What I'm Watching: NCIS

[joiedecombat]

So yang_wenli got me hooked on NCIS, and now that I've finished mainlining seasons three through five on DVD, I am once more in the position of keeping up with a current TV show as it airs.

This never seems to end well, but it's too late, I'm hooked now!

I am a fan of cop shows and forensic dramas in general, though I've lost interest in original recipe CSI, never liked CSI Miami, and don't follow CSI New York very closely. NCIS, in comparison to these, is a bit lighter and softer: the cases (and the moral issues which accompany them) tend to be resolved more neatly, the characters are quirkier, and the setting is more idealized - which is a refreshing change from the crapsack world the various CSIs are set in, but the show does sometimes almost seem like a fourty-five minute recruitment pitch for the Marines.

But the writing is remarkably good, with an unusual amount of attention to continuity and foreshadowing and a generally high degree of respect for the viewer's intelligence. (See particularly the plot twist that they spent the entire fourth season building up.) I have at this point reached that amusing level of paranoia at which, knowing that the writers are clever and subtle about introducing these things, I find myself reading way too much into any given little detail. Did Ziva tear up at the end of "Dagger" because a) she was thinking about her little sister who died in a suicide bombing, b) she was thinking about her dead half-brother, c) they're going to be doing something really mean to her during sweeps, or d) she had something in her eye? I can't tell.

And the characters are an engaging bunch. My personal favorites are Tony - who has that combination of laid-back outward immaturity and humor layered over intentionally-concealed depths of competence layered over self loathing, always a winner - and Ziva, who is perfectly at ease working in a boy's club because she is as macho as any of them, but is also comforable being a girl. And Tony and Ziva's massive amounts of unresolved sexual tension, which deserves its own billing at this point.

So now that we're all caught up...

This week's episode, unfortunately, was a weak one. I have no objection to "secrets from Gibbs's past" plots, and I always like Mike Franks when he guest-stars, but this one was pretty contrived and not as consistent as I've come to expect. Frankly, they could have done the same investigation plot without the personal connection and it would have worked as well if not better; there just wasn't enough of a reason to shoehorn on the "is Tomas Gibbs's son?" stuff. And the reveal of the ultimate culprit just didn't make much sense at all.

So the high points of the episode were Tony and Ziva, and I do not say this just as a shipper, since there weren't any particularly shippy moments. What we get instead is a continued sense of partnership, and one of your basic "guy implies a woman is weak or unskilled, woman shows him up massively and makes him look like a dip" moments, which is interesting because as far as I can remember Ziva hasn't actually had one of those in the three and a half seasons prior to this episode. The closest she's come was probably all the way back in season three when the female ranger tried for sororal commiseration only for Ziva to reply that Gibbs hadn't left her behind to protect her, but because he thought she might kill the perp they were chasing.

I rather like that the writers haven't felt the need to prove Ziva's badassery with one of these scenes before now, and fortunately the scene at the shooting range is understated enough that it doesn't bludgeon the viewer. What really makes it is Tony's sigh and "Oh, God," when Medina hands Ziva his Beretta and tells her to "do her best" - 'oh, geez, did he actually say that? He did. Man, are you about to feel stupid.'

The other scene, when the two of them head into gang territory to pick up a suspect, is even better. "This is a very dangerous neighborhood." "That's why I brought her." He doesn't doubt for a moment that she'll handle the two mooks; she doesn't doubt that he'll catch the runner. This kind of thing just pleases me so much. Nom nom seamless partnership.

Next week: Tony, framed for murder again? Really?

On the other hand, watching him take charge of the team is always interesting. In spite of the recurrence of the "clear my name" plot, this one looks promising.

Comments

[flusterbunny.livejournal.com]

I like that show, too, although I've missed episodes here and there throughout. I even played Tony at one of those Nexus LJ RP comms.

A knock on the show's "respect for intelligence," however, is the technobabble that really doesn't make any sense at all, but it's not a huge drawback at all - just an occasional groaner.

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, yes, that's true, but it happens in pretty much any show that involves much technology. NCIS is at least slightly better about it than the CSIs, if only because it doesn't rely on science nearly so much to move its plots.

And they at least occasionally acknowledge that DNA testing has a turnaround time of more than half an hour, or that partial fingerprints can't necessarily be conclusively matched to a single person. Not often, granted, but occasionally. So at least there's that.

[infinitepryde.livejournal.com]

I am not outright addicted, but occasionally the protesting handflappy voice in my head sounds an awful lot like Abby.

... and Ziva did actually have one previous 'make him look like a dip' moment like that. Way back when. It just wasn't so obvious as usual: think about the first time she drove a car with the guys in it. :D

And then the revelation in an episode shortly thereafter that she ALWAYS drives like that. :D

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

Abby is fun and very cute, although occasionally her quirkiness tips to the wrong side of the line between "cute" and "annoying" for me, like the episode in which she spent the whole time on McGee's case for shooting the dog that had attacked and bitten him several times...

You're right, I had forgotten that bit with Ziva's driving, but it's so far removed from the usual form of the cliche as to almost be an inversion of it.

[infinitepryde.livejournal.com]

Abby's quirkiness tips straight over to annoying much of the time for me, but that makes her even better for flailing. (And I like her when I'm not listening to her, which is odd.)

Ziva's driving hooks more firmly to badassery if you remember previous-season stuff like the phone conversation: "AAAHHH!" "Are you okay?" "Gibbs is driving." "I'm praying for you in several languages." :D