Producers: We Don't Aim To Shock

With dismembered body parts, squashed internal organs and plenty of blood spatter, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami are probably two of the grisliest shows on television. But according to the producers, these confronting images faced aren't there to shock to viewers.

"When we're in the writer's room, we really aren't thinking: Can we shock?" executive producer Ann Donahue told Roger Catlin at the Hartford Courant. "We really aren't. We're thinking: What's possible? What interests us? What has irony and pathos?"

Executive producer Danny Cannon who, as regular CSI director, has been one of the people responsible for the show's visual style from day one, said reality is often more disturbing. "It's never as much of a shock as what's in the newspaper," he said. Cannon added viewers know what they're getting into with CSI. "We don't con anybody into watching the show. You know, they're watching a whodunit, a mystery every week. And we stand by those."

There have certainly been many cases when the episodes have been 'ripped from the headlines'. This season, an episode of CSI: Miami will be based on the kidnapping of teenager Elizabeth Smart, who held captive for nine months by a man who wanted her to be one of his wives.

But when producing television based on real-life incidents, there's always the risk of hitting too close to home, as happened with last season's "Tinder Box", which dealt with a nightclub fire similar to the one in Rhode Island. "What we realized is there is a point where something is tragedy, and nobody wants to revisit it," Ann Donahue said.

Further comments from the producers can be found in this article.

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