NCIS & Female Characters

[gonzai]

As news travels down the pike that the NCIS:LA spinoff has dropped Louise Lombard as the team leader/main cast member, I find myself pondering the women of NCIS. The women of NCIS are all strong, capable, usually tough and physically strong - and they all wind up dead. Or missing.

Kate Todd - Secret Service - Presidential Detail, then NCIS.  Shot.
Paula Cassidy - NCIS - blown up in a self-sacrificial act.
Jenny - top level agent, first female director of NCIS - killed in a gunfight.
Col Hollis Mann - high ranked Army officer - character written out without explanation.
Ziva David - kick ass Mossad agent - dismissed from NCIS and last seen as a terrorist's hostage.
Macy - top NCIS agent and team leader - written out. No explanation yet.

It's rather disturbing that such good characters are created, but except for Abby, they all get kicked to the curb. What gives, NCIS?

Comments

[jslinder.livejournal.com]

Ziva will be back.. I think.

At least when they write them out, it has something to do with the story arc (well except for Mann)...

Okay, I think the whole Jenny/Le Granouille arc was kind of lame, but still.

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

I do think Ziva will be back, who knows the circumstances...

It's just a getting to be a pattern for them, that the female characters do not remain. How many male characters have left? Gerald & the first Director are all I can think of, and they were both early on in the show and left alive.

[jslinder.livejournal.com]

Well, there was John LaPaglia's character, he was killed by Lee..

They tend to put recurring males in the villian role for a season (Ari, Le Granouille, Rivkin)

The way the team was set up initially in Season 1 kinds of lends itself to this model, by having one core female in the field it tends to make her the natural focus for plot tension.

[jslinder.livejournal.com]

Secondary, the Macy character didn't thrill me. Callan was one of the few who hooked me, and I still haven't figure out the whole drive by things and why they did it then, other than to intimate some 'deep dark past' that at least one character on the show seems to need at any given time..

[onlyonechoice.livejournal.com]

My roomie noticed the same thing - when I pointed it out to another friend, she posited that the male cast is less likely to change because female viewership is more important to procedural shows like this.

Don't forget Agent Lee, btw - shot by Gibbs in an odd self-sacrifice thing.

It's a crappy reason for such a decision, but it makes sense.

I'm not crazy about all the chicks dying either, but I was more worried that one of the fellas would buy it.

[jslinder.livejournal.com]

And it could always be a simple matter of contracts or other obligations. Sadly, actresses are often cheaper to start, and their salaries tend to escalate a little faster, leading to more turnover..

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

*smack* I did forget Agent Lee.

In the case of Col Mann, the actress retired from the biz. There's some talk Cote de Pablo is pregnant and this is how they'll keep her character off screen until she has the baby.

[onlyonechoice.livejournal.com]

In the case of Kate, the actress left the show because she didn't realize how crazy the schedule would be (it was mentioned on one of the special features or commentarie on the S2 DVDs), which is odd considering she was on Dawson's Creek, another crazy popular weekly series.

*grins* Just keep feeding me Gibbs and Tony and I'll be eating out of the palms of their hands.

[jslinder.livejournal.com]

That would make sense. Give a temporary role to someone and then have Gibbs and co find out and go for the rescue. Another option would be that Ziva was pregnant via Rivkin, but that would not fit the character.