More than 30 million people watched CSI and its spinoffs during the 2010-2011 season.
And while the show is entertaining to be sure, is it in any way real?
That answer, according to the experts, is a big fat no. And many of the inaccuracies in the show are pretty flagrant.
But don't let us make up your mind. Take a look and decide for yourself.
To start, some of the crimes are just totally unimaginable.
One episode of CSI featured a suspect who used a radio frequency identification reader concealed in a woman's purse to scan credit card numbers and social security numbers.
But, according to RFID Journal, that's simply not possible.
"I understand that the folks who write TV dramas don't care about facts or reality, but this kind of nonsense creates unnecessary fear among the public," Mark Roberti wrote for the journal's blog.
DNA doesn't always save the day.
In CSI, DNA is always at the scene of the crime, and it always ensures bad guys pay for their crimes.
But, according to Perspectives magazine, that's just not the case. The equipment necessary to analyze DNA is expensive and there's a major backlog in samples that still need to be tested.
“With DNA profiles, these shows take artistic license with a kernel of truth and make it something that we’re not even close to being ready to do in actuality,” trial attorney Ted Hunt told the magazine.
Forensic work is much more fragmented than shown on TV.
In CSI, one analyst might visit a crime scene to gather evidence, process it, and come to some brilliant conclusion.
But in the real world, there are far more checks and balances and the work is divvied up among many people.
"In a big department like New York there will be a group that just does firearms," forensic scientist Roger Thompson told PoliceEmployment.com "That's all they do is shoot guns and look at the fragments under a microscope."
Separate groups will then handle the other parts of the investigation.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.
