Review NCIS (2003)

[Elliot Thomas]

Apparently 15 million people watch this show every week. And yet, I've never seen it, don't know anyone who watches it, and have never seen an article written about it

 

[Hux]

I've seen occasional episodes. It's a pretty standard procedural.

 

[Elliot Thomas]

Yeah, but 15 million viewers every week! Same goes for 'This Is Us'

 

[ant-mac]

Apparently 15 million people watch this show every week. And yet, I've never seen it, don't know anyone who watches it, and have never seen an article written about it

I watched it right from the beginning and never missed an episode... Until about six or seven years ago.

It just ended up getting so predicable. Each week, I simply chose the least likely contender with the best up-front alibi from the guest cast. More often than not, I was right and they were the guilty party. The more "dumbed-down" it became, the more interest I lost in the TV series - not that it started from a very high vantage point intelligence-wise to begin with.

Such is life.

 

[Amyghost]

I watched it right from the beginning and never missed an episode... Until about six or seven years ago.

It just ended up getting so predicable. Each week, I simply chose the least likely contender with the best up-front alibi from the guest cast. More often than not, I was right and they were the guilty party. The more "dumbed-down" it became, the more interest I lost in the TV series - not that it started from a very high vantage point intelligence-wise to begin with.

Such is life.

You sound a bit like me with the Law & Order: SVU series. It was a guilty pleasure from square one, but in the early seasons I found the stories, with their frequent last-minute 'twists' to be pretty fun. The show started to tank for me when the scripts began to be more and more about the detectives rather than the more objective recounting of the crimes and their solutions. Last straw came for me when they did that multi-parter in which some high-end madam has apparently blackmailed the entire NYPD, including the captain, and yet by the end everyone's been exonerated and got their jobs back. Definite shark-jumper, that.

Only ever watched NCIS on occasion for Mark Harmon eye-candy, and the Gary Sinise one because I'll happily watch Sinise painting a wall, which he wasn't doing much more than in that series. Otherwise, yes, it's utterly predictable procedural stuff, school of 'dark and gritty', without a surprise in a carload.

 

[Elliot Thomas]

You sound a bit like me with the Law & Order: SVU series. It was a guilty pleasure from square one, but in the early seasons I found the stories, with their frequent last-minute 'twists' to be pretty fun. The show started to tank for me when the scripts began to be more and more about the detectives rather than the more objective recounting of the crimes and their solutions. Last straw came for me when they did that multi-parter in which some high-end madam has apparently blackmailed the entire NYPD, including the captain, and yet by the end everyone's been exonerated and got their jobs back. Definite shark-jumper, that.

Only ever watched NCIS on occasion for Mark Harmon eye-candy, and the Gary Sinise one because I'll happily watch Sinise painting a wall, which he wasn't doing much more than in that series. Otherwise, yes, it's utterly predictable procedural stuff, school of 'dark and gritty', without a surprise in a carload.

Yeah I used to watch SVU myself. Mariska Hargitay is pleasing to the eye too! There must be just millions of old people who watch these shows. Only way to explain the massive ratings.

 

[ant-mac]

Yeah I used to watch SVU myself. Mariska Hargitay is pleasing to the eye too! There must be just millions of old people who watch these shows. Only way to explain the massive ratings.

I still watch it - if I happen to catch an episode - and I'm middle-aged.

And while Mariska Hargitay does perfectly well in her role, she is not the main reason why I have watched the TV series since its inception.

 

[Gavin]

I used to watch it fairly regularly. With the exit of Ziva a couple of years ago and more recently Tony, my viewing has gone from regular to occasional and will probably drop off entirely if another show catches my eye. It has become pretty repetitive though.

 

[Amyghost]

Yeah I used to watch SVU myself. Mariska Hargitay is pleasing to the eye too! There must be just millions of old people who watch these shows. Only way to explain the massive ratings.

I like Mariska too. Good, solid female role-model, not that frequently seen on broadcast tv these days. I used to appreciate the fact that the writers (and probably she and Chris Meloni too) resisted the easy temptation of pushing Olivia and Elliot into bed back in the early days of the show. I seldom watch it these days, pretty much fell away from it after Ice T and Richard Belzer departed, but the series surely does live on strong in syndication.

 

[Elliot Thomas]

Sigh, CRIMINAL MINDS renewed for a 13th season today. Meanwhile HANNIBAL gets cancelled and THE LEFTOVERS has only one more season

 

[Amyghost]

Sigh, CRIMINAL MINDS renewed for a 13th season today. Meanwhile HANNIBAL gets cancelled and THE LEFTOVERS has only one more season

I used to think Joe Mantegna was a decent actor before CM, but he's pure salted ham in this. I don't know why this show is so popular--the over-acting is horrible, the 'plots' are the same story every week, and no cliche is left unturned at least several times throughout every episode. But it goes on and on, which makes me think that the chief attraction of this show (like many others in the genre) is the necro-porn aspect of it, with people not really paying much attention to anything else.

 

[ant-mac]

I used to think Joe Mantegna was a decent actor before CM, but he's pure salted ham in this. I don't know why this show is so popular--the over-acting is horrible, the 'plots' are the same story every week, and no cliche is left unturned at least several times throughout every episode. But it goes on and on, which makes me think that the chief attraction of this show (like many others in the genre) is the necro-porn aspect of it, with people not really paying much attention to anything else.

Or it could simply be that the vast majority of modern audiences can't stomach anything more challenging than the most severely "dumbed-down" entertainment...

 

[Amyghost]

Or it could simply be that the vast majority of modern audiences can't stomach anything more challenging than the most severely "dumbed-down" entertainment...

I think it's something of a combination of the two. The necro-porn genre of police procedural has become such a staple that I'm bound to think that aspect of it constitutes a huge part of the drawing power. The dumbed-down aspect certainly helps, but then again, there's barely any genre on network television these days, from the most heinous to the most innocuous, that hasn't been totally infected by the brain-cell-destroying bacteria.

 

[Doctor Omega]

NCIS is an American action police procedural television series, revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates crimes involving the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

The concept and characters were initially introduced in two episodes of the CBS series JAG (season eight episodes 20 and 21: "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown").

The show, a spin-off from JAG, premiered on September 23, 2003, on CBS.

To date it has aired for thirteen full seasons and has gone into broadcast syndication on the USA Network. Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill are co-creators and executive producers of the premiere member of the NCIS franchise.

It is the second longest-running scripted, non-animated U.S. primetime TV series currently airing, surpassed only by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present), and is the 15th longest-running scripted U.S. primetime TV series overall.

NCIS was originally referred to as Navy NCIS during season one; "Navy" was later dropped from the title as it was redundant (the "N" in "NCIS" stands for "Naval").

In season six, a two-part episode led to a spin-off series, NCIS: Los Angeles. A two-part episode during the eleventh season led to a second spin-off series, NCIS: New Orleans.

While initially slow in the ratings, barely cracking the Top 30 in the first four seasons, by its sixth season, it became a top five hit, and has remained there since.

In 2011, NCIS was voted America's favorite television show in an online Harris Poll.

The series finished its tenth season as the most-watched television series in the U.S. during the 2012–13 TV season.[4]

On February 29, 2016, NCIS was renewed for its fourteenth and fifteenth seasons.

Season fourteen premiered on September 20, 2016;

 

[Janine The Barefoot]

pretty much fell away from it after Ice T and Richard Belzer departed,

Dear god really?! I am sooooo glad I was gone by the time they did that !!!!!

And Bunnies for Amy... I'm trailing her around for her brilliant brain (no kidding!)

 

[Amyghost]

Dear god really?! I am sooooo glad I was gone by the time they did that !!!!!

And Bunnies for Amy... I'm trailing her around for her brilliant brain (no kidding!)

I think Mariska is the only original cast member remaining. I've always loved Belzer (ever read any of his wack conspiracy books? They're great), and I warmed up to T a lot during the run of the show; wasn't terribly impressed by him as an actor at first, but I think he really grew into the role. The show just wasn't the same for me after they left, much as I still like Hargitay.

"And Bunnies for Amy... I'm trailing her around for her brilliant brain (no kidding!)"

Thanks Janine!--that literally had me laughing out loud--you'll always be able to find my brilliant brain by following its trail of droppings.

 

[Janine The Barefoot]

I always loved Belzer (ever read any of his wack conspiracy books?

Me too and no. Although I always suspected they were there. He was a highly respected comedian before coming to work as an actor and I think he just incorporated some of his own character traits into Belzer!

And since now, the damn program won't let me quote you again, I'll just agree with what you said about T and add that I do think the "reality show" about he and his (.... hmmm.... what to say about her?.......) "interesting", uhmmmm, "well built" and "utterly without a brain I would follow anywhere" kind of wife..... No thanks, I am not a lemming! Yeah.... my admiration for him slipped a bit when he did that show for any number of reasons!


And la la la... Bunnies for Amy!

 

[Gavin]

I remember making a comment a few years ago about how all of these police procedurals were effectively the same show with just one unique twist. They're so similar that you could write a basic script and then, without much effort, adapt it to whichever show you wanted. In fact, it would be fascinating (and probably a great marketing ploy) to have several of the shows commission a single script and, over the course of a week, screen the different variations.

 

[ant-mac]

Things that would never be said by...

Gibbs: Space - the final frontier. These are the voyages...

Gibbs: Well, I'm off to my Communist Party meeting tonight...

Gibbs: Beam me up, Ducky!

Gibbs: LOL. LMAO. ROFL. BRB...

Gibbs: Wow! I'd never have thought that they would smuggle diamonds into the US from Asia by hiding them in large water bottles... Who'd have guessed?

 

[ant-mac]

Things that would never be said by...

Ducky: I can't wait to get home to watch big brother!

Ducky: I'm speechless - I don't know what to say...

Ducky: C'mon Palmer, we're off to the monster truck rally!

Ducky: Doh!

Ducky: Please Gibbs! Stop! I can't bear to hear another of your interminable stories!