NCIS, gayness levels, and The Gay Spike

[cimorene]

Damn, the new NCIS was good. And not only good, either - I mean, it was partly good acting, and it was partly better writing than usual, because it was really sparkling, and Michael whassname is really good at - you know, impressions, and being a bit of a goof, and comic timing - so I'm sure they wrote the ep for him, just to let him shine, as it were. But anyway, my point is that it wasn't just better written than usual, it was more gay than usual. Like, okay. In graph form,



NCIS is usually about as gay as Highlander, which is to say, amusingly gay, but not necessarily anything that your typical non-gay, non-slash-goggles-wearer would even pick up on; the realm of repeated humourous subtext, but without the intense focus on interpersonal relations, in a bromance way, that you find in Star Trek and the other higher-up shows on the graph (there are plenty of other shows, too, obviously, I just picked big fandoms that spring immediately to mind as benchmarks). It spikes occasionally, especially in s6, with Agent Afloat and Tony's return to the job WITH BONUS EYEFUCKING AND HANDSHAKES, not to mention the Meet The Parents ep where Gibbs's dad is all over Tony and then inexplicably (or rather, unexplainedly) gives him a sweater., but those spikes have heretofore, due to characterisation and camerawork (ie no lovingly lingering shots of the eyefucking, more like you have to notice it happening is a comic aside when the plot is focussed elsewhere), been still mostly at sub-Star Trek levels. Last night's episode was firmly up above Star Trek gayness levels, although still under Due South (it's hard to get as gay as riding off into the sunset together) - more like The Sentinel (other shows at TS's level of gayness: Merlin, Starsky & Hutch from what I have observed).

I keep refreshing my delicious subscriptions looking for episode tags because I'm too lazy to try to write one myself, but you could totally put a really awesome Gibbs/Dinozzo FT fic either directly after the events of the ep, or shortly after like a few days or weeks. Even though my personal canon places that earlier this season.

ETA: If you haven't seen it, go participate in thefourthvine's Scientific Poll on the subject!http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/98874.html#cutid1 & http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/99145.html#cutid1

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

You're nuts. The Sentinel is *much* gayer than that, it's soooper-gay. Merlin and S/H are Pretty Damn Gay too, of course, but I sometimes think TS is Gayest Ever.

Ha! I shall do a poll.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

TS is near the top of my graph. Only DS is above it. You're just objecting because I said Merlin and SH are about equal? I was guessing about them (which is why they aren't on the graph) - I haven't watched the canon (well, I've watched about ½ an episode apiece).

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

No, I'm objecting because TS is The Gayest Ever!! Gayer than a gay gay thing.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I can't agree that it's gayer than Due South. They were both really gay in subtext and day-to-day... occurrences, but DS ended with riding off into the sunset explicitly, and 'explicitly' is worth extra points, in my book, even if they read about the same most of the time.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I am with Mary Ellen, despite agreeing that riding off into the sunset together is EXTREMELY gay.

The reason I am agreeing with ME is "Jim dreams about Blair naked and impaled."

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

The "merging of their spirit animals" thing, too, which goes beyond gay and into "15-year-old girl's fanfic".

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

The spirit animal thing is one of the factors that makes me agree with the quality of writing cimness has assigned. Because. Damn.

Back on the gayness, there's also the entire structure of the show as a metaphor for the closet.

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

Icon!

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

dkfasd;flsadfkljasdf;lasdk HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

That's also the central metaphor for Merlin, where he has to hide his gaynessmagic.

But, yes. Remember - in TS, they *live* together. In a LOFT. That all by itself makes it about as gay as gay could be.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

True! Those two are both off the scale on subtext.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually know about that! So TS is kind of explicitly gay sometimes too, not just off the scale on subtext? I don't even know whether to classify that kind of symbolism as subtext or explicit. Or explicit subtext?

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

It is not quite Xena-level, but it's...something, all right! It is one of the shows that I've occasionally heard people call "gayer than gay porn" -- usually they are thinking about Cock Ring Ken Jim dressed like he wandered in from Castro St., the naked & impaled dream, or the merging spirit animals when they say this.

I was watching an episode once, and my husband wandered into the room, watched for less than a minute, said "My GOD this show is slashy" and wandered out.

Now, I am not knocking dS's gayness, because...partnership is like a marriage, son!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

They approach the gay from different angles, in fact! The porny sexualised angle and the MARRIAGE~ angle. ? Okay, I admit, I definitely noticed the high porniness content in the eps of TS I've seen, too, even though they weren't quite THAT symbolic.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's so, now that I think of it.

dS is about commitment and trust and riding off into the sunset.

TS is more like a steamy romance novel that involves a marriage of convenience and has a lot of mistrust, stupid fights, and porny sex in it; and eventually at the very very end Blair gives up his old lover because he loves his husband and they decide to stay together.