printI’d expect a reader as smart and articulate as Mike Bassett to refrain from watching NCIS. I do. I never watch any program in which the actors become “characters”—phony, “quirky,” empty heads, whose nauseating, smarmy interactions trump any attempt at a tale.
Yes, “Law and Order” in all its permutations sports PC elements, as does “CSI.” But generally, these excellent series offer kick-ass scripts and actors. Give me a good narrative. But I will not tolerate some prancing, decked-up, self-styled Goth twenty-something (allegedly) inserting herself into the story, and selling what goes, in these sorry days, for “originality” and “individuality.”
Other than the ladies who always offer up their cleavages in the interrogation room, and everywhere else (you want respect when you go into a situation boobs first? Not from me, bubbles), “Law & Order,” “CSI,” and “Criminal Minds,” especially,—are all top-notch productions.
Update: The other thing I refuse to abide in entertainment is what I call the “giant wagging, prodding finger.” Activism should not replace acting, and sermons must not supplant stories.” I refuse to be lectured by pea brains. GIVE ME A GOOD STORY! No politics.
Writes Mike Bassett:
NCIS, the nations #1 TV show goes P.C. run amok.
Tuesday night’s “Christmas” episode of NCIS, starring and produced by Mark Harmon, was the most disgusting and P.C. episode I have ever seen on the series.
The episode depicts a returned combat veteran Marine murdered while kneeling next to a tree on a Muslim prayer rug.
The crux of the investigation, conducted with a background of the “Christmas” theme in progress, shows various members of Leroy Jethro Gibbs’s NCIS team preparing for various pre-Christmas events while investigating the murder of this Marine turned Muslim.
The suspects are varied (yet inclusive), including:
(1) The Marine’s father, a retired Marine colonel turned “Christian Pastor”.
(2) A group of Marines in the victims former unit.
(3) The Marine’s widow (a very prim and proper white, blonde Christian chick).
(4) The Marine victim’s younger brother (a dashing white Christian guy attending a military prep school).
Also in attendance in the episode is the victim’s Muslim Navy Chaplin, a dashing black officer, who spends the episode quoting the positives of Islam and the traumas of our fighting men who wish to convert to Islam after their tours of duty in the Middle East.
The episode villainizes every suspect in the show as being outwardly hostile toward our victim’s conversion to Islam with the following results:
His father, the now Christianized, retired Marine colonel pastor, who only wants to be referred to as “Reverend”, is found to have paid off some of the current Marines in the victims old unit, to taunt him into rejecting Islam because it is detrimental to the mission of the unit and disgraces his family members.
The old unit buddies spend their time being paid off by Dad (the “Reverend”), and taunting our victim until he is forced to seek counsel from the Muslim chaplin, who, as I said before, spends the episode depicting the wonderful world of Islam.
The widowed wife is depicted as a surly and uncooperative individual, who refuses to assist in the investigation because she has a funeral to conduct.
The younger brother, Mr. Perfect, student at a prestigious military prep school, is in a quandary over who could have possibly killed his brother, the former perfect Marine, that is, before he shamed his family by becoming a Muslim.
Meanwhile, the dapper Muslim Navy Chaplin becomes threatened when he receives a pasted cutout letter describing him as the next victim.
It all boils down to this: Our victim was murdered by his prep school brother in an “honor killing” because he (the victim) was an embarrassment to this wonderful “Christian” family for accepting Islam, thus casting dishonor on his family.
Merry Christmas from NCIS.
As a Christian, a Vietnam Veteran, a retired law enforcement officer, and an American, I am totally repulsed by this further condemnation of my American way of life.
This episode, aired in the Christmas season, is a slap in the face to every American, Christian, Marine, and military man in this country.
It purposely depicted intolerance by the suspects (all of whom were white Christians or Marines) while propagandizing the wonderful tenets of Islam, which were being usurped by a bunch of disenchanted family members and Marines who were serving with the recently “converted” victim.
Disgraceful is an understatement.
Update II (Dec. 20): Virgil is right about “24,” and its hero, “Jack Bauer: Federal Zombie.” This is from the article so titled:
Certain themes in the cult series never change. One is Bauer’s eternal willingness to be chewed and spat out by the successive governments he serves. As Bauer’s Chinese jailers hand him over to his American handlers, the latter chain him like a dog to a fence. But Bauer is accustomed to being manacled by his owners. The Top Dogs just don’t trust their lapdog, despite his devotion.
Or is Bauer’s a zombie’s obedience? As a reader put it, “Jack Bauer is the unstoppable, undead agent who has actually been killed and brought back to life, in service—and thrall—to the state. Instead of the ‘brains’ that ‘regular’ zombies devour, the Federal Zombie feeds on ‘intelligence.’” Jack’s response to his mistreatment is to mutter about his approaching meaningful end—the prospect of giving his life for the Greater Good. Some individualist.
Other abiding Hollywood themes: In real life, the typical Islamic organization—take the Council on American-Islamic Relations—is staffed by media-savvy mouthpieces for militant Islam. “24,” however, has created a chimerical CAIR full of American patriots. One of the central heroes—was it Karen Hayes?—even laments that we are alienating the very community upon which we depend to fight terrorism. On the other hand, suburban Americans are depicted as rabid Islamophobes, wont to turn on their Muslim neighbors at the drop of a hat. In one vignette two such mouth breathers break down the front door of a Muslim family’s home and beat the son up. …
Yep, couldn’t say it any better myself.
NCIS: Los Angeles, the NCIS spin off, had a similar “wagging the finger” plot this week, as their Christmas special. Someone was blowing up members of an a team of marines and the suspicion was initially cast on the Muslim marine, thought to have been radicalized. But it turned out it was the bible-quoting Christian team-member who was so guilt-ridden over America’s crimes in Iraq that he started killing his teammates. In the last scene he strapped a bomb to his chest and was prepared to kill himself and his amputee comrade.
How do you say “merry Christmas” in Arabic?
And in next week’s episode, a sensitive religious man of peace, Major Malik Nidal Hassan, is traumatized that he may have to shoot at Moslems. Still, he is patriotic and decides to try out his shooting at Ft. Hood. However, these militant Christians keep getting in the way of his bullets until the PC Army police round up all the dead Christians and charge them posthumously with interfering with kinematic experiments.
Network television is basically crap. However there is something to be said for cleavage.
I saw both NCIS episodes and found them distasteful. They were a slap in the face of the majority of this country. It’s part of the blame the victims for 9-11 mantra, and allowing that to trickle down to all other efforts to defend freedom and a successful Western way of life.
I clicked on “self styled goth” and some unknown ‘anti-virus program has tried to hijack my computer. Installed it’s self in front of my regular anti-virus and i am unable to uninstall it so far. please check out link. Maybe it came from somewhere else but it is sure screwing up my computer, trying to get me to pay a small fortune for it.
Myron forgot the unilateral disarmament of troops on a military installation.
Had Hassan tried the same in a redneck bar in east Texas the outcome would have been far, far different.
As for TV shows, the most ludicrous display of PC behavior I ever saw was an episode of CSI: Miami. Seems a Russian immigrant had allegedly murdered his brother. The Russian suspect was being questioned by the Hispanic detective on the show. But the questioning was being done in Russian by the Hispanic detective!
You can’t make this stuff up.
[You are wrong here, R.: Russian mafia is huge. It accounts for most crime in Israel. Most new immigrants to Israel are Russian; most not even Jewish. They, and the Moroccans, are the gangster sector.]
I was not referring to Russian organized crime. I was referring to a Hispanic detective being able to speak fluent
Russian! In Miami no less.
At least the perp on TV was a Third World immigrant. Usually, it’s some perverted white member of the bourgeoisie who is a closeted member of the Klan.
On “goths”–from what I’ve seen, many are young people who are lost souls, seeking to establish some sort of tribal identity related to the “dark side,” and the females, in particular, can be very nasty. No trace of femininity whatsoever. I’m surprised that a show about a Navy investigative unit features a “goth” character. Well, perhaps I’m not too surprised.
NCIS has numerous episodes depicting Muslims as good folks targeted by the hateful, racist white male military establishment. But you find the same sort of PC garbage in FOX’s “24” series, where even the Muslim terrorists are ultimately pawns of some cabal of white male corporate executives or rogue politicians.
There’s nowhere near enough cleavage to make me watch that perverse drivel.
It’s propaganda to get people accept what they’ll do to people like me when the empire crumbles. People sat still for Waco, watched it on TV, and most had nothing to say about how the Feds saved all those children they were so worried about, didn’t they?
Per our conditioning and present policy, the seriousness of the charges leveled against anyone justifies punishment and torture with no need for proof.
To Robert, above: Get Firefox and install the NoScript add-on. Better yet, don’t use Windows to surf the net. Using IE is like trying to catch AIDS on purpose. Someday perhaps they’ll invent image-recognition software so we can block pictures of ‘Goth’ girls. Ugh. [Funny: I too use Firefox. I still have to tinker when updating the main site so that it looks vaguely similar in IE, such is the code “pollution.”]
Thank you John: Will try to find the ‘NoScript’ add-on. I have used Firefox for approximately two years now, the anti-virus I had has a “Safe search” add-on but it still did not stop this virus; however, I’m pecking away again. I guess it was time for a tune up.
NO way would I consider ‘Abby’ a Goth despite the references to sleeping in a coffin. She’s another flaky eccentric toy, like the other characterizations on the show and part of the dumb down concept; which, makes their Christian/Muslim reversals normal script writing. They killed off the only good females and Mike Frank’s days are numbered because he’s blocking the good kind Muslim (Honor killing) mother from reconciling with her daughter. Hopefully my wife will drop this loser now, we know that the public will remain at the trough.