History YMMV / JAG

* TheScrappy: Lt. Loren Singer is disliked by a good portion of the fandom. No doubt intentional, as most of the other characters 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...]] It's ironic that the actress who played her is actually the wife of series lead David James Elliott (Harmon Rabb).

* ProductPlacement: It could be argued that ''JAG'' and ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' are dramatized recruitment and retention commercials for the [[BackedByThePentagon Department of the Navy]].

* 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 [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi-like]] GentlemanSnarker.
* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: The show, being about lawyers, does employ a few obligatory lawyer jokes. Within the military setting itself, the show also demonstrates that this trope is true within the American armed forces, with servicemembers of various occupations or branches making jokes at each others' expense (Marine infantry vs lawyers, Naval aviators vs. everybody else, commissioned officers vs non-commissioned officers and enlisted, [[InterServiceRivalry Navy vs Marines]], etc.)
** [[IntrepidReporter Journalists]] are frequently chided for inflating casualty numbers, accusing the military of whitewashing (e.g., [[Recap/JAGS03E03TheGoodOfTheService "The Good of the Service"]]), asking slanted questions, compromising national security and even intruding on a family's grief (e.g., "Coming Home").
* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Fanatic and outright anti-American Muslims with hostile intentions were always legitimate villians on this show. However, Muslims who do not express an open anti-American sentiment are portrayed quite favorably.

* CIAEvilFBIGood: CIA agents like Clayton Webb (Steven Culp) are cold-blooded killers who will kill a suspected mole without a second thought. They dismiss military ideals like NoOneGetsLeftBehind as "battlefield sentimentality," and prioritize secrecy over all other considerations. The show doesn't really contrast the CIA to the FBI, but rather to JAG and the military in general.

* 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...]] It's ironic that the actress who played her is actually series lead David James Elliott (Harmon Rabb)'s wife.
* TheWoobie: Both Bud and Harriet may qualify for this - Bud especially after the seventh season finale.

* ActorShipping: There was/is a lot of shipping among fans, often in the form of {{fanfiction}}, to different degrees with the two leads: Harm and Mac (or in some cases even the actors).

* AcceptableHardLuckTargets: Subverted with amputees; as Bud Roberts gets a leg amputated as result of stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan, yet he's ultimately able to fully recover (with the aid of a prosthetic leg) and to live a happy familiy life.