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CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS

In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, entertainment reporter Patrick Goldstein railed against the Motion Picture Association of America’s inconsistent movie ratings system, noting, “Its ratings decisions, which frown on almost any sort of sex, frontal nudity or bad language but have allowed increasing amounts of violence over the years, are horribly out of touch with mainstream America, where families everywhere are disturbed by the amount of violence freely portrayed in movies, video games and hip-hop music.” He should have added television to the list.

The November 4^th episode of CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (9:00 p.m. ET) contained horrifying scenes of cannibalism, torture, and mutilation that rivaled the grotesque, ultra-violent (and R-rated) slasher flicks that regularly hit the theaters. Yet, this rank episode aired over the public airwaves. For extreme violence CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has been named Worst TV Show of the Week.

During the show’s opening, someone is shown chopping vegetables (and oddly a credit card) for a Manhattan clam chowder. The piece de resistance, however, is the human ear that finishes the soup. The psychotic chef takes the wretched dish to a captive victim who is bound to a chair, to whom he force-feeds the shards of credit cards and the human ear.

Later, the CSI team investigates a call from a truck driver who noticed “suspicious ooze” coming from the back of his trailer of industrial waste. The team determines that the ooze is actually blood. When they open the trailer, amid the bits of shredded metal and plastics, the team finds strips of human flesh and an eyeball. The rest of the unit assembles for the unenviable task of sifting through the pile for human remains. Traces of flesh inside an industrial shredder confirm that the victim’s body had been mangled to bits. And in case the mere suggestion of finely grated human wasn’t disturbing enough, a stylized re-enactment drives the point home.

After eleven seasons on the air, CSI must continually come up with novel ways to kill people off. But the excessive, over-the-top gore of the show is partly responsible for the increasing amounts of violence alluded to in Goldstein’s article -- and is the reason CSI has rightfully been named Worst TV Show of the Week.