It's a good show, but it's based on the right people having access to the information, not the government.
The flip side of that is crime procedurals which portray an all-seeing intrusive government which ignores the Constiution as a good thing, as long as it's used for the "right" purpose.
Examples:
NCIS. Agent McGee "hacks" into everything from tollbooth cameras, to Western Union money transfers, to the CIA's mainframe; and can instantly access any e-mail account on Earth.
NCIS never shows Agent McGee sitting in a courtroom explaining to a jury
how he obtained the information, nor do they show Gibbs submitting an affidavit to a Federal magistrate for an arrest warrant, using the illegally obtained evidence. If you think about it, you have
never seen a member of
NCIS testifying at trial for anyone they arrested; the story ends with the arrest or killing of the suspect.
Criminal Minds. Garcia, the "former hacker", is the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit's technical guru. She can find the most obscure data and combine it to drill down to one person in the entire US.
"I'm cross-referencing red BMW 5- series cars registered in the state of Oregon with brunettes who paid for manicures with a credit card last Tuesday, and the killer is....(the person we least expected)". Using this information, the stereotypically diverse team will drive like hell for 2 minutes and save the latest victim, just as the criminal is about to cut out her tongue with a grapefruit spoon.
4th Amendment? What 4th Amendment?
