The Pop Culture Pundit

There are a few things I know about NCIS: 

1. It starred Mark Harmon for many years. 
2. It is a spinoff of JAG.
3. It has been on TV for a long time. 

…And, that’s about it. But a few days ago, a new trailer came across my YouTube feed and piqued my interest. It was the trailer for NCIS: Tony & Ziva, a new spinoff in the universe of NCIS (with the others being NCIS: Sydney, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Criminal Intent…oh wait, I think I’m confusing NCIS for a different procedural…) 

^{Paramount Plus via YouTube}

“This is what Tiva fans have been waiting all their lives to see,” said one YouTube comment, while another gushed “I think i [sic] broke the replay button… I DID MY WAITING…12 YEARS OF IT.” 

Who were these mysterious people named Tony and Ziva, and why did they have fans raving? I wondered. 

So, after some Googling, I learned much more about the NCIS universe, and now I’m intrigued. 

First of all, NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and it is an action procedural, like many other shows on TV (including its other spinoffs, NCIS: Hawai’i,  NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Most Wanted…oops, I think I’m confusing it for another franchise again…) 

For many years on NCIS, Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) were teased as a romantic item—until de Pablo’s contract expired, leading to her (presumed) death at the beginning of season 11. In season 13, Weatherly also decided to leave the series, and his character was written out as finding out he had a daughter with Ziva (!!!!) and went to take care of her given her mother’s death. 

Except Ziva wasn’t really dead. 

And now here we are, years later, with them finally reunited. 

But are they ACTUALLY together now? 

The verdict is not yet in. 

In one scene from the trailer, their own daughter asks about the status of their relationship:

^{Screenshots/Paramount Plus via YouTube}

In another, Tony and Ziva are in what looks to be wedding attire:

^{Screenshots/Paramount Plus via YouTube}

Are they actually getting married? Or is it merely a ruse for their latest operation? 

As mentioned, NCIS: Tony & Ziva is like any other standard procedural (including NCIS itself). There are hackers! There are undercover operations in different parts of the world! She’s a serious action woman! He’s goofy! Together, they solve crimes! 

Except, they might be more than just partners in crime. They might be partners in love. 

And that’s what makes this spinoff so intriguing. On TV right now, there are so few procedurals where there is an actual romantic subplot. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) have *never* explicitly been together (not even a first kiss!), and according to Hargitay, it will only be in the last episode…which will probably be never considering it is one of the longest running TV shows ever (with 27 seasons and counting). Detective Angie Polaski’s (Erika Christensen) ring tone for Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) on Will Trent is Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (not to mention she’s pregnant with a different man’s baby). Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) and Detective Mark Trent (Brett Dalton) barely got to explore their romantic chemistry together on the canceled-too-soon Found. Really, the only will-they-won’t-they romance on any procedural I can think of right now is between Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) and Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) on The Rookie.

Action rom-coms can make for a super entertaining watch. We watched Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sara (Yvonne Strahovski) fall in love on Chuck, NBC’s hidden gem of a show that followed the titular character as he got a CIA supercomputer stuck in his brain and helped solve crimes with his CIA handler, Sara, as a result. Shows like Psych and Burn Notice–from the USA Network’s “Blue Sky” days–further gave us a healthy dose of action and romance with our main characters. Another show from that era? Suits, which became one of the most-streamed shows ever in 2023 and gave us a pre-royal Meghan Markle fall in love with Patrick J. Adams’ non-lawyer lawyer character. And even though Suits wasn’t an “action” show per se, there sure was enough drama to make up for it with scandals, lies, and Louis Litt. 

Romance gives us something to root for. Action heightens the tension as we watch these characters in stressful situations. And these genres combined make for some must-watch TV. In the trailer itself, Tony describes his story with Ziva as a cross between a techno-thriller and a rom-com–and that sounds pretty intriguing. I’ve never seen a single episode of NCIS, but I will surely be tuning into Tony & Ziva in the fall.

NCIS: Tony & Ziva premieres September 4, 2025, on Paramount+.