CBS has a new entrant in the inevitably formulaic crimelab-drama genre: "Numbers" or, as their typographers would have it, "NUMB3RS". I suppose the producers must have been Tom Lehrer fans ("he spelled his name Hen3ry -- the '3' was silent, you see"), as the protagonist, Charlie, solves the crimes by scribbling hairy-looking mathematical equations all over the walls. In the first show, he essentially uses the locations of previous rapes to predict -- within a range of probability -- where the serial rapist/killer lives.
Matt Yglesias points out that our hero's chief method -- plotting curves that connect a seemingly-random series of dots on a map -- really isn't an example of sophisticated math. All true: scientists in many disciplines use this type of problem-solving all the time. That said, what struck me in the show is that the hero solves crimes the way George Bush "promotes freedom": ensconced in his room, with minimal input of facts, he consults his first principles and arrives at a formula that precisely locates the danger and specifies a course of action. For Charlie, it's the equation that best fits the scatter of data; for Bush, it's his god.
"Numbers" also acts as an apologia for unbelievably intrusive policing tactics. With an initial (flawed) map of where the bad guy is likely to live, Charlie suggests the police collect DNA data from all males in the neighborhood. When they realize it will be too hard to get a warrant for such a widespread search, the cops decide to do it on the down-low, by gathering discarded cigarette butts, coffee cups, and chewing gum. This tactic requires even more intrusive surveillance than simple cheek swabs, because the subject must be tailed until he drops a suitable object with trace DNA on it. The show lets this sinister abuse of police and technological power go entirely unremarked.
Posted by Chris at January 25, 2005 09:30 AM | TrackBack