Grab Your Gear

I don't get colds or virus or whatever very often but when I do, I do it up right. The whole process lasts well over a week. Last week's coughing and stuffed up lethargy was spent--between necessary tasks--too much in front of that abysmal TV. At my more alert I read or watched DVDs of Northern Exposure but when most zombified, I slashed through the channels between educational, news and sports. Which is a long way to say I caught entirely too much of the Charlie Sheen week of exposure.

Apparently, Sheen's sitcom was the highest rated comedy on TV, and this is the excuse for all the attention, besides the fascination of watching a human train wreck in progress (whether that's actually the case I wouldn't know, I'm not that interested.) What does interest me however is that I do know what the highest rated drama is, and I believe the overall highest rated scripted TV show: it's NCIS.

And what a contrast! What do we even know about its star (Mark Harmon) who is largely the leader of equals in the ensemble cast. They were largely unknown when they started and now, ending their 8th season, they are still largely unknown.

I don't watch television shows--I can't stand the commercials, and can't afford premium cable. But I have at times watched NCIS first run (really only a few times) and I did zombiefy in front of the endless NCIS cable channel marathons of past seasons. I've seen it online. But mostly, it's the DVDs--absolutely the best of all these possible ways. Every minute is there, no commercials, and there are the occasionally informative or perversely interesting commentaries, interviews and docus.

So I can tell you from experience that the reason we aren't overrun by their egos is the same reason the show is successful--that group is unselfish and loving, and it's on the screen as well as--by all accounts--on the set. They are excellent actors who work well together, and know how lucky they are to be in a show that's pretty consistently well-written, with characters they can inhabit and fill.

NCIS has a really odd history. It had a respectable but nearly invisible audience for four years, before breaking into the Top Ten in its fifth season. It became the most popular scripted TV show last year in its seventh season, and it remains at the top now. Meanwhile it simultaneously became a cherished obsession for a devoted cult. And word-of-mouth continues.

Mark Harmon was a familiar face for decades from several TV series (from St. Elsewhere through Chicago Hope to The West Wing) when his recurring character of Jethro Gibbs on JAG (a dramatic series about U.S. Navy lawyers) became the center of this new series, which—with one exception-- otherwise featured unknowns.

NCIS was set in roughly the same world as JAG (it’s the federal investigative agency for Navy and Marine matters), created by the same producer (Donald Bellisario), and so it inherited a decent if unnoticed and mostly non-coastal audience base. But right from the start it was magic---the chemistry of characters, actors, writing and production that made it a compelling mix of drama and comedy from its first season. I know not because I was watching it, but because after sampling a few more recent DVDs, we went back to the start to see the whole thing.

Why is it so good? Compared especially to other police procedurals, its characters are defined but also dimensional, and the action is integrated with character and believable byplay. An ensemble of actors is matched perfectly with fascinating characters that spin around the nearly still center of Gibbs, who Harmon plays with minimalist brilliance. And it is funny. The wit and character humor create a wave that the entire show rides.

The individual characters have fans—among them, Michael Weatherley’s DiNozzo, Cote de Pablo’s Ziva (the female Israeli equivalent of Star Trek’s Data) and above all, Pauley Perrette’s Abby. And the non-unknown: the iconic David McCallum (of the classic Man From U.N.C.L.E.), who puts on an acting-with-voice clinic every time he speaks.

Their chemistry together is crucial (for awhile much of the cast lived in the same apartment complex.) Apart from some predictability in the whodunit aspect, the writing is excellent. With its CSI emphasis on crime solving and international intrigue, the show’s premise is a different take on familiar and popular styles. And by the seventh season (the most recent on DVD), which starts with one of its best episodes, it’s created its own mythology.

In seeing it all chronologically on DVD, I saw how that mythology built, and how even little style moments got their echoes later. In seeing some episodes several times, I could appreciate the quality of the acting more--especially Michael Weatherley, whose character is clownish and so what he brings to it is clearer on subsequent viewings.

Now it's true that after last week's marathon of marathons, even I am stepping back from it. But I do think it's worth noting that not every popular TV show is clotted with ego and conflict, and may even be something more or less lasting. Quality work.