Forensic Files - Show Format

Show Format

The show takes a "whodunit" approach, making each case a mystery to be solved. Every half-hour episode follows one case from initial investigation until conviction, acquittal, or some other legal resolution. Pathologists, medical examiners, police officers, detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, friends and families of victims or sometimes even the suspects themselves are all interviewed about their roles.

Video of the lab tests is shot in a modernistic film noir style, in dark, moodily lit settings with odd, glowing colors. The crimes and parts of the investigation are re-enacted with actors in dramatic recreations. These recreations are indicated by a change in video style. In earlier episodes they were blurry and black & white, and some were shot on film, while the rest of the show was shot videotape. More current shows use video recreations in color, with letterboxing and a 'fuzzy' look. These recreations sometimes include alternate versions of the crime, which are eventually disproved by the science.This technique would later be appropriated, in a modified form, by the hit series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation—essentially a fictionalized big-budget version of Forensic Files. During the original run of the show as Medical Detectives, eerie vocal music was matched with the recreations in order to create a frightening atmosphere. This specific effect was discontinued after the move to Court TV.

For privacy considerations, names of some victims and their families are changed, and case evidence featured within the show is re-created to protect true identities, that is, unless, consent is given, by the persons who are being spoken to, that the show is allowed to use the family's (or families') real name(s).

In 2006 Forensic Files "Advanced" episodes aired. This format took previously released episodes and added random extra bits of information related to the case previously left out. These bits of info are in the "pop-up" format reminiscent of VH1's Pop-Up Video, and often add interesting facts related to the case and those involved. These facts often have the ironic or "wow" element to them.

Sometimes, another case is mentioned that is similar to that one. For example: "Cold Hearted" on "Freeze Framed" and "Past Lives" on "The Ari Squire Case". In another episode that involves DNA evidence, a man on an older episode was mentioned to had been the first person put to death in the United States based on DNA evidence.