by Casey-Leigh Hethers

Created on: October 28, 2010

NCIS is a police procedural show that shows an agency that first hit the primetime in parent show JAG. Both shows concentrate on crimes involving members of the navy but where JAG focused on the legal aspects in the courtroom, NCIS takes a team of investigative agents into the field to take on the forensic and groundwork before the case lands in court. NCIS - Naval Criminal Investigative Service - entered our screens back in September 2003 and started airing its eighth season in September 2010.

In those eight years, NCIS, its agents and other team members have faced the ultimate tests of bravery and also came into direct contact with tragedy, with the losses of their own. The show first began with a team of three: Gibbs, Tony & Kate. Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs has headed the team since the first episode, with second in command Special Agent Anthony DiNozzio providing capable back up. Caitlin Todd, former agent with the Secret Service tasked with the protection of the President of the United States came to NCIS after her resignation. For two years, Kate and Tony played the entertaining roles of an almost - but not quite - brother-sister type of relationship, full of pranks and good-natured teasing.

Viewers were left reeling in the second season finale when Kate was brutally shot dead by the recurring terrorist, Ari Haswari. Similarly, the entire team were left guilt-ridden, each feeling as if they were to blame or feeling the weight of unresolved issues as the next few episodes rolled out - with NCIS choosing to do something different and feature Kate as the imaginations from each of the NCIS team, each adding a quirky twist to the ongoing proceedings of the episodes. NCIS was able to provide these scenes without losing its integrity as a show based on real-life, not the supernatural and managed to run with some of the most upsetting scenes up to that point.

Kate's death allowed for the show to take a new direction. With the arrival of a new team member - Ziva David, liaison officer to NCIS for Mossad - who came on the personal invitation of new Director Jenny Shepard, NCIS was able to introduce tension-filled scenes that only hinted at possible romances between Tony & Ziva as well as the past affair of Gibbs & Jenny. These storylines added a new element to the show and many were hooked by the brief flashbacks that referred to two younger agents (Gibbs & Jenny) working together on a case in Paris. Although nothing so far has risen out of

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>