Let us praise NCIS

[Zsofia]

@Krokodil

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.

A middle aged lady who subs with us sometimes was talking TV with me and gushing about NCIS - dude, she made me even more humiliated that I watch it. I was bitching about the one dimensional younger characters (and what do you expect when the guy who made Magnum, P.I. tries to write young people in the new millenium? Not that I don’t love me some Magnum, but really.) “Oh, I love Abby - she’s such a goth!” Yeah, thanks for proving my point. “Goth” is not a character trait. And it definitely shouldn’t be your only one. She grinds the show to a halt with me, too - she’s the “heart” of it in the sense that her relationship with Gibbs is freaking adorable. And you know what? Nobody liked Willow by the end of that show, either.

On the other hand, I love that it’s a show where the stories are about Navy personnel where not everybody’s a fighter pilot or on a submarine. It’s one of the few things around where you can see that people in the military are often dentists, mechanics, and file clerks. And at least the forensics people don’t question suspects.

Also, the people are actually sort of the right age to do their jobs, mostly. It’s nice to see somebody show up and say “Hi, I’m the director of a major government agency” and they look like they’re not just out of college.

[BMada]

don’t forget the catchy intro theme music. I like both NCIS and LA intro music.

[BaneSidhe]

Abby is my main girlcrush.

[levdrakon]

I love NCIS, I admit it. It’s the perfect formulaic, episodic show. I don’t mean that at all sarcastically. I shouldn’t like such a cookie cutter show, but they get every bit of it right. You can tell the producer has been doing this forever, and he’s actually gotten it perfect.

I love how the whole team is an HR director’s nightmare. Gibbs will smack anyone on his team, even a woman on rare occasions. Tony makes all sorts of inappropriate sexual comments. Gibbs brings Abby her Caf-Pow everyday, and gives her hugs, kisses on the forehead and lets her indulge in just about whatever weird goth quirk she has, simply because she’s good at her job. I always wonder how long it would take to do her hair everyday.

Ziva was my least favorite character for awhile. I was a bit bored with her Mossad assassin schtick and the whole divided loyalties thing was getting old. They’ve toned that down though and every other thing she says isn’t about her Mossad killer ninja training. I love what’s going on between Ziva and Tony. They are so obviously perfect for each other and madly in love. Then they threw that bit in about who slept on the couch in Paris - and neither did. :eek:

I love the non-stop quips.

I even love Ducky’s assistant. During the time Tony was in charge, he had a special relationship with him, but they never really explored that.

NCIS LA: I watch it, but it’s no NCIS. It’s own quirky silliness has grown on me though, and I’ll continue to watch. They’ve forced the relationships in the show too quickly, and not given me time to care. The IT guy is no Abby, and Mape or whatever her name is, is too much. The psychologist guy doesn’t sell it. He’s Troy, good for not much beyond obvious statements like, “I sense apprehension.” If they want a ship’s counselor, they need to make him good. Scary good. Bene Gesserit good.

Still, I watch. Chris O’Donnell is a pretty good actor and I like his relationship with his partner, although they go for the “like a married couple” joke too often. I love their HQ, but it’s hilariously unrealistic. I keep expecting to see waiters and busboys running around. I’d buy and live in a place like that in a heartbeat though, if I had that kind of money.

[Annie-Xmas]

I love that the characters have backgrounds and were not just dropped into the NCIS offices like potted plants,

I so love Ducky. The scene at his mother’s grave was a highlight of this season.

[LurkMeister]

@levdrakon

I love how the whole team is an HR director’s nightmare. Gibbs will smack anyone on his team, even a woman on rare occasions. Tony makes all sorts of inappropriate sexual comments. Gibbs brings Abby her Caf-Pow everyday, and gives her hugs, kisses on the forehead and lets her indulge in just about whatever weird goth quirk she has, simply because she’s good at her job. I always wonder how long it would take to do her hair everyday.

I can’t remember which episode it was, but it opened with the whole team being forced to attend one of those “sexual harassment” seminars and when Abby brought of the subject of hugging fellow employees the person conducting the seminar almost had apoplexy while explaining how inappropriate it was. Abby looked so hurt that I wanted to hug her - not that I’d really need an excuse.

[Gagundathar]

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that others here love this show as well.
SWMBO and I have watched just about every episode.
Three were queued up on Tivo last night (Thursday 8 Apr 2010) and we watched the one from 3 weeks ago with the Coast Guard investigator. I hope she will be a semi-regular character because I liked her (and she was pretty hot).

Abby and Penelope Garcia (from Criminal Minds) are probably our favorite characters on TV right now.

[KneadToKnow]

@melodyharmonius

In my fantasies, Abby, Penelope Garcia and I are all good friends.

In my fantasies, you are all very good friends wink wink.

[melodyharmonius]

@KneadToKnow

In my fantasies, you are all very good friends wink wink.

you’ll need a bigger bed.

[Robot_Arm]

@levdrakon

I love NCIS, I admit it. It’s the perfect formulaic, episodic show. I don’t mean that at all sarcastically. I shouldn’t like such a cookie cutter show, but they get every bit of it right. You can tell the producer has been doing this forever, and he’s actually gotten it perfect.

I’ve never really watched NCIS, but I’ve caught a few episodes in the last couple months and something about it struck me as familiar. I almost started a thread titled Donald Bellisario and Gender Roles.

His shows that I remember (Magnum, P.I., Quantum Leap, JAG, and NCIS) all seem to follow a certain mold. There’s an Alpha Male, remarkably handsome and impossibly good at his job. The other male characters are some variation of nervous doofus or overbearing jerk, all the better to highlight the Alpha’s perfection. The female characters are always supremely capable, with none of the personality flaws of their male counterparts.

Which doesn’t necessarily make it a bad show. I’ll probably watch it again. I think I prefer the original supremely capable female to her successor, though. I just wonder about how Donald Bellisario views the world.

[Roderick_Femm]

@Robot_Arm

I’ve never really watched NCIS, but I’ve caught a few episodes in the last couple months and something about it struck me as familiar. I almost started a thread titled Donald Bellisario and Gender Roles.

His shows that I remember (Magnum, P.I., Quantum Leap, JAG, and NCIS) all seem to follow a certain mold. There’s an Alpha Male, remarkably handsome and impossibly good at his job. The other male characters are some variation of nervous doofus or overbearing jerk, all the better to highlight the Alpha’s perfection. The female characters are always supremely capable, with none of the personality flaws of their male counterparts.

Which doesn’t necessarily make it a bad show. I’ll probably watch it again. I think I prefer the original supremely capable female to her successor, though. I just wonder about how Donald Bellisario views the world.

Don’t forget the subtle but consistent underlying homophobia. On the very rare occasions when there has been a gay character, (s)he was either the murderer, the victim, or just presented as an object of scorn. And the much more common slurs, usually slung by Tony against McGee implying that he might be gay which would be a reason for contempt.

However, I watch the show pretty regularly, so I guess this doesn’t bother me most of the time. Since I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, that’s pretty much the attitude I grew up with.

In the spirit of the OP, I do think the plots are among the best elements of the show. I think the characters, even Gibbs, are in constant danger of becoming one-dimensional characters, but they never quite fall over that line.
Roddy

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Roderick_Femm

Don’t forget the subtle but consistent underlying homophobia. On the very rare occasions when there has been a gay character, (s)he was either the murderer, the victim, or just presented as an object of scorn. And the much more common slurs, usually slung by Tony against McGee implying that he might be gay which would be a reason for contempt.

I remember being…vexed…by a couple of early episodes in which Kate is unapologetically bigot. In one, Tony makes out with a suspect (in the line of duty, but still) who turns out to be a pre-op transexual (albeit a very hot one), and she mocks him for it; and not long after that she calls that person a he-she. But I couldn’t decide if she really meant it or if she was just trying to irritate Tony, as, unlike Ziva, her dislike of DiNozzo was not pretend.

On the other hand…I can actually believe that Kate & Tony would both be blatant homophobes, and that Gibbs would not care one way or the other. I don’t think a show is obligated to have morally perfect characters.

ETA: I will shock y’all and betray my generation by admitting that I have never watched an entire episode of Magnum PI, so I won’t comment on it.

ETA: I will also say that Director Vance is sort an an inversion of the thing about the lead always being the most competent character. I think it’s clear that he’s just as good an investigator as Gibbs, and probably a better federal employee overall. Vance could do Gibbs’ job successfully; the reverse is not true, and even Gibbs knows it, and that’s presented as a flaw of his.

[Roderick_Femm]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

I don’t think a show is obligated to have morally perfect characters.

I agree. It’s not the characters I have a problem with, it’s the attitude represented by the characters, which is a (minor sub-) theme that seems to run throughout Bellisario’s shows. It’s pervasive, but not enough so to make me refuse to watch them. Not sure what that says about me.
Roddy

[levdrakon]

@Roderick_Femm

Don’t forget the subtle but consistent underlying homophobia. On the very rare occasions when there has been a gay character, (s)he was either the murderer, the victim, or just presented as an object of scorn. And the much more common slurs, usually slung by Tony against McGee implying that he might be gay which would be a reason for contempt.

However, I watch the show pretty regularly, so I guess this doesn’t bother me most of the time. Since I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, that’s pretty much the attitude I grew up with.

In the spirit of the OP, I do think the plots are among the best elements of the show. I think the characters, even Gibbs, are in constant danger of becoming one-dimensional characters, but they never quite fall over that line.
Roddy

I’ve always thought for a show with a clear military - and especially Marine - bias they treat gays pretty fairly. I remember sometimes a victim or suspect might be gay, but I don’t recall them ever passing judgement on it. Gibbs and the team have never insinuated gays shouldn’t be allowed in the military. Tony does frequently imply McGee could be gay but to me his jabs at McGee are purely to put him on the defensive and mess with him but McGee never says there is anything wrong with being gay and Tony doesn’t imply there is anything wrong with being gay. On the contrary, I think Tony would be excited and happy for McGee if he turned out gay, but he knows it bugs McGee when he asks, “you had a date? What’s her name? Or his name?”

There was a recent episode of NCIS LA where the victim/suspect was a Navy officer and gay but they concluded the guy was a real patriot and hero by the end of the show, while also highlighting the additional difficulties he faced being gay and in the military and I thought the moral of the story was pretty clearly pro-gay.

[Kyla]

I have only seen the show a few times, so I don’t really know the intricacies of the characters, but I do think it’s funny that people are saying that Tony is homophobic, because the one thing that I’ve taken away is a strong desire to slash Tony and McGee. They are so in love.

[simster]

There was another episode - where the initial suspect had to ‘out’ himself in order to provide an aliby - Gibb’s allowed it in private and kept the info to himself - while several of the ‘bad guys’ have turned out to be gay/etc - they have always seemed to treat everyone fairly irregaurdless of background/sexuality/etc.

I’ve always seen Tony’s jabs at McGee to be just the normal ‘frat brother’ attitude - and mostly Tony over compensating - One must remember that McGee started out on NCIS as having a relationship with Abbie - from early in season 1 to just prior to his permanent placement on the show (mid season 2 I believe).

[tumbleddown]

@melodyharmonius

In my fantasies, Abby, Penelope Garcia and I are all good friends.

In a lot of people’s fanfic, Abby & Garcia are great friends, I can’t say if anyone has included you in their stories, though.

@Gagundathar

we watched the one from 3 weeks ago with the Coast Guard investigator. I hope she will be a semi-regular character because I liked her (and she was pretty hot).

That’s Diane Neal, who used to be on Law & Order SVU. She’s a fairly regular Twitter user and thus far, she’s not set to be on any further episodes of NCIS (or White Collar which she also did a guest spot on this season) and they’re done with production for this season but she says she was given “good signs” of a return of Abby Borin next year.

@Skald_the_Rhymer

I remember being…vexed…by a couple of early episodes in which Kate is unapologetically bigot. In one, Tony makes out with a suspect (in the line of duty, but still) who turns out to be a pre-op transexual (albeit a very hot one), and she mocks him for it;

The transsexual was actually post-op, and yeah, Kate mocked him for it hard, and misgendered the transwoman in the process. It was one of NCIS’s biggest, ugliest failures.

ETA: I will also say that Director Vance is sort an an inversion of the thing about the lead always being the most competent character. I think it’s clear that he’s just as good an investigator as Gibbs, and probably a better federal employee overall.

Is he? Is there not some mystery hanging out there (from the episode of Vance’s boxer friend who was murdered) that Vance may not be who he claims to be at all? Information in Vance’s confidential CIA file that Trent Kort gave Gibbs (in the episode where Ducky was accused of war crimes) but Gibbs never read, and ended up giving to Vance, still sealed, as a show of good faith (or something)? I think we’re going to find out that there’s something up with Vance, in the upcoming season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the lawyer who’s alternately hot for Gibbs and out to get Gibbs and keeps randomly showing up in his house doesn’t have something to do with it.

[KneadToKnow]

@tumbleddown

The transsexual was actually post-op, and yeah, Kate mocked him for it hard, and misgendered the transwoman in the process. It was one of NCIS’s biggest, ugliest failures.

I’m not sure if I follow your meaning here. NCIS, the fictional agency, failed because it employed someone with Kate’s failings, or NCIS, the TV show, failed because it portrayed a character with failings?

[JSexton]

I do love NCIS, but man, this week’s episode was horrible. Just sloppy, lazy writing. So you have a suspect, but no current address. Clearly, the ideal thing to do is set up a madam to lure her in and make Tony go through all these hoops of being a prospective john so you can get her on a solicitation charge, because that’ the only way you can get a DNA sample from her.

…what? She’s a freaking murder suspect. I don’t know why they could just grab her with a warrant as soon as she walked in the door.

[Spice_Weasel]

I like the show. ‘‘Love’’ is too strong a word. The characters are interesting. It’s just a simple, fun, formulaic little show. I watch it on demand when I’m in the mood, so I have missed huge parts of the story.

Abby is definitely my favorite, because she likes bugs and cares about people.

@tumbledown

The transsexual was actually post-op, and yeah, Kate mocked him for it hard, and misgendered the transwoman in the process. It was one of NCIS’s biggest, ugliest failures.

I’m glad I never saw that episode. It might enrage me.