2009-04-16

CSI: NY and Technology

Note: If you haven’t already watched this week’s episode of CSI: NY, “The Past, Present, and Murder” be aware that this post contains minor spoilers. It’s discusses a topic that comes up roughly half way through the show. If surprise is important to you, you may want to skip this post.

Lately, CSI is just making me angry either with ignorant plot elements and with sheer stupidity. They are doing their best to shed their reputation for intelligent TV.

This week’s episode builds on plot twists from several weeks or months ago. In that episode, the murder victim was a corporate “fixer” who knew all the dirt about all sorts of important people. She kept that data on a flash drive. That flash drive eventually gets stolen and all sorts of people start looking for it and dying over it.

Fast forward six months in show time, and that flash drive again is an important plot element. People are trying to recover it for the information that’s on it. Other’s are just trying to find the drive itself as a piece of evidence.

Here’s what I can’t help but think – WHY WOULD THAT DRIVE STILL EXIST?

If I was dealing with a USB drive that could be incriminating, the first thing I would do is copy the data to another drive, and then DESTROY THE ORIGINAL HARDWARE. Seriously, this isn’t tough stuff. Data is easy to secure. Data is easy to move. Data is easy to hide if you try.

And then you can get rid of the physical evidence.

In this episode, we weren’t talking about cracked out street thugs. We’re talking about people who should know a little bit about technology, or at least be able to pay some people who know a little bit about technology.

Can’t they just think about this? Just a little?

6 comments:

Mom said...

You presume that the person in possession of the drive is willing to destroy / replace it AND that they are clever enough to realize that the equipment could be incriminating.

Many people believe that deleting the information is good enough to destroy the evidence.

You also have to realize that many people just think they won't get caught so destroying evidence is not necessary.

Sadly, this type of situation is more in line with reality that you might expect.

sandy said...

NY in the one I don't watch. Don't care for the cast as much, plus the few times I've watched it, seems it far more gruesome than CSI. I love NCIS also, used to like Miami.

Sandy

Sharkbytes said...

I think all the CSIs have gotten almost too stupid to bother with. CSI Miami, which used to be my second fav, has the interesting personalities of Horatio and Caleigh that carry it along. CSI (LV) used to be my fav show, but the loss of Grissom has pretty much done it in for me. CSI NY was always 3rd on my list. The plots were the most outlandish of the 3 and the only strong character is Mac. They've all wavered into the area of the bizarre a bit too often. I could handle a couple of episodes a year of the weird, now it seems to just be a contest to see which can be weirder.

And Without a Trace has become nothing but a soap opera. Thank goodness for NCIS and Criminal Minds.

I'll stop ranting now.

Webbielady said...

Im thinking that indeed destroying the drive is very easy... but the consequence is fatal... say everyone detemined that I have the drive...im the "last touch" to it and they abducted my sister in exchange of the original thing..if i did destroy it, my sister is dead... right? Thus, such drive can't just be desroyed though doing so is literally easy.

Oh, i never watched that episode nor did i able to watch csi for months (or a year? ) maybe.

Grampy said...

In my opinion CSI since Grissom left has just become garbage. I like CSI Miami. My wife says she hates it because there are too many pretty people. And she hates Horatio. NY is alright.
The best of course is NCIS...............
Enjoy.

Cromely said...

@Mom: I guess I have trouble with the whole issue because a flash drive is nothing more than an envelope holding something else. And people rarely save envelopes.

@sandy: I enjoy the NY one. The soap opera's not too bad for my taste. Miami used to be my favorite, but it's just gone too over the top for me. How many people has Horatio shot now? I like the Vegas show. I'm a little behind on this season, though. I began getting into NCIS last year.

@sharkbytes: Miami just makes me angry sometimes with how absurd it's gotten. I do like the ensemble nature of NY, but sometimes it gets a little over the top. I go back and forth on Without a Trace. I really like Criminal Minds. I was worried about what would happen when Mandy Patankin left, but they've done really well. It's definitely the creepiest of the shows.

@Webbielady: That's true, but it seems like the writers just don't get the nature of data.

@Grampy: It looks like there are a lot more NCIS fans out there than I thought. I really like that show.