Forensic Files

This is my favorite true crime show. It doesnt go overboard with the reenactments, and I always learn something new each time. After a few episodes you get to know the formula, but that doesn't make it any less interesting. This is probably my favorite way to relax after a long day, which sounds strange, but the narrator's calming/ slightly cheesy voice and the super 90s background music help me tune out the world and relax. There are like 400 episodes, but I will keep rewatching them forever because no other true crime show gets me like this one.

Forensic Files is a fascinating show and the jewel in the Court TV networks crown. It is like a real life version of Quincy. It is hard hitting and realistic and above all educational. We are so lucky today to have such amazing advances like DNA analysis and criminal profiling that would help capture criminals who not so long ago would have escaped justice for their crimes. Watching one episode is like eating one delicious potato chip, you just cannot stop. It is fascinating! Why just the other night they talked about the Malvo-Muhammad sniper case and the John List mystery. John List had murdered his family and escaped justice for almost twenty years and they made a bust of his face and showed what he would look like twenty years later. Thanks to Forensics and the power of America's Most Wanted he was finally captured and brought to justice fo9r the murder of his wife, mother and three children. The thing that makes Forensic Files for me is Peter Thomas the narrator. Simply put, he makes the show what it is. He makes it just like Leonard Nimoy made In Search Of... or Robert Stack made Unsolved Mysteries. He has got one of the best storyteller voices that I have ever heard. There is something else that you need to know, Peter Thomas is a true American hero. He served with the First Infantry Division in World War II and won the Silver Star and The Purple Heart. I write to celebrities as a hobby and recently wrote to Mister Thomas. He sent me one of the nicest replies that I have ever gotten. He even sent me a poem that he wrote about his experiences and the horrors of war that he saw.

I always laugh when I see people say "Forensic Files" is "the latest entry into forensic TV" or "jumping on the forensics bandwagon" or such. The show started on TLC/Discovery Networks as "Medical Detectives" back in 1996. When it switched over to CourtTV, Discovery was still running some episodes so they changed the name. (Now all those episodes are re-labeled "Forensic Files" and are seen on Court TV.) In fact, the show still airs as "Medical Detectives" in many countries overseas. (It is also known, I believe, as "Crime Seen")

The show is in it's eleventh season of production. The show didn't jump on the bandwagon - it got it rolling in the first place!

If you watch "C.S.I.", many of the techniques (such as using alternate video treatments to show recreations, and showing different recreations of how the crime MIGHT have happened as the evidence changes), you can see that they watched "Forensic Files" while developing their show. They also used to get plenty of story ideas from this and other true-crime shows.

This show tells true crime stories of how the use of forensic evidence, from the identification of fingerprints to examining hair, and from tracking barcodes to tracking phone records, can lead to the location and capture of suspects. Each half-hour episodes start off with a mystery of an unsolved crime - intriguing and suspenseful. It then leads to a thrilling hunt of the criminal and the forensic attempts at tying the evidence to a suspect.

Peter Thomas does a great job in narrating each episode, making each story foreboding. It's sad to see the evil acts a person inflicts on another, but with forensic evidence, it comes to show that there is no perfect crime and certainly these criminals can't get away with murder.

Grade A

This is undeniably one of the best crime shows on TV. It's approach on suspense is top-notch and the wonderful narration is haunting. These are real life cases, with some reenactments, and it shows you how the crimes get solved with reliable forensics.

It's structure is simple. We open up to a place where it gives us back-story on the victim. Then, there's a killer on the loose and the police turn to science for help. Usually, it ends on a good note, it's predictable yet hypnotic. Justice is served, so it ends with closure for the family & friends of the victim(s) and satisfaction for law enforcement. An excellent message to its target audience!

UPDATE: the show is not on YouTube, watch it when you get a chance! I recommend viewing it at night time in the dark, it makes the show so interesting.