Be honest. When NCIS premiered in 2003, did you really expect it to be going strong and with a full franchise built around it 22 years later?
JAG was a success, but NCIS outperformed even the wildest of expectations of a spinoff to become a cultural juggernaut that shows no signs of slowing down.
Can you imagine a TV lineup without at least one version of NCIS? When you’re looking at decades of long-running entertainment and on-demand watch possibilities, it’s impossible.
So, what makes NCIS such a success? We have some ideas.
Gibbs: The Guy Who Said More with a Look than Most People Say in a Speech
Even years after he stepped back from leading the team, Leroy Jethro Gibbs remains the backbone of NCIS. There’s a reason the character is getting the prequel treatment — he’s iconic.
Gibbs’s rules have become a cultural lexicon on their own, but he says just as much with a look as he does with words.
The man barely speaks, but when he does, you know he means business. Mark Harmon‘s use of the less-is-more approach worked like magic. Without his performance, Gibbs, as we know him, wouldn’t exist.
Gibbs may have a permanent poker face, but you never questioned the emotions brewing just under the surface. A quick nod or a stern look would have everyone falling in line.
You might have wondered if NCIS could survive Harmon stepping back, but the show hasn’t lost its edge with his absence.
The story continued steadfastly on. Harmon has remained a fixture behind the scenes, and even if he’s not the face we see when we turn on NCIS, we can still feel Gibbs’s presence in every episode.
The Unlikely Family Dynamics
You don’t have to be ashamed to admit that falling in line with the NCIS team is your guilty pleasure.
Solving mysteries is done all over the place on TV.
Creating dynamic relationships on-screen can be like lightning in a bottle. You can have the most talented actors and the best writers, and the relationships can fall flat.
NCIS banter is magical, and the agents are one of a kind.
Whether it was Tony DiNozzo calling McGee “McGeek” or myriad other nicknames or Abby Sciuto’s goth forensic scientist vibe, these agents never let their deadly serious jobs deflect their personalities.
They feel like family, albeit a highly dysfunctional one. They work hard and play hard, ribbing each other like kids while chasing down murderers. Sounds just like home, right?
Every time a character left, viewers braced for disappointment, thinking, “There’s no way this can work now.” But every time, NCIS proved us wrong.
Newer faces like Torres and Knight managed to slip into the team without feeling like knock-offs. Even Gary Cole’s Alden Parker didn’t try taking Gibbs’s place.
NCIS has the unique ability to let go of the past while still feeling familiar. Maybe it’s because the past is never forgotten, just like with family.
Balancing Intensity and Humor – A Lesson in How to Laugh Right After a Murder
Murder is a rough business. Nobody wants to be murdered, but even solving them takes a little getting used to. Laughter helps.
NCIS has a knack for making us giggle right after exploring a grisly murder scene. Cracking jokes, nerdy habits, or obscure historical facts in the middle of an autopsy sound offputting, but those survival tactics work on screen and off.
NCIS manages a nearly perfect balance between dark crime drama and light-hearted scenes that keep viewers from dwelling on a story’s gloomier details.
Without that perfected blend, the rotating cast, and holding tightly to the past while never losing sight of the future, NCIS might have gotten stale or, even worse, too heavy to bear repeat viewing.
But NCIS never forgets to have fun. One minute, they’re uncovering a terrorist plot, and the next, Torres is getting roasted for his ridiculous undercover disguises.
That humor makes the show feel like a comfortable old friend. No matter how serious things get, there’s always a laugh waiting in the wings.
Ridiculousness (Not the Show. The Cases!)
Okay, so some of the crimes are… let’s say, out there.
I mean, how many terrorists are out there targeting Navy personnel? Wouldn’t we know if this was a thing, let alone one that spans 22 years and an entire franchise?
But NCIS has a way of making even absurd stories feel personal. The stakes are always high, and as ridiculous as it sometimes seems, we’re all in for every case.
Like many other successful mystery shows, the why and how of crime solving is just as important as the who, and using that standard allows NCIS to weave in bigger, season-spanning arcs like ongoing terrorist threats or complicated political conspiracies.
Sure, some of these cases might stretch credibility, but the team keeps us invested. Feeling like family allows us to forget we’re watching a procedural and get caught up in the larger story.
Comfort TV for When Life Gets Too Real
Comfortable might not be the go-to word for a crime show, but for many, NCIS is just that.
It is so satisfying to settle in with characters you know well as they successfully pluck bad guys off the street (and out of the water) and put them behind bars.
The cast and the stories may change, but in a chaotic world, the reliability of these crime-solving characters to make things right before the hour ends puts NCIS high on the list of comfort TV.
It’s not high-concept TV and won’t win any awards for groundbreaking storytelling. But it’s the show that makes us feel, for an hour a week, like everything will be okay.
That’s something we all need sometimes.