Caine Scrutiny

Image credit: CSI Miami: Ron P. Jaffe

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TRUTH: REAL CSIs DON'T FOOL WITH THE MICROWAVE When Caine discovers the microwave beeping in the kitchen, he uses a nearby napkin to push the door release button and see what's inside. Smart, right? ''He should have used a fork or a knife to touch the button,'' says Fisher, noting the napkin would smear fingerprint evidence. And tromping on the kitchen floor isn't his brightest move, either. ''With linoleum, you can get some decent footprints, so you want to be careful where you step.'' Surprisingly, those nifty paper booties often worn on the show wouldn't have helped. ''Those are to protect your own shoes, not the crime scene,'' says Fisher.

TRUTH: REAL CSIs ARE MULTI-TASKERS When Caine gets involved with a case, he thinks of nothing else until the bad guy is behind bars. Unfortunately, that kind of thinking would probably get him canned in the real world. ''In Los Angeles, we draw a new murder case every two weeks,'' says Fisher. ''But in addition to that, everyone usually has a whole bunch of other cases already in various stages of completion.''

Another less-than-dramatic element cut out of the TV equation is the enormous amount of paperwork involved. ''With a case like the one on the show, in which four people are killed, by the time you finished writing up the reports the file would be about three inches thick,'' says Fisher.

TRUTH: THE SCIENCE REALLY IS RIGHT ON...MOSTLY While much of the lab work on the show hits the mark, some science is necessarily tweaked for drama's sake. When Caine tests a swab of red stuff at the crime scene, his result -- human blood -- is only half right. ''You'd find out it's blood, but not human blood, with that test,'' says Fisher. ''And the blood didn't look great. A little more brown would do it, but that's personal preference.''

Later, when Megan Donner (Kim Delaney) runs a battery of tests on the toddler's bloody jumper, the quickie results are wishful thinking. ''The equipment they're using isn't terribly far off the mark, but they might expect to get the results in a couple of days, not ten minutes,'' says Fisher. ''And that assumes this is the only case they're working on.''

TRUTH: LABS AND CRIME SCENES DON'T HAVE MOOD LIGHTING The icy blue lighting in the lab on TV is a whole lot nicer than the reality: glaring bright light from above. ''Usually labs are very, very bright so you can see what you're doing,'' says Fisher. The same energy-conserving approach is taken at the crime scene when Caine and Delko (Adam Rodriquez) search the gloomy kitchen with mini-flashlights. ''[Delko] is holding the flashlight at a low angle because he's looking for fingerprints,'' says Fisher. ''But Horatio is scanning the room. If he couldn't turn on the lights, he'd bring in portable lights. Maybe the power was out?''