# NCIS, the worst successful show ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2011, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985 "2011-10-08T07:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/41 "2011-10-15T00:55:03Z")
You have to turn a blind eye to the science and procedures that are portrayed on shows like NCIS and Criminal Minds. What makes the shows work are the personalities and interactions of the characters. NCIS, in particular, has some of the best developed characters with, shall I say, endearing and amusing interactions. Those are the shows within a show that make the episodes watchable. And who can not like Ducky on NCIS. He was once an U.N.C.L.E. agent! ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/42 "2011-10-15T04:05:24Z")
This show is way over due to have Robert Vaughn guest star as an old friend of Ducky. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/43 "2011-10-15T06:47:42Z")
I haven’t read the thread. I love this show. You haters can shove it. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/44 "2011-10-15T07:05:29Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Any characters in any TV show can be reduced to stereotypes, though is ‘offbeat brainy chick’ a common stereotype? Especially ‘offbeat, gothy, sexy brainy chick’? Criminal Minds has one, but that might well be a copy of NCIS. The differences between Abby and Garcia – who isn’t a goth, for heaven’s sake – are so vast as to drive a fleet of Mack trucks through. Work for a federal law enforcement agency, unconventional fashion sense and skilled with computers are where the similarities begin and end. > [@bump](#): > > 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. From all reports that’s exactly right. He plays practical jokes constantly, lizards in co-stars’ trailers, etc. He’s also there all day, every day, even though he’s not a supervising producer. His position is if anyone’s working, he’s working too. Hell of a work ethic. You could do worse. > [@Skara\_Brae](#): > > 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!_ He didn’t shut the computer down by shooting the monitor (though he did shoot the monitor) he shot the power supply. Considering that the computer was seconds away from breaching the Pentagon’s security (yeah, yeah) and the room was filling with smoke, that he didn’t strafe the thing from top to bottom and hope for the best was pretty forward thinking, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/45 "2011-10-15T10:11:02Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > What really makes me sick is when they want to find out what some substance consists of, in real life they use something like [this](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Atomic_absorption_spectroscopy.jpg). > > But that would be too boring for stupid TV viewers. Instead they use something like [this.](http://www.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/blog/tech_cameos/mass_spectrometer_ncis.jpg) Which looks like a microwave oven glued to a 1990’s computer tower case. :rolleyes: > > And yeah, about Abbey. Most lab techs I have met are way kooky tatted-out punk rockin’ chicks. Conversely, most kooky tatted-out punk chicks know a LOT about science! So at least they got that one right. Actually Paulie Perrette has a degree in Criminal Science, so at least she blends in =) And that mass spec seems to be a [FTIR8400 Shimadzu mass spec](http://www.fedequip.com/thumbnails/1/429/22732-01/Model_Ftir-8400_Shimadzu_Transform_Infrared_Spectrometer.ashx) … which dates to 2002, and given how the US Navy tends to be at least a generation behind on pretty much any equipment around, would be pretty spiffy for Abby. ---
**Author:** ![realmarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/90ced4/32.png) [@realmarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/realmarine)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/46 "2014-10-13T00:07:08Z")
Is it supposed to be “cool” that she sits on the floor to work? Who does that ? Ziva was one of the few interesting characters on the show & they replace her with a bleach blond turd ? In my script, both her & Gibbbs get wasted. That would be a great episode !!! ---
**Author:** ![realmarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/90ced4/32.png) [@realmarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/realmarine)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/47 "2014-10-13T00:10:24Z")
Would be adhered to ! The show consistently ignores more ammendments than the Taliban !!! ---
**Author:** ![realmarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/90ced4/32.png) [@realmarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/realmarine)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/48 "2014-10-13T00:19:15Z")
> [@LorieSmurf](#): > > I haven’t read the thread. I love this show. You haters can shove it. ``` Legs smaller than a 5 year old girl ? Or a person that abuses his personal ? No hate, just reality. I'm guessing you live alone with a poodle !!! ``` ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/49 "2014-10-13T00:19:31Z")
24 was by far the stupidest ever. CSIs and NCISs are tied for second worst. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/50 "2014-10-13T00:35:19Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > 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). This!! There’s even a trope for it. Real Life Is Boring ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/51 "2014-10-13T00:38:22Z")
NCIS is a lot more believable than CSI that more like fake science. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/52 "2014-10-13T02:59:26Z")
I don’t love this show, but I still watch it, and I don’t know why. But I’m glad someone resurrected this zombie so I could say: I do not understand what the blonde probie contributes AT ALL. She’s not sexy like Ziva or cool like Kate. She’s married, so there’s no flirtatious vibe. She’s not funny or particularly smart. She scowls and wrinkles her brow all the time like she’s pondering deep things. She possesses no chemistry. What is her reason for existing? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/53 "2014-10-13T03:59:04Z")
> [@realmarine](#): > > Legs smaller than a 5 year old girl ? Or a person that abuses his personal ? No hate, just reality. I’m guessing you live alone with a poodle !!! Knock off the personal insults. **twickster** , Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/54 "2014-10-13T11:36:11Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I don’t love this show, but I still watch it, and I don’t know why. > > But I’m glad someone resurrected this zombie so I could say: I do not understand what the blonde probie contributes AT ALL. She’s not sexy like Ziva or cool like Kate. She’s married, so there’s no flirtatious vibe. She’s not funny or particularly smart. She scowls and wrinkles her brow all the time like she’s pondering deep things. She possesses no chemistry. What is her reason for existing? I gave up on the show after the blond came on board. It’s not the same and I don’t find it interesting at all. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/55 "2014-10-13T11:44:23Z")
What gets me about NCIS: The Franchise is the utter level of cheese portrayed. Also, the baddies are always so obvious as to be caricatures. All they need is to twirl a long mustache while being villainous. > [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > 1. Medical examiner’s offices don’t look like a set from Star Trek. Dr. Bunny was a coroner, and always said that the ME’s offices are always in a basement, with run-down equipment and leftover bits of almost-broken office furniture and a phone from 1910. Also, apparently genitalia don’t magically blur themselves out when you die and people look at your naked body. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/56 "2014-10-13T13:05:31Z")
Some people suspend their disbelief and enjoy superheros who wear silly outfits, fly, fight machines, throw hammers etc. I suspend my disbelief and watch impossible crime fighters who don’t fly , wear silly outfits etc. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/57 "2014-10-13T14:07:38Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > The science is often terrible - like it is for all these crime procedural shows - but the characters work really well. They bounce off each other in a believable way. The plots are often character-led rather than plot-led, which is quite unusual. That’s the reason for the success in a nutshell. People aren’t watching NCIS to see how the crew solve the problem at hand, they’re watching it to see the crew interact and even grow over the course of the show. That’s what shocks me about NCIS is that the characters actually change over time, and not in the typical way where the defining traits of popular characters get amplified ab absurdum, and by the final seasons, the characters bear no relation to the original ones. (think Homer Simpson, Sheldon Cooper, etc…) Instead, we get a Gibbs who’s actually softened up over the course of the show, and taken a more paternal role. We have a Tony who has matured, and a McGee who’s grown up and toughened up. The whole Kate/Ziva/Ellie thing. Even Ducky has changed with the death of his mother, and in last week’s episode. Granted the show can be melodramatic, and there aren’t anywhere near to that many murdered Navy people IRL, but the key to the show is the characters, not the plots, and if you pay attention, that’s what usually defines the most popular shows that run for long periods. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/58 "2014-10-13T15:11:27Z")
> [@bump](#): > > That’s the reason for the success in a nutshell. People aren’t watching NCIS to see how the crew solve the problem at hand, they’re watching it to see the crew interact and even grow over the course of the show. > > That’s what shocks me about NCIS is that the characters actually change over time, and not in the typical way where the defining traits of popular characters get amplified ab absurdum, and by the final seasons, the characters bear no relation to the original ones. (think Homer Simpson, Sheldon Cooper, etc…) > > Instead, we get a Gibbs who’s actually softened up over the course of the show, and taken a more paternal role. We have a Tony who has matured, and a McGee who’s grown up and toughened up. The whole Kate/Ziva/Ellie thing. Even Ducky has changed with the death of his mother, and in last week’s episode. > > Granted the show can be melodramatic, and there aren’t anywhere near to that many murdered Navy people IRL, but the key to the show is the characters, not the plots, and if you pay attention, that’s what usually defines the most popular shows that run for long periods. Which is exactly why, IMHO, NCIS LA is failing miserably - they keep having these convuluted plots that make zero sense - and the chars can’t pull it off.; We’ve quit watching that one - i’m on the fence with NO - supernatural competes and wins. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/59 "2014-10-13T15:19:27Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Also, apparently genitalia don’t magically blur themselves out when you die and people look at your naked body. Uh- **HUH**! They do **So**! I learned that in catechism class! > [@bump](#): > > We have a Tony who has matured… I definitely like the way Tony has matured. He has grown and changed the most. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985/60 "2014-10-13T15:50:11Z")
I don’t like the early seasons with Tony. I’ve wondered how the hell he didn’t get fired with some of the stuff he said and did. I must admit, though, that his character has matured over the seasons. I like Ducky, but as someone who does this for a living I dislike when a human coroner does animal forensics, so that episode bothered me. I do not like, though, Ducky’s underling. While ducky is smart and compassionate despite his quirks, the other one is methodical but not compassionate, and is also prejudiced against anyone/anything not mainstream US. I’m waiting for his character to evolve. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ncis-the-worst-successful-show-ever/598985.md?page=4)