For the Love of NCIS

I had a Facebook friend post the other day, "Why is NCIS the most popular show on television?" It was evident that he didn't like the show.  I am not surprised that some have disdain for the show. It's not cinema d'arte, or black comedy, or particularly intellectually challenging. My friend's husband who is an NCIS agent says that it's not even close to what they really do.  But, I would like to submit that there's lots to like and even love about this show.  I am not a person who watched the show from the outset.  In fact, I am a USA marathon convert, watching on rainy Saturday afternoons or to occupy myself during football season, I soon turned to its prime time version. Here's a few reasons why.

I love the characters. Donald Bellisario and Don McGill, the creators of NCIS, gave us a group of characters that while remaining true to their original design, have grown and developed.

• Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) is a Marine to the core, has vulnerabilities and flaws and occasionally a sense of humor. He is a compassionate boss, a loner, an old fashioned guy with a strict code, and a patriot. 
• Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) has taken longer to give us what we really want, a glimpse of how he really feels for his co-worker Ziva David (Cote De Pablo) He remains the movie-loving,  goofy yet dashing guy we want to ask us out for a drink.  
• The trained assassin, Ziva, still struggles with her demons as she does with American idioms, but we see a longing to be something more. 
• The resident geeks Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) provide stability and a sense of wonder at the same time. Both quirky in their own way, they love what they do and the team they do it with. 
• Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) has been a character that has been hard to like, butting heads with Gibbs and balancing the politics of working for a federal agency. The glimpses at how hard a demanding job can be on the only family man of the group, have been at times heart wrenching. 
• Then there's the autopsy suite, Dr. Donald Mallard, or "Ducky" (David McCallum) provides wisdom, professionalism, and class while Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) imbibes us with some humor and innocence. 

There have been other characters of note, Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander) and Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) who met untimely demises and of course Gibb's father played by the great Ralph Waite.

I love Mark Harmon. He's more than just a nice-looking man. He's a nice man. He's been married to Pam Dawber for 25 years. He's a dad. He's a team player. Always has been, dating all the way back to when he was the quarterback for UCLA.  I love that he's always quick to point the spotlight away from himself and to some other member of his team.  I love that he has built a team that seems to genuinely love working together and keeps each others ego in check. I loved him way back in 70's when he was in the mini-series "Centennial" and the adventure "240-Robert." Then came the role that proved he was more than a pretty face, Dr Bobby Caldwell on "St. Elsewhere." Caldwell was the first person to contract and die of AIDS on a network television program. That was followed by a stint on one of my favorite shows of the 80's "Moonlighting" which lead up to People Magazine naming him as the "Sexiest Man Alive." He continued to work over the next ten years or so until he took the role of Jack McNeil on "Chicago Hope." A couple years later he took one of my favorite roles, the Secret Service Agent Simon Donovan on "The West Wing." I have to say, I was pretty upset when they killed him. Then came Gibbs, and like I said before, it took a while for the show to grow on me.  But, goodness the man whacks his team on the back of the head when they mess up.  Haven't YOU always wanted to do that to the people you work with.

I love that after 10 seasons they still find ways to keep me on the edge of my seat. I'm a seasoned enough TV-watcher that I know probably most major characters aren't going to leave. This is not the Walking Dead, after all.  However, at the end of last season when Ducky had his heart attack, I was truly concerned that this wonderful character would be gone forever. (That is until I surfed the internet and found that David McCallum had renewed his contract.) This season the twists and turns that have occurred are making me excited about what might be next.  I was heartbroken as Cote De Pablo gave the performance of her life the past couple weeks. I wonder where this new tragedy will take her.  Like many others, I hope it will take her to the arms of Tony, but, I too, wonder what that would do to the show.

I love that they try to portray our military in a respectful, yet honest way. The military is full of fine people, but just like any organization, there's plenty of bad to go around. I love the respect they have for veterans of all ages.  One of my favorite episodes featured the late great Charles Durning as a WWII vet haunted by the death of a fellow Marine, a death he thought he caused. The sensitivity and respect the script brought to this older vet was something that all involved in the show should be proud of.

I could continue on, but I won't. I figure, if you don't already like NCIS, you're probably not going to like if after my few words. Maybe if I were able to give you a good Gibbs-slap-upside-the-head, you might. I hope however, that the folks who make the show might understand why people such as me do like it.  Congratulations on ten seasons NCIS. Congratulations to Mark Harmon on getting a star on the Walk of Fame. Even though I've never actually met you, seems to me that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Here's to as many more episodes as you'll give me, regardless of what other people say.