CSI: Miami

[David Jimerson]

What's with the over-the-top pretentious editing this year?

[Richard Alvarez]

"over the top and pretentious" - would that be 'hip'?

[Cole McDonald]

I wasn't happy about it either. I thought they had moved away from just making a story and jazzed it up with powerpoint types of transitions and overlays for no reason.

[David Jimerson]

Originally Posted by Cole McDonald

I wasn't happy about it either. I thought they had moved away from just making a story and jazzed it up with powerpoint types of transitions and overlays for no reason.

Yeah, that's what I thought, too -- it's as if someone just bought Hollywood FX and had to use every transition in the same episode. Less is more, guys -- less is more.

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Originally Posted by David Jimerson

What's with the over-the-top pretentious editing this year?

Last year we were discussing the high color-saturation and warm bias in the balance they used to make the scenic sweeps more dazzling. I believe they've turned that up one more notch this year----it's close to being too much.

[Cole McDonald]

I'd have been OK with it if they had stuck with the comic book panels to show all the "action" in the lab (science is externally unmotivating when it's happening in real time). but the gray overlays and the crop zoom outs and all of the other crap they've done has turned it a bit farcical. It *is* too much. I'm not sure why they started doing it either...the format worked...don't mess with it.

[Joe Carney]

I only watched a couple of episodes, since they are trying to pass CA off as FL. Lame. The light is completely different. Maybe thats why all the effects, so you don't notice. Plus all the lame cliches the writers put in.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I can't watch any of the CSI variants. Actually, I have trouble with any show if the pivoting plot points are illogical and are disproved by the very first hit on Google. I can forgive a show like X-files which is almost entirely based in fantasy, but real-world basis means checking your facts for five minutes before you spend big bucks shooting an hour of programming.

The final straw for me was an episode of CSI where a woman was eating people because she had porphyria, a blood disease sometimes referred to as the "vampire disease". Eating blood products from other people does not treat the symptoms. Blood products from donors must be injected and the writers didn't bother to even Google their idea to make sure it works. There are so many of these flaws in their writing I had to stop watching.

Back to the specific topic: I cringe any time I see comicbook panels unless in a comic book. I'm tired of the earthquake-cam handheld shots with unnecessary movement and focusing on extraneous details. The king of that was NYPD Blue, but it spilled over into other cop dramas. Super-saturated colors may look okay in the editing room, but once sent out over the airways the signal is not so clean and the color looks bad. Considering that the bloom from David Caruso's bright red hair brings forth thoughts of the Heat Miser, the stylistic choices start to erode the drama of the show. There is nothing wrong with red hair, but oversaturating it is just as bad as ingnoring the exposure, lighting, and makeup needs of people with different skin colors.

[Greg Boston]

Unfortunately, in the entertainment world, you have to jazz it up which sometimes means bending the truth. Reality is boring.

I mean c'mon, James Bond would be the luckiest SOB in the world if he really survived all those stunts. They are so over-the-top, it's hard not to laugh at them.

There was a great website that I can't remember the link to, but it pointed out all the obvious inaccuracies that are thrown at us in the name of entertainment. ie: Computers always make some type of chirp or bleep, tires always squeal (even on gravel), etc.

That site had a whole bunch of these little distorted truths.

-gb-