Given that the Republican Party has become the party of treason, even a right-leaning TV show like JAG might now be seen as “too liberal” because of its criticism of Russia, our Cold War foe turned unreliable ally turned saboteur of American democracy.
JAG ran for a season on NBC starting in 1995, was canceled and then ran on CBS until 2005, and could theoretically have run on that network for another ten years if series creator Donald Bellisario hadn’t hit upon the NCIS formula, which has produced some of the most depressingly formulaic hours of television ever.
JAG’s right-wing slant was evident from the very pilot, in which Jay Leno jokes that young women in the Navy have seen more combat than President Bill Clinton (D, 1993 — 2001), through the Season 5 episode “Contemptuous Words” that spouted lots of contemptuous words about Clinton, and on through to the admiration of President George W. Bush (R, 2001 — 2009) and the unquestioning attitude towards the ill-advised war in Iraq.
The show is mainly about U. S. Navy Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr. (David James Elliott), a judge advocate stationed at the Navy Judge Advocate General’s headquarters, who flies airplanes (mostly Tomcats) almost every chance he gets.
Assigned to a case on an aircraft carrier? Rabb flies. Commercial airline jet hijacked by North Koreans? Rabb flies the jet after the hijackers kill the pilot and copilot. Of course he can’t fly when he gets assigned to a case on a submarine, like in the episode “Iron Coffin,” which the Heroes & Icons (H & I) digital TV channel reran yesterday.
In one of the episodes that takes place aboard an aircraft carrier, “Skates” (Sibel Galindez) says that the Russians are our allies. “This week,” Rabb replies. The Russians deserve all the courtesies due an ally, but they are not to be trusted.
Rabb has every reason to dislike the Russian government. When Rabb père (Elliott with a fake-looking mustache) was shot down in Vietnam, the Russians took him to Siberia, leaving his wife and son to wonder if he’d been killed in action.
Investigating decades later, Rabb Jr. discovered he has a Russian half-brother, Sergeant Sergei Zhukov (Jade Carter). Russian Army Captain Volkonov (Alex Kuznetsov) helped Rabb and Zhukov avoid an untimely death on orders from a corrupt Russian flag officer.
in “Silent Service,” Rabb and Major Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie (Catherine Bell) go to the USS Watertown, commanded by Commander Flagler (Tom Amandes) to investigate some suspicious accidents.
Rabb’s uncomfortable on the sub because he’s so tall, and MacKenzie’s uncomfortable because she doesn’t like cramped spaces. Plus it doesn’t help that she’s the only woman aboard.
One more bit of backstory for “Iron Coffin”: Congresswoman Bobbi Latham (D-Detroit, Anne-Marie Johnson) is one of the most important recurring characters on JAG . She’s on a crusade against wasteful military spending, and so does not endear herself to the main characters.
Though she does get romantically involved with Rabb for a brief period (the show added a black judge advocate because some viewers didn’t like the idea of Rabb dating someone other than Mac, and not because, ahem, Latham’s a black woman).
At the same time Latham votes against special military projects, she wants to make sure every woman in the military gets all the same opportunities as men, and intervenes on several cases where it looks like a woman has been treated unfairly by the brass.
That brings us up to “Iron Coffin.” If necessary, I’ll go over the whole plot of the episode, so spoiler warning for this pre-9/11 episode that first aired February 20, 2001.
Now a lieutenant colonel, MacKenzie goes to Washington to advise a naval officer who wants to serve aboard a submarine, but can’t, because she’s a woman. There’s a debate in a congressional hearing as to why or why not women should serve on submarines.
Perhaps frustrated by not getting anywhere with the back and forth, Congresswoman Latham decides to send MacKenzie to a submarine to write a comprehensive report from a woman’s perspective. This is a plot line that will intertwine with Rabb’s storyline as he’s invited aboard a Russian submarine.
Volkonov comes to America demanding answers about a Russian submarine, the Vladivostok, that was allegedly rammed by an American submarine. Rabb, with help from Admiral Chegwidden (John M. Jackson), arranges a meeting with Captain Baxter (Tucker Smallwood) and Commander Flagler.
The Watertown was in the neighborhood when the Vladivostok sank, but Baxter and Flagler deny the Watertown rammed any subs, and refuse to say anything further. “When you decide to rejoin the U. S. Navy, give us a call,” Baxter scolds Rabb.
Later, Chegwidden and Rabb talk to Baxter, who reveals that the Watertown witnessed the Vladivostok fire an experimental torpedo, the Shkval II, that turned around and destroyed the very sub it was fired from.
Chegwidden and Rabb are skeptical, because torpedoes are supposed to have certain mechanisms to prevent precisely that sort of thing from happening. To which Baxter replies “Not everything manufactured in Severodvinsk works the way it’s supposed to.”
Well, I’m going to stop recapping at this point. In my opinion, “Iron Coffin” is one of the best and most exciting JAG episodes, even when you know that, aside from the poor souls aboard the Vladivostok, no one dies in this episode.
I think it was a couple of days ago that I first heard about the Sputnik V vaccine for the novel coronavirus. There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of Sputnik V, some of which Dr. Anthony Fauci has mentioned.
But in general, let’s remember that not everything made in Russia works the way it’s supposed to. So I doubt that Sputnik V works the way it’s supposed to. It’s probably as bad as the Shkval II. And also keep in mind that it’s much easier to kill people than to heal them.
When I first published my book Milestones in Television History: JAG, the Military Law Drama that Redefined American Patriotism on Smashwords in 2011, I figured I would need to update it because of the popularity of NCIS and various developments in the show’s fandom.
But I never thought I’d need to update the book because of developments in the relationship between Russia and the United States. If we survive the Trump trainwreck, and I have time to process all this, I will definitely update the book.
For now, though, please enjoy a free copy (last updated in 2018) with coupon code LE75S (expires a week from today). I wish I could have made the coupon code “Severodvinsk.” If you get it for free and I update later, you can get the update for free. Which, cross our fingers, I’ll be able to make and publish.