NCIS (TV Series) Exit Strategy (2017) User Reviews

Ducky's exit?

[kevinmorice · 6/10 · 15 October 2017]

The graphic autopsy photos, the absolutely hellish fake Scottish accents, and generally tacking it on to fill out half an episode rather than giving the last of Gibbs original team members a proper send off?

If this is to be the last appearance of David McCallum then it was lazy and disrespectful at best, or worse it was insulting and petulant. That the writers couldn't even manage a full episode to say goodbye, after shoving Dinozzo out in similar fashion shows again that the writers have no understanding of the audience relationship with the characters.

Exit Strategy

[bobcobb301 · 6/10 · 19 October 2017]

An interesting and quirky character introduced, but then the episode took a really bizarre turn. It gave us the typical and predictable NCIS formula for solving a murder, but it had some weird stuff with Ducky that did not really provide any entertainment value.

Not a bad one, just not a great one.

What exactly is the strategy of this episode and continuing seasons?

[harrykivi · 4/10 · 14 March 2020]

As I already said, the 15th season of NCIS started off decent with "House Divided", but not the way as I would have loved it to. "Twofer" on the other hand was okay with a lot of flaws. "Exit Strategy" is not an awful episode that I hated watching, but is still very problematic.

Let's start with good, shall we?

. "Exit Strategy" starts off interesting enough with operation gone wrong and an undercover cop waking up from the dead. There are couple of action scenes that are well done, acting as well is usually good. The star though is definitely David Mccallum, who is terrific as Ducky bringing so much warmth to his character. Most of the humor also lands - don't come off unfocused like in "House divided".

. My favorite part of this episode was the subplot in Scotland when Ducky is giving a lecture on his autopsies, because it seemed more fun than the murder mystery itself.

Which leaves me to my biggest con of this episode.

. After very promising set up for murder, "Exit Strategy" does unfortunately get dull with aspects we have seen over hundreds of times before, which is pretty sad. In my opinion, if a show like NCIS has been on air for so many years, it should continue surprising its audience with new ideas, compelling story lines and character building. Sadly that doesn't seem the case with NCIS.

To be honest, the more the story of "Exit Strategy" builds itself for its final moments, the more predictable the climax gets. At the end of the day, the killer is a quite easy to figure out person with generic motives.

Overall, I would like know what is the strategy of the writers of NCIS. Is it to continue with same old or do something different?

4/10 HK