NCIS: The Sixth Season[COLOR= black]
Directed by Tony Wharmby et al
Studio: CBS/Paramount
Year: 2008-2009
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 anamorphic
Running Time: 1086 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0 stereo surround English
Subtitles: CC[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]MSRP:[/COLOR][COLOR= black] $ 55.98[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]
Release Date: August 25, 2009[/COLOR]
[COLOR= black]Review Date:[/COLOR][COLOR= black] August 15, 2009[/COLOR]
The Series
4/5
[COLOR= #303030]Something very unusual happened during the sixth season of CBS’ hit series NCIS: the show slowly and without any fanfare crept past CSI and became CBS’ top-rated series. What’s even more impressive is that the audience levels for the show this season exceeded the numbers in any prior season of the show, virtually unheard of in this age of hundreds of cable channels and the fact that NCIS airs opposite the most popular show on television: American Idol. Despite one major cast change, it was mostly business as usual at NCIS this year, and yet audiences seemingly could not get enough.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]The Naval Criminal Investigation Service is a branch of the military investigating crimes committed against military personnel. Though most of the crimes involve murder, there are occasionally kidnappings to solve or missing persons to find. The series doesn’t rely heavily on forensics (though forensics naturally do play a role in the solutions of the crimes), but the one thing that NCIS has going for it that most other procedural shows lack is the playful and loving camaraderie among the members of this unit. At the end of season five, the team had been dissolved by the higher ups, ostensibly due to the murder of NCIS chief Jenny Shepard. We find out at the beginning of the sixth season that the team has been disbanded and a new team assigned to Gibbs because one of the new team members is a mole within the agency. Thus, Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and a strict, no-nonsense new boss Director Leon Vance played by Rocky Carroll must work together to ferret out this traitor. The story of the smoking out of the mole is extended over three non-consecutive episodes in the first half of the season, and though the identity of the mole is made clear to the audience by the end of the season premiere, the eventual arrest is held for sometime later in the season. As for the disbanded teammates, by the end of the show’s second episode, all has been righted and the team reunited: eternal cut-up Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), his usual teammate and verbal sparring partner Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), computer whiz Timothy McGee (Sean Murray), forensics specialist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette), medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum) and his assistant Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen).
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[COLOR= #303030]Apart from the three-part mole story arc, there were a few other episodes that were real standouts this season. Sean Murray’s showcase episode “Caged” which found him trapped in a women’s prison was a high water mark for him while David McCallum’s emotionally complex story “Broken Bird” displayed his talents admirably. The show’s Christmas episode “Silent Night” was unquestionably one of the most moving in the show’s history. And the two-part “Legend” arc near the end of the season served as the backdoor pilot for the NCIS spinoff which will follow NCIS on CBS this fall. The season finale “Aliyah,” yet another multi-episode story arc concerning Ziva’s relationship with a Mossad operative, set up the usual cliffhanger that will take the show into its seventh season come September. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Here are the twenty-five season six episodes contained on six discs. Names in parentheses indicate the participants in that episode’s audio commentary:[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]1 – Last Man Standing[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]2 – Agent Afloat[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]3 – Capitol Offense[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]4 – Heartland[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]5 – Nine Lives[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]6 – Murder 2.0 (my favorite of this year’s episodes)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]7 – Collateral Damage[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]8 – Cloak[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]9 – Dagger[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]10 – Road Kill[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]11 – Silent Night[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]12 – Caged[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]13 – Broken Bird (David McCallum and James Whitmore, Jr.)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]14 – Love & War[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]15 – Deliverance[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]16 – Bounce (Michael Weatherly)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]17 – South by Southwest[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]18 – Knockout[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]19 – Hide and Seek[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]20 – Dead Reckoning[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]21 – Toxic (Sean Murray and Pauley Perrette)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]22 – Legend (Part 1)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]23 – Legend (Part 2)[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]24 – Semper Fidelis[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]25 – Aliyah[/COLOR]
Video Quality
3.5/5
The series is presented on CBS in 1080i and framed at 1.78:1, and these down converted 480p transfers vary in quality. Though sharpness and color are more consistent this season than in some previous seasons, the images are sometimes soft and grain levels vary from scene to scene and show to show. There are sporadic instances of moiré patterns that occasionally crop up. Each episode has been divided into 8 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track isn’t as active as an action-filled series such as this could be. Instances of car chases and flybys in helicopters could have been much better spread through the soundfield though the show’s music score gets used effectively throughout the season.
Special Features
3.5/5
Three episodes contain audio commentaries. As in previous seasons, Michael Weatherly’s track is self absorbed and jokey. David McCallum and James Whitmore, Jr. don’t have much to say other than praising one another and the staff. Sean Murray and Pauley Perrette’s track is the chattiest and the most fun.
The various bonus featurettes have been spread out across the set’s discs rather than being lumped all on one disc.
“Bodies of Work” (disc one) is a very entertaining tour of the company who produces the corpses and cadavers used in the series. With host [COLOR= #303030]Brian Dietzen interviewing shop owner Matthew Mungle, this anamorphic 16 ¼-minute featurette is the most interesting of this season’s features.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]“Fear” [/COLOR][COLOR= #303030](disc two) is a 7-minute look at co-star Pauley Perrette’s recording of a song she wrote “Fear” with acoustic guitar accompaniment. It’s in anamorphic widescreen.[/COLOR]
“Starting with a Bang” (disc three) features several of the show’s producers and stars discussing the dissolution of the NCIS team cliffhanger and its resolution along with the “mole in the department” story arc. This anamorphic featurette runs 10 minutes.
“Horsin’ Around” (disc five) spends 9 ¼ minutes with the stars, producers, stunt coordinator, and horse wrangler involved in the “South by Southwest” episode describing the challenges and fun of three days of location shooting riding horses in rugged terrain. It’s in anamorphic widescreen.
“Season Six: Cruising Along” (disc six) features the show’s producers and stars commenting on their delight with how the sixth season of the show maintained the quality of previous seasons. This anamorphic widescreen featurette runs 15 ½ minutes.
“Six Degrees of Conversation” (disc six) is a roundtable discussion of the season as a whole featuring the entire cast of regulars and questioned by ET interviewer Kevin Frazier. The anamorphic feature, which has some snippets from various episodes of the season and a few examples of the show translated into other languages, runs 17 minutes.
In Conclusion
4/5 (not an average)
NCIS had an outstanding sixth season with the cast’s ensemble playing firing on all cylinders and a large handful of excellent mystery scenarios offered up in entertaining fashion. A nice selection of bonus features complements the set that fans will no doubt want to add to their collections. Recommended!
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
