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Worst TV Show of the Week

CSI: Miami on CBS

Most of the time, this column alerts readers to the alarming content that could be harmful to children in front of the television. Occasionally, though, we come across content harmful to the children on it. Child actors often appear precocious and wise beyond their years, but their maturity belies the fact that they are still kids. The December 11th episode of CSI: Miami (Sundays, 10:00 p.m. ET) was a disquieting reminder of this, with depictions of child violence which have earned the program the title of Worst TV Show of the Week.

In a story “ripped from the headlines,” the episode draws upon the controversial reality show Toddlers & Tiaras and the high-profile Jaycee Dugard case for inspiration. A pageant mother turns up dead in a hotel room, where her six-year-old “pageant princess” daughter hides in the bathroom. The murder weapon is a tiara, which has been shoved straight into the frontal lobe of the mother’s brain through her eye socket. Immediately, a rival mother is the main suspect.

After reviewing pageant videotapes, the CSI team notices strange wear and tear on the edges of the frame when they view certain segments. They determine that someone was specifically targeting two little girls, not the victim, whom the CSI team eventually concludes died accidentally in front of her daughters after falling face-first on the tiara. The person stalking the contestants turns out to be the pedophile husband of the pageant director. He kidnaps one of the young contestants and holds her hostage in a dwelling tucked in his backyard, reminiscent of Jaycee Dugard’s makeshift prison. He then takes the kidnapped girl to a closed movie theater, where he chains her to a chair and forces her to watch cartoons. The young actress playing the would-be molestation victim weeps –too convincingly – as the creepy predator insists that he is her friend.  Horatio and Natalia arrive in time to stop the molestation, but a tense stand-off ensues. The kidnapper points his gun at the little girl and threatens to kill her. Eventually, he attempts to flee, and Horatio shoots him while the little girl worries that bullets will hit her.

The young actress did realistically portray the victim’s fear and distress, but in a manner all too real. On CSI: Miami, the ridiculously advanced technology used by the team (and David Caruso’s overacting) often have the effect of taking viewers out of the story, reminding them that they watching television. In this case, however, the traumatic situation the young girl had to pretend to be in was extremely troubling.

Critics will undoubtedly point to the fact that kids pretend to act out violent scenarios while playing all the time, and that therefore the program should not be condemned. In addition, Hollywood has stringent labor laws that protect child actors from harm. This is true; but playing “cops and robbers” is a far cry from subjecting a child actor to even “pretend” sexual molestation…not to mention all the children (and adults) watching at home.

For disturbing violence, CSI: Miami has been named Worst TV Show of the Week.