Why is CSI so popular?

[anarky]

Seriously.

I sort of liked it the first season. It was clever. But second season, it started getting ridiculous. They regularly featured groups and occupations in a way that involved so little research that it became insulting. (Like the guidance counselor who killed a kid because he was a bully? Uh, dude, you're a fucking guidance counselor. Helping him not be a bully is your fucking career.)

Then it got crazier and crazier. (I know this because my wife continued to watch until this last season, when even she gave up.) All the evidence would point to a jealous ex-girlfriend, or a greedy boss, and it would stack up... only for us to find in the end that the victim was run over by a dog who was taking a joyride in a tractor. Okay, not that goofy, but the point of a crime drama is that you can look back at the end of the show and see the evidence you didn't necessarily catch before. Here, the surprise twist became so important that the important stuff was never revealed until the very end.

The creators decided to play up the drama in the characters, but they were all so one-dimensional that no one cared. Grissom went deaf, but the producers apparently decided it was a bad idea, and simply forgot about it. Not even a simple "Hey, I got some surgery and can hear again!" That's some fine storytelling there. Call the dudes making Hulk 2. I'm sure they'll appreciate the help.

I saw the finale when I visited my parents (who still watch it religiously). This "miniature killer" has foiled them all season. Finally, in the end, we find out it's this crazy woman... who happens to be a janitor at CSI. Nice background check they must've done. She sees a car at a crime scene and--get this--somehow, with her high-level janitorial clearance, gets the car from impound with no one noticing, moves it to a deserted road, places it upside down, and then kidnaps one of the officers and places her under it.

Shark jumped? Yeah, I think that was a few miles back.

The other CSIs are as bad, or worse. The more they have, the more diluted and stupid the stories get. And the characters still aren't good enough to give a rat's ass about.

So why the fuck is this one of the highest rated shows in TV history? Are people so fucking stupid that they tune in to this after Deal or No Deal?

[vynsane]

So why the fuck is this one of the highest rated shows in TV history?

people ARE so fucking stupid that they tune in to this after Deal or No Deal.

i gotta admit, though... DonD had me hooked for quite a while. i'm off the stuff now, though. clean and sober.

[anarky]

My mother-in-law watches that. She's a bit naive, and doesn't understand that they've figured probabilities, and the banker's offer is predetermined by exactly what's remaining on the board.

I'll admit, I've watched it a couple of times. More to see how fucking stupid people are, and how they can't grasp even the basic fundamentals of probability.

[Diabolical]

The shit that has always really bugged me about CSI is they explain every mother fucking thing.

Dipshit A: "Hey, what is that stuff?"
Dipshit B: "Well, if I spray the room with this and then shine a black light, we will be able to see wherever the blood was in the room."

Dipshit A: "Look, I found a fingerprint."
Dipshit B: "Fingerprints...everyone has them right?"
Dipshit A: "Right, but everyone's fingerprint are different."
Dipshit B: "So...if we match these fingerprints with another set of fingerprints, we'll have a suspect?"
Dipshit A: "Right!"

Ummm...you two 'tards are experts. If you need to explain it to each other, you should be fired.