NCIS is 1,124 episodes and 53 seasons deep. This is the trailer for the latest iteration and it got me thinking.
That is Ladies Love Cool James himself as NCIS Agent, Navy SEAL and man whose entire back day workout is carrying his backstory, Sam Hanna. First introduced in NCIS: Los Angeles, now on his third (?) show in the universe. What got my attention, aside from the Beasties obviously, were the repeated references to how enormous Sam is. Mr J’s been the poster boy for working out for years now but it’s never been Sam’s defining trait. Given he’s partnered here with human terrier Scott Caan (5’5), playing up the ‘He’s enormous and implacable! His partner’s a furious little guy! They yell at crime!’ dynamic makes sense but I think there’s more to it than that. Especially as Shane Harper, also on main cast, is taller than J. It’s a small detail but like the mans says:
Enjoy the pie, sir.
Reacher‘s fourth season is by some distance the most fun the show’s been in a while. It’s doing well enough to warrant a spin-off, featuring his parallel neurodivergent bestie Neagley which is also getting doing really well. A fifth season is in production, Alan Ritchson‘s been in three movies this year and at least two of them are really good fun. I strongly suspect, although I have no evidence for this, that a Cross/Reacher crossover is being looked at. Even if not, Reacher’s become a memetic nomad, the shorthand for ENORMOUS JUSTICE MEN the world over. A punchline in every good way.
Looked at that way, it plays to me like CBS want some of his coffee and pie. Repositioning Sam, a character with close to two decades of backstory at this point, as TEAM LARGE MAN makes a lot of sense. He’s a known quantity, a familiar face, J’s a rock solid TV lead. Hell even the metatext is similar. Reacher wanders America looking for coffee, pie, justice and trouble. Sam’s on his third show, third city and third decade of handing out nicely choreographed beatdowns and standing next to scrappy little white boys.
This isn’t a pattern. Not yet. But it is a line, and with one more data point, we’ll know whether this is an oddity or a legitimate trend. That data point is, I suspect, going to be provided by Jim Rockford.
Most beloved of all American TV detectives who aren’t cheerful female mystery writers, Jim Rockford has been the King sleeping beneath the Hollywood hills my whole life. There’s been attempts to reboot the show before but the latest is the first to make it to air. It stars David Boreneaz and it’ll live or die depending on which gear he uses. If we get SEAL Team angst then this isn’t going to go well. If we get cheerfully motormouthed broken toy charm, as we saw in Bones, it’ll fly. Regardless, Boreanaz has the height and presence to map onto original Rockford, James Garner (Arguably the original ENORMOUS JUSTICE MAN)’s iconic role.
I’m super aware that NCIS in particular is seated in the worst excesses of the Copaganda section, but I also think there’s an interesting conversation starting to be had here about mainstream media subverting the expectations of that audience. Reacher, arguably the paragon of ‘I HAVE NO ATTACHMENTS, ONLY GAINS’ is an enormously popular show with an enormously popular spin-off, both of which are modelling mainstream acceptance of neurodivergency and in Neagley‘s case a likely aroace protagonist. Jim Rockford never met an underdog he wouldn’t give his shirt to or a windmill he wouldn’t tilt and Sam Hanna is a person of colour and devout Muslim working a government law enforcement job. These shows all have more going on than they first seem, especially when you view them in a constellation like this. Doubly so when you fold in the excellent work Aaron Pierre‘s doing in a parallel lane as John Stewart on Lanterns.
There’s a surprising ancillary benefit to all this too, which is normalisation of dudes being large. Not (just) in the ridiculous level of jacked at least two of these men are but in the idea that a large man can fill his space in a way that’s positive and non-threatening. Big dudes tend to be stupid, fat, evil or stupidly evil while being fat and I’ve had some things to say about that in the past. Seeing the possibility that that corner is finally being turned (maybe)feels like the cavalry arriving.
Also, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, it may help with clothes. I’m, 6’1. I’m built like a door. I laugh like a drain every single time Reacher manslabs his way into a Thrift store and comes out with a t-shirt that doesn’t make him look like the star of THE QUARTERBACK WAS ALSO A STRIPPER AND LOVED BOTH JOBS EQUALLY AS HE SHOULD. I’ll take body positivity in the media any way I can get it. Especially my hope is the rocket scientists who track down everything worn on show will work their magic here. That’s my Large Man Justice dream. T-shirts and decent jeans for all. A hoodie that isnt a bag. Shoulder seams on a shirt that sit ON MY SHOULDERS.
Jack, Sam, Jim maybe. It’s up to you.