I watch very little TV but I love NCIS. I named my newest kitten Leroy Jethro Tull.
oh, this show irks me no end. And what irks me the most is Gibbs and the other characters’ attitudes towards him.
I mean, he’s their boss, and never, ever, in my whole working life, have I seen people fawn over their boss like these guys do.
I remember a scrap of conversation that went something like:
“How about a face off between Gibbs and (some person)”?
“Yeah, the boss would win, hands down”
That, and the stereotypes ended it for me long ago.
Ok, later I saw that Mark Harmon is a producer, so I guess he can write himself in as the gruff and tough boss loved by his subordinates. I wonder if he views himself as such in RL, and what the other actors really think of him?
I find NCIS to be a bit like Seinfeld; mildly entertaining to watch, but if I was forced to be a part of their group I’d slit my wrists. Demanding boss who wants perfect results yesterday and if your shoelaces aren’t tied just right he smacks you on the head? Co-workers insulting and undermining you at every turn? I can see why they started a branch office is Los Angeles. Those agents probably moved there to get away from them.
And the eye candy factor dropped considerably for me when Sasha Alexander left.
First of all, let me say that I don’t like this show anymore. It’s beyond stale IMHO.
However; with a lot of the complaints above can I just remind you complainers that um… real life is boring. No one would watch more than one episode of a drama if it followed the pace of a real detective interacting with real lab techs (whose boobs you wouldn’t likely WANT poking out of her lab coat).
I’ve seen worser.
Nice, non-demanding show with two non-bimbo hot chicks (Abbey and Ziva).
It’s formulaic to a fault, but I don’t care.
Well, from what I’ve seen, the real Mark Harmon is a lot more like his character in “Summer School” (the anti-Gibbs) than Gibbs. I haven’t seen a soundbite or interview from him where he’s not just grinning ear to ear, joking around and laughing.
I think the thing that shows like NCIS, Bones, Magnum PI, etc… do well is let the stories provide a framework for the characters to interact and develop. The shows are pretty much not about the stories; they’re all variations on a theme, but rather about the characters.
Contrast this with shows like say… Star Trek: The Next Generation are primarily about the story; over the same number of seasons, we know far more about Leroy Jethro Gibbs and what makes him tick than we ever did about Jean-Luc Picard. And the gap in the supporting cast gets even wider.
The characters have developed over time. I think that’s part of why most of the excitement is gone now. Gibbs has gotten over most of his personal demons and has mellowed. Tony is starting to grow up. McGee has become a real agent. It has to happen, the growth in characters – Tony is getting way too old for the frat boy stuff anymore, for example. It would be worse if they didn’t change. But it has changed the show. There has become a little too much attention on the characters, and not enough story, and I do dislike bringing in old celebrities for guest appearances. It becomes too much about them, and not enough about the case at hand.
I don’t know enough about science to know how bad it is, and I don’t know enough about law enforcement to be bothered by how badly it is protrayed. But I do like the idea of dedicated people who persist and work above and beyond until they solve the case and get it right…That’s what I like about Sherlock Holmes, after all.
I’ve loathed Bones ever since the Zach character was violated so badly, and don’t watch any of the other CSI shows. I do like The Mentalist, since it is also about characters and what can be deduced through close observation. Psych is similar, and I do watch it, but I don’t care for it, since the main character is so annoying, and is also getting way too old to get away with the 12-year-old man-child act anymore.
i watch for the characters, all of whom i enjoy, and all the eye candy for us ladies and really don’t give a rat’s ass about the science or actually much of the storyline, now that i think about it.
it’s just television, that’s all it is, and gibbs and company are probably the most entertaining of them all. i especially love the halloween episodes. those are always fun.
csi is always depressing, criminal minds (tho i watch it regularly) is always way too freaky for its own good, and i find bones just unwatchable because of the two leads.
The writers not only have no idea how clasification systems or the military works, they also have no idea how big the state of Virginia is. One episode, they had the team driving from DC to Hampton Roads in 45 minutes!
I actually only watch NCIS:LA nowadays. It is just as implausible, but I somehow like the characters more…I think Linda Hunt is a big part of that.
I read NCIS, and the only thing I could think was, “Hey, isn’t that the show where they have two people type on the same keyboard at the same time?”
It is! It is the show where two people type on the same keyboard at the same time!
That’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe that people actually wrote, acted, shot, edited, and aired that scene on prime time network television.
I wouldn’t feel ethical if I didn’t plug the cracked.com article I got the clip from.
8 Scenes That Prove Hollywood Doesn't Get Technology | Cracked.com
I’ve only seen a few episodes but that Tony guy has to be the most annoying and loathsome protagonist in any show with a good guy vs bad guy aspect to it that i’ve ever seen
I hate the way they all go in fear of him. If Gibbs gives one of them a dirty look, everyone trembles and tries not to wet themselves.
I also can’t stand the dingbat crap coming out of Abby all the time. I realize that you’re supposed to look, not listen, when she’s on screen, but since I’m not a heterosexual male she gets on my last nerve.
Us guys too-I can’t decide whom I want more-Ziva or Abby. Since I’m also an adoptee, after this most recent ep. I’m trending towards Abby.
Anyone who complains about the formulaic nature of the show has to also point out how its competitors are just as or even more formulaic (CSI, L & O, etc. etc. etc.)-at least this one has a sly sense of humor (one reason I find L & O absolutely insufferable-that and the soapbox moralizing).
I haven’t seen a lot of NCIS, but what I have seen suggests to me that the show makes no attempt to be realistic. In many ways, the show comes off like it’s set in the same universe as Stargate SG-1. If Gibbs somehow encountered Jack O’Neill in the course of an investigation I would not have batted an eye. It looks like it’s a realistic procedural on the surface, but below that paper-thin veneer is a troperiffic world more goofy than the movie world in Last Action Hero.
Of course, there’s an argument to be made that SG-1 was more accurate scientifically than NCIS, but that’s just quibbling.
Dude, Two and a Half Men…
That’s not even the worst example. Sometime last season (I think) they had Gibbs avoid a major hacker attack and shut down a computer by shooting the monitor!
If I recall, Gibbs shot the monitor *thinking *it would shut down the computer, as the others gaped in disbelief. The scene was there to show how technically unschooled Gibbs was.
There was an episode where a bad guy had scanned the pages of a book and stored the images on a hard drive. Said hard drive got blown up. They took the pieces of the hard drive to Abby, who reconstructed it.
Now, that’s obviously not possible in the real world, but it’s par for the course for a show like NCIS. BUT, here’s the kicker:
When she put the hard drive back together and accessed the data, the scanned images were of burned and shredded pages.
I love NCIS, but I could not stop staring in disbelief at that one.
As I recall, it worked, and shut the computer down. I remember having a discussion about it later…