* AcceptableEthnicTargets: Foreign characters (as in Non-US citizens) were always portrayed as either [[DirtyForeigner dirty]], [[FunnyForeigner funny]], naïve, or just plain stupid.
** The sole exception to this generalization seems to be the Sudanese “people’s poet” Professor Dobotu in the fourth season episode "Embassy" who is a [[MahatmaGandhi Gandhi-like]] GentlemanSnarker.
* AlasPoorScrappy: Loren Singer.
* [[AwesomeMusic/LiveActionTV Awesome Music]]
* BellisariosMaxim. Since He is the creator of this series, it's reasonable to assume that it does apply.
* BetterOnDVD: ''{{JAG}}'' gets even better when watching in a marathon because of story arcs, subtle character development and frequent continuity nods.
* [[BrokenBase/LiveActionTV Broken Base]]:
** Some fans argue passionately about who was the best female lead: Andrea Parker, Tracey Needham or Catherine Bell. Since Bell starred in 9 out of 10 seasons some people see this debate as moot. Parker was hired for the Pilot episode but Creator/{{NBC}} did not want her for the series so DonaldPBellisario was forced to hire Needham. When the show moved to Creator/{{CBS}} for the second season, Bellisario didn't want to keep Needham, but Parker had already been cast in a lead role in ''ThePretender'' and was thus unavailible. Bellisario took a gambit and hired an unknown actress (Bell) who'd had a small role in the last season 1 episode, and the rest is history...
** Opinions obviously varied when the comic relief characters Bud and Harriet suffered the tragedy of Harriet giving birth to a stillborn child. Some viewed it as an unnecessarily cruel hand dealt to two undeserving characters while others saw it as a well executed dramatic twist that kicked off dialog on an issue many people are reluctant to talk about in real life.
** The sudden retirement of Admiral Chegwidden following season 9.
* CompleteMonster:
** Sudanese Ambassador Moshak in "Embassy" as he kills his own people, [[SyntheticPlague stole vials of]] [[TheVirus Ebola]] from a U.S. lab, and when Harm is about to get him he throws at vial of Ebola at him. Fortunately Harm caught it.
** In "Act of Terror", Percival Bertram is a wealthy businessman (looking every bit like a CorruptHick) who supports right-wing conservative politicians and brands himself as a super-patriot advocating that the U.S. should take gloves of with respect to terrorists to U.S. interests in the Middle East. However, the alleged super-patriot finances terrorism in the Middle East against U.S. interests (supposedly to create a self-fulfilling prophecy gaining his own business interests.)
** SerialKiller Charles "Charlie" Lynch in "Goodbyes". In "Nobody's Child" he had offscreen brutally stamped to death a young girl. Harmon Rabb [[AloneWithThePsycho confronts him]] on a decommissioned navy ship in Philadelphia where he'd taken the twin sister of the killed girl.
-->'''Rabb''': ''Charlie, there's something I need to know. Why did you kill Annie?''
-->'''Lynch''': ''I told her not to get on that school bus.''
-->'''Rabb''': ''She just wanted to be with kids her own age.''
-->'''Lynch''': ''[[WouldHurtAChild She disrespected me]].''
-->'''Rabb''': ''[[YouMonster And for that, you beat her to death]]?''
-->'''Lynch''': ''[[AxCrazy You have a problem with that]]?''
-->'''Rabb''': ''[[FriendToAllChildren Yeah, I got a problem with that]].''
** Mustafa Atef a.k.a. Mohandesh, the in-universe number 3 in AlQaeda captured by U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan who was given the death penalty by a military tribunal in "Tribunal".
--> '''Mustafa Atef:''' ''(to Chegwidden) Want to know what I say about September 11? [[MoralEventHorizon Every single person who died that day got exactly what they deserved!]]''
** Sadik Fahd, the recurring villian in seasons 8 & 9.
* CreatorWorship: Bud in is fan of ''Series/QuantumLeap'', and when seeing DonaldPBellisario's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame he exclaims:
-->Hey, it's the ''Quantum Leap'' guy!
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: At least in the first season, they appear to use the theme music much to the effect of the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' theme.
* GatewaySeries: ''JAG'' is a combination of a MilitaryAndWarfareTelevision and LawProcedural, so it could be argued that it may serve as a gateway to either genre
* GeniusBonus: Sometimes on ''JAG'', the meaning of military acronyms are never explained to the viewers, and upon rarer occasion are references made to case law without explaining in detail what that case means to the viewers.
* MarySue: Sarah [=MacKenzie=] skirts dangerously close to this. Harm dances back and forth over the line as a MartyStu too.
** This troper strongly disagrees with the notion that Mac is a MarySue: if you rewatch the series you'll find plenty of character flaws. Harm, on the other hand, is more or less an EscapistCharacter.
* TearJerker: [[spoiler: At the end of season seven, Bud accidentally steps on a landmine, blowing his leg off under the knee. Season eight's opener almost has him die as a result.]] This is something of a KickTheDog moment as well, [[spoiler: given he was trying to warn a young boy away from landmines that the boy was fully aware of. Kid even tossed a rock at him.]]
* TheScrappy: Lt. Loren Singer is disliked by a good portion of the fandom.
** No doubt intentional, as most of the cast didn't like her much either - she was a lying, manipulative, power-hungry bitch and something of a SmugSnake. [[spoiler: And then she died and Harm got accused of her murder in the NCIS pilot episodes. He's lucky Gibbs was investigating...]]
** This is all made rather darkly HilariousInHindsight due to the show's post 9/11 policy of terrorists being furiously condemned and castigated as the absolute worst of all humanity and those aiding and abetting terrorists (as Harm and Mac happily did in this episode) being held in special contempt, which raises the delightful implication that terrorism is only bad if it is the US being targeted.
* TheWoobie: Both Bud and Harriet may qualify for this - Bud especially after the seventh season finale.