Review: 'NCIS' - 09/22/2015

Reviewing NCIS could be one of the more thankless job you can do as a TV critic. As the show kicks off its 13th season, it remains one of the most popular shows on television. It clearly has a huge fanbase and yet it is also ironically one of those shows that doesn't get a lot of regular attention from the press.

Part of the problem is logistics: it's just inherently more difficult to dissect a broadcast TV procedural than it is some trendy cable series. But the other issue has to do with attention and that issue is one that still puzzles me. While NCIS is a very popular TV series, that popularity doesn't translate to the web. I've tried writing weekly recaps of the show and devoting extra time to covering it. And those pieces nearly always seem to attract fewer readers than you would expect to see from a top broadcast series. The results are the same at other TV industry publications and it makes for a challenging equation. How much time do you devote to covering a very popular show if your pieces don't get the traffic to make it worthwhile?

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that part of the reason I devote the time I do to covering NCIS is that I really enjoy the show. I've watched it since the very first episode and have seen most of the series multiple times. There's a confident artistry to NCIS that I find extremely compelling and I find it perplexing to hear the smug snark from some critics about its success. According to some folks, NCIS is a success for the same reason you can make money on a singing dog: everyone loves someone who performs above their perceived abilities.

But if you want a textbook example of why NCIS is a success, you only need to watch the season thirteen premiere episode, which airs on September 22nd. It is a showcase for all of the creative decisions that have made the show such a success and it has the quiet confidence of Alan Ladd in the movie "Shane." Everyone does what needs to get done and it's all accomplished without a lot of flashy acting or artsy camerawork. NCIS is a show that always seems to know where it's going and that ambition and certainty provides the underpinning for a show that makes it all look very easy.

Most seasons of NCIS have ended with some sort of a big cliffhanger and season twelve was no exception. Gibbs and crew had been tracking down a global terrorist group called "The Calling," which specializes in recruiting impressionable American kids and convincing them to commit terrorist acts. One boy blows up a city bus and NCIS agent Ned Dorneget is killed by a series of bombs overseas while attempting to evacuate an outdoor restaurant. As the team tracks down the group's mastermind, the episode ends with Gibbs and Dinozzo overseas and Gibbs lying in the street after being shot twice by one of the young American boys he was trying to help.

I don't think it's a spoiler to reveal that Gibbs doesn't die, although it's a close thing. But the shooting does impact his career and the way he thinks about his life. Over the past couple of seasons Gibbs has entered that time of his life when people start thinking about the things he regrets. He's coming to realize that his inability to let go of the grief following the murder of his wife and daughter has kept him from really living. He's poured all of his focus and this heart into his job. And while that has made him a very good agent, it's also increasingly left him an empty shell of a person.

The season premiere does bring a resolution of sorts to the problem of The Calling, but as is the case in many episodes of NCIS, the procedural parts of the story take a back seat to the private lives and struggles of the cast.

One of the best things about the episode is the introduction of Jon Cryer as Dr. Cyril Taft. He's the surgeon who operates on Gibbs after he's shot and he will be part of a couple of upcoming episodes. Cryer is almost unrecognizable in the role and like nearly all NCIS guest spots, Dr. Taft is a fully-realized three-dimensional character who could easily star in his own series. He serves as not just the person who saves Gibb's life, but as the person who subtly guides Gibbs in a new direction. Watching them together, you realize there is a part of Leroy "Jethro" Gibbs who has regrets about being brought back from near-death. Part of him is weary and ready to give up and that is a jarring thing to watch.

That evolution in Gibbs will be a centerpiece of the new season and it's a storyline that works so well because of the audience's familiarity with the show and its ensemble. Thirteen seasons in, NCIS has a lots of backstory and context. And it appears that the show's writers are going to take advantage of all of it in the new season.

Despite the impressive ensemble, NCIS has always been Mark Harmon's show. That is even more the case in the new season, which appears ready to change the audience's perceptions of what it means to be NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.