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NCIS - Season 1
“NCIS. Never heard of it.”
- “That’s embarassing.”
One of the very first dialogues at the first episode of the successful crime-series ‘NCIS’ the members of the team say that not knowing about the Naval Crime Investigative Service is something one should be rather ashamed about. When regarding this as a comment to the audience as well as to the ignorant employer at the airport, it could be seen as a bold statement in 2003, when the series started. Ten years later, however, there are few who haven’t heard of NCIS before. And rightly so: it’s fast-paced, exciting, and confidently shows that they will be able to stick around for a very long time.
The pilot of ‘NCIS’ starts with the suspicious death of an Air Force One member after he had dinner with the President. The NCIS team, led by the veteran, almost embittered Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon, ‘St Elsewhere’) suspect something else is the matter. Unfortunately, they are thwarted by the President’s left hand, Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander, ‘Rizolli & Isles’), who obviously doesn’t want to hear that someone’s out there to murder the President. This first episode shows us that the NCIS team is highly determined to solve their case, even if it means they’ll have to go over the heads of both the CIA and FBI.
This episode, and the rest of the first season, show how well the NCIS team works together under Special Agent Gibbs’s command, even though the members are very dissimilar, and at a first glance, quite clichéd as well. Firstly, there is the traditional Casanova, called Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly, ‘Dark Angel’), who’s got a new girlfriend every single episode. His total opposite is Timothy McGee (Sean Murray, ‘Harts of the West’), a quiet, even shy man. He is in an on-and-off relationship with the team’s computer nerd and forensic scientist Abby Sciutio (Pauley Perette, ‘Time of Your Life’), a gothic girl who spends her nights sleeping in a coffin. The team’s oldest member is the medical examiner, the sympathetic Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard (David McCallum, ‘Trainer’), a Scotsman with a peculiar sense of humour, but who always finds the right solution. The team is later on completed by Caitlin Todd, who quit her job with the president to solve murder cases with the NCIS team.
Caitlin, and the others, soon realise they do not only solve murder cases. Sometimes it’s suicides, accidents, or sometimes someone isn’t even dead yet. This is what happens in the most exciting episode of the entire season, ‘Bête Noire’, where a terrorist sneaked into the building in a body bag to claim evidence. He does not only shoot at an intern, but even Gibbs is hit by one of his bullets. He succeeds in his actions and escapes, even without the team knowing as much as his name. He returns in the season finale, ‘Reveille’, something about which Gibbs is all too pleased as he has been obsessed by this man for weeks. Unlike last time, the team is able to find out that his name is Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin, ‘Beggars and Choosers’), but unfortunately, like the previous time, the terrorist gets away. This final episode is a great set-up for the second season as the terrorist is bound to return.
‘NCIS’ is both similar to other crime-series like ‘CSI’, but there are also some important differences. Firstly, there is a much clearer link to popular culture in ‘NCIS’, which definitely is one of its strong points. For instance, President Bush appears on screen several times, and there is also a considerable amount of movie quotes (for instance the first episode, where Gibbs keeps comparing the murder on the Air Force One member to a film starring Harrison Ford). This type of cultural references definitely improve the series, and luckily so, because not all episodes are the same high quality.
This is partly because of the dialogues in the show; sometimes they seem a bit forced, which could either be due to bad writing, or because of the actors who have not yet been able to identify themselves with their characters. Still, the characters themselves are very interesting, and we get to know them more and more as the season progresses. However, the only one we really want to know more about is the silent leader Gibbs. As can be expected, the creators of the series try to keep him as mysterious as possible. The only thing we do know for sure is that he has been married (and divorced) three times, something about which the team loves to speculate.
In conclusion, ‘NCIS’ is a great addition to the crime genre, even though there are countless series within this genre. The self-confident tone, as well as the stream of reference to popular culture and the interesting characters makes you want to keep watching. It then means that you’re hooked. The only thing that needs improvement is the actors, who will have to become more acquainted with their characters. But seeing as the show’s in its eleventh season now, I daresay they have been able to do so very successfully.
Follow NCIS- “That’s embarassing.”
One of the very first dialogues at the first episode of the successful crime-series ‘NCIS’ the members of the team say that not knowing about the Naval Crime Investigative Service is something one should be rather ashamed about. When regarding this as a comment to the audience as well as to the ignorant employer at the airport, it could be seen as a bold statement in 2003, when the series started. Ten years later, however, there are few who haven’t heard of NCIS before. And rightly so: it’s fast-paced, exciting, and confidently shows that they will be able to stick around for a very long time.
The pilot of ‘NCIS’ starts with the suspicious death of an Air Force One member after he had dinner with the President. The NCIS team, led by the veteran, almost embittered Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon, ‘St Elsewhere’) suspect something else is the matter. Unfortunately, they are thwarted by the President’s left hand, Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander, ‘Rizolli & Isles’), who obviously doesn’t want to hear that someone’s out there to murder the President. This first episode shows us that the NCIS team is highly determined to solve their case, even if it means they’ll have to go over the heads of both the CIA and FBI.
This episode, and the rest of the first season, show how well the NCIS team works together under Special Agent Gibbs’s command, even though the members are very dissimilar, and at a first glance, quite clichéd as well. Firstly, there is the traditional Casanova, called Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly, ‘Dark Angel’), who’s got a new girlfriend every single episode. His total opposite is Timothy McGee (Sean Murray, ‘Harts of the West’), a quiet, even shy man. He is in an on-and-off relationship with the team’s computer nerd and forensic scientist Abby Sciutio (Pauley Perette, ‘Time of Your Life’), a gothic girl who spends her nights sleeping in a coffin. The team’s oldest member is the medical examiner, the sympathetic Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard (David McCallum, ‘Trainer’), a Scotsman with a peculiar sense of humour, but who always finds the right solution. The team is later on completed by Caitlin Todd, who quit her job with the president to solve murder cases with the NCIS team.
Caitlin, and the others, soon realise they do not only solve murder cases. Sometimes it’s suicides, accidents, or sometimes someone isn’t even dead yet. This is what happens in the most exciting episode of the entire season, ‘Bête Noire’, where a terrorist sneaked into the building in a body bag to claim evidence. He does not only shoot at an intern, but even Gibbs is hit by one of his bullets. He succeeds in his actions and escapes, even without the team knowing as much as his name. He returns in the season finale, ‘Reveille’, something about which Gibbs is all too pleased as he has been obsessed by this man for weeks. Unlike last time, the team is able to find out that his name is Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin, ‘Beggars and Choosers’), but unfortunately, like the previous time, the terrorist gets away. This final episode is a great set-up for the second season as the terrorist is bound to return.
‘NCIS’ is both similar to other crime-series like ‘CSI’, but there are also some important differences. Firstly, there is a much clearer link to popular culture in ‘NCIS’, which definitely is one of its strong points. For instance, President Bush appears on screen several times, and there is also a considerable amount of movie quotes (for instance the first episode, where Gibbs keeps comparing the murder on the Air Force One member to a film starring Harrison Ford). This type of cultural references definitely improve the series, and luckily so, because not all episodes are the same high quality.
This is partly because of the dialogues in the show; sometimes they seem a bit forced, which could either be due to bad writing, or because of the actors who have not yet been able to identify themselves with their characters. Still, the characters themselves are very interesting, and we get to know them more and more as the season progresses. However, the only one we really want to know more about is the silent leader Gibbs. As can be expected, the creators of the series try to keep him as mysterious as possible. The only thing we do know for sure is that he has been married (and divorced) three times, something about which the team loves to speculate.
In conclusion, ‘NCIS’ is a great addition to the crime genre, even though there are countless series within this genre. The self-confident tone, as well as the stream of reference to popular culture and the interesting characters makes you want to keep watching. It then means that you’re hooked. The only thing that needs improvement is the actors, who will have to become more acquainted with their characters. But seeing as the show’s in its eleventh season now, I daresay they have been able to do so very successfully.
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