I remember watching the TV show Quincy M.E. -- whose title character, a medical examiner played by the late Jack Klugman -- was determined to find out how this or that person really died. As the show began the fall of my freshman year of junior high, and ended during the dark days right before my 14-year college spring break, I confess to more than a bit of youthful frustration at the fact that the show was quite bloodless and gutless.
Thanks to the CBS-TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, I now have images of bizarrely killed people, and their autopsies, burned into my eyeballs.
The series followed a morphing group of Sin City crime-lab investigators who cracked some pretty out-there murder cases. It ended its 15-year run with a two-parter on Sept. 27.
And I missed it.
At one time, missing anything CSI-ish was unheard of in our household. Hubby and I lapped up CSI and/or its younger sisters CSI: New York and CSI: Miami, becoming yet another of the minions bitten by the so-called CSI Effect.
One thing is for sure. The original CSI and its partner shows definitely afforded an education ... one we, the viewers, might never have thought we wanted, and some aspects of which we might do best to forget.
Just some effects of said education:
• We'll never forget the terms "petechial hemorrhaging" (although I'll probably forget how to spell it) or "blunt force trauma," which at least sound more intelligent than the phrase, "He's dead, Jim."
• We relived/developed an appreciation for songs by The Who. Yooooooooow! Won't get fooled again ...
• Nerdiness became cool as we developed an appreciation for science in general, and gadgets in particular -- real, imagined, or on their way down the pike.
• We have come to appreciate creative episode names. Like "A Bullet Runs Through It." And "The Devil and D.B. Russell." And "Merchants of Menace." And "Girls Gone Wilder."
• We now know of some, uh, quite alternative lifestyles. Such as that of Lady Heather, who was not an English noblewoman. And the furry fandom folks shown in the "Fur and Loathing" episode, where Las Vegas hosted a convention of people walking around in animal costumes. (Furry fandom is described on Wikipedia.com as "a subculture interested in fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics." Real-life "furries" reportedly thought the CSI depiction of them was sexualized and unfair.)
• We are now all too familiar with various creative ways of offing people. Like that even-creepier-than-usual "Art Imitates Life" episode in which one right-brained killer stages the victims doing everyday things. And wow, we can make cute miniature scenes of our murders!
Eventually I was lured away from the original CSI by CSI: Miami, with its smooth one-liners delivered by sunglasses-donning head honcho Horatio (David Caruso); and underling Eric Delko (Adam Rodriguez) doing, well, just about anything. CSI: New York also lured me away, using favorite actors Gary Sinese and Hill Harper as bait. I watched the Miami franchise until its cancellation; the other two shows I became unable to catch as they landed on nights I was usually out covering society parties for this newspaper, or out fellowshipping.
The best thing about the CSI shows is the same thing that's best about the Law & Order franchise shows, which they now join in syndication: If one is, shall we say, mature enough, one can enjoy seeing the same episodes over and over because one never remembers who the doggone murderer is.
The worst thing about them: One can become all too preoccupied with death ... more specifically, the sometimes grisly ways it can be brought about. And there's always that thought at the back of the mind: I hope this show isn't giving any sickos any ideas.
As one who is an advocate for life, warts and all, I will try to refrain from drowning myself in any of the CSI reruns, Eric Delko notwithstanding.
But I'll probably be periodically checking out that video of Horatio's one-liners. And humming "Who are You?"
Eeeeeee-maaa-il ... Me, me, me, me ...
hwilliams@arkansasonline.com
Style on 10/04/2015