Tonight’s episode of NCIS could have been titled “Orientation” instead of “Being Bad”, as the episode featured diverse groups of individuals getting acquainted—both the group being investigated and the group of investigators. When Bruno is murdered at a reunion of “military brats” educated at a high school on the Marine Corp base at Quantico, Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ newly reorganized team of five Special Agents join in their maiden investigation as a group. It was interesting to watch the immediate maneuvering on the part of Alex Quinn and Nick Torres. Tim McGee had adjusted to Ellie Bishop, a rookie joining the team, but now McGee has to deal with more experienced agents Quinn and Torres joining the team and the immediate jostling over desks, and location of the desks.
Since David was an NCIS and DEA agent, he is often asked if the NCIS show is realistic. One thing that is typical of a NCIS, DEA, or even an FBI squad bays, is the close proximity of desks with either no partitions, or low partitions. While it impacts privacy, it also contributes to cohesiveness as the team members can easily discuss cases, and even overhear phone conversations that effect cases on which they jointly work.
Was tonight’s show about high school students who organized a burglary ring that went undetected for years also a metaphor for Nick Torres’ eight years of working alone undercover? In several conversations between Torres and Gibbs we picked up that each man was questioning if Torres could work on the NCIS team or if he has some unresolved issues with his former “undercover self”. We saw McGee’s surprise when Torres failed to defer to Gibbs in the interrogation room. Neither he nor Bishop would ever have done so when new probies on the team. As it turned out, Torres was the one who got the suspected “fence” to begin talking after Gibbs failed.
Ducky, Jimmy, and Abbey have their share of screen time and involvement in solving the case. The way the plot unwound was a bit convoluted to our way of thinking. In the end, Gibbs flashes his signature smile. He is happy with the way the team is working together with all the changes. Are you?
Be Blessed, Diane and David Munso
I beg your indulgence and forgiveness but I am in a hurry for the platitudes to end and the team to become a team and bust the commies in the chops. Once they got through the beginning issues I found that the case development to be different ( which I like) I really liked the twist in the end and how they incorporated a hint of complicity in the middle , I felt it was well done and well written. maybe that is why my wife and I have been watching it for over thirteen years and continue to accumulate the series videos as they come out.
And without question , I am much appreciative of your great comprehensive expert and entertaining commentary. God Bless the both of you.
I really like the new team. Bringing in experienced agents rather than more probies works for me. I do wish there was only one new agent, though, because it did get s little confusing with five agents instead of four.
I agree, when you have but 40 minutes to develop plot and character it tends to get a little busy
Gary Glasberg passed away this morning in his sleep he was 50. He was executive producer of NCIS.
Thanks John for sharing about Executive Producer, Gary Glasberg. We’ll watch and see how the show might change as a result.
Yeah. They all seem happy. The writers evidently miss throwing in movie references and couldn’t help including a couple even with DiNozzo gone.
I like the new team, and Bishop is getting better each year. Sorry to hear about Gary Glasberg. He was much too young to leave us.Prayers to his family.
I know a lot of what happens isn’t realistic, but I’ve watched it since the first episode and have loved it.
Thank you Martha for your comment. We’ve missed hearing from you. We think you and many others got dropped from our blog feed when our website was remodeled.