I'm glad it's back

The season premiere of NCIS was last night. This is one of the few shows I actually make time to watch and the only one on the regular networks that I watch.

I hadn't really watched the re-runs over the summer when they showed them; part of it was I'd seen them already, part of it was that I'm still having a little trouble warming up to the new female agent (Ellie Bishop).

It's not so much that Bishop is so terrible, it's just that she's Not Ziva, and I liked the character of Ziva. And, well, okay: I tend to feel like Abby should be the smart-but-quirky female character. But I guess with Ellie they had to go with kind of the closest thing to the anti-Ziva they could do. (They couldn't do a true anti-Ziva: that would have to be a brainless, spoiled princess-type who would never manage to advance in the military and who wouldn't be accepted by Gibbs anyway).

But I liked last night's episode. I think it was because it tended to have most of what I like NCIS for anyway: Gibbs watching out for his team and also kicking bad-guy ass. There's something satisfying about Gibbs kicking bad-guy ass, and it's a satisfaction that relatively few shows give these days.

I like the character of Gibbs. In many ways I think he is a deeply moral man. Sometimes the things he does (e.g, shooting the druglord suspected of killing his wife and daughter) may be a bit outside the strict letter of the law, but in terms of "what's right," it's still something that seems moral. (As in: the druglord was never going to be brought to justice, he was ruining other lives, and so Gibbs essentially did what Atticus Finch did to that rabid dog: took it out so that it couldn't endanger others). Gibbs is quiet - it's kind of a running gag how little he says. He does what's right. He protects the innocent, especially those weaker than himself. He has a soft spot for children and for people like Abby. He gives tough love (and head slaps) when necessary. In my mind, he's the kind of man we need more of.

(Yeah, okay, so Gibbs isn't real. But I tend to think one of the uses of "art" or at least of "entertainment" is to show us a world we long for or something to aspire to).

I will admit I can do with less of the CBS drama-queening the "next week's episode" teaser - apparently it's something bad/sad involving either Ducky or Vance. Well, okay: the actor who plays Ducky is getting up in years (if I remember correctly, he's older than my dad, and my dad is nearly 80) and I could see the actor wanting to bow out gracefully by retiring and somehow having Ducky written out. (But please, no melodramatic deadly diseases). I'm concerned it's Ducky, because he's one of my favorite characters (But I also like Vance. But then again, they already wrote a storyline with a Director that had a terminal illness, even if she chose to go out in a different way).

But anyway - it had some of my favorite things (Gibbs being laconic, Gibbs protecting his team, Gibbs kicking ass, Abby being the worrier of the team, a little bit of Tony and McGee sibling rivalry) and I missed that over the summer.