Midseason Report Card: Is ‘NCIS’ season 13 sinking or swimming?
Sometimes, “NCIS” is a hard show to review when looking across a full season, mostly because there isn’t often a single story to focus on, and also because the show wants to accomplish a variety of different things.
However, we would say that season 13 has so far given us a few consistent threads to examine, and they have handled some of these fairly well. Yet, at the same time the show is struggling to figure out what it wants to do with some of its characters, and we feel like more effort could be made to give us more compelling adversaries and cases of the week.
The good – While we don’t see many on the internet singing the praises of the Gibbs story to a great degree, we do think the writers have done a decent job exploring the psychology of a man trying to come back from a near-death experience and how he would feel a need to try to change himself in some ways. We also think that they’ve pushed hard to give us some more insight into Bishop’s background and where she comes from. Sure, the divorce story came almost out of nowhere, but this is the sort of multiple-episode arc that we’ve been wanting to see for some other characters! We had a great hour about Ducky in the winter finale, as well.
The bad – Other than the Jeanne episode, it’s been a light season so far for DiNozzo. The same goes for McGee, Abby, and Jimmy. Given how long Jimmy has been around this show, how is it that we feel like we know Bishop so much better than we do him? The show could do a much better job of utilizing its full cast; we’d rather see individual episodes catered to most of them than murder cases that are ultimately forgettable when the dust clears. There have been a few of those so far this year.
Overall – We do think season 13 has been stronger at this point in the game than season 12, but only by a smidgen. The show does need to innovate more than it has, and maybe even take a page from “Criminal Minds” and the Dirty Dozen for how to create a compelling season-long thread that it can explore multiple times. Grade: B-.
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CJ
December 30, 2015 @ 12:08 am
Well, in a word, I’m bored. I’ve been an avid viewer since season 4, or at least I was an avid viewer. Now I’m just a casual viewer. I stopped buying the DVDs after season 9. As annoyed as I got with some of the things Shane Brennan did, he never bored me. Glasberg only seems to know how or be interested in writing for Gibbs and a little Bishop on the side. I don’t dislike Bishop, but I’d rather have gotten a larger dose of someone who has been around a little longer. The Gibbs angst for every single season opener and season ender was old 3 or 4 seasons ago – now it’s just ridiculous. And the biggest gripe I have with Glasberg’s version of the show? He can’t carry a season-long arc. Heck he can’t carry an arc past 3 episodes. Either the story is inexplicably dropped for several episodes and suddenly picked up at random with no explanation, or stories that should be longer arcs are wrapped up too quickly, completely illogically, and unsatisfactorily. He could never carry a season long “mystery” or arc like the one they did in season 4. And the lack of focus and lack of any meaningful character development once again for Tony in season 13 is so disappointing. I check online for spoilers just to find out if I happen to miss an episode, is it even worth going back and watching online later or not. My interest in the show has sunk a long long way from where it used to be.
Rox
December 29, 2015 @ 11:41 pm
Let me sing the praises of the Gibbs’ story, then. I think Mark Harmon has done an amazing job changing Gibbs’ character in subtle, yet poignant, ways. In “Stop the Bleeding,” he sold both the physical and emotional effects of an almost-fatal shooting. I am still spellbound by the OR scenes between Jon Cryer and him. He deserves Emmy recognition for it, although I doubt he will get it. And he has nailed each episode since then, bringing us along with him on Gibbs’ very real, very believable, and beautifully played struggle to make meaning of what happened and where he wants and needs to be as a result. I love the ensemble that is NCIS, but Harmon is the star, and Gibbs is the glue that holds together all the other characters.
sadtonyfan
December 30, 2015 @ 6:33 pm
While Harmon’s acting is just fine, there are other fine actors on the show too. Weatherly gets no drama or character flattery anymore. It’s as if the writers aren’t allowed to let DiNozzo shine EVER. Harmon gets constant opportunities to flex his acting muscles. The utter decimation and regression of Tony is very unfair to Weatherly, who has dedicated the same number of years to this show as Harmon, and to Weatherly’s fans who wait in vain to see their favorite get to shine on screen with an exciting story line. But no – it ALWAYS has to be Harmon these days. Like CJ, I’ve become a casual viewer having grown to expect disappointment and expect nothing more than the Harmon show..
sadtonyfan
December 28, 2015 @ 10:08 pm
I guess if you’re a Gibbs fan, the season is swimming along just great. If you’re a Tony fan, just like last season, this season is sinking. All the big stories and arcs since the current showrunner took over have had the same “get Gibbs” theme. I’m frankly not riveted anymore to find out “what makes Gibbs tick” as this has just been done to death. Enough already. Tony has been marginalized for several seasons now. He barely gets a one and done. I hope his little half an episode with Jeanne isn’t all he gets this season. He’s my favorite character and he never gets any big stories much less an entire arc. I don’t want to see more Palmer centered episodes as I tire of his character when he’s on too much. Abby has had a big episode and is getting another one again after Christmas. Ducky got a nice one and apparently has another coming up. McGee got a lot of focus last season and frankly for me, he’s kind of a yawn. It’s the forgotten clever brave agent DiNozzo that I want to see for more than a split second this season but I’m not getting my hopes up. NCIS seems to be all about dramas and tragedies of Gibbs again this season with a hefty side of Bishop.
Marla
December 28, 2015 @ 9:39 pm
Sadly, I don’t think the current showrunner is capable of doing a season long thread like you said. Every season he’s started out with an idea of what he wanted to happen and it fell apart pretty quickly.
liz laughlin
January 3, 2016 @ 8:55 pm
Although this show is still the #1 watched television drama, it’s viewership numbers have been steadily dropping since season 10. This includes both live numbers and live plus 7. The current live numbers for this season through episode 11 look like live numbers for seasons 5 and 6. The live + 7 viewership has dropped almost 2 million from season 10. I believe that the writing is responsible for the drop. The humor, the romance and the complex arcs are gone. I feel like CJ above. I’ve gone from a a must see viewer to a casual viewer. From the numbers, I am evidently not alone.