As humans in a changing world, we crave continuity and reliability. Before entering a room, we like to be fairly sure of what we will find: walls, floors, furniture, not hot coals or clouds of toxic gases. Hence the popularity of the franchise. It may not lead to great, revolutionary art, but at the end of a long day, when you kick off your shoes and sink into the couch, you may not be in the mood to see “The Young ladies of Avignon” or a stuffed toy. goat with a tire around its middle.
“NCIS”, for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is a theoretically inexhaustible resource. series about a high team of military police investigating cases involving military personnel; you might think that’s too shallow a drawer to fill multiple series over many years, but you’d be wrong, especially considering how finely the writers are willing to stretch that connection.
The series offers a full meal of mainstream theatrical possibilities. It’s a police procedural, a metaphorical family comedy, a workplace comedy, a soap opera, a melodrama, a low-budget action-adventure. You get handsome heroes, a handful of bullshit, an eccentric medical examiner or two, a bit of romance – the amino acids of many of these procedurals, sure, but “NCIS” is particularly adept at combining casual and lean entertainment. -forward tension. The military association adds a patriotic element, which I imagine some viewers appreciate, although the very premise of the series implies that the military is not squeaky clean. These aren’t shows I usually watch, but it’s easy to see why people do.
The franchise includes iterations set in Los Angeles, New OrleansHawaii and Sydney, each applying local color and flavor to a proven formula; some have come and gone, others haven’t been around long enough, but none are likely to display the staying power or global penetration of the original, about to launch into its 22nd season on Monday.
Following this premiere on CBS, home to all the “NCIS” series, comes the latest addition to the family, “NCIS: Origins.” Instead of settling in a new town, however, we are sent back in time to 1991, when “new special agent” Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell), played by Mark Harmon in the original and recounted here, has just joined the team he will one day lead. (A team that hasn’t yet added the C to its acronym, which looks weird on windbreakers but is quicker to bark at suspects.)
We’re in Oceanside – a new town, after all – on the grounds of Camp Pendleton. The fact that this is the least visibly sexy setting in the “NCIS” collection – no offense, Oceanside, not to mention the ocean itself – is reflected in the team’s drab headquarters , Quonset-hut, a stark contrast to the bright, modern, high-tech dens. contemporary shows. Here we are in a world of telephone booths, pagers and bulky computers that no one knows how to work with, walkmans and video cassettes, which both simplify and complicate action. It is, in its own way, a kind of relief, a vacation from the present.
Kyle Schmid as Mike Franks and Tyla Abercrumbie as Mary Jo Hayes in a scene from “NCIS: Origins.”
(Sonja Flemming/CBS)
Harmon, who left the series after the 19th season to be replaced by Gary Cole, established the model of the “NCIS” team leader — the stern but supportive, time-worn, tested surrogate parent, always ready to overthrow hidden authority when necessary. Young Gibbs, a Marine sniper just recalled from Iraq after the murder of his wife and child, is not that person (yet), although we have some hints that he could be: its numbered “rules”, its “intuitions”. Right now he’s deeply traumatized, getting into bar fights and failing his “psychological evaluation.” Some fear he’s unstable, not quite the Mel-Gibson crazy in “Lethal Weapon,” but potentially a danger to himself and others.
That the main character is a member of the team rather than its leader, as in other “NCIS” series, may seem a bit awkward, given that it’s necessary for Gibbs, fresh as he is, to stand out from the group. group – that he sees what others miss and can handle a situation in an original way. When he says about a suspect, “That’s not our guy,” it won’t be that guy. This unbalances the whole thing.
The team leader is Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid), Gibbs’ cowboy predecessor and mentor; With his horseshoe mustache, dark glasses and cigarettes, he looks like a ’90s cop dressed as a ’70s cop. (Older Franks, played by Muse Watson, appeared in some dramatic episodes of “NCIS.” ) Sexy agent Lala Dominguez (Mariel Molino) is competitive and suspicious of Gibbs. (“You’re on my team,” Gibbs says after meeting her. “No, you’re on mine,” she replies, quite reasonably.) Agent Vera Strickland (Diany Rodriguez), who is briefly appeared in the original series, is so far underused. (Only four episodes were available for review.)
Dark feelings and internal conflicts characterize these early episodes, full of raised voices, clenched jaws and steely gazes. The necessary atmosphere is provided by Agent Randy Randolf (Caleb Martin Foote), friendly, talkative and the only one who wears a suit to work; “Chief Secretary in Charge” Mary Jo Hayes (Tyla Abercrumbie); and Granville “Granny” Dawson (Daniel Bellomy), promoted after a few episodes to the K-9 team and under the care of a dog named Special Agent Gary Callahan. (“It’s just a dog, but it’s all the dog you need.”) Bobby Moynihan (major comic relief), Lori Petty and Julian Black Antelope provide forensic support.
As for Stowell, he’s square-jawed and broad-shouldered, and while his casting obviously marked the end of many discussions, he doesn’t strike me as someone who will grow up to be Mark Harmon. (Harmon’s son Sean, who had the original idea for “Origins,” developed by franchise veterans David J. North and Gina Lucita Monreal, played young Gibbs in “NCIS” flashbacks.) ) He could stand to relax a little. But maybe that’s the point.
