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NCIS

Discussion in 'Movies, Music and TV shows' started by Ched, Mar 7, 2011.

  1. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Did a few searches and didn't see anything for this show so here we go -- hopefully I didn't just miss it. I started watching NCIS a little under two weeks ago when there was some sort of marathon on USA and have been picking up extra episodes since then.

    NCIS - Wiki1 - Wiki2

    Summary: ...an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

    Anyone else watch this? It's a bit more character driven than most "cop shows" I've seen. The investigations team has a weird sort of family-style dynamic. Apparently it works, since the show has been running for years with good ratings. I'm just a few years late to the party, as usual.

    It's not like Buffy or Firefly where you have to watch the whole show in order (argh, what's the word for that? Where every episode is continued in the next like in a Soap Opera?). So every episode is it's own story more or less, but it somehow keeps me almost as caught up in it as the other shows I mentioned. It does require some suspension of disbelief, but that's alright since the focus is more on the characters than the feasibility of everything else. Or at least I thought so.

    Also, any good fanfiction out there for this show? Seems like the sort of show that would tend to cater to it somewhat.

    CBS has some of the more recent episodes.
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2011
  2. Kensington

    Kensington Denarii Host DLP Supporter

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    I had the misfortune to watch the first 2 seasons being repeated on USA. They were awesome. Tony and Kate had a great dynamic between the two of them, Ari made for a devious villain, and the rest of the crew was pretty cool.

    Then I caught up to the new stuff and was thoroughly disappointed. For a character driven show, the only character that showed any sort of progression was Tim, who progressed from Nerd to Asshole. Abby and Tony are caricatures, never changing as characters (although I swear Tony was portrayed more competently in the beginning of the series) while Gibbs is a fucking deus ex machina. Ziva is good enough, but I preferred Kate. Plus, there's a little voice in my head that warns "why the hell is there a foreign agent allowed access to all these top secret Navy projects!?".

    As for fanfics, my favorite two NCIS fanfic authors are SnoopMaryMar and Rigil Kent.
     
  3. Jas

    Jas Fourth Year

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    I have enjoyed the series from the start. There is a decent character progression for Tony, Ziva and Tim in my opinion. It got a kick start last season and continued up until now. They are by no means earth-shattering changes but it does show how they have matured slightly and grown more accustomed to wokring as a team.

    As for why a foreign agent allowed access ot these files:
    Ziva has defected from Musad(?sp) and become both an American citizen and new agent for NCIS.
     
  4. Mordecai

    Mordecai Drunken Scotsman –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    I used to watch it, enjoyed series 1 through 3 1/2. Then lost interest. The quality of writing, and of acting, was going downhill fast. You could see what the end of an episode was going to be within 5 minutes of starting to watch it, and the characters had become almost stereotypes of themselves from earlier seasons. Not interesting to watch any more.
     
  5. Schadenfreude

    Schadenfreude Fourth Year

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    I adore NCIS. I've been downloading the early seasons as I only started watching it once Ziva came into the story, and I really wanted to find out who the hell Kate was... I'm about half-way through season two right now, and I can see what you mean about the early characterization being better. The recent episodes don't quite live up to the older ones, but they're still entertaining, and I hate missing them.

    It's Mossad.
     
  6. Shinysavage

    Shinysavage Madman With A Box ~ Prestige ~

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    Episodic?

    Anyway, I keep catching this, and I enjoy it every time I watch it, but it's never grabbed me enough to actively seek it out to watch. It's just one of those shows that you watch if there's nothing else on (which does put it above stuff like CSI, for me).
     
  7. Tehan

    Tehan Avatar of Khorne DLP Supporter

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    Actually, it's המוסד‎.

    I loved NCIS for the first... 4-ish, 5-ish seasons, but after a while the status quo seemed to drag on a bit. Still a damn good watch.
     
  8. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    I prefer NCIS LA at the moment it grabs me more. But NCIS is still a decent watch.
     
  9. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    I haven't seen much of the early seasons. I've seen parts of 1 & 2 but mostly 3, 4, & 5. I may have caught an episode from Season 6+ on TV but I'm not sure. So I tend to prefer Ziva to Kate as I'm more used to her, but given the reviews here I need to go back and watch the earlier seasons and see what was up with Kate.

    I do sort of understand what someone meant by saying that the characters sort of became caricatures of themselves in later seasons. For instance, in the early episodes that I saw, Tony obviously had experience as a cop -- and it wasn't because we were told that, we could pick up on it as well. As an aside he liked to joke around a lot. Later seasons it's more like Tony is "the guy who jokes around a lot" and the cop-background is something you wouldn't pick up on unless it was clearly stated. In a similar fashion McGee has become "the computer guy" and the other aspects of his personality seem to have fallen further behind. Again, though, it's not like they changed (McGee was always the go-to for computers) so much as different parts of their personality became highlighted more.

    Whether that bugs me or not I won't know until later when I've seen more of the show.

    @Shinysavage -- I thought episodic just meant that there were episodes, whether they were stand-alone or not. I was looking for the word to describe when each episode continues from the next in such a way that the viewer should watch them in order (I.e. Firefly, a Soap Opera, etc.) as opposed to it not really mattering (NCIS).
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2011
  10. Militis

    Militis Supreme Mugwump

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    This, but there's one slight problem I have with NCIS LA: You could name it ANYTHING else, and it wouldn't change a damn thing. It isn't technically a Navy Investigative show, it's like a spy show...They don't hardly ever have anything to do with the Navy/Marines in it.
     
  11. scaryisntit

    scaryisntit Death Eater

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    Serialized?

    This. I've never been more of a passing fan of the show, but even I saw this happening. Rare it is that we see characters continuously evolve in a show rather than evolve for a few seasons, then devolve into easily identifiable traits.

    The show has also reached the point where it needs to start having secondary or tertiary characters turn evil to create some kind of drama. A recent two-parter had some cop who'd been an on-off character for years, someone who'd also been good, turn out to be bad for the sake of eliciting a sense of betrayal. Never a good sign when the writers can't be bothered creating a new, continuous (or even temporary) believable foe.
     
  12. potterhead63

    potterhead63 First Year

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    I think the show was best in the season three. Ziva kicks ass, and the dynamic between her and Tony is really entertaining. I liked Kate, but I'll take a Mossad assassin any day. Season seven was good, too, but eight hasn't really held my attention too well. It feels a bit humdrum, a bit predictable-- which is odd, as it's the #1 scripted show on American television. Still, though, it beats everything else.
     
  13. Midknight

    Midknight Middy is SPAI! DLP Supporter Retired Staff

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    NCIS is one of my favorite shows because if how awesome Gibbs is, but yeah, he's pretty much a know it all the entire time sort and that really kills suspense building in some episodes. Tony was done as a much smarter agent, and when Gibbs was in Mexico after he quit he handled shit just fine. Flash forward after his girlfriend left and he's a damned clown.

    Ziva's fine, I can only think of a few times theyy had to deal with secret stuff, mostly it's just investigating crimes. I mean c'mon if you're alright with the idea of the crime scene investigators, ((who are IRL nerds who run lab work and swab shit from the scene)) running around solving crimes and stuff, you can suspend your disbelief for her.

    Tony and Ziva just need to fuck already, like 3 seasons ago and be done with it, I'm tired of the build up. But them Tony killed her boyfriend, and she flipped the fuck out, and now she's back to flirting with him again, which makes no sense. I also get a kick out of the writers never bringing up again the episode where they were undercover "fake" fucking in a hotel room, where both of them pretty much came out and said something more might have happened.

    I like NCIS:LA because of O'donnell. When he goes undercover the fluid way he changes personalities is something I never would of figured could come from him. LL Cool J does alright, but he's still a pretty bad actor.
     
  14. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Gibbs is definitely a pretty awesome character. Cracked has a fairly amusing article on NCIS with a significant portion devoted to Gibbs.

     
  15. JohnThePyro

    JohnThePyro Headmaster

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    This is all I've seen out of it.

    I am thoroughly convinced the writers are fucking with me.
     
  16. Xiph0

    Xiph0 Yoda Admin

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    Super bump. This show is still going strong, and I think it's probably one of the most consistently good things on TV. The cast additions and current arc are really interesting. Probably the only tons-of-seasons show I've seen every episode of besides The West Wing at this point [and Supernatural].

    JAG had the same place for me when I was a kid, but I think NCIS is better writing & acting-wise by leaps and bounds. They definitely surpassed it years ago.
     
  17. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    This is my go-to show when I need something just "to watch." It's consistently good for killing time and multi-tasking.

    I don't get into it as much as I do some shows that are scripted instead of episodic, but yeah. Like Xiph0 said this is one of the few long-running shows I've followed and enjoyed this late into its run.

    I'm currently caught up to somewhere in the middle of Season 10 in terms of episodes.

    I admit that sometimes I lose suspension of disbelief with it in terms of their computer abilities, or forensic science, or depicting what any law enforcement agency might put up with from its members.

    Pity what I heard about Season 11 though, with that one character leaving the show. I hope they pulled that off well.
     
  18. Innomine

    Innomine Alchemist ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I've watched the series a few times, but I always got stuck around season 8.

    Might just start from season 9 or something. There was something about S8 that always got to me.
     
  19. Xiph0

    Xiph0 Yoda Admin

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    I don't even know what season they're on, I just know I've seen every episode. Every time breaks come around I download whatever season I've missed.
     
  20. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Damn I have not watched NCIS in a good few years, or NCIS LA for that matter, they must be on about season 10 by now. I'd probably pick LA over the original still, Gibbs is awesome but Hettie is a BAMF.
     
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