Inaccurate Representation on Television

Watching television has a tendency to irritate me. I enjoy watching many shows, but there are little components which bother me. My favorite shows are CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York and NCIS. People die in those shows. Rarely does anyone check a pulse and even more rarely does anyone attempt CPR. As a CPR and First Aid instructor for more than a decade, it puts my teeth on edge every time I see it. I didn't think anything could be more annoying.

I was wrong.

Today, I watched a rerun of Cold Case. One of the early scenes involved the man in charge of the Cold Case Unit speaking with his brother the priest. A man who had come to him for confession years before had recently died. The priest gave his brother a direction to go on an old case involving a young boy who drowned based on the confession, which was okay because the man was now dead.

Nope, skipping pulse checks and CPR is not annoying at all. Why do people think they can take creative license with something as serious as the sacraments? It is so inappropriate it isn't even funny. How many people will view this episode and wonder if their secret confession will someday be fodder for discussion because they are dead? How many who don't know how the Sacrament of Reconciliation really works will leave that show with a skewed understanding of the Sacrament? How much fuel will be given to the fire of those who are not Catholic, who belittle, in particular, the Sacrament of Reconciliation because they don't understand and this representation supports their view of reality?