I know this is late. I apologise.
The point is, however, that it is not nonexistent. I have been busy this week, but we are here now! So, into this we dive.
As we have touched on NCIS just last week, see here for the Introduction.
Where Am I?
At the time of writing I have just finished Episode 705: “Code of Conduct”.
Six seasons in two weeks? I’m impressed with myself. I knew I watched fast, but damn.
Perhaps not something to be proud of, but I am nonetheless. My fellow binge-watcher’s will get it.
What do I have to say?
I did not see the Tony/Ziva thing before, now I very much do. I do not know why I hadn’t seen it in my past watches. I suppose, because despite knowing key plot points up until Season 15, and knowing for a fact I have watched many episodes throughout the series, I apparently have watches NCIS in a very spotty manner. It’s just with these last two seasons that I’ve been watching episodes I’ve never seen before, and yet they are intermingled with episodes I mostly certainly have, even multiple times.
So, perhaps I missed a lot of their development beforehand. I don’t know how, it seems so blatantly obvious now. I see it. Give them a moment alone and it steams with sexual tension. Hell, Eli David quite nearly states it. Several times we see them think it, nearly acknowledge it. It is brewing, and they behave accordingly.
I may have thought it came out of the blue before. Now I understand. Honestly how I ever didn’t baffles me at this point. In Ziva’s first episode she flirts with him!
In her 7th Episode (308: “Under Covers”) they go undercover as that assassin couple, which feels designed to imply, suggest and insinuate. An episode I have definitely seen multiple times. I do not know why I was so blind.
Understand, I have watched so much of the series more than once. How those viewings have ended up spotty and scattered across the seasons is baffling to me.
For example, I knew that Ziva was going to give up her Mossad ties and apply to be an agent. I did not know the events that would trigger this decision. Whole new arc for me to watch there, which was a brilliant one by the way. Some great development from Ziva, and as she is still one of my favourites, I love when she gets to have some spotlight.
I have vague memories of Ziva’s last episodes, but I have no current recollection of what happens in it, yet I know exactly how they chose to write Tony off in Season 13 in regards to that.
I know about Tim’s wife! I love Delilah, she’s great. Absolutely no idea when he first meets her, and at this point every time he mentions a girl I am praying it is her. Same goes for Jimmy! I swear Jimmy gets married and I have no idea when that happens. I honestly have no recollection of early season Jimmy, so everything he does is a surprise.
I love Jenny, always have. Could not remember how she died, or if she even did. Just a sneaking suspicion that she might’ve. She was a wild ride of a director, though. I had forgotten how often she very nearly went rogue. Gibbs’ influence anyone?
On Spotlights
Most ensembles always have an issue with sharing the limelight. Someone on the main cast, despite the large seeming ensemble of a cast, is always the lead and takes up most of the arcs.
Criminal Minds is one of the most guilty of this that I know of, and I love that show. Some, like Rizzoli & Isles or Castle, are designed to have two characters in the lead roles, and as such they should dominate. That, I understand. It’s in the titles. While you’re watching a procedural, you’re also aware you’re watching a show entitled “Rizzoli & Isles“, you should expect it to be about the titular Rizzoli and Isles.
I get having a lead, but when a show doesn’t necessarily make it obvious from the beginning, it can sometimes be disappointing when your favourites feel dragged along or even just neglected because they are not the lead. Having a lead, I’m sure, makes things so much easier to structure and write, I understand. They try to hide it, thought! After a few episodes it’s clear that Hotch or Gideon are splitting the lead chair, and when Gideon leaves it’s more than obvious that Hotch has taken that up. You watch as some of the other characters take literal seasons to have anything close to the character development that Hotch does, while the show continues to claim that they are part of the team and the family.
So far though, I would say NCIS probably has a lead in Gibbs, but that spotlight sharing? Development? They’re finding balance. Everyone gets some episodes, spread out across the seasons, everyone has their moment. It’s good. I’m glad. No one has felt neglected. Yet.
I did notice that by the time Cate dies we actually know nearly nothing about almost all of them. Most of their backstories/biographies at that point you could list in bullet points on one hand. Made most obvious when Cate’s funeral is, as far as I could tell, the first time they even mention her home state. Either they planned a slow game, or they realised this around then because Season 3 immediately sets off to rectify this with us getting backstory, name drops, and information frequently from that point forward. Ziva tells us about Tali in her first episode, it’s not long before we’re given way more information on Tony’s childhood, Gibbs’ ex-wives are very quickly named, by the end of season we know what happened to Shannon and Kelly and we didn’t even know they existed till now. It’s all very good.
And all that information? Spread out and balanced.
Ziva’s spotlights always feel a bit more spread out, but I have feeling it’s because a lot of her identity and character is tightly tied to Israel in her first few seasons, and so there are rarely instances they focus on her that don’t also tie in other Israeli connections. There are some, but not frequently in the early seasons, and as such most arcs with Ziva are also international incidents… and they like to spread those out somewhat, I assume so the stakes stay fairly reasonable. If every episode had such high stakes, those high stakes become the averages stakes, making it hard for them to escalate. As such, their US-based shenanigans aren’t often Ziva-focused, but there are one or two occurrences where they are, and she doesn’t feel in anyway a neglected character because of this. She’s just as present as all the others. The way her arcs are structured may change now she’s an agent, but her family is, of course, still in Israel.
Vance
Bold.
For a character they intend for us to sympathise with it is a bold move to have him introduced in the same episode Tony is accused of murder, and then have his first move as director be splitting them all up! Did you want us to hate him? Because now I hate him! Mole hunt be damned!
He does get better, and he does get his moments to show more than once that he is on their side most of the time… just diplomatically. I know this, I’ve seen some of it. I know he’s going to go through his own trials.
I never particularly cared for him either way in the newer seasons when I used to keep up. I am sure I will not hate him forever, though, I’m already starting to get over it. I remain impressed that they created sympathy for a character they introduced like that, though, a character that would then stick around for what feels like fifteen more years. A feat, to be sure.
To Conclude
Thank you for tuning in, and patience and forgiveness for the lateness of this post.
Busy weeks are busy weeks, but it is out before the end of the weekend so we’ll call it day on that.
This was just a short one for this week. I hope enjoyed it and will tune in again in two weeks for the next one. I’ll see you then!
You can follow me on Instagram at: @thebomff or on Threads at: @thebomff
On to the next!
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