What I’m Watching: NCIS

NCIS: Season 7, Episode 6 “Outlaws and In-Laws” (B+)

It’s really a great thing for a show like this to have recurring characters it can call upon whenever it feels like it and who’s ready at a moment’s notice to pop up. He’s an especially important one because he was present at Jenny’s death, though the show has all but forgotten about her with Vance around recently (does anyone even remember the beloved Kate?). Tying him in, along with Gibbs’ boat, to the storyline was fun, though it’s obvious from the start that the good-hearted Mike Franks, who has oozed parental coddling for Gibbs ever since he appeared on the scene. It’s almost too easy to know how the case is going to play out, with Gibbs seeming shocked at first and then eventually harboring Franks’ family and proving that Franks is guilty of nothing other than being a devoted family man. The tangential plotline of the mother-in-law searching for her family was intriguing in what it started to suggest, and this series is always able to be powerful when it showcases either Franks or a grizzled Gibbs rocking slowly on a chair outside that beach house. Abby’s hesitation and subsequent delight at disassembling Gibbs’ boat was amusing, and it’s also fun to see how uncomfortable McGee gets upon visiting Abby’s lab. It’s unlikely that any other investigative agency has a great a tie pursuing their cases and interacting with witnesses and suspects as these guys do.