Follows the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), as they get to the bottom of criminal cases connected to Navy and Marine Corps personnel.
Every machine eventually breaks down, no matter how dependable it once was. For NCIS, that breakdown has been dragging out for years, but Season 22 finally makes it impossible to ignore: the show has nothing left in the tank. What used to be a satisfying and familiar formula now feels worn out and stale. Each episode kicks off with a crime, cycles through predictable tech talk, a handful of suspect interviews, and wraps everything up neatly—so much so you could time your evening by it. The risks the team faces never truly land; wild decisions or outright mistakes are forgotten by the next week, with no fallout or lasting impact. Any sense of genuine peril has vanished.
The dialogue doesn’t do the show any favors, either. Once sharp and witty exchanges have dulled, and now the characters speak in lines that sound like they came from an algorithm trained on old scripts. Surprises are nonexistent—plot twists are broadcast so early you’d have to be asleep to miss them.
Mark Harmon’s exit left a hole that the show hasn’t managed to fill. New team leaders and unfamiliar faces have been cycled in and out, but it’s a stopgap solution that never truly works. Harmon’s steady presence used to hold things together, even when the storylines wobbled. Without him, NCIS feels directionless, and character development either happens too quickly to matter or doesn’t make any sense at all. Choices characters make seem dictated more by the needs of that week’s story than by any logical progression.
After twenty-two years on the air, it’s not surprising that NCIS would start showing its age. But this season is more than just dated—it’s running on fumes, unsure why it’s still sticking around. There’s a certain comfort in knowing precisely what you’ll get, but at this stage, it feels more like a routine than a show worth watching. If you’re expecting a last-minute revival, don’t count on it. NCIS hasn’t just lost its spark; it seems to have forgotten its purpose altogether.
Available on DVD September 9th
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