NCIS the Naval Criminal Investigative Service:

My sister, mum and I love to sit down and watch NCIS on a Tuesday night at 8:30 on channel 3. It is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents. They conduct criminal investigations involving the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. It has a theme song written just for it. There have been 9 seasons of NCIS so far and the first 8 seasons have been released on DVD and the last season is due to be released this year. Also while I was researching I found this amazing website, which has all the information you could ever want to know about NCIS.

However for this blog I am going to tell you about the main characters and their representation of or appeal to the real world. Thus it is done through the manipulation of the media.

Seasons of Main Characters:

Key:

Main character

appears some times

Does not appear

Recurring

Character	Portrayed by	Seasons
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Leroy Jethro Gibbs	Mark Harmon
Caitlin Todd	Sasha Alexander			Guest					Voice	Cameo
Tony DiNozzo	Michael Weatherly
Ziva David	Cote de Pablo
Abby Sciuto	Pauley Perrette
Timothy McGee	Sean Murray
Jenny Shepard	Lauren Holly									Cameo
Leon Vance	Rock Carrol
Ducky Mallard	David McCallum
Jimmy Palmer	Brian Dietzen

The first character I will tell you about is Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs who is played by Mark Harmon. He is the special agent in charge of the main major case response team which consists of Ziva Davids, Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo, Timothy McGee, Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, and Abigail "Abby" Sciuto. As the head of the team he is portrayed as a strict boss who hardly compliments his team. However he cares about all his team for example he is a father figure to Abby and whenever she is upset he is the first to be there. Also if anything happens to one of his team members he is really upset and is the first to help them pick up the pieces. This compassion and firmness towards his team relates him to many bosses in the world today; they are strict with their workers although they genuinely care about them. Thus he is a stereotypical boss in the modern world. He genuinely cares about his team and sees them like his family. For example during one episode Abby finds out she is adopted and is confiding in Gibbs and Gibbs tells her “you know you don’t have to do this alone you have a family and we will help you through this.” This family Gibbs refers to is the team, and I feel the director portrays him as the father figure in the family.

Cote de Pablo plays Ziva Davids, a special agent working on Agent Gibbs team. She came on to the scene as an assassin sent to kill another assassin who was out to kill Gibbs. The fact is though this assassin was her half-brother she shot him to save Gibbs. She ended up on the team when Caitlin Todd was killed. Ziva is an attractive woman and she uses it to advantage in getting male suspects ‘in’. Many men say to her “why is a pretty woman like you in a job like this?” I feel the media use this reference to show that Ziva does not match the stereotype the  media have for attractive woman. This stereotype  is that they do not work in jobs such as the army and police they are portrayed as models and other things like that. Ziva is not a stereotypical character thus Ziva attracts young men who think she is hot but like the fact she is doing something different.

Anthony DiNozzo is a NCIS Field Special Agent who has been on the show since it started. He is a good looking guy and a ladies man. DiNozzo is often found flirting with the female suspects and Ziva. I feel DiNozzo was created to appeal the young men in America originally, as he is witty, manly and big headed. Now I also feel he appeals to young women because he is attractive thus he attracts a different audience to one like Ziva would attract.

Abby is a forensics specialist working with the team. She has an obsession with Goth fashion and is addicted to the fictional Caf-Pow which is a caffeinated beverage. Mistakenly people stereotype her as a Goth due to dark clothes and makeup. However she is not  Gothic she just likes to wear dark clothes and have dark hair and eye liner. Abby’s character is played well by Pauley Perrette, as Pauley is pretty but is good at pulling off the Goth look. For Abby, Gibbs is a father figure; as both her parents are dead and we find out later in the series they were her adoptive parents not her real parents.

McGee is a special agent of the Major Case Response Team. Originally he was assigned to the Norfolk Naval Base but he became a permanent team member at NCIS at the end of the season two opening episode, "See No Evil".  He has a degree in computer forensics from MIT and a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins, and, along with Abby Sciuto he is the team's technology specialist. His advanced computing traits and the way he denies his skill make him seem like many computer savvy people in todays world. The ways he can hack into any site using the NCIS account makes many computer nerds interested in his character and want to watch the show. Therefore McGee is a stereotypical 'geek' who says he cannot do something but does it anyway when told to.

Ducky is the chief medical examiner assigned to the Major Case Responsive Team working at the NCIS headquarters. He spent some time as a medical examiner in Vietnam, Bosnia, and Afghanistan before working for NCIS. He was close friends with Jenny Shepard and is best friends with Gibbs. He is a caring older worker at the headquarters so most of the team turn to him when they want comforting advice. This trait in Ducky makes him appear loveable and approachable to the audience making them emotionally attached to him. Also Ducky falls into the stereotype of a 'kind old man' along with being eccentric about his hobbies such as building tiny models of old cars and starts conversations with "that reminds me of the time when...". This helps the audience understand Ducky and attracts people who like people who are eccentric.

Jimmy Palmer helps Ducky down in in the lab appeared first in "Split Decision". He is a very 'gumpy' man who does not no when he has said enough. Matching the stereotype of a nerd who likes to share his knowledge. This trait in Palmer makes him appeal to people who like to learn about the medical side of the organisation. A running gag in the series revolves around Jimmy irritating those around him by making an awkward or insensitive comment at an inappropriate moment. It occurs most often at a crime scene where he will make a comment about the body or a scenario. This lack of sympathy that is shown causes the audience to laugh therefore giving the show a comedic side.

Jenny Shepard was director of NCIS for the season’s three to five and formerly Gibbs' partner (and lover). She was killed in the season five finale, "Judgment Day" in a gunfight in an abandoned diner. she happened to be the first person to be killed in their line of work. Leon Vance used to be the assistant director and he became the Director of NCIS following Jenny’s death. He is close friends with Gibbs but does not let this go before his work. For example he still treats Gibbs as a co-worker who is below him when they are dealing with other agencies and suspects.

Kate (Caitlin Todd) was a special agent of the Major Case Response Team for seasons one and two. Initially she worked as a secret service agent until she was offered a job on the NCIS team by Gibbs. Gibbs later became a mentor to her and many of her methods where similar to his. Kate was the big sister to the group and got on really well with Abby and McGee. More often than no she liked to torment DiNozzo, mainly because he share every piece of detail about his life. She was shot in the head by double agent Ari Haswari who just happens to be the half-brother Ziva shots to protect Gibbs. This happened in the season two finale, "Twilight". The interconnection between these characters is created for an audience appeal and to create more drama in the show. Thus appealing to and attracting an audience which is into character dramas. 

All in all NCIS has a range of characters to appeal to a wide audience.