Saturday night saw the return of NCIS to South African screen. For me, this is one of the more enjoyable shows around, so I’m glad to see it back. It’s also one of the rare occasions that the SABC has a show that hasn’t already been on M-Net/DSTV (I think it may have been on Hallmark, but that’s not a South African channel, so doesn’t count in this context).
NCIS may not offer elaborate story-telling in the manner that Lost or 24 do, but what it does offer is a blend of criminal investigation, action and CSI-like forensics. Adding to that are the occasionally eccentric characters, particularly goth forensic scientist Abby and medical examiner Dr “Ducky” Mallard, who has a habit of talking to the bodies he autopsies.
Season 2 ended on a dramatic note, with the death of agent Kate Todd. This wasn’t a case of a cliff-hanger ending, leaving the audience wondering whether she would survive or not, as a bullet hitting you in the middle of your forehead will kill you every time.
There are basically three main reasons why a show would kill off one of its main characters (or at least three that I can think off). It’s either part of a long-term storyline, a way of writing the character out of the series due to the actor leaving, or an attempt to boost ratings (or a combination of these).
Actress Sasha Alexander had asked to leave the show, so it seems as though that was the only reason for Kate’s death. As far as I know, NCIS was doing fairly well and didn’t need a dramatic ratings boost, and neither is it the type of show that goes in for story arcs, so I think it’s possible to rule those two out as additional factors.
Still it’s a dramatic way of writing a character out of a show, as it means that the character can never return (well almost never, but I’ll get to that a bit later). But in this case, I think it actually helps the show.
In the real world, people do get killed in the course of an investigation, and so Kate’s death adds a touch of realism. Also, once a show has shown that it’s prepared to kill off one of its main characters, it means that you can never be absolutely sure if everyone will survive the next time they find themselves in a dangerous situation.
It also gave the chance for the show to adopt a more serious tone. For the most part, the character interactions add a light-hearted touch to the show (one of the things that makes it enjoyable), the aftermath of Kate’s death allowed it to adopt a different approach as we saw the characters try and deal with it.
This was done by having her appear to the characters as they imagined what she would say to them if it were still possible (thus meaning that Sasha Alexander hasn’t quite left the show yet). The way she appeared proved to be quite interesting.
For Ducky it was a case of her body in the morgue replying to him, while for Abby she appeared in a goth outfit, indicating that Abby saw her as a kindred spirit. We got to see some of the unresolved sexual attention between Kate and Tony when she appeared dressed as a Catholic schoolgirl. McGee’s vision was also pretty interesting as she first appeared dressed in Matrix-style leather and then in a dominatrix outfit. I’m not sure what that indicates other than that McGee should probably get out a bit more.
The character for whom Kate’s death had the most impact was Gibbs. When she appeared to him she asked him why she was the one who had to die, vocalising the thoughts that were going through his mind. We also saw a change in Gibbs’ behaviour – he was nice to Tony and McGee, and called them by their first names.
There’s also another issue when a character is written out of a show, namely their replacement (if they have one). In this episode we saw two new characters introduced (they’re only guest stars at the moment, but will become regular characters).
The first was new NCIS Director Jenny Shepherd, who was previously an NCIS agent and had been romantically involved with Gibbs. I don’t really like the last bit that much – it’s something that’s been done before in other shows, and it seems like an unnecessary complication to me. The two of them having a previous working relationship and now having to adjust to her being his superior would have been enough as far as I’m concerned.
The other character is basically Kate’s replacement, in the form of Mossad agent Ziva David. Quite how realistic her joining the team is, but I like the idea of a foreign character, something which we don’t see a lot of in American TV shows. I know that often it’s not possible to introduce a foreign character given the scope of a show, but it’s good to see it happen, and from a country other than the UK (which is where most foreigners on American TV shows seem to come from).
So far we haven’t seen much of how she’ll fit in with the rest of the team, as the only interaction we’ve had so far is with Tony. She seems to have already adopted the teasing nature that was evident in the Kate/Tony relationship, which I felt was done a little too quickly. Maybe it’s just me, but I would probably take a while before I acted in that way with someone new.
All in all, I felt this was a good episode which maintained the standard set by the previous seasons. It’s still too early to say whether Kate’s loss will affect the quality of the show, but if this episode is anything to go by, it doesn’t look like it.