NCIS is dumb as shit, but it's a fun show with a great cast. When I watch it, I just try to forget a few things, like

1. I've worked with actual NIS agents, and they're about as exciting as undertakers.
2. None of them looked like Ziva. Or even Abby. Although I do remember one guy who sort of reminded me of McGee.
3. Anyone not in the Navy who was informed an agent is with NCIS would respond with "what the hell is NCIS?"
4. Norfolk is 150 miles from Washington DC, and cannot be reached from Washington in the few minutes implied in the show.
5. The Norfolk Naval Base, as the largest naval installation in the world, has lots of its own NCIS agents, and would not need to call in Gibbs and his crew from DC every time somebody got whacked.

I also like Vegas.

No. Just personality.

I mean...I don't blame them...not a hater. They make a lot of money off shitty cookie cutter TV programming that draw in old people.

It is all good...not everything has to be edgy but lets just call it what it is.

It's an extremely formulaic show that follows the exact same pattern every week (unless it's a multiple-parter). So don't mistake what I said as meaning it's on par with the best shows on TV. But it's popular for a reason: the good part of the show is the great cast dynamic, the ongoing season- and series-long arcs and the fact that they're not afraid to knock off important characters. It gives it a little bit of gravitas that you don't expect from a program that on the surface appears so formulaic and even simplistic.

As far as being accurate to Naval reality, well, I have to be honest and say I don't particularly care. I don't watch it for that, any more than I watch The Following for insight on the mind of a serial killer, or the X-Files because I wanted to know about FBI procedure when hunting bigfoot. I watch shows because they have interesting plots, have characters that I come to care about, or, in the best (and unfortunately rarest) cases, both. In the case of NCIS it's definitely the characters. It's not a high concept show by any means. It's definitely an entertaining one though.

I like Vegas a lot. I'm pretty convinced it's about to get shit-canned, unfortunately.

Having been in the military, I judge military-based shows and movies a bit more harshly than others. Sometimes they're fairly accurate - A Few Good Men, for example, definitely captured the feel of the JAG Corps, and right up until the very end was fairly accurate. Sometimes they're complete shit - like the great shipboard heroic rescue scene from No Way Out.

I personally find all four of those shows equally atrocious.

That's nice.

Oh, I can understand why you would care more than I do. Just keep in mind I have no real basis of comparison, so it'll never be a big issue to me...

(Unless things get so utterly reeruned that it violates my own very loose suspension of disbelief - which is what watching NCIS LA is like...)

Agreed. I refuse to watch the LA version - it's horrible.

CBS is Vanilla....and just like ice cream...it is #1

CBS made up for their lack of profit with the power outage. More commercial time!!!