Criminal Minds
Documentary vs. Criminal Minds-Comparative Essay
Robert William Pickton was a pig farmer and serial killer who targeted prostitutes and murdered them on his farm. We viewed the documentary about him, as well as the Criminal Minds episode to compare how real life crimes are shown in the media. They both had very different ways of portraying the case. The documentary had real facts, interviews, and voice recordings of Pickton. The Criminal Minds episode followed a similar storyline, but altered some of the facts to make it a more interesting and intense show that their audience would enjoy. Some of the differences were the length of time it took to catch Pickton, the isolation of the farm, and the gender of the victims.
In reality, it took ten whole years to catch Pickton. In the TV show, it took a matter of days. I think ten years is a very long time, and the investigation was drawn out too long and even more women went missing in that time. The amount of time it took to catch the killer in Criminal Minds was very unrealistic, and there is no way a crime could actually be solved within that short amount of time. It’s unrealistic that they figured out the killer’s patterns, and located and caught him so quickly.
Another major difference was that in the real case there were people working and living on the farm, but in Criminal Minds the farm was completely isolated, and only Mason and his brother Lucas lived there, so there were no witnesses. I think this could symbolize the fact that in the real case there were witnesses, but none of them actually came forward and told the police, so it’s basically the same as if there were no witnesses at all.
The last difference I’m going to discuss is the gender of the victims. In the real case, Pickton only murdered women, primarily prostitutes. In the show the victims were both male and female, as shown by the male and female shoes found in the dumpster. In real life Pickton murdered prostitutes, but in Criminal Minds
Robert William Pickton was a pig farmer and serial killer who targeted prostitutes and murdered them on his farm. We viewed the documentary about him, as well as the Criminal Minds episode to compare how real life crimes are shown in the media. They both had very different ways of portraying the case. The documentary had real facts, interviews, and voice recordings of Pickton. The Criminal Minds episode followed a similar storyline, but altered some of the facts to make it a more interesting and intense show that their audience would enjoy. Some of the differences were the length of time it took to catch Pickton, the isolation of the farm, and the gender of the victims.
In reality, it took ten whole years to catch Pickton. In the TV show, it took a matter of days. I think ten years is a very long time, and the investigation was drawn out too long and even more women went missing in that time. The amount of time it took to catch the killer in Criminal Minds was very unrealistic, and there is no way a crime could actually be solved within that short amount of time. It’s unrealistic that they figured out the killer’s patterns, and located and caught him so quickly.
Another major difference was that in the real case there were people working and living on the farm, but in Criminal Minds the farm was completely isolated, and only Mason and his brother Lucas lived there, so there were no witnesses. I think this could symbolize the fact that in the real case there were witnesses, but none of them actually came forward and told the police, so it’s basically the same as if there were no witnesses at all.
The last difference I’m going to discuss is the gender of the victims. In the real case, Pickton only murdered women, primarily prostitutes. In the show the victims were both male and female, as shown by the male and female shoes found in the dumpster. In real life Pickton murdered prostitutes, but in Criminal Minds