Starting at the top, there's the NCIS director, Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly). Agent Shepard is the first female director of NCIS, her father was a previous director. Jenny has her own hidden agendas throughout Season 4. Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) was underneath Jenny and head of the team until the end of Season 3, when he retired. Gibbs is a very powerful figure. He was the team leader, the glue that held them all together. Now they're going to have to deal with his departure, and he's going to have to decide if he really is ready to retire.
With Gibbs gone, Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) is tapped to be the next leader. On top of dealing with the promotion, Tony has his own personal demons, namely his complete dread of committed relationships, to deal with. Now working under Tony are Mossad Agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) and Special Agent Tim McGee (Sean Murray). Ziva was trained as an assassin. As such, she is supposed to be a very serious person, but the banter between Ziva and Tony is hilarious at times. Her misuse (sometimes very much on purpose) of the English language is perfect. McGee, also known as McGeek to Tony, handles a lot of the technical aspects of their work. He is wonderful with computers. He's also secretly a novelist.
What team would be complete without a Medical Specialist and a Forensic Specialist? Dr. Ducky Mallard (David McCallum) analyzes all the bodies that the team has to deal with. Abby Sciuto, my personal favorite character in the show, is in charge of forensics. Abby always figures out what the evidence means, no matter what.
Season 4 opens with Ziva trying to stop a bombing that kills two FBI agents and ending up with a warrant for her arrest out from the FBI. The season has quite a few more unexpected things to deal with. I especially liked the episode where McGee's sister turns up on his door covered in blood and says "I think I killed somebody." It was very well done, tackling the personal conflict in McGee when he has to figure out how he can best help his sister without contradicting his job.
Also included on the Season 4 DVD's are many special features. The cast roundtable was quite amusing. It is split into two 20 minute segments. In it, they discuss their "first paid acting job," pranks pulled on set, which other character in the show they might like to play, and quite a bit more. Ducky's world is a short segment about how they set up the autopsies and how they differ from the real world. Behind the scenes is mostly set design, props, and interviews with the people who manage those things. Many of the episodes have cast and director commentaries.
Honestly, this was the first season I've watched of NCIS. I saw the pilot when it originally aired, but just didn't have time to watch the series then. Now, I'm really regretting I missed it, but at least I can get the other seasons on DVD too. I found it to be quite addictive. I watched all of Season 4 in only 2 days. I highly recommend it!
