The NCIS babies are currently doing as well as expected. After a slow start, NCIS: Tony & Ziva is picking up, with recent episodes earning rave reviews from fans and critics. NCIS: Origins was also perfect, earning a quick season 2 renewal. But no matter how big the family gets, the daddy (NCIS) will always be considered the best. Few shows have lasted as long as the procedural, and you’ll hardly find such a wide variety of exciting military-themed stories anywhere else.
Sired by franchise’s Granddaddy JAG, NCIS centers on the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) of the main federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Navy. The agents investigate criminal activities related to the United States Navy and Marine Corps (USMC) and associated branches of government. So good is the show that only two episodes out of 488 scored lower than 7/10 on IMDb. But there are a few others that aren’t so great either.
Here are 10 episodes of NCIS that failed to match the series’ usual quality.
We love NCIS because, even in the scuzziest depths, the show often provides snatches of bliss, or surging spurts of color, that are guaranteed to bloom like fire. But there’s little to like in “Knockout,” an episode that sees director Leon Vance act funny when a U.S. Marine and former boxing champion is found dead in a makeshift ring. He personally takes charge of the case, but what is he hiding?
Because Vance is not himself, the episode is somehow picaresque, but it never lives up to its full potential. The visuals are the only positive aspect, with the director and cinematographer trying their best to ensure an all-you-can-eat quality. Sadly, among the characters, only Gibbs emerges as the achingly expressive and self-aware kind. The rest appear as bewildered as the rest of us. Worse still, there is a lack of payoffs. Fans are teased about Vance’s shady past, yet nothing substantial is ever revealed.
“Sticks and Stones” had the lowest viewership figures on an NCIS episode. Did an oracle predict to fans how bad it was going to be, causing them to keep away? This time, we have a dead Navy sailor, and when the team digs into the matter, they link the crime to bullying and hazing. Time for Full Metal Jacket 2.0? No. The best the episode offers is the joy of watching witnesses give conflicting witness accounts.
“Sticks and Stones” won’t break your bones, but it will break your patience. The episode’s director whips the camera around too much and cuts into the scenes too quickly, while the writers struggle to pump juice into the thin plot. As expected, the inevitable crash-landing happens. In style and substance, the episode and the anti-war classic, Full Metal Jacket, are as different as a mouse and a badger, yet the show tries to present them as equals. Given that it isn’t deeply tied to the larger arcs, it’s easily skippable.
When a young Muslim Navy hospital corpsman gets murdered in “Tribes,” cultural tensions rise. Ducky finds himself fighting with the victim’s family over an autopsy (they feel it goes against their religious beliefs) while Gibbs works hard to solve the case. Was it a hate crime, or did it have something to do with the military?
We know that NCIS can tell proper stories about the injustice of a society in which the basic human rights and freedoms are severely curtailed. It’s thus disappointing seeing how poorly the saga in “Tribes” is handled. It’s no secret that there is some form of discrimination against Muslim people, following the trend of terrorist attacks in the past, but the show shies away from tackling the matter head-on, opting for an easy resolution.
Gibbs is temporarily out in “Gut Punch” after getting suspended for assault. Members of his team are thus reassigned to another NCIS field team. Predictably, the new environment turns out to be a nightmare for them. Their counterparts belittle them, resulting in plenty of tension and petty feuds. Will work ever get done?
At times, “Gut Punch” turns into a weighty and rather audacious study in the nonsensical nature of office politics, though by the end, fans might be wishing that all these rival officers just stop talking and get to punching. Watching our usual protagonists get humiliated isn’t fun. The subplot of Jimmy’s grief is better, and could have made the episode more memorable, but its granted very little time. Quite a shame!
In “First Steps,” the team investigates the death of a Navy reservist who had dedicated his time to a veterans’ mentoring program for troubled teenagers. Knight and Torres start working closely with the program and make some unusual discoveries. Elsewhere, McGee struggles to juggle fieldwork with the responsibilities piling up at home.
It feels like there was no budget for action scenes in “First Steps,” so the production team opted for a preachy episode that goes deep into the usual moral lessons. Thou shalt make better choices in life? We’ve had that many times before. There is no mystery surrounding the culprit either. It’s sad to say, but “First Steps” doesn’t belong to one of the best procedurals of all time. It might have been a better fit for that old panned Steven Seagal cop show.
Ducky gets to say “I love you!” about a million times in “Thirst,” but is his new catch really who she says she is? Like him, Dr. Mary Courtney loves literature and good food, but she is hiding something. When several Navy personnel die after consuming poisoned water from bottles, it emerges that Mary is actually the killer.
At its heart, “Thirst” is a movie about deception and loneliness, but neither topic is quite worked out, and the logic is hardly nonexistent. How can a seasoned investigator fail to see common red flags? You might find yourself watching to confirm the show’s title again, just to be sure you aren’t watching an ‘80s soap opera. Besides that, there is the broader issue of character disservice. If indeed someone had to be offered love on a plate, then have it taken away from them, it shouldn’t have been Ducky, one of the warmest and most likable characters on the show.
“The Good Fighter” begins with the discovery of another dead body. The victim is an NCIS agent who was cat-sitting for a friend. Immediate suspect? Forensic scientist Kasie Hines. Her fingerprints are on the murder victim’s laptop, and she has now gone off the grid. The hunt begins, only for the team to learn the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) has recruited her to investigate NCIS for a mole.
Visually stunning though it is, “The Good Fighter” belongs to the past, whereas the rest of the episodes have modernity stamped all over them. For how long will the mole trope be repeated? Worse, the mole twist is very predictable. If you are to do it, do it well. Make viewers dig deep and hard, and still be surprised. It’s also hard to believe that Kasie would be recruited against her own time and not say a word, considering the strong camaraderie.
No good TV show misses a holiday episode. Unfortunately, NCIS missed the mark with “Humburg” which finds the team investigating a murder at Chrismastime. The victim is a Navy officer who died after a burglary at his home. As the team investigates, Bishop struggles with his own holiday plans, and Tony attempts to hit on a cybersecurity expert.
The episode packs in many scenes of interrogation and evidence discovery, but, as you continue to watch, it all feels like sheer padding. The real goal is to celebrate, and everything else feels like it’s getting in the way of the festive cheer. It’s like an office on a Friday afternoon. The murder also creates a tonal imbalance. No one would have judged NCIS too harshly for simply ignoring work for one episode and focusing on the family aspects only.
There is a huge shocker in the opening minutes of “Sturgeon Season.” Gibbs shoots McGee during a mission, leaving fans wondering which of the two has switched sides. The episode then jumps back and forth in time, trying to bring clarity to the circumstances. It’s soon revealed that the incident is linked to an investigation into an arms dealer and a plane loaded with illegal technology.
We do not by any chance underestimate the sheer skill and tenacity required to keep a show of this magnitude going, but in “Sturgeon Season,” it looks as if the production team has capitulated to the demands of a system that relies too much on shocks to keep audiences glued. It somehow works, yet it feels like a desperate move that is beneath NCIS, a show that rarely struggles with ratings. Besides that, the dialogue is particularly terrible this time around.
The sudden death of Director Vance’s wife, Jackie, hits everyone hard. As he balances tragedy with professional responsibilities, he attends counseling sessions and reveals a more vulnerable side of himself. Meanwhile, the team investigates the death of a Marine who collapsed and died shortly after returning from a tour of duty.
“Hereafter” is yet another episode that has a lot more than it should have. Instead of featuring two stories about grief, the team could have been tasked with investigating a different crime (preferably a non-murder one). This way, Jackie’s death would feel like a bigger event. And though the dialogue is a little sharper and smarter than it had been earlier in the season, the actors talk so hurriedly it’s as if the script was written in a movie’s closing credits.
September 23, 2003
CBS
Donald P. Bellisario
Sean Murray
Timothy McGee
david mccallum
Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard
| Play | Cover | Release Label |
Track Title Track Authors |
|---|