On November 11, CBS staged its first crossover event between NCIS and NCIS: Origins with a 2-episode event.
Leading up to the crossover, fans were excited to see how the creative team would bring the two shows together given that NCIS: Origins is a prequel series to NCIS, set in the ‘90s rather than in the present-day. Fans anticipated that perhaps the shows would weave together a narrative that flashed back and forth between the past and present day to weave the storylines together, or perhaps come up with some creative ways to incorporate the characters across the two shows to give the episodes a true crossover feel. Sadly, the “crossover” wasn’t really much of a crossover at all.
The event began with NCIS: Origins, as the team investigated the small-town death of a naval officer. The episode marked the return of Mark Harmon as Gibbs for a brief scene at the beginning of the episode, but the episode did not feature a single member of the NCIS cast. The “crossover” nature of the event came in NCIS’s hour of the 2-episode event, as the present-day NCIS team pursued the man arrested in the NCIS: Origins’ case after he was involved in a prison break.
In the episode, the NCIS team reopened the case Gibbs and Franks investigated back in the ‘90s which we watched unfold in the NCIS: Origins portion of the episode. There were some small flashbacks incorporated into the episode, but nothing new. Rather, the show simply weaved in a few clips from the NCIS: Origins episode that aired the hour before. The only real crossover element came in a guest appearance from NCIS: Origins stars Ely Henry (Phillip Elertson) and Bobby Moynihan (Woodrow “Woody” Browne) – but even their appearance was brief and underwhelming.
While I watched both episodes of the crossover, I could have easily watched either show’s crossover episode as a one-off and wouldn’t really be lost at all, as the episodes acted as self-contained stories.
Perhaps I was so disappointed in the NCIS and NCIS: Origins crossover because I’m a frequent One Chicago viewer, and no franchise does crossovers better than NBC’s One Chicago franchise.
The One Chicago shows – Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD – have one of the most interconnected universes of all of television (and honestly even film). The characters crossover into one another’s shows on a frequent basis in organic and natural ways, constantly reminding fans that the three shows share the same universe. When the mini-crossovers occur, they never feel forced and are effortlessly woven into the respective episodes of the shows, creating fun moments for the fans.
And when the One Chicago franchise does a crossover event, it’s done in a way that truly weaves the shows within the franchise together to create a television event. Take for example last season’s “In the Trenches” crossover event which brought together the casts of Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD in a three-part event that saw the characters dealing with the fallout of a catastrophic gas explosion.
The crossover effortlessly flowed from one show to the next, and you couldn’t even tell when one show’s episode had ended and another began as the storyline flowed naturally in continuation across the episodes. It also brought the casts of the shows together on-screen, creating fun pairings that put the characters of Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD together with characters from their sister series. We actually saw the shows and their cast working together in a storyline that was not complete unless you watched all three episodes of the shows, and if you tried to skip one you’d miss a major chunk of the storyline in the process. That’s what a true crossover event should do! It should bring the casts together and tell a compelling and cohesive story that flows naturally between the shows.
While the NCIS and NCIS: Origins crossover was a fun attempt to bring the two shows together, it proves no one does crossover events better than NBC's One Chicago franchise.