick thrill of the tattletale. America can't have what it most wants, so it has America's Most Wanted instead. A nation of schoolyard toadies sucking up to an elite of schoolyard bullies.
Of course the program still suffers from a few strange reality-glitches: for example, the dramatized segments are enacted cinema verit style by actors; some viewers are so stupid they believe they're seeing actual footage of real crimes. Hence the actors are being continually harassed & even arrested, along with (or instead of) the real criminals whose mugshots are flashed after each little documentoid. How quaint, eh? No one really experiences anything--everyone reduced to the status of ghosts--media-images break off & float away from any contact with actual everyday life-- PhoneSex--CyberSex. Final transcendence of the body: cybergnosis.
The media cops, like televangelical forerunners, prepare us for the advent, final coming or Rapture of the police state: the "Wars" on sex and drugs: total control totally leached of all content; a map with no coordinates in any known space; far beyond mere Spectacle; sheer ecstasy ("standing- outside-the-body"); obscene simulacrum; meaningless violent spasms elevated to the last principle of governance. Image of a country consumed by images of self-hatred, war between the schizoid halves of a split personality, Super-Ego vs the Id Kid, for the heavyweight championship of an abandoned landscape, burnt, polluted, empty, desolate, unreal. Just as the murder-mystery is always an exercise in sadism, so the cop-fiction always involves the contemplation of control. The image of the inspector or detective measures the image of "our" lack of autonomous substance, our transparency before the gaze of authority. Our perversity, our helplessness. Whether we imagine them as "good" or "evil," our obsessive invocation of the eidolons of the Cops reveals the extent to which we have accepted the manichaean worldview they symbolize. Millions of tiny cops swarm everywhere, like the qlippoth, larval hungry ghosts--they fill the screen, as in Keaton's famous two-reeler, overwhelming the foreground, an Antarctic where nothing moves but hordes of sinister blue penguins.
We propose an esoteric hermeneutical exegesis of the Surrealist slogan "Mort aux vaches!" We take it to refer not to the deaths of individual cops ("cows" in the argot of the period)--mere leftist revenge fantasy--petty reverse sadism--but rather to the death of the image of the flic, the inner Control & its myriad reflections in the NoPlace Place of the media--the "gray room" as Burroughs calls it. Self-censorship, fear of one's own desires, "conscience" as the interiorized voice of consensus- authority. To assassinate these "security forces" would indeed release floods of libidinal energy, but not the violent running-amok predicted by the theory of Law 'n' Order.
Nietzschean "self-overcoming" provides the principle of organization for the free spirit (as also for anarchist society, at least in theory). In the police-state personality, libidinal energy is dammed & diverted toward self-repression; any threat to Control results in spasms of violence. In the free-spirit personality, energy flows unimpeded & therefore turbulently but gently--its chaos finds its strange attractor, allowing new spontaneous orders to emerge.
In this sense, then, we call for a boycott of the image of the Cop, & a moratorium on its production in art. In this sense...
MORT AUX VACHES!
Hakim Bey
--
Re:Losing respect for Katz... (Score:1)
Something that bugs me... (Score:1)
from the -tech-culture:--the-nerd-squad- dept.
should be:
from the tech-culture:-the-nerd-squad dept.
See what I mean? Yeah, it's sort of a minor thing, perhaps even bordering on a nitpick, but it does bug me.
Re:Bah, you're not a winner (Score:1)
Schumacher is gonna bitchslap (Score:1)
Re:Review of Hannibal and lecture about Christiani (Score:1)
Re:Bah, you're not a winner (Score:1)
Replace Katz with a good columnist (Score:1)
The argument that we can disable him is crap -
If
The only reason Katz stays is obviously because his trolls generate hits for the advertizers, which is very sad. Surely a good columnist could generate interest as well?
Can Katz now.
Re:Hits to come (Score:1)
In the tradition of Quincy and The Rockford Files (Score:3)
---
Re:jonkatz sucks (Score:1)
Re:Let's vote Katz off of Slashdot Island (Score:1)
CSI Hotbox (Score:1)
Kind of like that pizza-oven car we saw on the Dominoes commercials? I can see it now: CSI investigator delivered fresh and hot in 30 minutes or he's free!
Forager
Re:In the tradition of Quincy and The Rockford Fil (Score:1)
Re:Nerd TV shows? (Score:1)
you are my saviour. i completely forgot that was coming on tonight. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! your kung fu is the best
BTW - you think JonKatz could get an advanced copy of a chris carter show? hell, i don't even think chris carter gets an advance showing of a chris carter show!
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Re:Let's vote Katz off of Slashdot Island (Score:1)
Re:Top 10 or 20? (Score:1)
Schumacher! Schumacher! Schumacher! (Score:1)
Re:Hi! (Score:1)
Come on .. (Score:1)
As for tv shows not being a good topic on /. - Why wouldn't they be? Television is technology, and tv shows are quite widely watched. I doubt there's a single one of you who doesn't get into discussions on tv shows once in a while online. Not to mention that in the latest /. poll, 996 people voted the tv was most important to them, and *many* others were considering it as an option [read the comments]. Besides, if a tv review was *really* so offtopic, don't you think the staff would've removed it immediately? In effect, it's not Katz you're flaming, it's Slashdot .. and this time, you don't have a good reason.
No one forced you to read the review. If you don't like the series, that's cool, it's an opinion and you have the right to state it. If you don't like Katz, that's cool too, but this review wasn't about him at all.
--
Re:People don't watch it because its good! (Score:1)
And it's just as boring, and just as much a waste of time and talent as Quincy ever was.
Ranessin
Forensic Detectives (Score:1)
GUESS WHAT???? (Score:1)
The Lone Gunmen! (Score:1)
As for the Lone Gunman, I'm looking forward to it. Part of the reason that it's so cool is that I think that ALL of us can associate with one of those three guys. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they mention Slashdot in the first few episodes!
Re:HAVENT YOU HEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAARD??? (Score:1)
lack of realism in tv shows (Score:4)
Of course, CSI isn't all that realistic. They get lots of details wrong. But most shows are unrealistic -- for the sake of making the story comprehensible to the average viewer.
For example, in ER, radiologists rarely have any role; the ER docs usually read their own x-rays, CTs, etc. In the death of Lucy Carter, they had the surgeons doing interventional radiology procedures. In Elizabeth's paralyzation of the surfer, no one other than a neurosurgeon would have ever performed such a procedure. And those are just the particularly egregious, memorable errors.
But to introduce extra people into the plot and explain their presence would have slowed down the plot excessively. And I suspect that most people don't notice. (My husband Paul is a radiologist, so he tends to note such things.)
So CSI doesn't strike me as all that unusual in its oversights, omissions, and errors. Any TV show will have serious inaccuracies which go unnoticed by most people, but are glaring errors to professionals.
It's not the Discovery channel; it's entertainment!
-- Diana Hsieh
What? (Score:3)
yes, YES! (Score:1)
Re:What? (Score:2)
Re:HAVENT YOU HEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAARD??? (Score:1)
I LOL at you for your sillyness!
A brief history of CSI (Score:2)
what the? [mikegallay.com]
Re:People don't watch it because its good! (Score:1)
--
Unfortunately (Score:2)
I've even filled out the application to be on Survivor III, even though I'm not a swimsuit model (it seems to be one of the new qualifications). There should be self-treatment centers for this thing.
What about Canada's Cold Squad? (Score:2)
No, not a show about the dead of winter north of the 49th, but also about forensics and a quality show at that. _Cold Squad_ been around for a few years, I believe, and is now being carried by the CTV network in Canada. (http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/en/prod/tv/tv98/129.htm )
Oddly enough, there's a recent trend in American TV to emulate CANADIAN dramas. Legal dramas? Try Canada's _Street Legal_ which predates them all by as far back as 1985. Day trader drama? _The Street_? Probably a rip-off of Canada's _Traders_. Then again our shows are probably just rip-offs of previous British dramas.
ian.
Re:THE FINAL WORD ON PIGS (Score:1)
Re:Review of Hannibal and lecture about Christiani (Score:1)
Re:Hits to come (Score:1)
Ah, but the Sopranos is re-run on Tuesday night, so I can set the ol' TiVo and see both..
--
PaxTech
Re:A brief history of CSI (Score:1)
Re:Pardon me, (Score:1)
Why? (Score:1)
Anyways, since we are talking about it. I don't particular care for CSI. Don't we already have enough TV shows about cops as it is? Let's see (counting shows I still see reruns on TV about):
New York Undercover
NYPD Blue
Big Apple
CSI
COPS
America's Most Wanted
America's Dummest Criminals
LAPD
Law & Order
Law & Order: SVU
Nash Bridges
The District
Walker, Texas Ranger
I am sure I've missed a few. Then there are some that can be sort of included like X-Files which has police elements.
Not to say there is anything wrong with cop shows -- I do have my favorites that I enjoy watching. (I still like to catch reruns of Hawaii Five-O.)
I am a bit annoyed that UPN put Level 9 & Freedom on hiatus. The mind-numbing Celebrity Deathmatch and Gary & Mike (which I like) had to take the time slots assigned to them.
But do we really need another cop show?
Geez, give us a break!
Another futile attempt from CBS. (Score:1)
Regardless, Westinghouse is probably reeling from their acquisition of CBS.
QUINCY! (Score:1)
As another point, doesn't anyone realize this same show was done 20 years ago with jack klugman, and called quincy. especially in the earlier episodes, each show was a carefully constructed murder mystery relying on science and evidence. true in the later years it got to be political grandstanding and crap, but c.s.i. has a lot to owe to quincy...
Re:Come on .. (Score:1)
If you or I wrote such an off-topic article and submitted it, would it get posted? Of-course not. People tend to get annoyed when someone can write articles of very low quality and interest and get them posted automatically. The amount of valid articles Ive had rejected from this site must be in double figures by now, yet Katz just posts whatever he likes, and shock, it gets posted.
Christ Katz, review TLC or PBS or DISCOVERY shows (Score:1)
It's quite clear none of us care about what comes on after survivor/friends.
It is clear that we'd love Katz to review new shows on TLC or DISC or PBS or Sci-Fi.
None of us care about the drivel that mainstream networks are throwing out at the masses.
We do care about new high-tech oriented shows.
One problem, it is pretty bad... (Score:1)
I wish they would get some advisors that know how the real world works, to help tone it down. I also find it to be a little soapy (which often gets worse as shows progress). An investigator was an ex-boyfriend of special short term (1 episode) hired specialist.
-Moondog
I never miss an episode (Score:4)
After the credits, our heroes investigate the crime scene, during which a character will utter a line setting up the dramatic conclusion. This bit of dialogue will be heavily stressed so that later you will remember it and say "how ironic."
Then comes the establishment of the subplot, usually featuring the Ex-Stripper Who's Trying To Put Her Past Behind Her or the Young Man From The Streets Who Pulled Himself Up By His Bootstraps But Made Mistakes Along The Way.
After that, Grissom explains a forensic technique that's been in common use since 1947 to his fellow investigators. In elaborate detail. A piece of equipment that they've all been using daily since they were hired will also be explained, sometimes with helpful graphics. Everyone but Grissom will express dumbfounded amazement at the Miracles Of Modern Science. At lunch, a ham sandwich is explained.
The action will be punctuated with visualizations of theories of the crime. We know they are visualizations because of the overexposed high-contrast film, jumpy editing and echo-chamber sound track.
Finally, after some breathtaking leaps of logic, the crime will be solved. The subplot will then be wrapped up, and the final shot will be of Grissom pensively considering the Toll This Work Takes On Them All. Once, he did this from a moving roller coaster.
This show is the funniest thing on TV since the first season of G vs E.
Re:Survivor lead-in more important (Score:1)
Re:In the tradition of Quincy and The Rockford Fil (Score:1)
The Lone Gunmen premieres. This looks at least mildly interesting.
Re:Survivor lead-in more important (Score:1)
Suposedly a fire had driven wildlife to the camp. That I'll buy. But did you see the fricking pig? It was a demesticated american pig. The thing wasn't even fully grown, just a piglet. Say, whatever hapened to "Babe". The sequal must not have done too well. My point is, NOONE could have watched that episode and still held the belief that anything that happens there is real.
OK, maybe some people have never seen a wild boar.
Now when I watch the show, I'm completely turned off by the facade of reality. Last night (I'm in europe) when the accident occoured, I didn't belive it at all. It may or may not have happened, but I don't think it did. Just too damn convenient...
Re:Something that bugs me... (Score:2)
Ontopic: C.S.I. pulled me in one episode, but I have no idea when it's on (or care) so watching it again is hit or miss. I did like the way it was shot and the story was decent.
--
Re:Pardon me, (Score:1)
Tim, like Jon, was mostly a blowhard. But sometimes he said something worth noting.
What is not cool is the multitude of people, like yourself, who insist on perusing a JK article and then posting "JK sucks balls and blows this shit at us".
I'm not saying you are a bad guy, fluxrad, but if you don't dig the Kat, just turn him off. Don't chip in and lower the signal/noise ratio that seems to be getting closer and closer to the critical mass.
Re:Top 10 or 20? (Score:1)
Close, no Cigar (Score:2)
Even though it is "America's most watched network", CBS has traditionally gotten its ass kicked in the 18-49 demo. So what they did makes sense. I'm a media planner. This is what I do for a living.
Shameless plug: check out Mighty Big TV [mightybigtv.com] for funny ass recaps of shows like CSI and Survivor
Sorry if my argument is a bit muddled. I'm really hungover right now.
Pete
Re:Pft. (Score:1)
Re:Pardon me, (Score:1)
B)people ask why slashdot's signal to noise ratio is getting smaller all the time: it's because of stories like this.
i would like to think i should be allowed to voice my opinion on stories that i honestly believe have nothing to do with news for nerds. stuff that matters. And, to be sure, i haven't read a Katz article that was worth anything. (have you actually read any of his hellmouth series?)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Re:THE FINAL WORD ON PIGS (Score:1)
that being said: MODERATE THIS WAY THE FUCK UP! While seemingly off-topic, possibly a troll (in the eyes of those unfortunate enough to have been raised on caffeine and power rangers), it's a gem that we don't often get to see anymore, at least not on slashdot.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Re:I never miss an episode (Score:2)
What more do you expect from Jerry Bruckheimer?
tcd004
Re:People don't watch it because its good! (Score:2)
Certainly the new placement has helped it even more, but it has not doubled the numbers as you might believe. There were about 16 million viewers the week of 1/15, and 21 million for the most recent weekly ratings of 2/29.
Re:Close, no Cigar (Score:1)
Hey wait a sec, if I'm part of this 18-49 demographic how come I have no money to buy things? Stupid college.
Re:THE FINAL WORD ON PIGS (Score:1)
Re:Nerd TV shows? (Score:1)
Re:Pardon me, (Score:1)
Continue until the joke is beaten so far into the ground that the reader forgets why he started reading the article in the first place and throws himself off the nearest 6-story building.
Re:Replace Katz with a good columnist (Score:1)
And you're right, you personally can get rid of him, just by disabling his posts in your user preferences.
So that's the solution right there, modify your settings, and if you feel that a certain void needs filling up, do your part. Write, and encourage others to do this aswell. It's not so much a problem of Katz not being a decent or relevant author. The situation you seem to be aware of is a lack of features that you find relevant to you and your life.
And the best way to handle that, is to do it yourself, or at the very least, phrase your proposals like this: "could /. hire some more writers so there's more and better stuff to read?" instead of attacking someone personally and disgracefully.
Nothing new... (Score:2)
I like the show, and I think it's pretty well put together, but I definitely don't look at it and go, "wow, there's something totally different". It is, at it's core, a mystery/sleuth show. No big deal.
Re:New source of ad revenue? (Score:1)
Katz has been doing a review each Sunday for some time now. The idea behind this is that there aren't usually that many good stories on Sunday, so why not liven it up with a review? This is the first review of a television program I have seen, the rest have been movie reviews.
Re:THE FINAL WORD ON PIGS (Score:1)
Re:THE FINAL WORD ON PIGS (Score:1)
"Yeah, especially the few bad apples that spoil their otherwise spotless image!"
Re:Nerd TV shows? (Score:1)
"Here comes the nerd squad."
I was hooked there, and it just got better.
It is a nerd show. If you read the review you see several instances stated as to why it is not a typical cop show.
BTW, folks who feel like they just *hate* Katz, why don't you block his articles and quit bitching like the bunch of 12 year old whiners you are.
Crime solvers textbook (Score:1)
Re:The Lone Gunmen! (Score:1)
Basic scripts, inaccurate details (Score:1)
What did in the show's hopes of any future eyeball time of mine was the part at the end where they were catching a killer who had a cold. The guy is standing at a casino cashier behind a glass window, where he sneezes onto the window on his side of it. The detective turns around, wipes the OTHER side of the window where he is standing, then proclaims to the cashier that he just got the evidence he needed to put the cashier behind bars. I guess the director thought sneeze snot can travel through glass or something, or maybe just that the American public was stupid enough to overlook that minor detail.
The basis of the show might have merit, but its dumbing down for the sake of the viewers holds it back from being the really good show that it has potential to be.
Re:The Lone Gunmen! (Score:1)
Re:In the tradition of Quincy and The Rockford Fil (Score:1)
Didn't Catch it... (Score:1)
Too bad for me, I suppose
Re:What about Canada's Cold Squad? (Score:2)
When I first saw "The Newsroom" I thought of "Behind the Frontline" from Australia. Both shows were extremely funny as long as you can pay attention. It seems that only American comedies have laugh tracks ("You can laugh now, and fit in...")
An exception to the rule: "Made in Canada" which is a lot like "The Larry Sanders Show" only much more cynical and more of a focus on office environments (people taking credit for other people's work, etc).
Then again "Larry Sanders" was an exception to the rule for American comedies...
Re:Top 10 or 20? (Score:2)
Re:New source of ad revenue? (Score:2)
Re:THE FINAL WORD ON PIGS (Score:2)
Re:I never miss an episode (Score:1)