For truly, it is the greatest show on television. There are many reasons, but I’ll only name four:
A) It has the perfect balance of arc and non-arc episodes. Though there tends to be an over-arching story in each season, it doesn’t dominate the storytelling process. It tells the big story in dribbles, and you don’t get lost if you miss an episode.
Likeable & believable characters. Gibbs and his crew aren’t perfect, but you still root for them. You can believe that Gibbs is actually a competent detective and team leader, and yet it’s no mystery why he neither wishes to be director of the agency or will even be chosen to be. Tony’s an ass, but not an asshole; his immature behavior is neither motiveless nor irredeemable. Ducky is both charming and tiresome, sometimes in the same sentence. Et cetera.
Ɣ) Attention to detail. The show rewards paying attention, and doesn’t feel obliged to explain everything. The transition from Kate to Ziva is a good example. There’s a great scene in the episode with Kate’s funeral in which Gibbs is sitting in the rain; nearby there’s a little dog, sheltered by a gazebo. It’s Kate’s dog, acquired a season earlier. There’s another bit in which Ziva, on her first NCIS mission, finds a hole in her hat the size of a 9-millimeter slug; that too belonged to Kate, and we saw how the hole came to be.
iv) Abby Sciuto. For lo, she is hot, brilliant, more than a little nuts, and always amusing. She sometimes seems to be a damsel in distress, but just as often confounds that expectation. Plus, you know, the legs.
I love NCIS. And then I introduced the SO to it - and now he’s addicted as well.
[ul]
[li]I love the relationship between Gibbs & Abby. I love “permission to hug, sir!”[/li][li]I love that I can watch episodes of it every night somewhere. [/li][li]I love that different ones of them get to figure out different clues - that Tony isn’t always the idiot, McGee isn’t always the geek, Ziva isn’t always the language-challenged. They all have things they are really good at that brings a solution to the table.[/li][li]I love that there are both inside jokes (like the holey hat) and outside jokes so both newcomers and long-time fans can enjoy it.[/li][li]I love that the twists and turns are often well-timed, not something that you feel has been heavily hinted at. They don’t pander to the lowest-common denominator. They expect you to figure some things out.[/li][li]I love that Gibbs’ FBI counterpart shares the same ex. AFTER Gibbs, of course. Sloppy seconds all around.[/li][li]I love that it doesn’t try to take itself too seriously. I like a lot of the *L&O *series, but they can often be too “this is gritty stuff” drama. I can watch 4 hours of NCIS in a row - not so for L&O.[/li][/ul]
Tony is not, in fact, ever an idiot. He’s a jerk, but he’s clearly a good detective; he’s much better at their job, in general, than McGee is. (Which is as it should be, given the difference in experience). He’s not as good as Gibbs, but Gibbs is a savant.
Re: Gibbs’ FBI counterpart:
I love their discussions about their shared ex. “Tobias, you’re about to make the second worst mistake of your life.” “What was the worst?” “Marrying my ex-wife after I told you not to.” “I thought you were kidding!” “Well, now you know!”
I too love the original NCIS, but the new LA sucks [though I love the building they are in, I’ll take the building and you can keep the show]
Although I would love for them to do a show involving the base up here in New London … it is close enough to easily drive up here to question someone, or go through the escape trainer or something fun =)
I actually hate the headquarters. It’s so high-tech and startrekky it takes me out of the story. And even more I hate the evident chaos there. In one of the few episodes I bothered watching, Chris O’Donnell was protesting the idea of having ASSIGNED DESKS for his team. He couldn’t see the obvious ways that this would improve their productivity and make them more comfortable. I just couldn’t believe anybody over the age of 14 making his argument, much less a team leader with his apparent responsibilities.
NCIS is great! It manages to have moments of pathos without taking itself too seriously on a whole. Plus, it passes the Bechdel Test and manages to have lots of cool female characters whose subplots deal with something other than their love lives.
So, I have watched this show almost entirely in re-runs, and have seen them totally out of order, but I think I have seen almost the whole series by now. Watching it that way gives you a real appreciation for how well thought out the storylines are. When you watch episodes that were intended to be aired months apart back to back, you run the risk of seeing the shows plot holes and weak points. But it turns out that there aren’t many.
Take the officer Lee arch. You can totally see them setting up the traitor thing a whole season before it actually happens.
The best part of the show for me is that the characters are all multilayered and none of them have managed to become caricatures of the people they started out as. Ziva bugs me a bit, because by now she really should have a better grasp of the language, and I am sick of Gibbs talking about his gut, but other than that the show avoids falling into the trap of defining their characters with singular bullet point phrases or behaviors.
Tony is an ass, but has always been, and as he gets older his assery is morphing in a realistic way. Particularly after his relationship with Jeanne. He really wasn’t ever quite the same after that. Gibbs started off as Batman (I was watching season 1 reruns the other day and he was really Batman in the beginning) but almost from the moment that Kate died he started changing and becoming more human. McGee has gone from bumbling rookie to a highly skilled Gibbs in training.
Ziva I honestly don’t care for as much, mostly because they have done so little with her since she first joined the show. She has stayed fairly static for about three seasons now.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Tony’s movie references yet. That’s one of my favorite parts of the show. I always try to think of what movie he is going to compare a crime scene to before he gets around to saying it…TRM
I can’t figure out how to make the dates work, but I suspect that Tony DiNozzo’s true father is not Anthony Senior, but the thief-cum-detective known as Remington Steele. He’s not as cool, though.
ZOMG - sorry - I got so caught up in Abby land - that I forgot to mention this. I try to figure it out also! It’s also a nice way for the writers to give a nod to the other works that may have been the partial inspiration for a particular plot.
I also appreciate how Ziva took a class so she could argue with him about it . . .
I think at this point Ziva is, as often as not, pretending to get language wrong in order to irritate Tony. Though I can also buy her remark in, only her first season I think, that she was fluent in 6 languages and might be excused making minor mistakes.
I keep watching it because… I don’t know why. But it is not, NOT, a good show. Not. Actually, it’s kind of awful. I guess I keep watching it for Gibbs and Ducky, because all the younger characters are ridiculous and annoying. The plots are ridiculous, the camera work is outright obnoxious. But I’m in, what, season 4? And I can’t stop. (I mean, I’ve seen every episode of Bones too. I’m not proud of that either.)
ETA - and I am still pissed off about replacing Kate with Ziva. If there’s one manufactured character trait I can’t stand, it’s “I speak absolutely impeccable English except for when I make cute widdle mistakes with my idioms!” I really liked Kate.
My brother, an ex-Navy man, can’t stand the show and says Abby drags it to a halt for him. I, of course, think she’s the heart of the show like Willow was for BtVS. I also think Ziva is the hottest TV heroine since Emma Peel.
Although I find Ziva incredibly hot, I also find her extremely reminiscent of Mr. Data from The Next Generation. No, wait a minute, hear me out!
They both have incredible strength and reflexes, both are fish out of water whose innocent observations are intended to make comments on “normal” folks, both mix up their idioms, and neither of them can use contractions. QED…TRM
