NCIS Season 1 (2003)
NCIS is a criminal investigative programme focused with all matters concerning the US Navy. It revolves around a core group of agents led by Leroy Gibbs, and the laboratory team which help solve crimes through autopsy and analysis of materials and reconstructed scenarios.
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My Grandparents always loved NCIS, and I have watched episodes with them before. Me and Nan decided to stream it recently until a charge was presented, so I decided to pick up some boxsets secondhand and I managed to find Seasons 1-9 for £6. I’ll be reviewing season by season, physical copies being a great way to share it with you here.
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The first season introduces us to the team - Leroy Jethro Gibbs, agent in charge who is driven by his work; Anthony DiNozzo, a joker and unabashed flirt; Caitlin Todd, who joins the team in the first episode after quitting her job in service to the president; Abby, Goth lab technician who is fuelled by caffeinated drinks, and Ducky, mortician who is often mocked for being so talkative.
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We only meet Caitlin for a short space of time, which is a shame because you really get connected to her as a character. Abby and Ducky will always be my favourites though, and I love the relationship between them. My most loved sections of each episode include both of them, because I love the scientific side of things, seeing how death can be established through medical knowledge and chemical testing.
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For all the things NCIS is wonderful for, it also reinforces oppressive attitudes. The show has a very stereotypical view of who qualifies as a ‘terrorist’, and it also further pushes the ahistorical narrative of Hamas being a ‘terrorist’ group rather than organised resistance against a terrorist state. There’s an episode about a gay Marine who takes his own life, but on the other end of the spectrum we get a heavily transphobic episode about a transgender woman who NCIS agents refuse to refer to correctly and who becomes the butt of a joke.
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The first disc includes previews for the films Aeon Flux and Neil Young: Heart of Gold, while the last disc offers some behind-the-scenes footage documenting the inception of the series as a byproduct of JAG, to conceptualising each character and the attention to detail in capturing what the real NCIS force do.
