CSI: My Dummies
I don’t know what it is about CSI. I moan about it continually but it’s the kind of mindless, polished-looking entertainment that I find myself settling down to watch when I don’t feel like doing something constructive in the evenings.
Last night’s Season 4 episode of CSI: Miami, entitled Urban Hellraisers, had me groaning in frustration over its blatant stereotyping of gamers and its support for the idea that video games make you prone to violent crime. Jack Thompson must have been jumping around in glee!
Literally every stupid misconception was there.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Essentially the plot saw a group of college students (who met on an Internet chat room, of course!) embarking on a killing/robbery spree styled exactly on a GTA style urban crime game. Completely desensitised to their actions, these kiddies are driven purely by a desire for points that will put them in first place on a score sheet. Personally, I can’t remember the last time when ‘points’ motivated me to do anything in a game.
One of the CSIs has to play the game to find out what the criminals are going to do next. He can’t crack Level 2. Later the CSIs find a dead student (at the bottom level of the library where only the researcher geeks go). This student has died after playing the game for 70 hours straight. He also hasn’t got past Level 2. Frankly, if after just 3 hours of gameplay I hadn’t progressed to the second stage of a game, it would be unceremoniously chucked.
The students have such gear as Uzzi’s, and sunglasses that project 3-D maps of the buildings they are entering. These have been supplied by the game developer who believes that the only way to sell his game and give it ‘the edge’ is to add in a real life murder aspect. Because that always boosts sales!
And finally, the ring leader of the ‘team’ is a girl. You see, the only way she can be noticed by boys is to join the gamers, and, well, beat them all at their own game.
Such creative genius!
---
Anyway, in other TV news, Survivor: Panama Exile Island started on South African TV last night. I know a lot of people were disappointed to learn we still have to wait a whole season to see ‘Survivor: Apartheid’, the season with the racially segregated teams. However, Exile Island has made the first step towards breaking the usual series conventions with 4 teams split according to gender and age. So there’s the Older Men team, the Younger Men team, the Older Women team, and the Younger Women team.
Comparing the premiere episode of Exile Island to South African Survivor on Sundays at the moment you realise how horribly boring and amateur our show is by comparison. The contestants are dull, what drama there is is horribly convoluted and the soundtrack permanently sounds like it belongs in a sweeping Romantic Drama like The Bridges of Madison County. Blergh. Say what you want about viewer manipulation in American Survivor (the Older Men team has seen its masculinity pumped up with an astronaut and a fighter pilot), but at least it makes the show entertaining.
Last night’s Season 4 episode of CSI: Miami, entitled Urban Hellraisers, had me groaning in frustration over its blatant stereotyping of gamers and its support for the idea that video games make you prone to violent crime. Jack Thompson must have been jumping around in glee!
Literally every stupid misconception was there.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Essentially the plot saw a group of college students (who met on an Internet chat room, of course!) embarking on a killing/robbery spree styled exactly on a GTA style urban crime game. Completely desensitised to their actions, these kiddies are driven purely by a desire for points that will put them in first place on a score sheet. Personally, I can’t remember the last time when ‘points’ motivated me to do anything in a game.
One of the CSIs has to play the game to find out what the criminals are going to do next. He can’t crack Level 2. Later the CSIs find a dead student (at the bottom level of the library where only the researcher geeks go). This student has died after playing the game for 70 hours straight. He also hasn’t got past Level 2. Frankly, if after just 3 hours of gameplay I hadn’t progressed to the second stage of a game, it would be unceremoniously chucked.
The students have such gear as Uzzi’s, and sunglasses that project 3-D maps of the buildings they are entering. These have been supplied by the game developer who believes that the only way to sell his game and give it ‘the edge’ is to add in a real life murder aspect. Because that always boosts sales!
And finally, the ring leader of the ‘team’ is a girl. You see, the only way she can be noticed by boys is to join the gamers, and, well, beat them all at their own game.
Such creative genius!
---
Anyway, in other TV news, Survivor: Panama Exile Island started on South African TV last night. I know a lot of people were disappointed to learn we still have to wait a whole season to see ‘Survivor: Apartheid’, the season with the racially segregated teams. However, Exile Island has made the first step towards breaking the usual series conventions with 4 teams split according to gender and age. So there’s the Older Men team, the Younger Men team, the Older Women team, and the Younger Women team.
Comparing the premiere episode of Exile Island to South African Survivor on Sundays at the moment you realise how horribly boring and amateur our show is by comparison. The contestants are dull, what drama there is is horribly convoluted and the soundtrack permanently sounds like it belongs in a sweeping Romantic Drama like The Bridges of Madison County. Blergh. Say what you want about viewer manipulation in American Survivor (the Older Men team has seen its masculinity pumped up with an astronaut and a fighter pilot), but at least it makes the show entertaining.
Comments
You're looking at tribe sizes of 4 people, so if you lose just twice, that's your tribe destroyed, and over half the contestants not taking part in the team challenges.
Mini tribes have to merge pretty early on.