Although ‘NCIS: Sydney’ hinted at an antagonistic relationship, showrunner Morgan O’Neill is obviously lying.
CIS: Sydney may have erred by basing the show on two alluring individuals who constantly disagree because there’s one thing that fans will inevitably want to see happen: a kiss! In just one episode, the new NCIS spinoff, featuring Olivia Swann as NCIS Agent Michelle Mackey and Todd Lasance as AFP Agent JD Dempsey, has proven that everyone enjoys an enemies-to-lovers tale.
Unfortunately for those already rooting for the couple (#Macksey, perhaps?), show creator Morgan O’Neill is here to crush your dreams.
“We have absolutely no intention of them being anything other than good, professional colleagues,” he told The Messenger, but… “But you never know. Like, the world has a funny way of shifting the radar. But they’re cops, and they’re trying to do their job as best as possible. The internet will do what the internet does.”
The problem that O’Neill has set up for himself here is that earlier on in this same interview, he said this: “If [Mackey] says jump, [Dempsey] will jump, but he’ll make sure he does it on his terms, and he’ll make sure she knows it in a subtle way. They start off kind of like they’re Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in Moonlighting. They’re head to head, but gently, slowly, they begrudgingly begin to respect one another, and they see qualities in the other person that are kind of appealing to them.”
Moonlighting is the most iconic example of two people cooperating to solve crimes while simultaneously enduring extreme romantic and sexual tension, even if younger audiences may not be aware of it or recall it. That occurred before to the existence of the internet, but shipping always finds a way—just like life. It’s a strange decision to compare your characters to Moonlight if you don’t intend for them to be together. When we brought that to O’Neill’s attention, he somewhat recanted, placing the blame on Beverly McGarvey, the head of Paramount Australia.
“It was Bev McGarvey’s reference, the Moonlighting one,” O’Neill said. “She’s like, ‘I love Moonlighting!’ I’m like, ‘This is not Moonlighting!’ And she’s like, ‘You never know!’ But they definitely have a real chemistry, and I think that’s part of the fun of the show.”