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Dwayne Cassius “King” Pride (Scott Bakula) is the NCIS: New Orleans team leader. Scott Bakula, who plays Pride on the series, has proven he’ll go above and beyond the law to ensure justice is served — even if it means putting his life on the line. Regardless of how beloved the NOLA team is in the NCIS franchise, there’s one thing that continues to bother fans.

What does ‘NCIS’ stand for?

'NCIS: New Orleans'
Vanessa Ferlito as FBI Special Agent Tammy Gregorio and Scott Bakula as Special Agent Dwayne Pride | Skip Bolen/CBS via Getty Images

In 2003, CBS aired a new show that followed a former U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper who became a special agent responsible for a team within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Of course, that show is NCIS and it’s the series that inspired the spinoffs NCIS: New Orleans and NCIS: Los Angeles.

With Pride running the show in NOLA, some fans might not know what the acronym NCIS means. The United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service is the law enforcement agency of the U.S. Department of the Navy.

This unit investigates felony crimes, they help prevent terrorism, and they work to protect top-secret information for the Navy and Marine Corps.

The real NCIS headquarters is located in Virginia, though NCIS the show is based in Washington, D.C. field office in Washington Navy Yard.

Within the NCIS teams, there are agents and special agents. Agents may arrest but they aren’t involved in the criminal investigation or vice versa. Special agents can do both.

Pride runs his team of Special Agents within the rules of the law, much like Gibbs in NCIS, and a lot of their cases are distinctly military-related.

The franchise represents other major cities

Currently, the NCIS franchise operates within three big cities: Washington D.C., New Orleans, and Los Angeles.

The Washington D.C. franchise (aka the “original”) follows Mark Harmon’s character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs as he leads the Major Case Response Team who investigates murders and crime scenes. The show started with a crossover pilot within the show, JAG in 2003. NCIS is on its 17th season and remains the longest-running series in the franchise.

The Los Angeles series started in 2009, following The Office of Special Projects, which is the counter-terrorist division of NCIS. They investigate threats to national security and high-profile murders. This team is led by Special Agent, G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and is not based on a real-life division of NCIS.

And finally, NCIS: New Orleans was introduced through an NCIS pilot in 2014. Pride, who is based on the real-life man, D’Wayne Swear, handles a small team that tackles crime in the southern region.

Here’s why fans think ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ has an issue

One fan tweeted: “This show started out great then went completely downhill when the show started being about him & all about him This show has to get back doing individual cases & stop him running off the rails because it isn’t believable.”

Another said, “Getting tired of this show. Pride always persecuted, staff keeps changing.”

I’d say..whoa…some of that ‘old” Pride narrow-focused obsession is coming back into play,” another fan added.

The point made over a few different threads is that NCIS: New Orleans is a little too Pride-centric. Many of the episodes tie into his personal life, the criminals are after him or his family personally, and/or the crimes are meant for only Pride to solve (like the cat and mouse games).

As much as fans love “King,” it’s a lot. The consensus is that, even though he leads the team, the series can’t be all about him. Considering how private Bakula is in real life, we think he’d agree. Give Pride a break and let the rest of the team do the work.

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