CSI changes the way television drama looks in the multiple sense of its high
production values, its novel autoptic and anatomic imagery and the gazes it
configures for the viewer. In these ways CSI showcases the performance of
forensic science, trades on an appetite for CG effects and, through its graphic
depiction of ruined corpses, draws imagery from Gothic horror. This article examines
the role of the corpse within CSI. How are the viewer's access to
the corpse, and violent death, mediated through the gazes of the CSI's and
the special effects used by the show's producers? How might this rendering
of science and death contribute to a broader public imaginary? I theorize pedagogic
and necrophilic gazes upon the gendered, raced and predominantly youthful corpse and
elucidate that which is effaced by them.
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