NCIS a cop show with a quirky twist

IT started again last week, this veteran procedural drama that is as strong as ever, coming off record ratings in the US.

NCIS

IT started again last week, this veteran procedural drama that is as strong as ever, coming off record ratings in the US.

NCIS has grown funnier, quirkier and more confident; it's far less like a square crime drama and more like an affable, cool and congenial family comedy. But it never leaves its hard-boiled antecedents too far behind.

If you disdain formulaic television, Mark Harmon stars as special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, with jurisdiction over crimes connected to members of the US Navy and Marine Corps.

His team includes former homicide detective Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly); Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), on loan from Israel's Mossad intelligence agency; computer specialist Tim McGee (Sean Murray); and oddly literary coroner Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum). Not forgetting Pauley Perrette's goth-punk-nerd pin-up Abby Sciuto, the unlikeliest forensic specialist in the history of crime shows.

Harmon recently signed a two-year deal to stay with the show. Unlike his co-stars, who last year were involved in protracted contract negotiations, Harmon signed ahead of schedule, reportedly now earning about $500,000 an episode, which puts him in the same range as House's Hugh Laurie, and what William Petersen was pulling in before he quit CSI.

Last season ended on the heels of the Port-to-Port Killer's reign of terror and DiNozzo was charged by the new SECNAV with a top-secret mission to take care of an NCIS mole who's selling secrets. He recognised his target from a photograph supplied him, that familiar face now in his crosshairs.

Meanwhile, given how season eight ended, Gibbs is more protective of his team than ever.

Tonight the team uncovers a startling surprise after a young marine shows up to his homecoming party with a fatal stab wound.

NCIS, 8.30pm, Ten