Settings

How are settings significant in a crime drama?

In CSI-Miami, the setting is significant because Miami is home to a lot of different cultures and this allows more diverse crimes and feuds to happen. It is a very wealthy and glamorous place and his shows in the narrative of the episodes. Usually the crimes are to do with power or money.
In Luther, the setting is in a part of London which is a lot more gritty and has a lot of estates and this allows for the more hard and gruesome crimes to happen. Also it ties in with Luther being a anti hero as if you’re worked in the upper area of London you’re more likely to abide by the law more.

Luther as a flawed Anti-Hero.

• Luther is an anti hero as he chooses not to follow the law completly in his work. The first time we see this is when he doesnt save the criminal (Madson) when he is falling to his death. A typical hero would have saved the man but instead, Luther decides to let him hang there untill he gets what he wants from him and this causes Madson to loose grip and fall.
• Another reason for the beleive that Luther is an anti hero is that he brakes into Alices flat to try and find evidence to use against her. He has produced a very personal relationship with alice which generally shoudnt happen between a cop and a suspect.
• He also gets involved with fights. When he got into the fight with his wifes new partner he uses his authority to stop the police from breaking up the fight.
• Similarly he tends to prioritise his personal life other his professional life. We see this when he blackmails Alice to leave his ex wife alown and in return he will arrest someone else for the crime she had comitted. This is obviously not right as he is letting a cerial killer free.
• Also in some cases he chooses not to report things that he should. for example he found the crime scene in one episode and because he wanted to out smart and catch the criminal himself, he didnt report it and instead tryed to frame the criminal.

Interogation Scenes- This is usually a one on one situation with the detective and the suspect. It is so they can find out more evidence untill they have enough evidence to prosicute someone. The audience enjoy theese scenes as it gives them information so they can try and figure out who done it.

Key dialogue and iconography-

• Tape recordings.
• Empty rooms.
• Confessions.
• Alabi.

The Laboratory- The laboratory scene is when they analyse the peices of DNA or any evidence found on to see if they can find any trace of who the criminal may be. Its role in the narrative is very important because this is were you strat to find out clues and were the detectives start to unravel the puzzle. The pleasure gained for the audience by watching theese scenes are that you can see how things are done and we enjoy watvhing all the technology at work and making our own assumptions on things.
Key dialogue and iconography-

• DNA
• Fibre
• Telescopes
• Lab coats
• Test tubes
• High tech computers

Crime Scene- The crime scene is were the crime has been committed and usually there is some sort of result of the crime such as a dead body there. In this scene you see the different poeple involved in the CSI team looking for evidence to get them started so they can look for the criminal. This is one of the most important part in a crime drama as this is were we first find out what he crime was and when we start to figure out how it was commited. Usually we see the detective arrive at the crime scene and then they start to find clues.

Key dialogue and iconography-

• Crime scene tape.
• Evidence markers.
• Victim.
• Camera's.
• Weapon.

 

Press Conference-  The press conference is where the police or an important person informs the media and press about the crime that has been commited. The press are able to ask questions about anything to do with the crime such as if they have any leads or suspects. The audiences pleasure from this scene is that we feel as if we are more improtant than the press as we kow more than what they are being told.

Key dialogue and iconography-

• Cameras
• Microphones
• Desks
• Press
• Tv coverage.
• Police
• Family members of the victim.

The Eureka Moment - The Eureka moment is when some important information is uncovered and i clicks in the investigators head and they know who the criminal is. This is the moment when we find out who done it and if we got it right or not. The pleasure of this scene is that if you did get it right, you get a feeling of inteligence as you knew who is was before anyone else and this makes you want to watch more.

Key dialogue and iconography-

• Montages
• Flashbacks
• reacuuring Character
• evidence

Luther Episode 3

In this episode the conventions used are Montages, a recurring character, Crime Scene and Evidence.

At the beginning of this episode we see a strange man knocking on a front door. A woman opened the door, Kirsten Ross, and started to talk about her husband and started asking questioned about whether the strange man knew him. The man walked into the house and started to threaten the woman. He threatens to either kill both her and her child or she can safe her child’s life and get kidnapped herself. She chooses to get kidnapped.  This was the obvious choice as any mother would do this for her child. We the cut to the police station were we see Luther and his colleagues getting informed about the kidnapping and they try to work and solve investigations. We were then shown images from the house. There was writing covering the walls written in blood. Rose Teller then explains how this exact incident happen 10 years ago to a young girl names Grace Allen but the murderer, Lucien Burgess, had no evidence on him so couldn't be convicted. She tells Luther he is a psychopath and drains people’s blood and the disposes of their body so it can be found by the police.

Luther uses his intelligence to put the pieces together and work out were Kristin’s dead body could be. He then finds the body but ha no clear evidence to show it was Lucien so him and his assistance try to catch him in the act. The are able to do this and Lucien is then charged.

In another place Zoe’s boyfriend Mark is beaten up by a group of teenage girls in a gang. He says one of the girls in the gang said, "Luther says hello" so he then reports Luther. We then find out that it was Alice, a recurring character that set the gang on Zoe to try and get to Luther. This keeps the audience engaged as they want to see what happens next and how Alice may appear again

Criminal Minds- episode North Mammon

In this episode the use of multiple suspects and red-herrings make the audience more captivated as they unravel the mystery. Also typical scenes that are seen are the interrogation room, the lab, the crime scene and the police station.

Three teenage girls who played for their school football team were kidnapped after the boy’s soccer pep rally. The detective (JJ) and her team take on the case after receiving two identical voice messages from Polly and Kelly that were sent to their parents saying that they are going on a road trip. The team believe the messages to be fake or unrealistic so they go to Pennsylvania in search for the girls or their kidnapper. JJ and her team join forces with the local sheriff and find vital evidence for example cigarette buds with the same DNA, right outside Brooke's house which lead them to believe that the Soccer coach (whose DNA matches the buds) has kidnapped the girls. The team soon find out that the coach has a previous criminal record. They also find the girls football shirts and this piece of evidence has been planted to make the detectives think the kidnapper is someone else.

We see the girls have been locked in a basement and one of the girls (Brooke) has become seriously ill. The girls are starving and Brooke's health is slowly becoming worse as time goes on. The kidnapper tells them that only two of them can leave and one will be killed. They must choose which two will survive. Two of the girls decide its best to leave Brooke as she is very ill and she would most likely die anyway. The hard part is that the two girls that are going to survive have to kill the other girl themselves with hammers that the kidnapper had provided. At the police station Polly and Brooke turn up and they are able to identify the kidnapper from a photo. They go to the Bin mans house and go to the basement to find him there with Kelly’s dead body. They arrest him.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation- 73 seconds

The CSI team is introduced to their new supervisor, D.B. Russell. The CSI team is still recovering from the fall out between Langston and Haskell. Nick is still angry at Internal Affairs' decision to let Langston go. Brass is not too happy with the decision either but he seems to take a liking to Russell early on. Catherine and Nick are still trying to work out their own issues with how Langston and Haskell's case was settled.

There's been a shooting and stabbing on the Las Vegas tram and many are dead and injured. The only person who was not injured in the incident was a small boy who is so traumatized he won't talk. His mother was wounded badly in the incident. Nick tries to get the boy to talk but is not successful. Russell manages to connect with the boy and he's able to get the critical information that the team needs for this case.

The CSI team also finds a man who was stabbed in a bathroom by the platform. He was going to meet his brother on the tram but was stabbed before he could even meet with his brother who had been living the low life, always in need of money. While he tries to remove the knife from his brother's body, a security guard sees on the cameras that the man has a gun which results in a shoot out. The stabbed brother is wounded further and dies and the low life brother flees the scene. The younger brother's friend from prison had stabbed the older brother.

In this episode there are multiple victims and this is common in crime drama's, generally you can't have a criminal without a victim. There are also different roles within the csi team. Theese go from the detectives to police and private detectives. Theese show a different level of improtance. They also use different types of methods to gather evidence and are very technology based.

CSI-NY episode: what you see is what you see

Detective Mac Taylor becomes a witness in a crime scene when a shooting occurs while he is having breakfast. A gunman opens fire, leaving a waitress critically injured and a man dead, and Mac having to choose whether to chase after the gunman or save the life of the young woman.
He lets the gunman get away to treat the young women but they soon find evidence and clues that link them to multiple suspects. The csi team are lucky to have Mac as not many of the other witnesses saw very much. He is able to tell them what he saw and in turn find out who might have been the shooter. One of thee suspects are then shot and this leaves them with more evidence.
The codes and conventions used in this episode are things such as montages, evidence, technical and medical terms, and different types of jobs such as detectives and paramedics.
You see multiple women characters but most of them are the victims whereas there is only one main female investigator and lots of men.
The main character in this episode is Mac Taylor played by Gary Sinise. He has been in movies such as ‘Apollo 13’, ‘Mission to mars’ and ‘Of mice and men.’ These all represent him as  real mans man and this is also how his character is portrayed in this episode.

Over all this episode was fast paced, but not as glamorous as over csi's. You can relate more with theese chatacters as they are more like everyday people.