The beginning of the series CSI in 2000 established a new subgenre of the detective series – namely, the ‘forensic series’ (Reichertz 2016a, 23; Allen 2007). It was initially defined purely thematically. The forensic scientist or laboratory analyst plays the leading role, and the story lines thus foreground laboratory activities and the securing of material evidence. The incredible success of this genre has since eclipsed most so-called ‘quality series’. Forensic Files, which came out before CSI, ran for fourteen seasons. Crossing Jordan only ran for six seasons, but it has been in constant syndication ever since. Even Bones, an average representative of the genre, ran for twelve seasons. However, CSI still remains the queen of the forensic series. The original show – CSI: Las Vegas – which ran from 2000 to 2015, comprising 336 episodes, was accompanied by two additional series: CSI: Miami, which ran for ten seasons, and CSI: New York, which ran for nine seasons. Even though they have since gone out of production, they remain an inherent part of many countries’ television schedules.

CSI is interesting not only because of its success and its subject, but also because of its overall concept of television and seriality. CSI was not just a fictional narrative that took place in a setting – a criminological laboratory – that was seen as innovative at the time; it was also a more or less systematic exploration of what I refer to as ‘forensic images’.