Police procedurals are a dime a dozen, but there are little things that set them apart. Shows like "Law & Order" mixed elements of police procedural with courtroom drama, while shows like "Bones" looked at crime solving from a slightly different perspective, and for the long-running CBS series "NCIS," the twist in the formula was that the investigators were all a part of the U.S. military. Originally a spin-off of "Jag," "NCIS" and its many, many spin-offs all follow departments within the NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, beginning with the Washington D.C. office, based at the Washington Navy Yard. There, led for 19 seasons by Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon), the Major Case Response Team helped solve the worst crimes related to the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and related government agencies. (Harmon left the series in season 19 and was replaced by Gary Cole's Special Agent Parker.)

While...