Forensic Files
Forensic Files is a documentary style show which reveals how forensics and science are used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and even outbreaks of illness. The show is broadcast on Court TV, narrated by Peter Thomas, and produced by Medstar Television, in association with Court TV Original Productions. It has broadcast over 900 episodes so far.
Production and broadcast history
Forensic Files began airing on Court TV in 2000. However, the series actually began on the TLC Network in 1995 as Medical Detectives. Old episodes of Medical Detectives now air on Court TV under the Forensic Files label. The show was created and continues to be filmed and produced by Medstar Television, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Overseas, the show airs under these two titles, and others, on various channels in over 100 countries. It is distributed by CableReady.
Premiering just as the O. J. Simpson murder trial had focused attention on the world of DNA and forensics, Medical Detectives became a hit. It was one of, if not the first of the popular forensic science shows. A few years later, Court TV snapped up the show and it quickly became the cornerstone of their primetime schedule, increasing its annual production run to 42 episodes. The show was so successful that, in 2002, NBC aired it as a summer replacement series.
Weird Science
The show helped pioneer documentary style crime-science shows, and promotes itself as profiling "puzzling, often baffling cases whose riddles are ultimately solved by forensic detection." The cases and people are real. Perhaps surprisingly, DNA testing is actually rarely focused on. While ballistics, hair analysis, and fingerprinting do turn up, the show seems to prefer unusual evidence, such as animal hairs, plant analysis, or arson investigation. Scientists and forensic experts in many fields are all interviewed.
Not every case is a crime. In some cases, the investigation reveals that suspects are innocent, and the death was an accident or suicide. Several shows have profiled people who have been jailed for or convicted of a crime, and ultimately exonerated by forensic evidence.
Although "Medical Detectives" also showed how outbreaks of mysterious illnesses were tracked (such as the Hantavirus and Legionellosis), most of those have been dropped in favor of criminal cases (and occasionally civil cases) on Court TV.
Show format
The show takes a "whodunit" approach, making each case a mystery to be solved. Every half-hour episode follows one case from initial investigation until conviction, acquittal, or some other legal resolution. Pathologists, medical examiners, police officers, detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, friends and families of victims or suspects are all interviewed about their roles.
Video of the lab tests is shot in a modernistic film noir style, in dark, moodily lit settings with odd, glowing colors. The crimes and parts of the investigation are re-enacted with actors in dramatic recreations. These recreations are indicated by a change in video style. In earlier episodes they were blurry and black & white, and some appeared to actually be shot on film. More current shows use video that is in color, with letterboxing and a 'fuzzy' look. These recreations sometimes include alternate versions of the crime, which are eventually disproved by the science. This technique would later be appropriated, in a modified form, by the hit series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation-- essentially a fictionalized big-budget version of Forensic Files.
In 2006 Forensic Files "Advanced" episodes began to air. This format takes previously released episodes and adds random extra bits of information related to the case previously left out. These bits of info are in the "pop-up" format reminiscent of Pop-up Video and often add interesting factoids related to the case and those involved. These facts often have the ironic or "wow" element to them.
Trivia
- The theme music of the show is strikingly similar to one of the Terran music tracks on the Blizzard Game Starcraft.
Notes and references
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