The backstory nobody asked for
In an era when few streaming shows last beyond a single season, over on network TV, sturdy if faintly overheated procedurals like 鈥淣CIS鈥 are still going strong. The first 18-plus of its 22 seasons were led by Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the impassive special agent in charge and boss extraordinaire who liked to build boats in his basement in his spare time. 鈥淗ow did he ever get that way?鈥 said nobody ever. But CBS is taking a page from 鈥淵oung Sheldon鈥 with its latest spinoff 鈥淣CIS: Origins.鈥 Or as audiences will be tempted to call it, 鈥淵oung Gibbs.鈥
Harmon (who is an executive producer here) makes a brief return on screen to set the stage for a TV series that functions as one long flashback to 1991 when Gibbs joined the Naval Investigation Service (NIS as it was known back then) fresh out of the Marines and shortly after the murder of his wife and child. Austin Stowell is appropriately stoic as Gibbs, but he鈥檚 stuck playing a character who doesn鈥檛 have many layers beyond his trauma, and the show more or less hopes his tragic loss will do most of the characterization work instead. Spoiler: It doesn鈥檛.
TV and film love nothing more than a strong silent type who has lost a wife or child, or both. That way, he can be endlessly sympathetic without having to actually be an emotionally present spouse or parent 鈥 or hear about it when he鈥檚 not.
Does a weekly procedural need lore? No! But lore you will be served. The show is solidly made, and if you鈥檙e a dedicated viewer of 鈥淣CIS,鈥 maybe there鈥檚 something satisfying in the premise. It does try to emulate the original鈥檚 sensibility, tempering a super-seriousness with a modicum of comic relief and quirky side characters. And wow, there are a lot of side characters here 鈥 as if show creators Gina Monreal and David J. North were throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks 鈥 but at least they鈥檙e interesting enough, what we see of them, anyway.
The group of primary investigators is small, if not particularly interesting. Mariel Molino plays the sole woman on the team, and she鈥檚 a rebel because she wears her NIS-issued baseball cap backward, or something. She and Gibbs have a tense dynamic, but chances are that will thaw into something more. Or not. Just seems like things are headed that way.
There鈥檚 Caleb Foote as the nerdy, overeager colleague who befriends Gibbs instantly, Tyla Abercrumbie as the maternal desk jockey who handles unspecified administrative tasks and Patrick Fischler as the besuited boss they all answer to. Australian actor Robert Taylor (鈥淟ongmire鈥) also shows up as Gibbs鈥 father (who was played by Ralph Waite in the original 鈥淣CIS鈥).
But the real breakout is Kyle Schmid as the cowboy who runs this ragtag team of NIS investigators. He鈥檚 got a Marlboro Man mustache and a big swinging 鈥 ego. This character trope shouldn鈥檛 work, but it really does. There鈥檚 not much in Schmid鈥檚 resume up to this point that stands out, but he is making a meal out of the role, and his performance might be the best thing 鈥淣CIS: Origins鈥 has going for it.
The cases are barely compelling, and I鈥檓 always reminded how difficult it is to do this kind of economical storytelling well. What about the 1991 of it all? At first glance, the show doesn鈥檛 look like a period piece, and I鈥檓 guessing that鈥檚 due to budget. The music does much of the heavy lifting, but there are other details that show up: beepers, pay phones, microfilm, an overhead projector.
There鈥檚 even an extended sequence that takes place at the mall, a place where the average person used to blow hours of their day in a consumerist fog. Somehow the mall might be the most significant throwback of them all, and it was smart to think of ways to build a story around it.