[geeks] TV/book rant was: Crichton

[Nadine Miller]

John Francini wrote:
> Couple of things...
> 
> Whether praising or trashing, can we at least spell his name right -- 
> CRICHTON -- I've seen several incorrect spellings over the course of 
> this thread and it's variants.
> 
> Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion..

Sorry about that, I was too lazy to google...partially because I think 
he's a bit of a hack as far as Sci-Fi goes.  It sucks that he's made so 
much cash when so many better writers have languished in obscurity.
> Unfortunately, while I agree that CSI is definitely Science-Fiction, it 
> has the drawback of being set in the *present* -- this causes the 
> credulous to believe that this is What We're Capable Of Now.  If it were 
> set 50 or 100 years in the future, it'd be far easier for this same 
> group to realize that this is future tech, not current tech.
> 
> But if you go out and talk to any number of ordinary Americans who watch 
> the CSI:* family, you'll find that a large percentage of them think that 
> this is what happens in police work today -- and they'd be very wrong.

What I find interesting is the divergence between the 3 shows.  Miami 
must be on some future space station version of Miami, while Las Vegas 
is still pretty much down-to-earth on the credibility/reality scale. 
CSI:NY seems to fall in between (other than the over-loading of weird 
plot devices).

Perhaps it's due to people thinking Vegas is more nitty-gritty (mob 
connection past) and Miami having a larger than life romantic picture in 
people's minds.

=Nadine=