CSI and Disabilities
It’s funny how you see something once, see it again, and then when you see it a third time notice something entirely new. It happened to me last week, while watching the show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, when I noticed how the show subtly includes people with disabilities as characters.
Those of you who are familiar with the show undoubtedly know the subplot that’s been developing throughout the season: Gil Grissom, the show’s main character, has been slowly growing deaf and struggling to conceal this development from his colleagues. Ok, so that’s not so subtle. But that was only the first sign. The second sign was the coroner in the show, Dr. Robbins, whom I hadn’t noticed had crutches until last week. The final sign was a passing scene in last week’s show, where one of the characters interacted with a fellow officer in a wheelchair. It continued this week, with a prosecutor who was also a paraplegic, due to a crime that wove itself into the episode.
I’d be interested to know how intentional the show’s producers and writers are acting to include positive role models for people with disabilities in the show. Is it part of a master plan, possibly a technique being used to reinforce the main “Grissom is going deaf” subplot? Or is it something else, perhaps evidence of a personal history of dealing with disabilities on the part of one of the production team?
As it turns out, the acting playing the coroner actually is disabled. He lost both his legs after being hit by a drunk driver and sustaining burns over 65% of his body. So the inclusion of disabilities, beyond the main Grissom subplot, could just be coincidence. Any hardcore CSI fans out there know for sure?
Bizarre… I also noticed the cane/crutch only last week. And hearing that the actor is actually disabled and needs the aid to actually walk makes me happy I never noticed before, cause I’d wondered if maybe they had just thrown it in.
Yeah, I was wondering if we were seeing the emergence of a new stereotype: the disabled chief medical professional. It occurred to me that this might be happening due to the existence of a similar character, Kerry Weaver, on “ER”.
I noticed it for the first time last week too re the medical examiner. I really liked the Grissom storyline… and was somewhat disappointed with the decision of undergoing operation at the season ender – I really would have liked to see how he reconcil his growing hearing loss with his job.