Abysmal. Lame. Sucko. Boring. 
Used to be my favorite show. Sigh.
I’m with you. I used to really like this show too. I’ve tried to watch two episodes this season; and so far have been underwhelmed.
With you on this? What the hell happened??
According to this helpful infographic, NCIS is well into its zombie years.
Super-popular shows are victims of their own success; they never get the chance to end gracefully. Which is a bummer - NCIS used to be pretty amusing.
Underwhelmed is an understatement. NCIS used to be one of my favorite shows, in fact, I own the first five seasons on DVD, and it’s one I go to when I want something fun to watch.
So far this season? Zzzzzz…
The show is as good as ever. You are all just bored with it. I just recently started watching it (mostly reruns on USA network), and the new ones are as good, if not better, than the older ones.
They catch the vibe of the DC area really well for a show that’s shot in LA. Other shows set there have notoriously shown DC streets lined with palm trees or skyscrapers (DC, of course, has neither). And Abby is a lot less coddled by the other characters than she used to be. Tony solves crimes instead of perpetrating frat-boy pranks. Palmer is slowly replacing McGee as the butt-monkey, and Ziva is increasingly seen in normal human interactions. I’d have to say the show is actually better and more nuanced than in previous seasons.
What ever happened to Tim McGee’s writing career? I cannot remember the last time it was mentioned.
Except for the repeated used of “the” before highway and route numbers - it may be “the 405” in LA, but it’s not “the 395” in DC. Obviously whoever is writing the dialog has never been to the DC area long enough to hear a traffic report. Sorry for the hijack - this has been ongoing rather than a new season issue with me. I don’t know why it irritates me so much…
If a show is scripted to a formula (NCIS, for example), the more predictable it becomes the longer it’s aired. The more predicable it becomes, the more boring it is to watch. Bored viewers = less viewership, and the show starts is gentle descent into the watery depths.
The one thing I can say about NCIS is how the characters have evolved over the years (Krokodil’s assessment is spot on, IMO). That in and of itself, for me, makes it more interesting than, say, any of the L&O franchise. Even with that, I’m not sure how much longer NCIS can hold out. We watched last night’s episode with Lily Tomlin and both of us were like, “Eh…same old thing, but with a guest star.” (nothing against Lily, mind you).
The freaky thing is, NCIS wasn’t all that popular its first few years. It became the number one show, what, three years ago? Pretty far into its run. Shows of this sort usually peak around season 3 and do what they can to hang in there.
It’s been top 30, practically top 25, since it’s debut:
Season Rank
1 26
2 22
3 16
4 20
5 14
6 5
7 4
8 5
I think what was odd about NCIS is it wasn’t getting the hype, despite doing well, until the past three years or so.