CSI and ASL

While it's always fun to see so many great Deaf actors together on TV (Phyllis Frelich, Marlee Matlin, and Ty Giordano), the recent CSI episode they were all featured in had a very annoying plot point involving American Sign Language.  The bad guy turned out to be a hearing man who was pretending to be deaf in order to get some sort of grant money.  Fine so far. His ASL is supposed to be so good it fooled everyone at the school for the deaf where he resides. Also fine, since he admits to being raised by Deaf parents. So what's the problem?

For some arcane reason the writers felt the need for him to claim to be a visiting student from England. The CSIs catch onto him in part because they find him using LSQ (Quebec Sign Language) signs, which proves he's actually Canadian, as if that's important. Marlee Matlin's character even gives a nice lecture about how all sign languages are different. But a Deaf student who claims he's from England shouldn't be using flawless ASL at all! He should be most comfortable with BSL (very very different from ASL) and his ASL should be accented and second-language like. Not one person on campus ever commented on this (Gee, isn't it weird how the British guy knows perfect ASL and never uses BSL?) They're just stunned that he turns out to be Canadian. This is so nonsensical it drove me crazy. I don't even understand the point of making him foreign at all, especially if they're going to get it all wrong. And Marlee Matlin's character, who is supposed to be the foremost authority on Deaf culture in the world (and is even sleeping with the suspect!), is the most clueless of all.

What is this like? It's like having a bad guy who's trying to pass himself off as a Spanish exchange student even though he's really from Mexico, and you're convinced that he's Spanish because of his flawless use of Quechua. It's that dumb.

Don't get me started on how badly all the hearing characters signed. It's to be expected.