[Show Introduction] NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service [The Best]
Hello!
Today I thought I’d introduce NCIS, which as far as I’m concerned is the greatest TV drama there is.
https://dlife.disney.co.jp/program/drama/ncis_s8.html
Contents
What NCIS is
The American military breaks down into five branches.
- United States Army
- United States Navy
- United States Air Force
- United States Marine Corps
- United States Coast Guard
Of those, NCIS investigates crimes committed by, or involving, people connected to the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Veterans and reservists are covered as well, incidentally.
The details are below.
Of its 2,400 personnel, roughly half are Special Agents. They are trained to carry out a wide variety of missions all over the world. NCIS Special Agents have jurisdiction over federal crimes and are permitted to carry weapons. It is a military investigative body, but the Special Agents are civilians rather than service members, which puts them in a clearly different position from the naval police.
NCIS Special Agents are backed up by a range of specialists skilled in forensic science, surveillance and counter-surveillance, computer investigation, physical security, polygraph examination and so on.
Its remit covers tracking down and arresting deserters, investigating corruption and crime inside the Navy and the Marine Corps (violations of military law), witness protection, cross-border narcotics crime, antiterrorism, counterterrorism, large-scale international fraud, computer crime and counterintelligence.
Its posts are naval bases and Marine Corps bases inside the United States, US military bases around the world, and US Navy aircraft carriers.
It had done little in the way of public relations and its cases went unreported, so the public barely knew it existed. Agents heading out to the regions would find that even the local sheriff wouldn’t believe they were G-men, and their status only got confirmed once someone phoned the Department of the Navy in Washington. But thanks to the hit of the TV drama NCIS, which the agency helped produce, public recognition shot up, and asking investigators from other agencies for cooperation apparently goes smoothly now.
— Wikipedia
The premise
It’s a criminal investigation drama set at the Washington D.C. headquarters of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), handling cases involving officers and enlisted personnel of the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. There are also plenty of parody elements riffing on other films and shows, and on real cases.
Most of the time it’s a case-of-the-week show where they investigate crimes with serving or retired sailors and Marines as the victim or the perpetrator.
At the end of a season you get things like a battle with a dangerous terrorist.
The characters (seasons 1 to 3)
Leroy Jethro Gibbs
NCIS Special Agent, senior field agent. Team leader of the Major Case Response Team. The protagonist of the show. A formidable investigator and a former Marine Gunnery Sergeant. He served as a sniper during his Marine years and took part in Operation Desert Storm, and on rare occasions he still takes the sniper role in the field[8]. A man of few words, he drives the team with outstanding leadership, an instinct for spotting a lie, and his own set of rules for investigation (known as “Gibbs’s Rules”), and brings cases to a close. He believes that “apologising is a sign of weakness,” so as a rule he won’t accept an apology from anyone, and he rarely apologises himself. That temperament makes his subordinates afraid of him, but he cares about them enormously, and he shows his anger openly when a suspect threatens a team member’s safety. He often smacks them on the back of the head when they mess about, and that too is his affection for them turned inside out. First rate as an investigator, but hopeless with electronics: he doesn’t understand internet terms like hashtags, he’s destroyed the latest model of mobile phone purely because it was “hard to use,” and he’s the only one still on an old computer. Perhaps for that reason, he’s the one person on the team who’s at home with low tech.
— Wikipedia
Anthony D. “Tony” DiNozzo Jr.
NCIS Special Agent, senior field agent on the Major Case Response Team. One of Gibbs’s people. Everybody calls him Tony. Before joining NCIS he was in the homicide divisions of the Philadelphia and Baltimore police departments. He met Gibbs while investigating a case as a Baltimore detective, and joined NCIS afterwards. A cheerful Italian-American who loves cracking jokes and playing pranks, he clowns around and needles the other members of the team (Gibbs excepted) more or less daily. That mischievous streak gets him written off as a child by his colleagues Kate and McGee, and gets him smacked on the back of the head by Gibbs a lot.
— Wikipedia
Timothy Farragut “Tim” McGee
NCIS Special Agent, junior field agent on the Major Case Response Team, then senior field agent from season 14. Left-handed. One of Gibbs’s people. Brilliant, with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A rookie agent with outstanding analytical and information-gathering skills on a computer, from hacking to code-breaking. He was the resident agent covering the Norfolk district before being assigned to the Major Case Response Team in season 2.
Being the new guy (and the youngest on the team), and being a nerd, gets him mocked by Tony constantly, and he gets called “Probie” (as in new recruit) or “Elf Lord,” “McGeek”[17], “McGoo”[18] and the like. When Tony pranks him, though, his standard response is to spill one of Tony’s secrets to Ziva, or to get him back with a prank of his own using his computer skills.
— Wikipedia
Caitlin “Kate” Todd
NCIS Special Agent. She was originally with the Secret Service, serving as one of the President’s protection detail, but her relationship with a Marine officer — who died from poison planted by a terrorist — came to light, and she resigned. Gibbs then invited her to NCIS. Profiling and sketching are her specialities, and she put both to use in investigations.
— Wikipedia
Abigail “Abby” Sciuto
NCIS forensic scientist. Black hair in pigtails, a taste for goth clothing, sleeps in a coffin, has tattoos in nine places. A multi-talented figure who handles forensic work across all sorts of fields on her own, without even an assistant. She’s good enough that research institutions send her analysis requests and try to poach her. Like Gibbs she loves caffeine, and drinks a caffeinated soft drink called “Caf-Pow!” constantly. She tried to quit caffeine for a while and failed miserably. Her computer-based analysis is on a level with McGee’s, and the two of them often run advanced operations together on the show. While she works she keeps her favourite music playing to get herself fired up.
— Wikipedia
Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard
NCIS chief medical examiner. A Scottish-born NCIS medical examiner. He has been with NCIS for at least 17 years. The nickname “Ducky” is a double meaning: Donald Duck, and “duck” as in get down. Gibbs sometimes calls him “Duck.” A friend of ten years and more who calls Gibbs “Jethro,” he’s one of the very few people who can offer him blunt advice and a bit of wisdom.
— Wikipedia
Here’s what makes it great!!
The characters are great fun
Tony, the Italian-American, absolutely loves movies and women!
And he’s forever picking on McGee the nerd lol
Every time a case comes in he’s going on about old films and spouting trivia and it’s annoying, but he’s superb at the job, and he takes it seriously enough to deliver when it counts — the second lead of the show!
And then Gibbs!
He’s rigid and he’s frightening, but he’s a total softie with Abby, the forensic scientist. Always taking a drink down to her, doting on her like a daughter lol
On top of that he’s constantly smacking Tony and McGee on the head, but watching those exchanges is genuinely funny lol
The rest of the cast are unbelievably appealing too! Their lives, the way they carry themselves, the melancholy, the unexpected sides of them — it really lands.
The sheer number of stories you could never fit into a film gives the characters incredible depth~
Hugely popular worldwide
A student from Bangladesh in my lab told me this was their favourite show lol That’s how well known it is around the world~
The show is currently airing season 15 in the US!
American shows get cancelled the moment the ratings dip a little, so that’s some achievement.
In Japan, season 15 is airing on FOX right now as well.
Right. FOX Japan are extremely good at their job — they put the subtitled version out just a few weeks after it airs in the States lol
Thank you, FOX.
Makes you cry & makes you laugh
The back-and-forth between Tony and McGee, and the occasional savage line you get out of Ducky the medical examiner, are funny lol
And it’s not quite a comedy drama, but the characters are relaxed, they joke around a lot, and that unstuffy way the story unfolds makes it worth recommending even to people who don’t normally get on with cop shows.
There are plenty of episodes that make you cry too!
The feelings of the people who died, and the feelings of the people left behind. And on top of that, plenty of stories where you cry because you feel what the regulars are going through.
The fact that the characters are so easy to relate to is one of the show’s charms as well.
You get to learn about American culture
It’s an easy way in to how Americans live day to day, their lifestyle and so on.
And unlike other shows there’s a great deal of US military material, so you also get to learn things you’d never normally come across — what national defence actually looks like, and social issues like mental health care for veterans. Genuinely fascinating.
Anyway, the best drama there is! Go watch it!!
