Entertainment Weekly has a bit in this week’s issue called “Naval Gazing: Gillian Flynn tries – very hard – to figure out NCIS’s popularity.” I laughed, because (as I’ve admitted here before) I actually enjoy this show quite a bit.
Ms. Flynn says:
Ouch!
She’s right, though. Although I found JAG pretty unwatchable, I enjoy NCIS, which is presented in a more cartoony style, such that the complete implausibility of the science (there’s a tiny bit of saliva in the tiny bit of fiber stuck to this tiny piece of duct tape – it shouldn’t take more than five minutes to extract the DNA and come up with a suspect!), I just hang out and enjoy the ride. It helps, as Ms. Flynn points out, that the characters are all extremely likeable (unlike, say, oh, CSI).
Last night’s episode was completely typical – to the usual experience of it being 8:55 with the crime unsolved, so I think “oh, this must be a two-parter” – only to have them wrap up the entire story (including a flashback montage of how the bad guy dunnit) in 2.5 minutes flat.
Does anyone else watch? Anyone under the age of 30? And am I being overcritical to think that if they gave three minutes to the banter about Tony’s and whatshisface’s butts, they could give more than that to the wrap-up of the case?
BTW, I like the new Israeli character (interesting that they chose a Chilean actress to play her – hey, an accent’s an accent!). I was worried about them replacing Kate, but liked the way they dealt with her death as part of the story, including people’s reactions this year.
Well, my husband and I are 34 and 35, respectively and have started to consider ourselves old. At 35, I just got out of the 18-34 demographic (that was depressing!).
My husband was the one who got me watching it. He’d record it and watch it the following evening. It’s definitely light viewing. I agree that the characters are more likeable than on CSI. I don’t watch NCIS for the science anyway and I dropped CSI a while ago.
If I’m going to watch a formulaic show, it may as well have quirky characters to keep me interested (see “House”).
I don’t know if this will help. My mother watches every week. She is 70. I like the show and will watch when I remember it’s on. That isn’t very often. I’m 38.
I’m 44 so I fit the stereotype.
For me, it’s more comeday than drama or crime show, the way Ally McBeal was the first season, before it started taking itself too seriously. With this show, I think it’s the opposites and good for them
I ebjoyed the Tarrantino episode of CSI, since I think the marriage enhanced them both. The constraints of tv was good for QT who had to actually write some dialogue without “fuck” (I don’t have anything against prfanity, but it gets tiresome after a while), and at the same time brought some edge and darkness to an otherwise pretty formulaic show. The characters suddenly had emotions.
Another kind of happy marriage is NCIS, where the Crime of The Week is not very interesting at all, nor how they solve it. So even if the drama ascpect might be what draws people to the show, I bet people stay because of the interesting and quirky characters and their interaction.
Of course, it was comedy gold in some past episode when some woman asked Jethro what Ducky looked like when he was young and Gibbs replied: “Ilya Kuryakin”
who, btw, is 72. I thought he was at least ten years younger. Good for him.
In one month and one day, I turn 30 and wreck your demographic.
I never watched JAG, but I’m a CSI fan and NCIS is just plain more fun–and I like Mark Harmon in just about anything he does, so that never hurts. I might prefer the Ziva/Tony banter to Kate’s constant nagging of him, but the addition of McGee last year is what made the show so much more watchable for me.
The cases are usually either obvious or ridiculous, but I spent my childhood reading Nancy Drew books, so obvious and ridiculous are right up my alley (and come on–who didn’t see the Chip thing coming the episode he was introduced?). It’s the banter and the interplay between the characters I like so much. I think Gibbs is probably one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever seen on television, and I actually like that we hardly ever get any good information on what makes the man tick.
And incidentally, the grin on his face after Ziva slapped Coroner Man around last night was gold.
I just barely, 30 in two months break the demogarphic barrier as well. I mainly watch, like everyone else, because the characters are so damned likeable.
Wouldn’t miss NCIS! It’s my current favorite, and I’m waaaaay past 30. I liked JAG too, but maybe that was more because of getting to look at Catherine Bell than anything else.
I’m 39, mr.stretch is 45. I watch the show for Mark Harmon. I watched The Deliberate Stranger on Lifetime(!) last week to watch Mark Harmon. I still miss “Reasonable Doubts”, the show he did with Marlee Maitlin.
We record the show so we can skip commercials. This also allows us to pause and pick apart some lame aspect of the plot. Good times!
I don’t watch the show, but my father actually taught one of the female leads. She was his teacher’s aide when she was in 8th grade in Miami! It isn’t the perky goth (who is cute) or Lauren Holly, and he says she comes early in the opening credits. Who is she? She called my dad semi-recently to tell him to watch for her, which was pretty cool.
Probably [url=http://imdb.com/name/nm1580243/]Cote de Pablo, the Chilean-born (but Miami-raised) actress who’s playing Israeli agent Ziva, who we’ve decided we like.
I notice that people who were actually in the Navy shy away from both JAG and NCIS.
Being one of these people, I do as well. Saves me a lot of exasperation.
There certainly is such a thing as dramatic license, but a license doesn’t give you the right to do whatever the hell you want to do, IMHO. I don’t recognize the Navy in either show.
I’m 35, if that helps. I got out of the Navy in 1998, and I drive past Mark Harmon’s NCIS headquarters building at the Navy Yard nearly every day.
I’ve got a question. I got interrupted by a phone call, so must have missed something, so ended up confused.
As they were all looking at Tony’s possible enemies, and at the end it turned out the Creepy Lab Guy was the one who famed him, and therefore if this was the case, why in the heck didn’t Tony recognize him when he was hired a few episodes ago? He had a goofy little mustache, but certainly that would not have disguised him from a crack investigator like Tony. What did I miss here?
