Have you become lost in the maze of medical mystery TV shows that litter the television drama landscape today? Are there so many versions of CSI that pretty soon you expect to see one with your city's name on it? Well, if you can manage to catch a slightly different wave than the typical North American network churn next time you are channel surfing, you might just come across a little gem of a program called Silent Witness.

In my personal opinion, the English make some of the very best television dramas to be found on the tube today. In fact, they have set the standard so high, that once you get hooked on the more subtle and intelligent approach they take toward television productions, it becomes very hard to watch the typical schlock network show without snickering.

Silent Witness is a BBC production starring Tom Ward, Emilia Fox and William Gaminara. This very competent trio act to subtly encourage the progression of a variety of well constructed storylines that delicately weave their way through each episode. The episodes I have had the opportunity to enjoy thus far have been a satisfying balance of crime scene investigation and character development. The main characters in the series act as more than just human props that are used to sift through clinical evidence that results in a nice tidy conviction. Tom Ward and Emila Fox skillfully flesh out their roles in an effort to focus the perspective on the various storylines through the characters of Harry and Nikki. This substance of characters does not crowd the larger themes at play in each episode, but serves to give the viewer a useful reference point as the program explores a range of parallel stories.

While the themes explored in each episode cover the gamut of unfortunate human predicaments that would necessitate the involvement of a crack team of forensic pathologists, the story development does not rely on CSI style gadgetry to hold the viewers attention. The feel of the program has much more depth than your typical "forensic fantasy" series and can become a bit emotionally heavy at times. The emotional weight of certain portions is well positioned though, as it leaves you with a feeling of meaning to the stories and does an excellent job of mitigating that glossy "everything works out in the end" sensation that is characteristic of so many shows in this genre.

Depending on what country you are in and more specifically what cable package you have signed up for, finding Silent Witness might take a bit of digging through the monolithic online/on demand TV guides we are faced with today. I can promise you that your efforts will be well rewarded though, as the subtle theatric craftsmanship of Silent Witness will leave you snickering at the clumsy approach of other shows in this overcrowded segment of television drama. 

For more information on the Silent Witness TV series, check out the Silent Witness mini site at the BBC homepage.       

LifeSpike Rating

Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)