And in the End . . .

NCIS:LA came to an end in May, and enough time has passed to write a final critique from a fan’s—and a writer's—perspective. I've watched every season and every episode, many episodes more than once. Watching it became so ingrained I expect to be disappointed when no new episodes air whenever the 2023-2024 season begins. There were a few reasons I began watching the show: I liked and watched NCIS, I liked the NCIS:LA team and the main actors (especially the ones I knew from before the series: Chris, LL, and Linda), I know L.A., and I could relate to Callen's search for answers. The cast and their chemistry never disappointed even when other elements of the series did.

The first season of NCIS:LA was an undeniable success not because the concept was unique, but because everything worked so well. The characters, the writing, the use of L.A. for on-location scenes, and the chemistry between the actors made the series a success. In the very first episode, Chris and LL formed a bromance that doesn't come around often; their partnership became an instant classic. And the other regular characters in season 1—Kensi, Dom, Beale, Nate—added their own personalities and made the chemistry and the team even stronger. As the seasons progressed, other characters—Deeks, Nell, and Granger—became permanent or semi-permanent members of the team when others left. Deeks proved to be a witty foil and partner for Kensi and their romance became a signature ship for many viewers. Beale and Nell, the secret squirrels in Ops, worked well together and provided the team with technical knowhow and intelligence analysis and later even ventured occasionally into the field. Assistant Director Owen Granger, a season 4 addition, respected the agents and commended them when they succeeded, but criticized them when he felt they fell short. And his relationship with Hetty added tension and humor. Which brings me to Hetty, the tiny but mighty operations manager who led the team from the season premiere. In the early seasons, she proved a capable and cunning leader who managed the team with a touch that was light as a feather and strong as tempered steel and brought with her a wealth of experience and a mother's protective instinct for those under her charge. There were also the returning characters—the good, the bad, and the in-between—who became familiar faces: Arkady, Anna, Sabatino, Michelle, Joelle, Kirkin, Tahir, Roberta, DeChamps, Aiden, Kam. It was cast chemistry at its finest. And the early writers provided plots and dialogue that proved worthy of the plot and the actors. The banter between Callen and Sam was sharp and on-point, as was the banter between Kensi and Deeks. It was an outstanding collection of talent. Was it always perfect? No, but no network series is perfect, and in the early years, a series often goes through a few growing pains. 

Most of the issues during the Brennan years were minor, but there were two that were troublesome. One involved Deeks killing of Boyle revealed in a season 7 episode written by Mazero and Gemmill. I can't imagine what they were thinking. Some viewers won't accept that Deeks killed Boyle or believe Deeks was justified, but neither of those explanations work based on what the writers gave us. For instance, Lt. Bates suspected Boyle was involved in the suspicious death of a fellow LAPD detective, but a suspicion isn’t justification for arresting, let alone killing, Boyle.  Deeks confessed to killing Boyle three different times—to Hetty, to Kensi, and to Whiting. Maybe Mazero and Gemmill wanted to emphasize Deeks' protective instinct for women, but having Deeks be judge, jury, and executioner wasn't a good look for someone in law enforcement. If Deeks had at least expressed regret later for what he'd done, that would've shown that he recognized what he’d done was wrong, but he never expressed any regret about killing Boyle.

The other one was Callen's birthdate. It was problematic. How would anyone know Callen's real birthdate in those early seasons? The only person who would've known it was Nikita, and no one was in contact with him or even knew he was Callen's father until season 7. (It would’ve made sense and been easy enough for Hetty to make up a fake birthdate for Callen.) In drama, time is fluid: sometimes time is compressed, while at other times it’s protracted. When a season ends with a two-part cliffhanger, even though months have passed by the time the network airs the second part, sometimes no time has passed between the two episodes. It wasn’t a mistake for Callen and Sam to celebrate five years as partners in the episode “Partners” even though it aired in season 3 because they were partners before the premiere episode (after all, Callen was shot in an NCIS episode before NCIS:LA even aired). There are few—if any—scripted shows where the action corresponds to real time, and there are few fictional characters who "age" in real time. That's why when a fictional character is given a birth day and month, s/he is seldom given a birth year.

There were a few other issues (like Aiden's timeline and Roberta not being Deeks' initial emergency contact), most of which indicated characters were still being fleshed out in the early seasons which is typical in a series. But other than the Boyle killing and Callen's birth year, these and the few other issues didn't really affect the characters or the storylines in the early seasons.

The writing during the Brennan seasons was generally top notch. In the first few seasons there were numerous cases that involved team members going undercover, the stated specialty of the OSP team, and the majority of cases involved the Navy, Marines, a terrorism threat, and/or national security. Another thing Brennan and his writers did well during the early seasons was create story arcs that flowed seamlessly over several episodes and sometimes over several seasons: Sidorov, Janvier, Matthias, the Comescues, and Tahir were well-crafted arcs and all were successfully completed by the end of season 7. Brennan and the writers also did an excellent job of leaving breadcrumbs relating to Callen's family history scattered throughout the first seven seasons—without letting the breadcrumbs overwhelm the actual case in an episode. Even Callen’s long-anticipated meeting with his father in "Matroyshka" was a side note to the actual case of the episode, occurring in the final five minutes.  

NCIS:LA became known by many viewers for its explosions and action sequences, but the very early season episodes were much more than explosion and action sequences. The plots of the early episodes didn't rely on special effects for drama; the drama relied more on well-constructed plots, well-developed characters, and conflict. The show also demonstrated a subtle, often biting, sense of humor, and all the actors demonstrated excellent comedic timing. (Both Hetty and Granger excelled at dry wit, Callen was known for his sass, and Deeks was the jokester in his relationship with Kensi.)

The Brennan years came to an end with the season 7 finale, but during those first seven seasons, viewers weren’t just introduced to the team; they got to know the team: they learned about Callen's past and watched him discover facts about his childhood, his family, his relationship to Hetty, and finally meet his dad and find out his first name; they learned much more about Sam's years as a SEAL, that his father was a Marine, and met his family—Michelle, Kam, and Aiden; they learned about Kensi’s relationship with her dad and his death, her estrangement from her mom, and her fiance; they learned about Deeks' time at LAPD, his relationship with his dad, his nickname (“Party Marty”), met his mom, and even met some of his friends; they also saw Kensi and Deeks become more than work partners; learned a little about Beale and Nell and their interests outside of work; and they learned about the shared history of Hetty and Granger and met Granger’s daughter.

In season 8, Gemmill took the reins as showrunner. From everything I've read and heard, the cast and crew enjoyed working on the show and there has never been any suggestion about inappropriate or unprofessional behavior by anyone. Both Brennan and Gemmill deserve kudos for creating and maintaining a safe, professional working environment for cast and crew. All indications are that both showrunners were a pleasure to work with and for. The following comments are about what happened on the show after Gemmill became showrunner because, as showrunner, Gemmill was  responsible for making decisions about casting, writing, the show's direction and focus. A showrunner assumes enormous responsibility for a show's success or failure, and deserves accolades when the show succeeds and criticism when it doesn’t, and as measured by the ratings from seasons 9 to 14, NCIS:LA was not a success. And that’s not my opinion.

The overall ratings of the show dropped in season 7 (due in large part to the show being moved yet again in the CBS schedule to Sunday night), but they rebounded, and the show’s average viewership in season 8 actually increased by 17%. The premiere episode of season 8 garnered an overnight audience of 10.34 million, up over 2 million from the season 7 premiere. But that would be the last season the show’s average viewership improved. Beginning with season 9 the show lost viewers every season. In season 9, the average viewership dropped by 20% from season 8, and average viewership declined every season following by more than 10%. The premiere episode of season 14 garnered an overnight audience of only 4.33 million. Such a dramatic loss of viewers had to be due to more than scheduling—especially since the show remained on Sunday night after its move in season 7. The most obvious conclusion is that Gemmill’s decisions had more to do with viewers leaving than the schedule.

I’m not a showrunner, but as a teacher, if 20% of my students don’t grasp a concept in a lesson, I look at both the students and my lesson plan. If I were a showrunner, and my show’s average viewership dropped by more than 20% in one season, more than 1/5 of viewers stopped watching, I’d take a look at the decisions I was making as showrunner. I’m not saying Gemmill didn’t do this. But the success of season 8 in terms of viewership raises the question of why Gemmill decided to even do a “reset.” It was taking a huge risk, resetting a show in its 9^th season, when the show had, by all criteria, been successful since season 1, and unfortunately for the cast, crew, and fans, almost nothing about Gemmill’s "reset" was a success and much of it was a disaster.

So, what went wrong? A lot of things, too many things, and they were all decisions [save for the scheduling] either made or approved by the showrunner. The most  questionable decisions involved the characters.

•  Hetty remaining as operations manager (OM) was a problem Either Hetty needed to be at OSP or she needed to retire. The idea that a woman of advanced years was off running ops in faraway lands while maintaining her position as OM of the OSP team in Los Angeles was ridiculous, but Gemmill seemed determined to keep Hetty as OM even if Linda was unavailable.

•  Not replacing either Beale or Nell was a problem. (It was like Criminal Minds without Garcia or NCIS without Kasie.) It was silly that suddenly everyone, including a retired admiral and his sometime assistant (a character with no real purpose), could run Ops.

•  The fanatical obsession with revising Callen’s past was a disaster. Callen’s personal and work history, professional abilities, and emotional temperament had been thoroughly established for seven seasons by Brennan (just as had been done with the other characters).

 In an interview in Parade (9.27.2019), Gemmill said this: I think that not knowing who he [Callen] was or where he came from had a bit of an adverse effect on his ability to find a certain amount of peace in himself, and now that he’s gotten some closure and answers, hopefully, he’ll be ready to move forward himself in terms of the next stage of his life. Whether that involves Anna or not, clearly, we set in some obstacles for that, but that’s what makes it interesting in terms of what happens next to him. (Interesting that Gemmill talked about Callen being ready to “move forward,” but then didn’t let him and instead rewrote his past.) As early as season 9, Chris described Callen’s relationship with Anna this way: “They’re attracted to each other, and they get a kick out of each other. There’s shared history. For Callen, [a serious relationship is] unusual. It gives him stability and gets him to contemplate establishing a normal life, which has not ever been who he is.” [bold is mine]   

But in “A Fait Accompli” we get a flashback of a young college-age Callen already contemplating a “normal life” until Hetty talks him out of it. In “Deadline,” Hetty describes young Callen as a “challenging child.” A “challenging child” might beat an abusive foster dad with a broomstick, but would be unlikely to fear a school bully (flashback in “If the Fates”) when he’s older. After all, this is supposed to be the same young Callen we met in “Rage” who stole a car and spent time in juvie (and endured Drona training). What Callen endured as a child—even without Drona training—would’ve made him tough and angry (the hole punched in the shelter’s bathroom wall). And the ridiculous Callen and Anna wedding planning scenes were written either by writers who didn’t know the characters or were written as filler (another problem during Gemmill’s tenure) because Callen had no close friends outside of work, and we learned in “One of Us” that Anna’s closest friend had died years before. That the writers repeatedly ignored details about characters might’ve been intentional or unintentional, but it was amateurish and something that shouldn’t happen in the final five seasons of a show. And the revisions to Callen’s past didn’t work because they didn’t respect the character. Changing his birthdate wasn’t the problem for me; changing it by six years was the problem because it threw off all the events in the earlier seasons. And to do it without providing any explanation was sloppy and demonstrated a complete lack of respect for both the character and the viewers. It was the writer saying, “I don’t need to explain this to anyone.”

•  The attention given to Kensi and Deeks and their relationship, while appreciated by many Densi fans, became boring to others and too often slowed the pace of an episode for yet one more conversation about starting a family, fostering, adopting, or infertility. Gemmill’s inability to decide whether or not to to give them a child was mind-boggling. Had he never heard of daycare? It’s what thousands of working parents—even those in law enforcement—rely on every day. And his decision to have them foster—but never formally adopt—a teenager from Central America didn’t sit well with many viewers. Immigration is a volatile subject, and this may have been Gemmill’s way of addressing the issue, but it was poorly done. Having Densi adopt a teenager displeased many Densi fans who wanted to see them raise a baby, and having them adopt a girl from Central America displeased many viewers who wondered why they didn’t adopt a child already in the foster care system.

•  The use of guest characters to do work the agents should be doing made some of the characters seem irrelevant. This was a problem with several guest characters who ended up doing the investigative or field work instead of the agents, like Nina Barnes, a silly character to begin with. Too often the agents seemed perfectly fine, even relaxed, having someone else—who wasn’t on the team and sometimes a civilian—do the work that they should be doing, including risking their lives.

All of these issues relate to the show’s major problem when Gemmill was showrunner: the WRITING.

So many episodes under Gemmill had unorganized, illogical plots (especially starting in season 10); "dead" scenes (no action, just actors talking, talking, talking); caricatures instead of characters and absurd characters (Katherine, an insurance broker who took on the Chinese government, and Nina Barnes, former arms dealer now baker); loose ends (Who expunged Anna’s record? Who killed the CIA officers? What did Deeks do with Kirkin's bequest? What happened to Pilar?); and behavior inconsistent with the character or with an NCIS special agent, in general (Callen asking Sam to dress like a leprechaun or Fatima turning Ops into a meditation center replete with candles). These and other problems were found in scripts by both experienced and new writers. There were far more examples of writing that consistently failed to meet the writing standards set in the early seasons than writing that met them. Nevertheless, there were some episodes that were excellent (“Ninguna Salida,” “767,” “The Silo,” “The One That Got Away,” “The Sound of Silence” among them), but they appeared less and less frequently as the seasons continued.

And then there were the characters who disappeared: Katherine, Pietra (in "Love Kills," but not in "A Fait Accompli"), and the entire team in “Lost Sailor Down” left Kensi on her own in "Land of Wolves.” Zasha and Keane fared no better; both went to Syria to keep an eye on Hetty, but after "All the Little Things" were never seen, heard from, or mentioned again. And the writers forgot events from earlier seasons (In "Mother" the final "reveal" by Hetty had been revealed in season 4's "Ravens and Swans"—written by Gemmill himself). Even in the finale, which Gemmill co-wrote, the writers got the Darryl Donkins story wrong (a story which originally appeared in another episode written by Gemmill). Then there were changes that made no sense, like changing Sam's name to Osama. And too often “causes” were the focus instead of the case or the main characters. In the early seasons, the writers dealt with controversial topics, they just did it with more subtlety. In many of the episodes during Gemmill’s tenure, the case seemed cobbled together. "The Frogman's Daughter," "Fukushu," "Perception," "Shame," and other episodes that focused on social issues within or outside of the military, all had problems with the plot, some major. (“Fukushu” was intended to focus on violence against Asian Americans, but in the end the elderly Asian man wasn’t attacked because he was Asian, but because of his work for a restaurant. “Shame” was about the difficulties gays face in the military, but the main problem with the relationship wasn’t that those in the relationship were gay but that the relationship was between an officer and an enlisted sailor.)

And most of the story arcs were awful. These comments by Gemmill in various interviews offer some idea about why the arcs were so bad:

•  “I’m not sure. I imagine we would’ve finally brought him to justice,” Gemmill told TV Insider when asked how he imagined the Kessler story going.

•   “I don’t know; I’m not sure how we would’ve resolved that [the bodystitchers case]. I would have left that in Frank’s capable but sort of deranged hands.”

•   “When you received the official ‘final season’ news, was there anything you had to adjust, any planned storylines you decided to contract or just scrap?”

Gemmill: “No, because we really didn’t know how we were going to end the season [S14].” (This contradicts a comment Gemmill made on the season 14 DVD where he states that they ended every season with an episode that could’ve been the series finale.)

While I’ve never written for TV, I can only imagine the amount of planning that’s required to film a story arc. Not only does the writing for each episode have to be a well-developed case, but each episode has to be cohesive with all the previous episodes. In addition, guest actors have to be hired, sets built, locations selected and reserved, stunts planned, and more. The time required for the planning must be significant, and one of the most important elements of the planning would be knowing how a story arc ends. (This partially explains why the final episode of the arc about Derrick’s rescue in Mexico was the weakest of the three episodes even though it was part of the best story arc during Gemmill’s tenure.) The Vietnam arc, though it was far too long and had problems, was the next best arc. After season 9, there weren’t any decent story arcs.

The arc involving Mac and Harm from JAG was not only boring, but a disaster for Mac and Harm fans since Gemmill blew up their relationship. The Kessler and the body stitchers arcs were unfinished. I’m not sure you could call the deep fake storyline an arc, but it was terrible. The Katya arc was a complete mess. [When Gemmill couldn’t secure Eve Harlow to reprise the role, he should’ve moved on because Katya had been given a perfect exit in “No More Secrets” when Volkoff sent her back to Russia and certain death.] Problems with the Katya arc included major changes to the backstories and relationship of Anna and Arkady, and Joelle returning again and having a major role (the arc became about Katya-Joelle-Callen). Another problem in the arc was the Callen-Sam relationship. Instead of working with Sam to find Katya, Callen turned to Joelle (who’d betrayed him, brought Katya into his life, shown she was untrustworthy in “Looking Glass,” and threatened to kill him in “Subject 17”). Exactly when did Sam—who’d always broken rules as easily as Callen—suddenly become the “by-the-book” partner Callen couldn't count on? And why would Sam not help Callen find Katya? In fact, why wasn’t the entire OSP team after Katya the way they’d gone after Tahir? (Tahir had killed Michelle, but Katya was a terrorist who had the ability to damage OSP more than Tahir.) Which also begs the question: Why wasn’t the CIA hunting Katya after the death of two CIA officers, the injury to Joelle, and her scam “defection”? She was a definite threat to national security. Finally, Joelle—a guest character—kills Katya. When does a guest character kill the antagonist of a major character? Can anyone imagine someone besides Sam killing Tahir or Deeks killing Sullivan? And after killing Katya, Joelle didn’t help Callen find Pembrook. There was no indication she and Callen had found any information about Pembrook, but Joelle didn’t stay around to help Callen in his search. Joelle only cared about getting her revenge—a selfish bitch to the end—and used Callen again.

This was followed by the Drona arc which also had major problems (besides yet another revision to Callen’s backstory). These photos illustrate just one. Photo 1 is the photo of young Callen at the end of "Subject 17.” Photo 2 is Callen remembering some of his training under Pembrook. He's obviously several years older in photo 2.

Photo 1

Photo 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, at what age did Callen enter the program and how many years was he in it? How long was he trained by Pembrook? Everything about the Drona story arc seemed slapped together. And, if Hetty’s availability was in doubt, why give her a major role in any story arc? Gemmill began the arc knowing that Linda had only been available on a very limited schedule since season 10, and yet her character played a major role in the arc. He also said that a conversation between Callen and Hetty was very important to the arc—a conversation that never materialized. Why, knowing Linda’s very limited availability, didn’t Gemmill have that "very important" conversation filmed when the premiere episode was being filmed? My guess is because he hadn’t worked the arc out—or Hetty’s role in it—so he couldn’t write that conversation. And while not having that conversation was a major disappointment, Military's resolution to the arc was one of the worst pieces of writing I’ve ever seen. His attempt to make Pembrook—a man who’d abused children for years and still used his former subjects for clandestine missions—into a "misunderstood" man who genuinely regretted his past AND had "chosen" Sam as Callen's partner was so awful it was like something written by a writer with no understanding of characterization, conflict, or drama. It would've been much more satisfying if Pembrook had remained an awful man who’d abused children and destroyed lives and who Callen killed, just like Sam killed Tahir. (Military's ending was as silly as if he'd had Tahir apologize after trying to kill Aiden and Sam had forgiven him.) 

[Something else I noticed about the Callen story arcs under Gemmill was that the writers always brought in a minor character to play a major role: Joelle in the Katya arc and Beltran in the Drona arc, and both took attention away from what should've been the main conflict. Brennan didn’t introduce minor characters into his story arcs, so the focus stayed on the NCIS character and his/her antagonist: Sidorov against the team, Janvier against Callen, Clairmont against Kensi, Tahir against Sam. This focus kept the conflict uncomplicated which made the arc stronger.] As showrunner, Gemmill was responsible for every script, but when his own scripts had problems similar to those written by less experienced writers, who was going to help improve them?

And then there was the slap-dashed, silly "engagement" arc--if you could even call that an arc. Practically every conversation in it was poorly written and didn't reflect either Callen or Anna. For instance, Anna tells Callen at the beginning of "Come Together" that she wants to "be normal" with him, but at the end of the same episode, she says that other people may never understand "our normal" because both of them are broken. So, her idea of "normal" isn't going to work, watching TV, cooking dinner--what she describes as "normal" in their earlier conversation? Or has she realized--as she states in "Of Value"--that she'll never have a "normal" life because she was trained for a very specific life since she was a kid? These conversations were written by the same writer, but it makes one wonder if he had a clear feel for Anna's character. And, not surprisingly, there were no heartfelt, emotional conversations between Callen and anyone else about what changes this major decision in his life might bring or his feelings about making such a momentous decision: no conversation with Sam, no letter from Hetty, no conversation with Arkady. It was easy to ignore such conversations for the writers because Callen didn't share his feelings. (sigh)

Finally, the other major problem under Gemmill was the scarcity of team scenes. Under Brennan, the show had a true team feel; it lost that under Gemmill. There were few scenes of the entire team together and even fewer of the original four agents together. Bullpen scenes disappeared almost entirely (which made sense during COVID, but not after), the Christmas episodes were axed, and after the bar was sold, I think the team only got together twice outside of work—at the beach in “Come Together” and at Callen and Anna’s wedding in the series finale. (That Gemmill and Harimoto, both experienced writers, couldn't figure out how to include a scene where the entire team celebrated Densi's pregnancy in the series finale showed how much the "team" concept of the show had disappeared under Gemmill). And once the new agents were introduced and the main actors began taking days off, the regular partnerships became even less consistent.

There were other issues that undoubtedly contributed to the loss of viewers, but the show under Gemmill continued to lose viewers and never approached the success it achieved under Brennan, and the main fault didn’t lie with the major actors who stayed with the series until the finale or the scheduling.

Making all the decisions about a show’s direction is the prerogative of any showrunner, but sometimes changing direction doesn’t work, and Gemmill's "reset" clearly didn't work. He had the same core actors in the major roles, but viewers weren’t on board with HIS vision. I get that showrunners have their own “vision” for shows, but a show doesn’t exist in a vacuum; if viewers don’t watch, their “vision” gets cancelled, and that’s what happened with NCIS:LA. CBS cancelled Gemmill’s NCIS:LA, not Brennan’s.

I'm sorry NCIS:LA came to an end because the characters were my favorite, but given the show’s direction, the declining quality of the writing, and Gemmill’s expressed plans for season 15, I'm not as sad as I would've been had the show maintained the quality it had in the early seasons. I’m mostly sad because I know what could've been but wasn’t.

(P.S. Nothing personal, but based on the disaster Gemmill inflicted on NCIS:LA, I sincerely hope he doesn't become showrunner of any other show I like.)