I am not leaving on my grand vacation until next week so I'll be popping in a few times over the next few days to share some posts that have been swirling around my brain lately. One of the things I enjoy getting from writing this blog is that it encourages to evaluate culture and how I view it from a new angle. It challenges me and I really like maintaining this blog. I hope people enjoy reading it as well.
The next few posts will in part be dedicated to the little 'dubious' things I see on my favorite shows which make me sigh. I genuinely like the shows I watch but sometimes they go overboard and feature things which either make absolutely no sense or lose their grounding. And as always, NCIS:LA is my favorite series to pick apart, evaluate and judge. And they are the definite winners of the dubious contest. And here is why:
1) For some odd reason, there is a regular appearance of either a bikini bar or a strip club as a major part of an episode (and even once a pole dancing studio!) on the show. And let us not forget the scene where they had Kensi enter undercover at a call girl agency (a segment I thoroughly hate for many reasons and was a complete disservice to a great character!). It never fails; The male characters enter the place wearing tuxedos, there are plenty of scantily clad women dancing all around (and all with Russian accents) and the agents chat to some seedy villains that have either an illegal operation going on there or this is their meeting place. And of course, there are also regularly young navy males that go to such places to entertain themselves.
I am going to go knock my head against the wall now. Is this really the best place the writers can think off for an undercover operation or as an evil villain hideout? I am not going to elaborate on my feelings and views towards such places (let it suffice to say I am an ardent feminist) but this regular appearance makes me groan. I did enjoy the scene when Kensi ask Deeks what was the difference between a bikini car and a strip club (I had no idea there actually was a difference) but I had to agree with her response of incredulity. And apparently Deeks had spent quite some time in such places. Not to mention this constant objectification of women seems to serve no purpose except "sex up" the show which is has no need for. It stands on strong ground already.
You writers and producers can do better than this!
2)Product placement. Now, NCIS:LA will never be a very smooth show. It operates on embellishment, big things, testosterone and a freaky version of reality. And of the areas in which they are extremely obvious is their product placement. I can think of three examples which are noticably bad:
-Every time they pull out a camera, you always see the sigh "Nicon" very clearly visually. It is almost front and center just so that we can definitely see who sponsors them with the camera
-LL Cool J's music. He is a great actor and I respect the man but I am no lover of his hip hop music (classical musician). I made an very honest attempt to get into his music last December but found out that it did certainly not suit my music taste. "Accidental racist" had me sitting open-mouthed and shaking my head as it was one of the worst songs I have ever heard. I have since come to the conclusion the song was made intentionally bad to raise awareness of racial issues and I have to say that was a clever ploy because it did certainly get people talking. But aside from that, one can regularly hear his hip hop music being a prominent part of certain scenes.
-The discussion of Cross Fit in season 4. It had me grinding my teeth. Last year I worked in a place where everyone was pretty much obsessed with the sport and it dominated all cafeteria discussions. So the episode where the opening scene began with Kensi and Sam praising the sport gave me an eerie flashback to all those discussions. Rarely, if ever, have I witnessed such incredibly bad production placement on TV. It was so blatantly obvious I have decided to deem it: "The worst production placement ever!".
3)Number of kills. I have already written here about gun culture, how I view violence on TV and how it is treated. So, when you have a series like NCIS:LA which operates to a certain extent on gun violence and deaths, you have people like me sighing/grinding our teeth. It never, ever fails, that in every single bloody episode at least 5 people are killed. Granted, it is always in self-defense but still. One can guarantee that no matter what subject they are dealing with, it'll bring along a major death toll in its way. And the characters hardly ever answer to their actions or are reprimanded for their insane death toll. And why hasn't there been a single mention of angry families of they people they've killed pursuing them demanding justice? They always enter the scene guns blazing and killing everything in their path. There seems to be the rule "Shoot everyone in our way and to hell with the rest!"
Again, writers and producers, you can do better than this! Look to series like NCIS and Castle that have built up a strong and solid fanbase and are very popular and well crafted without major death toll.
4)Display of violence. Yet again, a major pet peeve of mine which plays into my dislike of the prominent gun violence on their show. Another feature of the NCIS:LA agents is that whenever they arrest a subject or take someone down they always do it with as much violence and physical harm as possible. They've slammed people into walls, the car, the ground, hit them, attacked them, punched them and what not. And they have also threatened torture and displayed it which is something that should never bedone in my opinion. It never seizes to amaze me how they manage to pack violence into pretty much every scene in which pursuing a subject is involved. The characters seem to resort to violence in everything they do which is terrible and again it undermines the characters they have built.
5)Kensi's seeming inability to handle another female agent/law enforcement/a strong woman entering the scene without going crazy. I think the character of Kensi is great on most levels and it is one the reasons I love watching the show. But it has come to my attention that every single time a strong female enters the scene Kensi pulls back, becomes jealous and resorts to threats, defensive and bitchy behavior. It happened when Ava Espinoza came and they had Kensi threatening her and attacking defensive in every scene. It also happened when Monica entered the scene in season 4 and yet again, Kensi sparred with her. It amazes me she is always displayed as being incapable of handling another female entering the scene that is as strong and capable as she is. It shows genuine insecurity in her which is frustrating to see. Someone like her should be able to handle things like that without feeling threatened or resorting to violence. I am not saying Kensi should be perfect (her imperfections are one of the reasons why I enjoy the character so much) but she should be portrayed as being more mature. She could be shown handling things in her own way but being insecure as well (without the violence). I've noticed Nell clearly has a much better ability of handling people.
6)Their foreign policy. Everyone is an enemy and anti-American and apparently Europeans have a mad desire to destroy LA. One of these days, I will write about what it's like for people to travel to America from here. It all begins and ends with A) The cost of flight which is super high B) The terrible logistics of travelling there and C) The terror it is to deal with security at American airports.
It is an experience in itself for us Europeans. Because of the Schengen agreement over here, when travelling within Europe, we only flash our passport at the airport we fly from. In general, when we land at our destination, we just go on our merry way. It's one of the perks that comes with being a European :) So, the security at American airports throws us for a loop. Last time I went to the country I got into a hazzle as I have a very ethnic name that is written in two different ways, one is the Scandinavian one and the other is the International one. Try explaining that to airport authorities as they thought it was very suspicious I had one name on my green card and another one in my passport :)
And sometimes you just gotta love the NCIS:LA logic of things. It has passed through my mind that one of these days they might go for Nordic villains. I am thinking they'd have Icelandic and Faroese villains conspire to do something crazy in L.A. And frankly I would not put it past them to cook up something like that :) Or a conspiracy between all the smaller nations of Europe. The possibilities are endless!
And to conclude
NCIS:LA is a good show but there are also areas they fail in, in my opinion and hence the dubious awards. And since I take it so much apart and criticize it then why do I watch it? I genuinely enjoy the show on many levels, not least because it makes me laugh and smile which is something I look for in a show. I love laughing, smiling and feeling happy and NCIS:LA never seizes to make me grin and laugh. I watch an episode and it makes me happy. And that it something TV shows do not generally manage with people like me. It has on many levels excellent characterization and the story line is often great. And it has brilliant actors that do a wonderful job. Good acting is certainly not always a feature of TV and I appreciate the fact that NCIS:LA always has top-notch acting. Not to mention that there are truly great episodes in between that I can watch over and over again (The Job, Human Traffic, Personal, Kill House, 4x17).
So I will continue watching and picking apart.
And next up for the dubious awards is Criminal Minds!
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