I should have looked for a thread on Witless Silence in this topic before! I used to enjoy it in the early days with Amanda Burton. No it wasn't always super accurate but was generally close enough to be credible.
The mutation from Silent Witness to Witless Silence in my memory started when Emilia Fox joined the cast. She gradually became the one woman anthropologist, pathologist, forensic scientist (across multiple disciplines), detective, family liaison office, social worker, counsellor, interrogator, personal shopper etc, all through the medium of fluttering eyelashes and the immaculate tousled blonde locks of a Silvikrin advert. There is as much chemistry between Nikki and Jack as between two tupperware boxes - that relationship adds to the lack of believability.
All this before we get to the inane plots and random characters thrown in to confuse storylines. The whole series seems to have become a vehicle for Emilia Fox's eyes giving the same five expressions each week.
I'm sure when the Lyell Centre was set up it was portrayed as having multiple teams working with the series focusing on one team. Now it seems to be a large empty building with only three people working but those three need a full time professor to manage them.
I like Maggie Steed but it would be nice to have an older woman character who was allowed to be clever without a couple of mandatory eccentricities. The hidden phone for the gee-gees would have been enough, was it really necessary to ship a baby grand into the workplace? It would have been cheaper to add one of those "I'm Mad" t-shirts to the costuming.
So the real mystery for me each week is why am I still watching it? Because I still do!