Premiering exactly a week from now is the sixth season of NCIS.  Now NCIS fans aren't exactly the happiest in the world given the whirlwind of changes the cast has experienced of late.  Three new people become part of Gibbs' (Mark Harmon) team, after Ziva (Cote de Pablo), Tony (Michael Weatherly), and Tim (Sean Murray) are shipped to far-away places.  Contrary to perception, the three are still with the show, although they, needless to say, will get considerably less screen time than Gibbs' new team: Brent (Jonathan LaPaglia), Michelle (Liza Lapira), and Daniel (Jonathan Mangum).

That being said, earning the ire of a lot of NCIS fans is Vance (Rocky Carroll) who not only was responsible for breaking the team up, but was also seen destroying a page of his personal file before doing that.  Now, remember that Vance replaced Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly), another favorite character who was killed in the season 5 finale (yet another change).

To appease some tense nerves amidst these changes, NCIS executive producer Shane Brennan told Entertainment Weekly recently that “in the opening episode there will be a lot of relieved fans, and shocked fans — a couple of big, big things happen.”  This, of course, is harshly vague and is open to a lot of interpretations.

Now going back to the paper that Vance destroyed, Brenan stressed that the piece of paper is indeed “very significant” as most viewers thought.

“It did come out of the director's personal file.  Will we find out what it really means?  Yes!  This season? Maybe.  Will it shed new light on Director Vance?  You betcha!"

Regardless of all these shake-ups, however, critics have noted how “amazing” it is that NCIS manages to stay virtually the same whenever one tunes in.  And as such, it has remained to be one of the few shows that can slug it out whenever the ratings monster American Idol goes on air.  As the sixth season of NCIS premieres next week, fans should tune in to see if it meets expectations.


-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Nashville City Paper, Kren.com
(Image Courtesy of CBS)