Murder show, murder show, we’re gonna watch a murder show

Rob James

Forensic science for TV show couch detectives.

“Do I strike you more as a talker or a doer, Steve?”

My wife loves handcrafts and sevens rugby; I love jazz piano standards and baseball. She likes medicine and psychology; I like history and physics. But the place where our recreational interests intersect most strongly is … homicide. We both enjoy movies and TV series (the longer the better, if good and in moderation) with strange crimes and strange criminals and strange investigators, set in strange places.

Given our scientific bent, I decided to borrow or buy some textbooks and popular treatments of forensics and take notes on the amazing variety of disciplines that are brought to bear on the examination of a crime scene, the analysis of evidence especially the corpse, and the piecing together of the physical and human clues.

My notes are attached here, and I will update them over time.