>"Nat's more than resourceful enough to get a key and rifle a toolbox."
Oh, absolutely! That was one side of the contention; the other side suggested that there was nevertheless something peculiar in the Coroner's Building facility not having someone whose job was to do it for her. But that episode was the night shift; my opinion is that if Natalie were on the day shift, she might possibly have called the designated person to take care of it, but on the night shift there's no point waiting for someone to tend to something she can promptly fix herself, and so get on with her work.
(A few people also opined that it was ungentlemanly of Nick to sit back and let her fix the pipe herself. That never occurred to me. Yes, he's smirking a little as she fixes the pipe, and he's definitely amused, but there's an element of a joke about the whole scene; as you noted, it's very light. Natalie clearly doesn't need help, and this is clearly something she began before Nick arrived, a la the "don't ask" remark. I wondered if perhaps the scrunchie in the drain were even a prank of some kind? it's tangled in black hair -- not Natalie's own brown -- by the way.)
Interestingly, at this point, someone felt compelled to remind the list that FK is not CSI -- not in the sense of being comparatively underfunded or not quite the same genre, which would be true, too, but in the sense of predating many of the now-familiar techniques and tools. I hadn't even realized that was influencing the discussion, but she's right. Some people were questioning the lack of multiple filter screens on the drain, and also Natalie's evidence-handling choices, probably based on what has become familiar from CSI and its kin. DNA evidence was more primitive and less available in the '90s than it is now, regardless of funding, and the TO municipal coroner isn't exactly top budget priority for cutting edge technology. Natalie's behavior was within the norms of the time of "Capitol Offense" -- which is now 13-14 years past.
Of course, before I reclassify all "present-day" FK as historical fiction :-) this also reminded me of an episode of NCIS from just this season, one in which the actress who played Erica on FK and Elizabeth on SGA played an ordinary civic coroner like Natalie. The NCIS team came to her underequipped city lab all outraged that she had not discovered something in her initial examination that they discovered later, but that puffed-up outrage dissipated with the realization that she does not have the time, tools or support that they do. Even in the present, DNA analysis takes months and years, waiting in queue for limited labs and techs to carry it out, and probably it's not worth your while in many unsuspicious cases when you're an ordinary coroner working an ordinary case load and not a super-funded elite agency.
Re: CO scrunchie
Oh, absolutely! That was one side of the contention; the other side suggested that there was nevertheless something peculiar in the Coroner's Building facility not having someone whose job was to do it for her. But that episode was the night shift; my opinion is that if Natalie were on the day shift, she might possibly have called the designated person to take care of it, but on the night shift there's no point waiting for someone to tend to something she can promptly fix herself, and so get on with her work.
(A few people also opined that it was ungentlemanly of Nick to sit back and let her fix the pipe herself. That never occurred to me. Yes, he's smirking a little as she fixes the pipe, and he's definitely amused, but there's an element of a joke about the whole scene; as you noted, it's very light. Natalie clearly doesn't need help, and this is clearly something she began before Nick arrived, a la the "don't ask" remark. I wondered if perhaps the scrunchie in the drain were even a prank of some kind? it's tangled in black hair -- not Natalie's own brown -- by the way.)
Interestingly, at this point, someone felt compelled to remind the list that FK is not CSI -- not in the sense of being comparatively underfunded or not quite the same genre, which would be true, too, but in the sense of predating many of the now-familiar techniques and tools. I hadn't even realized that was influencing the discussion, but she's right. Some people were questioning the lack of multiple filter screens on the drain, and also Natalie's evidence-handling choices, probably based on what has become familiar from CSI and its kin. DNA evidence was more primitive and less available in the '90s than it is now, regardless of funding, and the TO municipal coroner isn't exactly top budget priority for cutting edge technology. Natalie's behavior was within the norms of the time of "Capitol Offense" -- which is now 13-14 years past.
Of course, before I reclassify all "present-day" FK as historical fiction :-) this also reminded me of an episode of NCIS from just this season, one in which the actress who played Erica on FK and Elizabeth on SGA played an ordinary civic coroner like Natalie. The NCIS team came to her underequipped city lab all outraged that she had not discovered something in her initial examination that they discovered later, but that puffed-up outrage dissipated with the realization that she does not have the time, tools or support that they do. Even in the present, DNA analysis takes months and years, waiting in queue for limited labs and techs to carry it out, and probably it's not worth your while in many unsuspicious cases when you're an ordinary coroner working an ordinary case load and not a super-funded elite agency.