Why It's Time For 'NCIS' To End

No matter what you call it, we live in a time when there's more great television available than anyone could possibly watch. It's not just the explosion of streaming services and an expansion of original cable television programs. It's the increased availability of international TV and all sorts of web-based programs.

But there's still something comforting about leaning back and watching a solid procedural show. It's a genre of television that often gets dismissed by TV critics, and that's often for very valid reasons. Procedural shows can be lazy and trope-filled and there are few things more painful as a viewer than watching a show that looks as if it were slapped together by a committee of drunken network executives.

Through much of its existence, one rare shining light in the procedural television genre has been "NCIS." It's currently in the middle of its 15th year and it has been one of the most popular TV shows nearly all of that time. The acting is generally first-rate and the writers have been able to create seasons full of stand-alone episodes that also manage to also hang together to create a believable mythology and backstory for the characters.

The problem for any long-running show - no matter how great - is that you inevitably run into a creative wall. All the easy stories have been told and the character chemistry that once seemed delightful now just plod along like a couple of dancers 32 hours into a last team standing marathon.

From a creative standpoint, "NCIS" has always been an interesting writing challenge because the star of the show is also the character that is the hardest to write. Mark Harmon has created in Leroy "Jethro" Gibbs a quietly solid John Wayne-type character that doesn't spend a lot of time talking. He's someone who's seemingly a natural leader and he imbues a loyalty in his team that is both believable and life-like. But long-time viewers of the show have been introduced a lot of his backstory over the years and 14 seasons in that life has begun to wear down Gibbs and the audience. He's lost so much over the years that he balances on the cusp of being someone you should feel sorry for and that's a dangerous spot for the center of any show. It's not a flashy role and that often makes Gibbs a difficult creative challenge. He's worked in part because Harmon is a wildly under-appreciated actor. But Gibbs is also a character that slips into one-note territory if you're not careful.

There have been some attempts in recent years to lighten up Gibbs and move him closer to the guy he was in the first couple of seasons of the show. He laughs a bit more, he's become a true father figure to McGee. The best move several seasons ago was to temporarily bring in Jon Cryer as a trauma surgeon-turned-confessor, which gave Gibbs the opportunity to become more three-dimensional and vulnerable.

Yet all of that progress has evaporated this season and it's just the most significant indication of the creative problems that have handicapped "NCIS" over the past couple of years. The show seems lost and it's disconcerting to watch if you're a long-time fan of the show.

Part of the problem is related to the exit of Michael Weatherly nearly two years ago. Weathery's Anthony DiNozzo was the second lead of the show and losing that character can cripple any series. But his exit also exposed a bigger problem for "NCIS." It's a show with a lot of great secondary characters who aren't nuanced and compelling enough to carry an episode without Gibbs and/or DiNozzo.

Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) has been thrust into the second lead role, but his solid acting skills haven't been enough to make up for the muddled way his character has evolved in recent seasons. It's great that he's found someone and gotten married and that storyline has certainly made for some nice moments. But for whatever reason, the writers stripped away most of his quirks once they added the romance, which has weirdly made him less interesting in the average episode. The lone recent high moment for McGee was watching him struggle with the aftermath of being held captive with Gibbs (a storyline that began with last season's cliffhanger). That trauma gave Murray a rare chance to shine as an actor. But it was also a reminder that too often his character seems to be just walking through most episodes.

The remaining long-time characters are all fine ensemble pieces, but none of them usually merit more than a couple scenes in most episodes. Which is likely part of the reason you're seeing Pauley Perrette (Abby Sciuto) preparing to leave the show. There's no legitimate creative reason to expand Abby's role, or the ones of Dr. Mallard (David McCallum), Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen) or Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll).

So "NCIS" has been left with is the option of adding cast members and it's fair to say that effort has seen mixed results. It's a testament to Emily Wickersham's acting abilities that her Eleanor Bishop remains relevant given the conflicting directions her character has been pulled since she was introduced. The writers still don't seem to have a feel for what works best with Bishop and her move towards another potential romance seems more cringe-worthy than believable. She's already lost a husband to cheating and a boyfriend to murder and it's beginning to seem as if the show's writers are more comfortable with her romantic life than giving her a multi-faceted professional one.

More recent additions to the show have been even less successful. Jennifer Esposito's Alexandra Quinn exited after one season and both Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry) are still not much more than barely-filled in ciphers. It's frustrating to watch in a show that spent more than a decade with a solid ensemble that was as good as any cast on television.

All of this creative uncertainty has made for some awkward episodes this season. Some weeks the show is nothing more than a competently constructed procedural series. And some episodes are so uncertain and confused that you can clearly see the seams where the plot was stitched together.

As "NCIS" kicks off new episodes tonight after the Olympic break, I'm left with the feeling that this may be time for the show to start moving towards its series finale. Unlike TV comedies, hit dramas tend to stick around way past their expiration until every bit of audience goodwill and advertising revenue has been extracted from the dried-out husk. But as a fan of "NCIS," I think I'd like to see it end soon. I've loved the show and the characters but today's "NCIS" bears as little resemblance to the series in its prime as the current-day Elton John does to the guy who threw himself around the stage in a duck costume during his 1970s concerts.

Sometimes, you just need to know when to let go of the dream.