I watched an episode of CSI because I have heard a lot about this show but never seen it. I had many questions after I watched without sound. In this episode, a person, who I think is a boy, comes into the police station? and shoots two guys and takes two hostage. One of the hostages is a guy who was shot. The other hostage, played by Ted Danson seems to be one of the people in charge of the police station. Both Ted Danson and another older somewhat chubby guy seem not only to have leadership roles but also to have a fatherly relationship with the employees in general. It seems that Ted Danson convinced the shooter not to hurt him and to help him do first aid on the hostage who was shot by telling him that he, the shooter, still had a chance of not going to jail for murder. One guy who was shot went to the hospital. At the beginning of the show, he seems very friendly with a lady who might be his partner. Another lady comes to visit him at the hospital. The partner? and the other lady talk to each other. The other lady seems to care about the partner but also seems angry. There is an older lady that comes into the police station and sees the hostages and the shooter on a closed circuit camera. She could be the mother of the shooter or Ted Danson's wife. She possibly says something to the shooter through a microphone. The shooter gets very angry because there is a camera and because they brought his mom? He shoots the camera and there is no longer video access to the room where the hostages are.
Now I know that the lady and the man who got shot and sent to the hospital are not partners. They are married. I also know that one of the hostages was actually shot by a policeman who was trying for the shooter. Danson explained to the shooter that if Danson didn't answer the phone the police would think Danson was dead and they would then shoot more. The shooter doesn't actually care if he dies, but Danson appeals to the shooters compassion to not let the innocent bystander hostage suffer any more than he already has. The lady who was talking to the wife at the hospital now seems more like a social worker. In one part of the show Danson has the shooter hold a water bottle with finger blood on it. This gets a clear imprint of the shooter's finger print. Danson looks up at the camera to get the others to understand they need to focus on the bottle. They then understand he is telling them to identify the prints. This part was just as understandable with sound as without sound because Danson could not communicate verbally because if he did the shooter would know. The lady who came in was the shooter's mom, and the way Danson tries to talk sense into the shooter is by telling the shooter that he probably would have killed himself by now if he didn't have someone like his mom that the shooter wouldn't want to hurt.
If this had been a show I have watched and I watched without sound, I believe I would have been much better at knowing the relationships. I would probably still had a lot of trouble figuring out the plot. In this case, I didn't do too badly with the overall plot, but I misunderstood many details.
I like how when you were talking about how there were times when they could not communicate verbally, but had to use hand gestures to get a message across to others. It seems like people in military services or police services must have a code for nonverbal communication so as not to alert others that they are there. It must be a code that everyone knows what it means so there is not miscommunication that could get one another killed. I would imagine that they must train one another on how to be on the same page in this sense.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly many sports games have cues and codes that are used to silently communicate a message of a play without the other team knowing what they are saying.
Do you think that we have untrained cues and codes with people we are close with, such as family members or close friends. Could we give signals that communicate a message to one person that we do not want everyone else around us to know what we are saying?
Hi Kelly,
ReplyDeleteActually, in the show, the communication was done all with eyes and head tllts. The shooter did not know that there was a camera that could see into the room. The guy, who was actually a CSI scientist, looked up at the camera meaningfully then at the bottle which had a thumb imprint in the blood on the bottle. Only the CSI guy would know that the camera could get a close up of that finger print and use it to ID the shooter. Later, the shooter was very upset to find out that they somehow had figured out who he was and brought his mother. It was impressive how much could be communicated with eyes. This was the part I understood perfectly without sound.
My husband communicates mainly with body language and I don't. As our marriage progressed, I learned to ignore my husband's words. I also had to learn to watch my body language because I could make a movement for functional purposes that my husband would read as a communication. At first, actually and even now, I didn't understand the cues and codes he had learned when he was growing up. If we spoke different languages or if my husband or I used sign language, it is possible that we would have less of a challenge communicating than we do. This challenge has made our lives very interesting. Ultimately, I have learned that my verbal communication does not communicate much to my husband, and although I am quite verbal else where, I rarely communicate verbally with my husband.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. I too am not a CSI watcher, so reading your post was very interesting. I just might watch and episode :-) I think that nonverbal communication can be louder than verbal communication. I know that when I am not in a good mood and keep to myself at work that many of my colleagues know something is wrong. Some may ask what's wrong and others know to just leave me alone and I will eventually start talking again. Another part of my nonverbal communication is my smile. I smile all the time whether I am happy or not. When my families do not see a smile on my face they immediately know something is wrong. I know my facial expressions with my daughter speak loudly than my verbal communication with her. When she is in trouble and I give her that momma look she know to run and go sit down. I wish you the best and I really do believe I will watch an episode of CSI.
Erica
Hi Erica,
ReplyDeleteMost people have much better mama looks than I do. It seems to be a very useful tool. It will be at least six weeks before I see another episode of CSI, but it was interesting!