NCIS: New Orleans is a spinoff from NCIS. As its name indicates, it’s set in New Orleans whereas NCIS is set in Washington, N.C. This post is about the configuration of the show. Configuration? Read on.
Office: The team NCIS is housed in a standard office with desks separated by cubicles. Other people and terms are located in the same room. The walls are orange, which is a running joke. NCIS: New Orleans is housed in I don’t know what. The desks are in a large open room with a high ceiling; no dividers separate the space into cubicles. Each desk is placed on an Oriental carpet. There’s a courtyard with tropical plants. Pride lives upstairs in a loft-like space whereas Gibbs lived in a separate house, one that’s sparsely furnished and having a workshop in the basement. New Orleans is exotic while D.C. is just a city with no particular character, though we see an occasional monument or two.
Leader: Both leaders are strong-minded individuals who love to bend the rules and even break them on occasion. After almost four seasons of New Orleans it’s my impression that Dwayne Pride is, if anything, even more of a cowboy than Gibbs (NCIS). Whereas Gibbs has a murder deep in his past, Pride’s father is a convicted criminal who is in prison until some point in season four. Gibbs is a woodworker who builds boats. Pride is a musician who plays piano. Both are single men. Pride is recently divorced with an adult daughter; Gibbs his thrice divorced with once widowed (lost a daughter too). Gibbs interacts frequently with whomever is the director at the moment; the director’s office is upstairs. Pride has considerably less interaction with his boss.
Forensic technician: Both Abby Sciuto (NCIS) and Sebastian Lund (New Orleans) are jam-packed with technical information and like to prattle on about it until they’re cut off. Both have a weird side. Abby is a Goth and is into the paranormal. Sebastian is into conspiracy theories.
Computer Tech Wizard: In NCIS it’s Timothy McGee, an MIT graduate. He becomes a field agent early in the show, second season perhaps? In New Orleans it’s Patton Plame, a paraplegic Black man. McGee is presented as geeky; Plame, not so much, though his computer chops are formidable. He dresses better than McGee.
Medical Examiner: “Ducky” Mallard (NCIS) is British and likes to prattle on. He’s employed by NCIS. Loretta Wade (New Orleans) is employed by Jefferson Parish and is Black. She does not chatter on.
Family: In both shows the characters refer to the team as family. It seems to me that New Orleans does this much more than NCIS.
This is not the whole configuration – I’ve not included the other team members (the women in particular) – but it’s what strikes me as being the most salient comparison and contrast.
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