Follow TV Tropes

Following

Series / NCIS

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ncis_3.png
The current cast as of Season 19 (from left to right): Knight, Parker, McGee, and Torres

NCIS is an American long-running primetime television series created by Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill for CBS about Navy criminal investigators. The show is a spinoff of JAG (1995-2005), which in addition to the parent series’ military theme and occasional Spy Drama also leaped on the Forensic Drama bandwagon started by CSI. NCIS stands for "Naval Criminal Investigative Service"; like JAG, it is based on a real organization within the Department of the Navy, and also much less action-packed in real life than the Hollywood-style fictionalized version the show depicts. The organization is the criminal investigative arm of the Navy and Marines, though it is a civilian law enforcement agency, unlike the Army's CID.

NCIS (Navy NCIS for its first season) depicts a team of investigators assigned to deal with criminal activity involving Navy personnel and Marines. That means that the entire gamut of crime—from Serial Killers to fraud to international espionage to unauthorized absences—can turn up. This Major Cases Response Team was led by Leroy Jethro Gibbs (played by Mark Harmon), a retired Marine gunnery sergeant who Always Gets His Man, for eighteen years, and later, former FBI agent Alden Parker (played by Gary Cole) and contains a rather colorful collection of detectives and lab workers.

A classic example of a Sleeper Hit, the show was largely ignored at the beginning of its run, but has considerably gained viewers since then (although it is now on a downwards trend in the U.S.). In 2015, ratings-wise it was the number one scripted show on U.S. network television and the most watched show in the world.

NCIS has been on the air since September 2003 and, as of September 2022, is in its 20th season, thus far surpassing the already long run of its parent show and making it the 7th longest-running scripted American primetime television series in U.S. TV history. NCIS was renewed for season 21 on February 21, 2023, which is set to premiere on February 12, 2024.

Recent episodes can be viewed free on CBS's site here.

It has six spinoff series of its own:

Although neither Los Angeles or New Orleans have reached the heights of the parent program, they have both become successes in their own right.note  Time will tell how well HawaiÊ»i does, but it has been renewed for season 3.

Please contribute to the character and recap pages.


Season-specific trope subpages:

This show contains examples of:


Top

Watching

Knight watches Torres dig himself deep over not being able to get used to Parker's health regiment.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (2 votes)

Example of:

Main / PassThePopcorn

Media sources:

Report