CSI: More Graphic and Violent Than Ever
Since when is death entertaining?

"Should families entertain themselves by ingesting graphic images of medical autopsies, brutalized bodies, blood-spattered sets and decomposing corpses?" - PluggedIn Online

CBS's hit drama series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation features a Las Vegas team of forensics who track down criminals Sherlock Holmes-style. Intense, informational, and full of attention gripping mystery, investigators do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of the crime using footprints, carpet fibers, and even the imprint of a license plate number found on a hit-and-run victim's bruised leg.

The series revolves around the victims of heinous acts of crime and contains a great deal of graphic violence. Each episode reconstructs a crime scene, often playing morbid flashbacks multiple times throughout the hour. Graphic images include close-ups of corpses with gunshot wounds, cannibalism, a fully nude female corpse, and the mutilated victims of a deranged killer.

In order to create shock value, the sexual situations are also extremely graphic as CSI explores almost every facet of human sexuality. Past episodes have included incest, fur fetishes, wife-swapping parties, a teenage boy sleeping with his stepmother, a teenage girl in love with her father, a transsexual operation, and a brother who has sex with his sister. According to the Parent's Television Council, CSI leaves "nothing to the imagination and [destroys] the innocence of young viewers who watch."

An episode that aired in April entitled "Committed" presented a disgusting display of incest, murder, and cannibalism. Among other disturbing scenes, the show began with an investigation at a hospital for the criminally insane where a nurse had found a dead man laying a pool of blood, while another inmate licked the blood off the corpses' face and hands-all of which was shown in horrific detail.

One of the CSI stars, Jorja Fox shared with TV Guide, "I get nauseous just thinking about some of the things I've seen on the set… To be honest, in the beginning, I had to ask myself if I could handle working on this show every day because the content is kinda heavy. It gives you a whole new respect for real-life crime lab experts."

Yes, CSI does give viewers a new respect for those who work in crime scene investigation cases. It has also spoken out against rape, drug abuse, domestic violence, incest and violent crime. But the question remains: "Are decomposing corpses, graphic autopsies, and blood-spattered sets wholesome entertainment?"

Focus on the Family's media review site PluggedIn.com reports, "Twenty years ago on Quincy, Jack Klugman described the murders he uncovered each week. CSI shows theirs. From every angle. Over and over again. A drug-crazed raver strangles his friend. A woman caves in a man's skull with a rock. A man shoots himself in the head. A teenager stabs an entire family to death with a kitchen knife. The detectives are fond of saying that blood 'talks.' It also flies, drips, runs and pools on the floor. CSI is ugly, exploitative, gross, disrespectful of the dead and, unfortunately, enormously popular among the living."

With just over 14.6 million viewers during the week of July 18-22, CSI was ranked the number one Network Primetime TV show of Average Households and is a favorite even in Christian homes.

Karen Bragato, a full-time Christian mother, used to be a faithful CSI viewer. She shared, "I watched the show because nothing else was on, but I didn't like how it was so graphic. God convicted me of this and reminded me that I wasn't supposed to be watching things so graphic and violent. The verse in came to my mind about not setting any vile thing before my eyes (Psalm 101:3). So I stopped watching it because I knew I wasn't supposed to."

The series airs at 9:00 p.m., when some children are still awake, and reruns frequently air even earlier. Parents and church leaders should be strongly cautioned about the content of this series. It is not appropriate for anyone, especially those under 18 years of age. Also take note: TNT's new television series, "Wanted," premiered July 31st and is said to be an even more graphic version of CSI.

Parents and teens, take action! Turn off CSI and make a commitment to guard what goes in your mind. Also, write to the shows producers and inform them of your disgust. And don't forget to forward this article to your friends and family.

Sources:
Parent's Television Council, Plugged In, Zap2it, Entertainment Tonight

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