MovieChat Forums > Silent Witness (1996) Discussion > Season 20

Season 20

posted 8 years ago by lilactime2014
3 replies | jump to latest

I know it's not over yet.... but I wanted to share something my Sister said to me the other day that made perfect sense.

Silent Witness is a series of good stories told badly.
Sherlock is a series of poor stories told well.

The reason it resonates with me is that I always enjoy watching Silent witness, by the end of each episode I have enjoyed the journey of getting to the end of the drama.

HOWEVER....I find myself increasingly frustrated during each and every episode with the awful way the procedure is handled.

Nikki is one of only two senior pathologist's working at the Lyall Centre.

Every unexplained death, every murder would need a post mortem this would be a dozen in London every week. Each one would involve on site work, written reports, back at base post mortem, copious notes and record keeping. Then each one would need time allocated for the coroner and court cases, if necessary.

Nikki and Jack just wouldn't have the time to sit outside every single interview, they wouldn't have time to go with the coppers for routine enquiries or house to house. They just would not have the time.

The Lyall centre only gets paid for post mortems and referral / legal work. They do not get paid if Nikki goes chasing down clues in her high heels when she should be in her scrubs working out how someone carked it on the slab.

What Laura Hobson does in Lewis is far more realistic. During working hours you only see her under a tent in a field with a body or the laboratory. She hands a report to the coppers and the coppers then use this report to hunt down the killers. Laura doesn't do it all herself.

I know that the have to make a show but it is getting silly in that every single case is solved by "DCI Alexander" putting herself in harm's way. She's a pathologist... please start making her act like one.....

I would be very interested if there were any pathologists here who could give us a clue as to how much time dealing with a murder takes. I would imagine it's pretty much full-on with little spare time and room for error that could see a murderer walk free.

Unless there are now 36 hours in a day.

'tler

[–] ipennell-1 8 years ago

I couldn't agree more. Well said.

[–] Gary-161 8 years ago

They really should have called it a day when Nikki was chased by a hitman TWICE last series.

[–] lilactime2014 8 years ago

Just, finally caught up with the last double episode of series 20.

What a pile of nonsense. Nikki was behaving like an idealistic 15 year old on the debating society (think Year 10 Hermione Grainger) and would (and should) have wound up dead.

Naïve, idealistic, just plain dumb. How many more times are we going to have Nikki charging around some foreign country being outraged at what goes on there. Bringing her Liberal London elite mentality to the wilds of Mexico. I am surprised she didn't shout "How can these people live like this, I am going to write to my M.P...... Then the Guardian, this cannot be allowed" and her self-righteousness will shield her from any bullets or sharp knoves.

Nikki, a once brilliant character and very positive role model has become a caricature and a joke. The perma-knitted eyebrows were hilarious.

On top of that Thomas was quite prepared to allow his entire team (except Clarissa) to sod off to Mexico with hundred's of thousands of pounds worth of equipment which would have been stolen in a heartbeat and any insurance would be been sooooo invalid. The whole centre was put in jeopardy on the whim of a flaky pathologist who seems to have completely forgotten what her job actually is.

The rub is, that it is still enjoyable to watch, but the frustration is growing.

'tler