With the TV schedule dominated by crime dramas, the networks are going to
desperate measures to stand apart from the competition. NCIS (Naval
Criminal Investigative Service) is defining itself as a pursuer of all that is
graphic, violent and sexually explicit. At an hour when children are still awake
and carrying only a violence indicator, the episode of NCIS titled "The Voyeur's
Web" was a violent and sexually-charged reason not to trust that CBS will
provide tasteful programming, or bother to warn parents to steer their children
away from it.
The episode opens with a web cast of a scantily-clad woman dancing provocatively
on her bed. She is stripping for an audience of web-voyeurs, reading and acting
on their e-mailed suggestions. She takes off her robe and is about to respond to
one of her viewer's messages when a man approaches her from behind and slashes
her throat is graphic detail. Blood is shown dripping down her chest as she
slumps to the floor. Because she is the wife of a deployed Marine, the
detectives at NCIS are called to investigate.
They find that Jamie Carr, the murdered woman was in partnership with another
woman named Leanne Roberts, who is also missing. In order to find out more about
the two women and the internet site they were running, the detectives at NCIS
are required to view hundreds of hours of the internet pornography that they
made. Snippets of lingerie clad women are shown repeatedly throughout the entire
program as the investigation continues. Eventually the body of Leanne Roberts
turns up in the trunk of a rental car. Her body has languished there for several
days and is shown in close-up. When she is moved to the morgue a close-up of a
deep gash in her neck is shown. From another angle, part of her breast is shown.
At one point one of the medical examiners inquires as to the nature of some
liquid oozing onto the table. The other examiner explains that her breast
implant is leaking.
Soon the husband of Jaime Carr is on his way home from Iraq having heard of his
wife's exploits while he was overseas. He believes that she is being blackmailed
by a neighbor who is aware of her broadcasts. The Marine is about to kill his
neighbor when detectives find him. Even though the neighbor has been
blackmailing her, they find that he is not responsible for her attack and her
disappearance.
As the investigation continues, the detectives find that hundreds of thousands
of dollars have been taken from an offshore account that the two women opened to
hold the money from their pornography business.
The detectives are about to take Jamie Carr and Leanne Roberts' web developer
into custody when they figure out that he is trying to skip town and is hiding
at a hotel. When they arrive at the hotel they find he has been stabbed and is
lying in a bathtub. The detectives find residue of hair dye in the tub and
conclude that Jaime Carr is still alive. Jaime Carr has faked her own murder and
stolen the money from her own business partner.
NCIS continues to become increasingly violent and graphic, in spite of
the early air time (8:00 p.m. ET/PT, 7:00 CT/MT). Making matters worse is the
fact that this episode carried only a V descriptor, so parents relying on the
V-Chip to block sexually graphic material would have been caught off-guard.
Because of the nature and the amount of pornographic footage compounded with
graphic violence in "The Voyeur's Web," NCIS is our Worst of the Week.
Click Here to File an FCC Complaint
Worst TV Show
of the Week
The Parents
Television Council -
www.parentstv.org
