Season Analysis

NCIS

Season 17 Analysis

Season Woke Score

2.2

out of 10

Season Overview

No specific overview for this season.

Season Review

NCIS Season 17 remains a traditional police procedural anchored by themes of law, order, and national security. The narrative is heavily focused on long-term character arcs, such as Gibbs confronting his past military trauma and the return of Ziva David, rather than political messaging. The show is strongly anti-oikophobic, with the finale specifically honoring World War II veterans and the nation's military institutions. While the core team operates on a meritocratic basis, a slight increase in feminist messaging is present. This is seen through female characters exercising professional or moral superiority, such as an agent actively punishing a man for personal misogyny even when cleared of a crime. Diversity is present on the team, but the plot does not center on identity politics or race-based systemic critiques. Messaging around sexual identity and religion is negligible.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The team's structure and success are predicated on merit, with all characters demonstrating professional competence regardless of immutable characteristics. There is no explicit lecturing on privilege or systemic oppression, but one early plot involves 'white supremacists' as villains in a terrorist plot.

Oikophobia1/10

The season finale heavily features the team working to honor a Pearl Harbor veteran and ensure his rightful interment at the USS Arizona, framing US military history and institutions with deep gratitude and respect.

Feminism5/10

Female agents and specialists are consistently portrayed as highly competent and professionally dominant, adhering to the 'Girl Boss' trope. One episode features Agent Bishop unilaterally acting to get a male character fired for being a 'misogynist,' prioritizing her moral judgment over the legal outcome of the investigation. A major arc addresses a female character's decision to give up a child resulting from rape, framed as a protective maternal act that validates a personal anti-natalist choice.

LGBTQ+1/10

The main focus on relationships is overwhelmingly heterosexual, including the 'will-they-won't-they' dynamic between Bishop and Torres. The narrative does not feature or center alternative sexual identities, queer theory, or gender ideology.

Anti-Theism1/10

The show maintains a consistent objective moral framework centered on justice and law. There is no villainization of Christian characters or traditional faith, and no plot lines are used to argue for moral relativism as superior to transcendent morality.