SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for NCIS Season 24, Episode 4.
Every season, NCIS has a handful of episodes that are clearly designed as fillers—standalone stories, usually a little weird, to try different things across a long season. “Like and Subscribe” is one of those episodes. The best thing the CBS show does in Season 24, Episode 4 is potentially educate a new audience about The Greatest American Hero.
It feels like the script by Sydney Mitchel and Amy Rutberg is taking some inspiration from MrBeast and Beast Games, and then extrapolating that for a crime story. That’s because the main guest character is an influencer who has his own game show, in which people complete various physical challenges for a multimillion dollar prize. It should be emphasized that any comparison is just a jumping-off point, because then NCIS goes off on its own tangent about an app, date theft and some Russians. The gist is that a Navy petty officer named Mark Brogan competed on said game show and started looking into the information-stealing bug planted in the app by the Russians. However, his death is wholly unrelated; Mark was murdered by the influencer Jordan’s best friend Nathan, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time as Nathan broke into Jordan’s office. If all of this sounds like a lot, that’s because it is.
“Like and Subscribe” is one of those NCIS episodes that never fully comes together. These filler installments are normally lighter in tone and looser in plot, and that’s also the situation here. The biggest evidence in the case is conveniently found off-screen, when NCIS presents Jordan’s producer with proof their app developers were actually working for the KGB. There’s no explanation for where the information came from or how the Russian ties were established. Along those lines, video of Mark in the studio just prior to his death pops up shortly thereafter. As a whodunit, it all gets wrapped up conveniently near the end.
The subplot isn’t anything particularly memorable either. It’s Tony DiNozzo being worried about losing touch with his teenage daughter, and a bunch of jokes about him not knowing what to do and/or being unintentionally too much. There’s nothing new or unique to NCIS in that.
The best part is that Mitchel and Rutberg are apparently fans of the classic TV series The Greatest American Hero. Mark is found wearing a Greatest American Hero T-shirt, and it comes out that he dressed up as a superhero to cheer up his son and other children in a hospital cancer ward. The writers could have made up some wholly generic superhero, but instead they went with an established character. There are some corny but valid jokes early on about how half the team doesn’t even know what the show is, and then a welcome cameo from series star William Katt in the final scene, playing a doctor. It’s fantastic that he appears (Katt had also guest-starred in two episodes of JAG), and will put a smile on the face of any viewer who remembers Greatest American Hero. There’s even a little bit of the catchy theme tune on the way out. It’s a mini-love letter to a cult hit show.
Along those lines, the fourth act of NCIS Season 24, Episode 4 shows a marked improvement, because instead of making Jordan out to be the outright villain killing people to protect his fame (which would’ve been the most obvious route), the episode gives him marked character growth. He realizes that Mark died as a consequence of him alienating his best friend, who felt abandoned by him after Jordan became famous. To that end, Jordan takes the prize money from his game show and creates a fund for anyone he hurt, and he takes over Mark’s role appearing as the superhero. It’s a redemption arc that NCIS didn’t have to do, and it’s the one thing that makes this episode memorable plot-wise.
But there’s no doubt that “Like and Subscribe” is a filler episode. When the two strongest parts are a guest character’s arc and a cameo from a 1980s TV star, it’s not going to go down in history. And that’s okay—not every episode has to be important, especially on a show trying to fill out an entire broadcast TV season. Yet it’s also okay to admit that the end result is not all that great. It’s a fine aside, but not an episode that needs to be watched again, except for anyone who might’ve gotten the Greatest American Hero theme song stuck in their head.
NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
