May212009
A Side Benefit to Obsessing over NCIS
Filed under TV by Kim at 3:45 pm on May 21 2009
I haven’t been talking about it too much, I think, but I have been overtaken with 
obsession with the show NCIS. I’ve even made Jack, the least jealous boyfriend on the entire planet, jealous briefly by having a spiffy McGee wallpaper designed by some photoshop-savvy teenager set up on the laptop for weeks now.
In addition to that procedural drama, I watch Without a Trace; I started watching Law & Order: Criminal Intent; crazy-ass sci-fi aside, Fringe I think counts because well, it’s lousy with FBI agents and involves weekly cases; and then from time to time I sneak in a Cold Case. So my leisure time is full of agents and evidence and forensics, oh my. I may or may not have had a whole mental crisis about whether I should try to become a medical examiner.
One thing I finally realized (like, duh! how did I not notice this before) about my TV watching habits is that these shows all provide female characters that are kind of complicated, kind of dysfunctional, non-glamorous, and always, always coping with the most difficult stuff that usually has not a damn thing to do with their appearance or whether they can hang on to their boyfriend. And while most of them may be overly modeled on the cold lonely bitch stereotype, some of them are like, moms and aunts. Moms who out-think cold-hearted killers and interrogate suspects and shoot people.
I think of this in contrast to something like Grey’s Anatomy (which I also hate to love to watch) where you have there super-educated upper-class women acting like damn fools (OK, the dudes act like damn fools too) because it’s written to be a soap opera, it’s written to be over the top. There is constant wailing and sighing and dresses and glamour and bosoms heaving. (At least it’s not entirely hetero-normative! Woo, Callie, sexiest woman on TV!) Or, God forbid, I contrast it with the movies, where Kirk and Spock are transporting to nearly-destroyed planets while Uhura mans the phones (I’m sorry. I have to call them like I see them. I loved the movie, and I love the original series, but it’s about dudes.) and female mutants get the screen time in Wolverine mostly to be romantic. (I’m sorry again but 20 seconds of bulletproof skin girl is tokenism!) So as ass-kicking female heroes go, I’m pretty much SOL at the movies. Then there is the whole competent woman putting up with a horribly stereotyped male dunderhead trend in sitcoms. Enough said there.
So anyways, NCIS. You have the smart one – Abby. The actress who plays Abby? Is 40. Is Don Bellisario giving actresses over 30 jobs? Yes, yes he is. But! The character is not just a one-note socially awkward smartie. As a side note she also has off-screen social life, bowls with nuns, and can kick ass. The you have the agents whose official job is to kick ass. First, Kate Todd. Secret service, protected the president. Then Ziva David, who is shown deference in many things by most of the dudes on the show, and is more often rescuer than rescuee. And how could I forget, the freaking boss, Jenny Shepard. I don’t love the character, but I don’t have to. It is important that she’s there. Bossing. So while I thought I got into NCIS because I was in love with McGee, I think the larger reason may have been something else.
Why did I mention moms and aunts earlier? Because more often than not, you find you have these professional women, they’re wearing suits or uniforms, they are given little room to be human. They are described as “no-nonsense”. Some shows cast this as a result of the pressure on women to perform to the patriarchal standard of behavior or to the need to outperform men to gain any respect in their field. What you end up with, more often than not, are cold characters who are shown to lead lonely lives.
Olivia Dunham, of Fringe, was shaping up to be that lady. She doesn’t emote much and looks extra serious or blank and wears (awesomely tailored!!) suits. But as time has progressed on that show, she’s shown interacting with her niece, and I think this is when I finally said “oh, okay, you don’t have to be a personalityless suit to be a lady agent!”.
By the way – I like it when people won’t put up with any nonsense. So give me a whole show full of “no-nonsense”. This, of course, is why I don’t watch much of The Office. 
And in the past two seasons, Without a Trace has explored Samantha’s journey of becoming a single mom. I really like the way they’ve treated this, how the other characters deal, how she copes. How this effects the men in her life and how they handle it, and the consequences of that. I also love the character of Vivianne on this show. All these strong, independent women! It’s just a welcome trend.
Oh, but don’t let me downplay the importance of the suit or the uniform either. With very few exceptions, the women on these shows are not displayed as sex objects. Like, at all. I know, I know, Danny fell for Elena when she was undercover as a stripper. And her blouses are at times impossibly low cut for an FBI office. I get that. But for the most part, you don’t really see Wheeler or Eames (L&O: CI) as present and valued for their worth as an object to the viewer. That is extraordinarily rare. I am not trying to say that there is not a place for that, but rather that comparatively, it’s nice to see women get even a half a chance to set that aside. I think Ziva knows you’re better off wearing comfortable shoes or no shoes than trying to fight an terrorist in heels.
Taking a lap around the recent Nielsen ratings, I am heartened to see that obviously plenty of other people share my interest in procedural dramas. With the exception of Dancing with The Stars and Desperate (sigh) Housewives and of course the ubiquitous Idol, people are tuning into these shows in droves. Four times as many folks wanted to watch Fringe as wanted to watch 90210. Just about everything kicked ANTM’s ass. Cable is bringing it too, with In Plain Sight in the top ten. I haven’t watched that show (or Saving Grace, or The Closer), but I would! If I had more time!
Now if only the movies would catch up with what seems like a sea change happening in TV drama.
