I've been watching the TV show, NCIS, while using the treadmill. (Exercising always requires distraction. Because exercising is loathsome. Even though I feel better after doing it.) There are approximately a bajillion seasons, and I'm somewhere in the middle of Season Nine. The characters and plotlines are, at this point, a little bit cliché -- like stereotypes of themselves. Nevertheless, the familiarity and predictability are some of the appeals of the show.
Yesterday's episode (Season Nine Episode 14) apparently centers on character Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I say apparently, because the first few minutes of the episode indicate that it will focus on his backstory, his choices and traumas from his past, and such. Weirdly, I couldn't watch it: I am not in the right frame of mind to watch someone else take stock of their life with all the joys and regrets and intense moments contained therein. I can barely do that myself right now. So I turned it off, and will find something else to watch until I am ready.
That being said, I will eventually watch the episode. Gibbs is my favorite character. I especially enjoy the way that he has clear command presence and exercises natural, firm authority, but also has a quiet and understated tender side. He may be terrifying, but he also actually cares. It's very nicely done. As an added bonus, the actor Mark Harmon is not the stereotypical buff youth, but an older gentleman (in his 50s-early 60s in the seasons I have watched so far). Granted, he's an attractive gentleman. Nevertheless, it is gratifying to see an actor in my age group, and have the focus be primarily on his personality and not his physique.
Well done. And worth watching.
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