NCIS: Hawai’i Cancellation Broke Yet Another Brilliant Trend Started by Female Lead
The show put its women on the front, but it was never appreciated enough.
NCIS: Hawai’i got heartbreaking news about its cancellation several weeks ago, but the fans’ outrage never really quietened down ever since.
Being one of NCIS’ numerous spinoffs, the series introduced a compelling storyline that kept viewers glued to their screens in anticipation for another season to be dropped, and, even apart from that, NCIS: Hawai’i indeed had some masterfully elaborated strong points that neither the original show nor other spinoffs had been able to adapt.
Unlike the rest of NCIS installments, that show finally proved that the leading position doesn’t necessarily belong to an ambitious white man.
Over the years of its television run, NCIS: Hawai’i has received lots of accolades for creating something more diverse and refreshing for modern TV that already got bored of one-type shows with male agents at the helm. The show even introduced a lesbian couple whose healthy relationship got a rare compliment from the LGBTQ+ community itself.
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Still, what’s even more striking in this case is that NCIS: Hawai’i finally introduced a woman as a team leader, and unlike some other popular series, her actions were never doubted by her colleagues.
Being the first female Special Agent-in-Charge of the NCIS: Hawaiʻi Field Office, Jane Tennant, portrayed by Vanessa Lachey, joined other big figures in the NCIS universe like Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Alden Parker, while also showcasing her feminine side and being displayed as a loving and protecting mother.
For a show mostly led by white American actors, something like this already appears to be huge, though it’s not the end of the story. On top of that, Jane Tennant is also the first Asian American woman to lead the entire series, a fact that surely transformed the NCIS universe and set it to a different direction of embracing more culturally diverse characters and their storylines.
However disheartening Jane’s scrapped story may seem now, the outstanding character still has some chances to make a shift from the canceled show to the flagship one. Tennant is a pretty decent candidate to take over Parker’s position while he’s not able to carry out his duties before he recovers from his injury, or rather to become Jessica Knight’s replacement should she in fact leave the MCRT for good.
Whatever the show’s creators opt for, we won’t be able to find it out until at least NCIS season 22 arrives at CBS this fall.