Well Deserved Praise

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This show tells true crime stories of how the use of forensic evidence, from the identification of fingerprints to examining hair, and from tracking barcodes to tracking phone records, can lead to the location and capture of suspects. Each half-hour episodes start off with a mystery of an unsolved crime - intriguing and suspenseful. It then leads to a thrilling hunt of the criminal and the forensic attempts at tying the evidence to a suspect.Peter Thomas does a great job in narrating each episode, making each story foreboding. It's sad to see the evil acts a person inflicts on another, but with forensic evidence, it comes to show that there is no perfect crime and certainly these criminals can't get away with murder.Grade A

Episode after episode, year after year, this program has been entertaining. It almost never fails. There is a reason it has been on the air for 15 years.After watching a few episodes, I became hooked....and, yes, this is an addicting show. I found myself watching over a hundred shows (my DVR had a workout) in two months. I'm sure many others have found themselves doing the same.Why is this show good? First, it is true crime, not some fictional story; second, it runs only a half hour. Crime shows that are an hour long often repeat stuff over and over. A half hour is perfect. Third, the cases are always interesting. They leave you shaking your head in disbelief that people actually do some of these things reported in here. Fourth, Peter Thomas is excellent as the narrator. His is a voice which never offends, or gets old.Currently, it can be seen regularly on the HNN cable network.

This show is well put together and on a few occasions as I viewed an episode I could recall reading about the case in the newspaper not long before. This made for an even more interesting watch. Unfortunately every time I view this program I cant help but to think that someone else out there watching is taking notes on what not to do if they are to commit a similar crime and get away with it. In this respect the content of the show is a bit unnerving because it reveals too many of law enforcements methods. I can imagine this program giving someone false hope in thinking that they could outsmart the investigators who would later try to piece together their actions. Even if that person is ultimately proved guilty, they still may have committed a crime that wouldn't have otherwise taken place had they not watched this show. I think on one hand the show is well intentioned and shares some very impressive forensic methods but on the other hand in doing so may be a little too thought provoking.

"Forensic Files" is one of the more recent entries to the list of forensics programs out there on the TV landscape, but by no means is it weak from it. In fact, the program is the best thing that Court TV offers during its prime-time lineup of factual programming and reruns of dramas such as "NYPD Blue".Let's look at the advantages "Forensic Files" has to its predecessors and to every other forensics program out there. First of all, it has the most excellent Peter Thomas as its narrator. You know the voice -- he's been the soothing grandfatherly voice behind numerous commercials for years, including some of the recent Visine ads. His calm and patient delivery allows everyone, from those just starting out with forensics programs to full-on fanatics of the genre, to get an easy grasp of the procedure the team of forensics experts used to solve the crime being highlighted in the show. This brings me to another one of the reasons this program succeeds -- it takes its time in presenting every step in the investigation so the viewer won't have any nagging, unanswered questions after the program is over. The recreations and footage used are yet another plus. In other forensics programs, you get the feeling that the people behind the program are taking some liberties with their recreations -- for example, even the dimmest of armchair detectives can tell that forensics experts gathering evidence at the scene of the crime probably don't put their evidence in bulky paper bags, which is what another popular forensics program shows in its recreations. The footage, when presented, is absolutely wonderful to see as it actually lets the viewer see a little of what was on the local news in regards to the crime at hand. One final advantage is the interview process. Investigators, family members, victims, and criminals all are interviewed and the choicest of bits are incorporated in the program. In one episode, a mother who was falsely accused of arson and premeditated murder with regards to her baby son is shown weeping openly in front of the old house that had caught on fire, and then the program ends. This leaves the viewer with the feeling that the woman is to be pitied and you feel genuine sadness at her predicament, but at the same time she was vindicated with the help of some astute forensic investigators so you feel glad because of that.Not all of what the program is about is great, though. Sometimes, the narration can go through a story in such a plodding pace that a youngun such as myself is tempted to yell at the TV for the pace to quicken up. This usually happens in my case, though, when I'm watching an episode I've already watched about twice before. Then there's the case of the Canadian expatriate con artist who murdered a Canadian business acquaintance of his so he (the con artist) could continue living under the businessman's name in England with his daughter serving as his wife. When the program about this case brought up the fact that the daughter had two children, I wanted to know more about this aspect of the case, but the program never tied up that particular loose end. I suspect, though, that this was purely because of time constraints and so I sincerely hope there's a book out there on the market on this case.At any length, if you're interested in forensics, this is a great program to watch. I don't watch it as much as I used to because of lack of free time,but when I do I genuinely enjoy it. I think the key to the program really is Peter Thomas, though. He can do no wrong.